Adding an Epic Link to an issue requires Edit Issues permission

[Deleted user]

I am configuring a "structured" project, and as part of this, want to prevent users from editing issues by clicking directly in fields, forcing them to use transitions which have been created with custom screens to control the fields that can be changed at different parts of an issue's lifecycle.

• Removing the Edit Issue permission from users accomplishes the goal of preventing direct field edits.
  • Side note: This has the unfortunate side effect of hiding all of the fields that are configured in the View Issue screen which do not have a value set. Is there a way to change this behavior so that they show anyway?
• I have a screen, Screen Foo, which is used as the screen for a transition on the issue.
• Screen Foo contains the Epic Link field.
• Initiating the transition shows me the correct screen; Screen Foo.
• I can add an Epic Link while editing the field within the Screen Foo modal.
• Saving Screen Foo closes the modal and successfully transitions the issue.
• The Epic Link is not properly set on the issue.

I have recreated this in another project. Reproduction steps:

• Create a project
• Create a screen with a single field added to it: Epic Link
• Create a copy of the default workflow. Add a new transition from "Open" to "Open", called "Link Epic". Add the screen made in the previous step to this transition
• Create a copy of the default permission scheme. Remove the "Any logged in user" permission grant from the "Edit Issues" permission
• Associate the new permission scheme with the project
• Use the global "Create" button to create an Epic in the project
• Use the global "Create" button to create a Story in the project. Do not add an Epic Link at this point.
• View the detail page for the Story you just created
• Click the button for the "Link Epic" transition in order to open the screen modal
• Add the previously created Epic as the Epic Link
• Click the blue "Link Epic" confirmation button
• Watch the issue detail view reload, and notice that there is no Epic Link
• View the detail page for the Epic you created earlier
• Notice that there are no Child Issues
• Click the "Create issue in epic" button. Enter a title for the issue and press Enter.
• Notice that the issue displays in the "Child Issues" section on the Epic's detail page
• Refresh the page. Notice that the issue is no longer displayed there, and has no association with the Epic whatsoever

Why is the Epic Link not set? Updating other fields in Screen Foo works as expected. Am I missing something? This seems like a definitive bug.

[Deleted user · Accepted solution]

This is a known issue as of 2016. Nice.

* https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-15923

* https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-15984

[Fabian Lim]

Hi @[deleted]

By removing the edit functionality you basically don't allow to edits to any of the users who are not in permission.  Even transition screens.

What you need to do is to have the edit screen without the epic link and allow people the edit permissions. This means that in the story screen scheme you will need a separate screen for create, edit and view.

Regards

[Deleted user]

> By removing the edit functionality you basically don'y allow to edits to any of the users who are not in permission. Even transition screens.

This is fundamentally incorrect. Users do not need the Edit Issues permission to update any other fields via transition screens, as I stated in my original post. This only occurs with the Epic Link.

[Deleted user]

> What you need to do is to have the edit screen without the epic link and allow people the edit permissions. This means that in the story screen scheme you will need a separate screen for create, edit and view.

This is undesirable. As mentioned in my original post, I do not wish to allow direct field edits when viewing the issue.

[Fabian Lim]

Awesome you found your answes cheers.

But to clarify, the reason I said to have different screens is that essentially you can leave the edit screen blank so that nobody can edit anything from the view screen. 

But you can wait for atlassian to fix your issue or use my suggestion.

[Deleted user]

I think I may have misunderstood your initial comment, actually. I'll test that out.

[Deleted user]

That seems to almost do the trick, however, even with an empty screen associated to the Edit Issue operation in the project's screen scheme, users with the Edit Issues permission grant are able to directly modify the Story Points field when viewing the issue's detail page.

[Fabian Lim]

The other option that would be free is to have jira automation where you look for field changes in the story points and if it's not on a transition change, you put the old value. This is not ideal, but would do the trick.

Or you can use other scripting plugins that can put back the old value.  

[Deleted user]

Sure, that's doable, but as you mention, this is far from ideal. It's pretty interesting that a seemingly obvious issue that has been known and filed for over six years has been ignored.

Jira is the best product that's available in its space, yet somehow, it's also the worst.