Getting started

Owned by Marc-André Thibodeau
Last updated: Sept 23, 2013
2 min read

What is Pathfinder?

Pathfinder is a JIRA add-on that provides a graphical representation of issues and their relationships with each other. JIRA allows you to create links between issues, adding information such as issues inter-dependencies, duplications and such. Pathfinder shows these links in a customizable and editable diagram. Select a starting set of issues using a JQL expression and a link type and see the diagram being rendered. The issue diagram will allow you to:

  • Easily add and remove links;
  • Use it as a PERT/CPM chart to highlight and calculate critical paths;
  • Find issues instantly;
  • Select and move issues, zoom and pan around;
  • Show only children or ancestors of current selection;
  • Hide or show orphan issues;
  • Navigate to issues for more details

Your first steps with Pathfinder

Once Pathfinder is properly installed, a new menu item named Pathfinder will appear in the top bar of your JIRA. Clicking on that menu item will bring you to the main Pathfinder page.  The page is divided vertically into two parts: the main left-hand part where the diagram will appear (initially empty) and the right-hand part which displays the available options and parameters for selecting the issues and links to include in the diagram.

JQL queries

Selection of issues to display is driven by JQL queries you enter. JQL is a simple yet powerful syntax for querying issues. For example, Project=ABC means 'all issues in project ABC'. For more frequently used JQL queries examples, see the documenation about Issue selection. For all details on JQL, please refer to JIRA's documentation on Advanced searching.

Start by entering a JQL query to select issues in the Issue selection field and hit enter.  The issue diagram including all issues matching the query entered plus all of their children and ancestors (if any) will be rendered on the left part of the screen.  

The diagram is fully dynamic.  You can drag boxes around, hover nodes to get more details on issues, zoom in and out using the mouse wheel or pan around by left-clicking and holding the canvas and dragging the mouse.  You can also select a node and add a link to another node, or select a link and delete it.

The diagram will show only one link type at a time.  To change the type of links to display, select the wanted link type on the right parameters panel and the diagram will be updated right away.

Force-directed layout

You'll notice that while the diagram is being rendered, the nodes will move around, placing themselves. Its because the layout of the nodes and links is done using a force-directed layout, an algorithm using physics for positioning nodes in a graph in an aesthetically pleasing way, limiting node overlapping and links crossing.

Going further

To learn more about Pathfinder functionalities, read through the other documentation sections.  Among other things, you should take a look at keyboard shortcuts as they might help you enjoy using Pathfinder even more.