How to natively add multi select field in Jira (Cloud)

[Dan Huston]

Does Jira Cloud (formerly "next-gen"?) still lack the ability to create multi select field types natively? I see this has been requested as far back as 2018 and most recently in 2020. 

e.g. Customer will integrate to multiple transaction interfaces, and a selection (some, not all) of transaction types under each interface.

I understand that this might be doable via API, but this was available natively in Jira Classic and the need is still relevant. Please advise how to accomplish this natively? Some users/teams don't have the means to leverage API-only functionality. 

[Mikael Sandberg · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dan Huston,

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

Team-managed projects now support global fields i.e. custom fields that you have created for company-managed projects, and you can add multi select fields that way. Here is an example of a multi select that I created and then added to a team-managed project:

 

[Dan Huston]

Thanks, @Mikael Sandberg

I'm pleased that this functionality was finally delivered. Unless I'm mistaken, the enablement of this functionality globally rather than the project level means only JIRA Admins can create these fields. 

[Mikael Sandberg]

Correct, in order to create the global/custom field you need to have Jira admin permissions. Also note that not all custom field types can be used in a team-managed project, for example Assets fields are not supported. 

[John Funk]

Hi Dan - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Jira Cloud is not formerly Next-gen. Jira Cloud was around for a long time before next-gen projects arrived. Those have been rebranded to Team-managed projects. Company-managed projects are still the flagship project type for Jira Cloud. 

Now with that out of the way, it does not appear that Team-managed projects have the ability to have multi-select fields created. However, Company-managed projects have had that capability from the beginning and still have that capability. 

[Dan Huston]

Ah! Thanks for that helpful clarification, @John Funk !

Yes, it was the migration from company to team managed projects when we appeared to lose this functionality altogether (not cool). 

Glad to hear that it was finally restored via global fields. Bummed that it's only available to JIRA Admins which detracts somewhat from the value of Team-managed projects, but that's an organizational problem I suppose. 

[John Funk]

Yep, hopefully they will get that added soon. Were you able to attach that field type from the global fields and use it in the Team-managed project?