Should related issues be (semi) auto-managed?

Problem

Currently our interface for related issues is manually managed, meaning you have to enter the issue id or url of the related issue in the related issue box. This means that the user always needs to think about relating the issues.

A good example of where this might have had value as soon as the comment was submitted, is this comment https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/32894#note_30694731 .

Automating this process might make this feature more valuable.

Proposal

One or multiple of the following:

Related relations work 2 ways

• All issues mentioned within comments/description of that issue automatically populate the related issues box.
• Issues can aside from the manual input method be related with the keyword related: #123
• We introduce a slash/quick command to relate issues additionally to the related issues box.

Things to consider

If we would make this feature auto managed, do we still support breaking the connection of relation?

cc: @sarrahvesselov @markpundsack @JobV @victorwu

IMHO, Adding a relation to anything mentioned is a huge win, and then letting people break those connections might be nice, but likely unnecessary. Letting people change the relationship might be cool if/when we support different types of relationships. But personally, I'd focus on detecting certain patterns first like blocked by: #123, depends on #456. Anything without a specific relationship is just related. And since there's no significant consequence to being related, removing the relationship doesn't seem that important. Similar to how we show related merge requests on issues because they were cross-mentioned, but afaik, there's no way to remove that relationship (without deleting the text that caused the relationship).

All issues mentioned within comments/description of that issue automatically populate the related issues box.

If we have this ^^, there's no reason for this vv:

Issues can aside from the manual input method be related with the keyword related: #123

At least until we support different relationship types.

I kind of like the idea of using slash commands to add relationships without having to commit a visible comment.

If we have this ^^, there's no reason for this vv:

I think there is a place for both. Sometimes I may want to talk about why I feel it is related so I will make a comment. In that case, it would be very nice for it to automatically be associated. Other times, I may have nothing to say about the issue and just want to relate it quickly using a slash command.

The main issue I have with the related issues feature is that I can't add one when creating a new issue. I end up mentioning the issue in the description.

How about the following:

• When you create an issue, GitLab parses the issue description, and auto adds a related issue entry for any issues it finds. (i.e. it looks for # or links to issues.)
• MAYBE: When you update an issue description, GitLab does the same thing.
• When you add an issue comment, GitLab does the same thing.
• MAYBE: If you update an issue comment, GitLab does the same thing.

If we maintain the above, then we wouldn't need a quick action at all. Because it's sort of a degenerate case of a quick action where you just paste in an issue link into a comment box, and the same result happens. You don't need to type / to activate a quick action.

Note the slight difference, which I think is fine:

• If you use the existing UI, the issue relation is established, and there is a system note.
• If you paste an issue link in a comment, there is no system note, but the history is captured in the comment itself.
• We still don't audit/log description updates. But that would be analogous.

If we go with the above, we solve the problem that @stanhu mentions (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/38055#note_41720444).

Finally, we should allow you to disassociate a related issue of course. You just click the x in the box. So that's why it's sort of weird with the update scenarios I listed above. Imagine you type in a comment box, #123 is something we should care about. GitLab automatically adds #123 as a related issue. But then you don't like it and x it away. Suppose now you update the comment. Does GitLab re-parse that comment and again add #123 to the related issues box? That would be annoying. It gets even more annoying for descriptions which are updated much more often.

changed milestone to %10.3

Moving to EE since related issues is EES

removed milestone