Generators paused in Structure

Problem

When I open my structure, it’s not loading, and a banner with this error is shown at the top of it:

Solution

If generators cannot load their individual content within the standard loading time limit of 30 seconds, the generation of the structure is stopped to avoid spending more resources. The mot often cause for this is the structure’s configuration: it’s too large and/or too complex, and its generators are misconfigured. To resolve this, you can try the following:

1. In case the issue is of a temporary nature, click the Restart all button in the banner, and see if the generation finishes this time.

2. If restarting doesn’t help, click the ‘Learn more’ button to see more details about each generator of the structure. The banner will be expanded with the list of all generators, and a percentage value will be shown next to each of them. Generators with the highest percentages are the ones that struggled with loading the content the most, and these generators should be examined. Adjusting such generators can help speed up the loading and resolve the issue.

• Insert generators: if inserters appear to be the heaviest, then you can consider: adjusting their JQL queries to reduce the scope of added items; running the same query in Jira search and compare how long it takes to finish there - if the results only appear after a delay, then the query has to be reconsidered since Structure cannot execute queries faster than Jira can, and a delay will always be expected.

• Extend generators: reducing the Extend on levels setting to the smaller range of levels of the hierarchy where the addition of linked items is needed can help; ensuring that the Link Direction parameter is set to a single direction of a link, and not both - bidirectional extenders are rarely intentionally configured, and they can be resource-consuming if their defined range is set to more than one level of the hierarchy.

• Group generators: if you’re using a formula, simplifying it can be effective.

• Sort generators: if a formula is used, simplifying it can help.

• Filter generators: if their JQL queries are executed with a delay in Jira, you might need to adjust them.

Removing a top-consuming generator from the structure and resuming the generation can make things clearer: if the structure is loaded, then the problem is likely related to the generator and its configuration.

But it’s possible that the root cause of the paused generation is external, and then changing the configuration of the generators will not be effective. Such cases require investigation by the Support team.