Need ability to search on Null values

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Rich Mann
Rich Mann Member Posts: 14
edited November 2016 in
The Jama User Guide
page http://help.jamasoftware.com/search_tips.htm
says, “Currently, Jama does not support searching on ‘null’ values.”

This is a
very important search criteria for us.  We are in the process of replacing our current requirements management tool with Jama.  In our current tool, we have found that searching on "null" values is indispensable.  We need Jama to implement such a search and filter ability.

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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 911
    edited November 2016
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    Rich, thanks for letting us know about the need. I'm curious about the circumstances in which you need to find null values but cannot? Is there a particular field or status where null values are common?
  • Rich Mann
    Rich Mann Member Posts: 14
    edited November 2016
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    We have several custom fields which have null values.  We elected to not make these required fields because the creator of the item does not always know the field values when creating the item and we didn't want the creator to put in dummy values because we have found that dummy values often do not get updated to their actual values.  So, we would need to filter on "null" values to find these items that are incomplete.  However, the Jama User Guide says that “Currently, Jama does not support searching on ‘null’ values.”

    Our current requirement management tool allows us to search on "null" values, we find this to be indispensable, and need the same search when we migrate our requirements from our current requirement management tool to Jama.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 160
    edited March 2016
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    Currently we allow you to sort a list view of items by any field - null values will come to the top. You are also able to create a filter where a field "is empty" - does this take care of your problem? 
  • Rich Mann
    Rich Mann Member Posts: 14
    edited November 2016
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    The custom fields that need to be filtered are fields that have check boxes.  Does "is empty" filter on those custom fields in which there are no boxes checked?  The Jama user guide page <http://help.jamasoftware.com/index.html?search_tips.htm> last paragraph seems to indicate that it cannot.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 160
    edited March 2016
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    Oh, gotcha - thanks, Rich. Right now we don't offer this capability but I'll check on what it would take. We do have some cool search stuff coming out with our next hosted release and will be expanding beyond that in the near-term. In the meantime, the best best is sorting in the list view, bringing null values to the top. 
  • Rich Mann
    Rich Mann Member Posts: 14
    edited November 2016
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    Any idea when this capability might be offered?  It is a capability on which we've heavily relied in our current requirements management tool.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 160
    edited March 2016
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    Rich, we don't have a specific timeframe or decision yet. I need to check and see what the technical feasibility will be. I'll update this thread with what I learn. 
  • Vladimir Cech
    Vladimir Cech Member Posts: 183
    edited September 2016
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    Is there any update? We also consider this as a good feature. Mainly to check if values are filled in properly.
    Vlada
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 911
    edited September 2016
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    This is not yet implemented, nor have I seen further search improvements on the current roadmap.

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