Sub task set field value from parent, not working for a required field

[Jan Evetts]

Hi,

I want to use a post function 'The value(s) of field Summary will be set from the issue's parent (replacing existing values). ' when I create a sub task, but when I click create on the transition screen I get the message 'you must specify a summary of this issue', as this field is required. Can I get round this?

Thanks.

[Udo Brand · Accepted solution]

Hi Jan,

I use Exocet Lite for creating other issues and subtasks out of existing issues, there you have a mapping of which field from parent should be prepopulated in the children issue. Try it.

[Jan Evetts]

Hi Udo, many thanks for the suggestion, would love to try it but we can't seem to install it for some reason, did you have any issues with installing? Jan ps. we are on JIRA 5.2 so that probable explains it?

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Hi Jan,

You'll need to download version 1.1.1.2 which you can find here :

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.valiantys.jira.plugins.exocet.jira-plugin-exocet/versions

Best regards,

Peter

[Udo Brand]

Peter got the correct version for you (thanks Peter). You would need to apply for a free licence by Valiantys as well (http://valiantys.wufoo.com/forms/license-request/)

[Jan Evetts]

Thanks again. Will give it a go.

[Jan Evetts]

Udo, Peter, the setup of this is a bit technical for us at this stage, but it seems to do what we want. Thanks.

[Justin Leader]

When a post-function sets a field value, it does it after the transition finishes. But the transition can't begin until a summary is provided, so it's never going to work. I recommend looking at the "Create issue on transition" plugin which will avoid this problem.

[paul vinter]

Thank you. Sorry to ask but does this plugin not create a Sub Task when certain conditions are met in the parent issue? We are approaching this as a user manually creating a Sub Task if they deem it required - a transition creating this sub-task would therefore not seem to be the way to go.

Thanks again

Paul

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm afraid Ramiro is only half-right here. The problem IS that summary is mandatory and you are not setting it.

But you can't fix it in the way suggested. Summary is a mandatory field at all times. You can't make it optional in field configurations, you MUST provide a summary.

However, your post function should be setting the summary, thereby fulfilling the requirement. I think you need to investigate why the post-function is failing to do that. I suspect it's because the post-function is actually provideded to update existing sub-tasks, not actually create new ones, but you'll need to tell us exactly which post-function it is before we can be sure. Where did you get it?

[paul vinter]

Hi all.

I am working with Jan on this so am able to provide the details required.

A sub-issue workflow has been created, the purpose of which is to start a translation process for the parent issue (the article created in the parent issue is being translated in the sub-issue).

In this translation sub-issue workflow the 'create' transition post function starts with:

The value(s) of field Summary will be set from the issue's parent (replacing existing values).

followed by

The value(s) of field Author will be set from the issue's parent (replacing existing values

Summary does not work as, I presume, it is not a custom field? Jan was wanting to know if there was technically a way around this that someone might suggest.

I hope that is clear - please ask if I can enlighten any further, and thank you.

Paul

[paul vinter]

I should add this POST option comes from JIRA Misc Workflow Extentions, and of the options therein we are using 'Set Field Value from Parent'.

To quote the documentation:

<<7 - Set Field Value From Parent Function ^{(new in 2.4)}

A worfklow function that sets a field value to the value(s) of the same field of the issue's parent issue.>>

We have placed this post function to both AFTER and BEFORE the Creates the issue built-in function. Is the issue simply that SUMMARY is a required field and as such a required field cannot have its field set by this means? I cite this as an example supporting this conclusion:

https://innovalog.atlassian.net/browse/JMWE-151

In which case Jan's question was simply to ask if there was a way around this limitation.

[Jan Evetts]

Justin and Nic thanks, so it seems 'Set Field Value from Parent' from JIRA Misc Workflow Extentions will never meet our requirement ie. auto populating a required field from the parent when creating a sub-task, it seems 'clone and create a sub-task' could work if it exists? Or if anyone can suggest an alternative approach it would be great.

[Ramiro Pointis]

Hi Jan, the problem is that you have the summary as mandatory field on your field configuration scheme so the workflow can't start because the issue isn't being created.

You have to create an especific field scheme for sub-task where the summary isn't mandatory.

Hope this helps.

[SSchoepel]

I know I'm coming into this question long after it was asked, but it's relevant to what I'm trying to do. I did create a new field scheme but there is no way I can change the summary field to be optional. Is that I am in the Cloud version or that I don't have some super-set of permissions?

[Udo Brand]

Summary field can never be changed to optional, it will always be required.

[SSchoepel]

Thanks for the quick answer. I was afraid of that...and it confirms why I couldn't do what the previous poster suggested.