How to prefill jira project issue fields on a new issue

[Charisse Robison]

For a company-owned project, would it be possible to prefill some fields with prompts for the team. They would be inside the field.

For example, when a user creates a task, the description field will have something like "Enter the why and for whom" in the field to prompt the user for more complete information.

Below is a picture of prompts in the description field for a team-managed project.

Thank you!

[Mikael Sandberg · Accepted solution]

You would need an app from the Marketplace in order to do this, currently this can only be done in a team-managed project. In the past I have used Scriptrunner and Power Scripts in order to pre-populate fields.

[Charisse Robison]

Thank you, Mikael for taking the time to add this information. I will consider your suggestions when looking into my options.

[Charisse Robison · Accepted solution]

Thank you.

I understand then that there isn't the ability to add prompts to jira default fields unless using an app. So, in the illustration below, the prompt is native to the jira code and cannot be altered. What about the additional text underneath the field shown in yellow. Can that be altered? What's the name of that property?

[Trudy Claspill]

@Charisse Robison 

Please note that there is a workaround available that does not require an app to set default text in the Description field in a Company Managed project. Refer to my other response.

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/Re-How-to-prefill-jira-project-issue-fields-on-a-new-issue/qaq-p/2964593/comment-id/1109887#M1109887

What you have shown in the image above is the "description" (or help text) for the field. Those can be changed in the Field Configuration that is used by the issue types in the project.

Go to Project Settings and select Issues, then Fields. The Field Configuration Scheme associated with the project will display, showing your the Field Configuration associated with each issue type in the project.

Field Configurations can be modified from the gear icon > Issues > Field Configurations.

Note that Field Configurations can be used in multiple Field Configuration Schemes, and Field Configuration Schemes can be shared by multiple projects. You will need to check if that is the case in your environment. If it is, then any change you make to the Field Configuration will affect all the projects and issues types where it is used. If you need to limit the impact to a specific issue type in a specific project, you may need to make a copy of the Field Configuration, modify the copy, and associate that copy to the target issue type in the appropriate Field Configuration Scheme.

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/manage-issue-field-configurations/

[Sarah Schmitt-Bär _Seibert Group_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Charisse Robison ,

You can prefill the description and also other fields on the Create Screen using Templating.app

Here's a video of it.

I'm the Product Manager of the app, so let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to assist. 

[Charisse Robison]

Thank you @Sarah Schmitt-Bär _Seibert Group_ I will have a look.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Charisse Robison 

Specifically for the Description field for a Company Managed project it is not possible to set a Default value. For other custom fields it is possible to set a default in the custom field configuration.

For the Description field specifically in a Company Managed project that option is not available. The work around is to define a custom Paragraph field, set a default value for that, and use that field in the Create Issue screen instead of the native Description field. Then you use an Automation rule  or a Workflows Transition Post Function to copy the text from that custom field to the native Description field after the issue is created. This work around is described in these posts:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/Default-text-for-Description-field-on-Jira-Cloud/qaq-p/785597

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/How-to-create-a-template-for-issue-description/qaq-p/1041636

If you have the Scriptrunner Behaviours app on your Jira instance, that is another option for setting default text for the field.