Custom approver field made in workflow not available in work type fields list

[Merijn]

Hi,

I am trying to make different approver fields for different types of approvals that our work-item requires. 
When I enable "Approval" in the settings of a status in our workflow, and then click the settings of the approval workflow, there are two options: "Select preset approvers" or "Select or name the approver field".
In my case I need it to be a configurable field, as the approver depends on the specific work item.
In the dropdown for the Select or name the approver field, none of my custom user picker fields are showing up. You can also create a new field by typing the name in the dropdown and clicking the "Create "your name"" which it accepts in the workflow editor, but that approver field does not show up in my work item and is also not showing up in the list of fields that can be added to the item.

I have a bunch of approver fields that I created from within the status in the workflow editor showing up in that dropdown, which don't seem to exist anywhere else in our Jira environment.

CLicking the "Learn more about setting up approvals" link in the status settings leads to a "Error 404", so I am trying it here.

How is this feature supposed to work?

Thanks!

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Merijn 

What type of project are you using Team or Company managed?

How did you create the user picker field?

Can you show the config of the field?

[Merijn]

Hi Marc,

This particular project is a team-managed business space.
I have tried 3 routes: create the user picker field from within the space settings > work types menu, create the field in the jira admin settings, and creating the field from within the workflow editor (add approval step, then type a name in the dropdown for the user selector and choose create).

For the first two options, the field will not show up in the dropdown for the approver field. For the third option, it does show up, but I cannot find the field to add to the work item screen.

The screenshot below shows the third option I tested.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Merijn 

The only option that can be used is the workflow option.

You need to create a field in this action, you can't use existing fields already in the system.

[Merijn]

Hi @Marc -Devoteam- ,

Thanks for your response.
I have also tried to do it that way. But then I cannot find that created field anywhere else in Jira. I cannot make that field visible in the work item.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Merijn 

This is correct.

As it's not a field in the system, but just an approval option.

This field is only available on that specific project.

This is how approvals work in a business project.

[John Funk]

Hi Merijn,

First, realize that the approval process in Software spaces is very limited as compared to JSM spaces. That being said, why don't you just use the built in Approvers field and change out the values of the field based on other criteria instead of trying to create multiple Approvers fields? 

[Merijn]

Hi John, 

Thank you for your response.

That would be ok, but the default Approvers field does not show up in the dropdown menu for the approval step in the workflow.

Only the names for the fields that I created from within the workflow earlier show up in the dropdown as options. 

None of the fields created elsewhere or the default approvers field shows up as an option.

[John Funk]

Oh, you are using a Team-managed project. That's the biggest problem. 

However, you may still be able to do what I suggest with the field you have created.