timelineItems doesn't work (no results)

[jesuslinares]

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I am encountering some issues when trying to retrieve the event history of the issues added to projects (v2). Example:

[user] moved this from In progress to Pending review in [project] [3 weeks ago]

Specifically, I am using the timelineItems objects, but it seems that only "labeled" events are being displayed. I have already enabled the project-event-details-preview as mentioned in the documentation (https://docs.github.com/en/graphql/overview/schema-previews#project-event-details-preview). Also, I checked that I have enough permissions.

However, I am unable to access the desired event history. Could you please assist me in understanding how to retrieve the complete event history for the issues in question?

This is the query:

query myquery($project_id: ID!, $cursor: String) {
  node(id: $project_id) {
    ... on ProjectV2 {
      items(first: 100, after: $cursor) {
        ...
        nodes {
          ...
          content {
            ... on Issue {
              ...
              timelineItems(first: 100) {
                nodes {
                  __typename
                  ... on AddedToProjectEvent {
                    actor { login }
                    projectColumnName
                  }
                  ... on MovedColumnsInProjectEvent {
                    actor { login }
                    createdAt
                    project { name }
                    databaseId
                    previousProjectColumnName
                    projectColumnName
                  }
                  ... on LabeledEvent {
                    actor { login }
                    label { name } 
                  }
                  ... on UnlabeledEvent {
                    actor { login }
                    label { name } 
                  }
                }
              }
...

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[ghostinhershell]

Hey @jesuslinares, thanks so much for reaching out and welcome to the community! I've shared this with our internal teams for feedback and should have feedback for you soon. Thanks again!

[srbarrios]

Same issue here, it seems to only show this value in the cards migrated from the classic project.

[lilachn]

@ghostinhershell are there any updates regarding this API issue? Even an answer like - "no, it won't be fixed soon" will be very helpful to know where we stand. I saw that there are more such open issues, this is not the only thread. Thanks

[srbarrios]

@ghostinhershell are there any updates regarding this API issue? Even an answer like - "no, it won't be fixed soon"

That's the e-mail I received from them:

_GitHub (GitHub Support)

Nov 21, 2024, 11:58 AM UTC

Hi Oscar,
 
Thank you for reaching out!
 
Yeah, that behaviour is currently expected. The MOVED_COLUMNS_IN_PROJECT events is specific to legacy project which is now deprecated. Similar events has not yet been implemented in ProjectV2. This is on the team's radar, and will be implemented in the future, but at this time we do not have an ETA. I have added your report as a +1 on the internal issue tracking this as a feature request.
 
I recommend you keep an eye on the changelog and blog where we make announcements about new features and fixes.
 
Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist with.
 
Regards,
 
Oluwaseun
GitHub Support_

[Coroxx]

Any updates ?

[daniyalfarman]

Any update?

[naefp]

I came here because I'm trying to migrate our automation from classic projects to v2 (and it looks like I have 1 month left to do it...)

we are using timeline events as well and I'm trying to reverse engineer what Github UI does:

• github performs an internal query and receives the events on the property frontTimeline which is not available via the public API
• the totalcount on frontTimeline equals to totalcount on timelineItems (13 in my case), but Github UI does not load timelineItems at all
• i can find these events with type ProjectV2ItemStatusChangedEvent, which i cannot find in any documentation, qraphql explorer or somewhere else than in the github internal results
• when i get an issue via the api with timelineItems my totalcount is lower than expected (6 in my case) and the status changed events are missing

For me it's unfortunate that I can't get all the information via the API for V2 projects, but the classic projects go down in a month... ?

[naefp]

btw. it seems like the github iOS app is affected by this as well. cant see any projectv2 events in the issue timeline, but I only see label or milestone events..

[ericboehs]

I imagine once the iOS app starts listing these events, a new project type will be dropped in the GraphQL schema changelog.

I'm wanting to create a sprint report and knowing when an issue was added to a Sprint would be great.

[Coroxx]

Hey, idk if it cans help we use a polling everyday at midnight to add a label on the concerned Issue. (For example, issue no. 242 was added today to the “Backlog” project. We therefore add a label named “Backlog” and delete it if it is no longer present in the project).

It allows us to get our timelines with Unlabeled and Labeled events 👍

[andreaslech]

I saw your note about using a daily midnight poll to add/remove labels for tracking when issues enter or leave a project column — that’s a clever way to leverage Labeled/Unlabeled events for timelines 👍

We had a similar need, so I set up periodic polling (shorter intervals) to capture and store actual board status transitions over time. That lets us calculate metrics like Cycle Time and Time in State, which our Scrum Masters use regularly.

I wrapped this into a small web app that visualizes issue movements. Overview here: Flow2C.com — or jump straight into the demo: app.flow2c.com.

In your workflows, would historical analytics alone be enough, or would near‑real‑time notifications on status changes also be useful?