Support issue dependencies

[garfieldnate]

Allow the creation of dependencies between issues, e.g. issue 3 requires the completion of issue 1 before work on it can begin, etc. I often find myself hesitant to submit any issues that can't be fulfilled for a long time because I don't have a direct way of tracking dependencies. I think that this feature would make it easier to manage projects here.

Currently dependencies like this can be done by making a separate milestone for each issue with dependencies and adding the relevant issues to that, but that is clumsy.

Basic functionality would just be the display of dependencies or reverse dependencies on an issue page, but the ability to make a graph of some kind would be quite nice.

[captn3m0]

I think this would create an unnecessary complication, and make the interface much more complex. Zach once gave an example of a Redmine issue creation page vs GitHub's in one of his talks:

vs

From the talk http://zachholman.com/talk/how-github-uses-github-to-build-github/

[garfieldnate]

Hmm, yes I think they were going for minimalistic and it is very easy to look at compared with the alternative. Perhaps this would be better done by another tool through the GitHub API.
Then again, if it were simply parsed out of the description then it would not complicate the UI.
"depends on: ..."

[Mithgol]

I guess you could do it with the current GitHub already. Just write “depends on: …” and then visit all the dependencies and mention your new issue. The mentions are then become displayed on that new issue's page, including the status (open, closed, proposed, merged) of each. I know this trick isn't automated, but for a couple of dependencies even doing it manually won't hurt too much.

[mhulse]

I guess you could do it with the current GitHub already. Just write “depends on: …” and then visit all the dependencies and mention your new issue.

Sometimes I'll create a "master" checklist issue that points to all the dependent issues. Example:

• Support issue dependencies (Support issue dependencies #210)
  • Allow the creation of dependencies between issues, e.g. issue 3 requires the completion of issue 1 before work on it can begin, etc.
• ....

The above, in combination with milestones, works pretty good.

Having just tested, as I haven't tried this before, milestones work with checklists too:

[bartlettroscoe]

Just like Trac, it would be nice if a project could decide if it wanted to augment basic GitHub Issues to support more features like dependency tracking. That way, you can have your cake and eat it too (or take as much cake as you want and eat as much as you want).

For interactions with open-source users, the simplicity of GitHub Issues is great. But for serious project tracking, GitHub Issues are majorly lacking.

[aspiers]

I think this would create an unnecessary complication, and make the interface much more complex.

Sorry, but this "dumb everything down" attitude really annoys me, because it makes the patronising assumption that I'm not capable of dealing with the increased complexity (which, let's face it, would be very small in this case) and as a result I'm left with a crippled tool which doesn't properly support my development workflows. If you really believe that minimalism and simplicity should trump functionality then I suggest you go and buy a MacBook Wheel.

[ggeorgiev]

A lot of smart people say: "Everything should be made as simple as possible".
The geniuses say: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Lacking basic important functionality is not simple - it is simpler.

[vphantom]

My main use for dependencies is to get a clear TODO: I want a way to see issues which don't depend on any other open one, so I can easily focus on leaves and work my way up the tree. Having everything at the same level doesn't scale very well.

I'm not even a programmer, just a UX dude and project manager and I want to have issue dependencies (as well has being able to group several issues into epics or having sub-issues). Simplicity should increase efficiency not impair it.

[kaspar030]

Our project (>150 contributors) is quite spread over the world, and all but the simplest PRs/issues have some dependencies. Currently we're using "Depends in X" or "Needed by Y" in the comments or description, but that is usually out of date and doesn't scale.

There's a bunch of external tools (codetree, zenhub) which offer this feature, and IMO it is the main selling point of those. Unfortunately, apart from requesting full access to all your public and private repositories, they're another site, another interface, ... and not free.

Having this integrated into github would be awesome.

[ad-m]

I do not understand why this change can not be made. If too complex the interface - you can make the functionality optional. Just as you can disable "Issues", "Wiki", "Projects" at both organization level and individual repositories. The same can be done with "Dependency tracking".

[ad-m]

Is there any bot to emulate that by comment commands?