Custom field context and screen configurations?

[Sami Kontio]

If there are, for example, fifty Jira projects that are using the same screen configuration (issue type screen scheme, screen scheme and screen). One of these projects would like to have custom field to be shown in their screen and none of the other projects need that field.

Is it better to create new screen configurations for that one project OR add that custom field to existing screen configuration and create field context that prevents field to be seen in any other projects?

Are there some performance issues in these different approaches?

And would it make any difference if there would be more projects that need some project specific needs at their screens?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

This depends entirely on what the new field is for - might there be a time when the other projects start to use it?

You will need a different field configuration, or screens, or field context.  Of these, the field context is the only one that might have a small performance gain - global fields slow the use of the index more than fields that are localised (but since Jira 8, the impact of global field context has been massively reduced, and you'll struggle to measure any difference by localising a single field)

[Sami Kontio]

It is a date field that is very specific information for this particular project. There could be similar project specific needs from other projects in the future, who knows...

I was thinking that field context could be usefull for example in lists where there could be different list items for different projects for a same field. Maybe context is not that usefull to manage project based field visibility.

Using field context there could be one screen configuration that all projects are using and context prevents which fields are visible in what project. I understand that this could be a performance issue of some kind.

In the other hand it is more self documenting when project base screen configuration is used, but means more work if there are many project based configurations and some new field should be added to all of them.

I will go with project based screen configurations:)