/ COGNITIFF

User Guide

Applies to: Jira Data Center

Overview

Jira’s native ranking tools allow drag-and-drop ordering but make it difficult to visualize issues by other fields. Replacing the board filter’s sort clause often disables ranking and triggers the “Ranking is disabled…” warning. Sort by Any Field removes that limitation: it re-ranks issues in the background so you can sort by any field (including custom columns) while retaining manual drag-and-drop at any time.

With Sort by Any Field you can:

  • Prioritize flexibly: Sort by priority, business value, due date, story points, or other custom metrics.
  • Highlight what matters: Reorder by status, assignee, or any field required for stand-ups and planning.
  • Stay agile: Drag issues to fine-tune the order immediately after an automated sort.
  • Avoid rank errors: The app modifies the existing rank without breaking Jira’s board configuration.

Prerequisites

Before running a sort:

  1. Board filter must end with ORDER BY Rank ASC. This ensures Jira exposes a stable rank that the sorter can adjust.
  2. Users need the “Schedule Issues” permission. This allows the app to re-rank issues server-side using Jira’s native ranking service.
  3. License must be active. The app requires a valid license — ask an administrator to activate it if an unlicensed warning appears.

Using the App

1. Locate the Sort by Any Field panel in the sidebar

The app is built directly into Jira’s collapsible left project/board sidebar:

  • Open your Jira Software Scrum or Kanban board (or global board view).
  • Ensure the left project navigation sidebar is expanded. If the sidebar is collapsed, click the sidebar toggle button (>>) to expand it.
  • Look for the Sort by Any Field panel in the navigation sidebar.

2. Enter and save the sort expression

Inside the sidebar panel:

  • In the Sort Expression input field, type your order by … expression. Examples:
    • order by priority desc
    • order by "Story Points" desc, Rank asc
    • order by dueDate asc, priority desc
  • Note: Always use double quotes around field names that contain spaces (e.g., "Story Points").
  • Click Save to store the expression for this board (or click Discard to revert changes). The expression is saved per board and remembered across sessions.

3. Run the sort

  • Click the Sort button next to the sort expression input.
  • Choose your sorting scope from the dropdown menu:
    • Entire board (available on both Scrum and Kanban boards)
    • Backlog (Scrum boards only)
    • Active sprints (Scrum boards only)
    • Future sprints (Scrum boards only)
  • Once selected, the sorting operation starts in the background. A Requested success message appears in the sidebar panel informing you that the issues are being re-ranked.

4. Refresh Jira to view the updated order

Because sorting is performed asynchronously in the background:

  • Allow a short moment for the background job to finish re-ranking all issues.
  • Click the reload the page link directly within the notification message, or refresh your browser window to display the newly sorted order. On backlog views, Jira’s backlog will update automatically when reloaded.

Tips

  • You can still drag and drop issues manually after an automated sort — the app adjusts the underlying issue rank values without changing your board filter.
  • The saved ORDER BY expression is stored per board; configure each board once and trigger re-sorting whenever needed.
  • Only an ORDER BY clause is allowed in the expression input; WHERE conditions cannot be entered here.
  • For more details on sorting syntax, refer to Atlassian’s JQL documentation.