Specific fields set as visible in Work Types are not properly displayed

[Emanuele Tonetti]

Hi,

I cannot understand why the system is not working as expected and I am quite sure we are talking about a bug here. It also looks like this issue is here for years, judging from some articles I found online, but let's start from the beginning…

I have created a team-managed project and I have created 3 different Work Types for 3 different tasks to be performed by my team. I am assuming that they should kind of work  like in silos: the (custom) fields I am designing in each and every Work Type are needed for those specific situations: some of course are used in more than one Work Type, some other only in one Work Type. So far so good.

And now the issue. I am pasting a request my Jira admin will send to the Jira Support Team, but I want to also share this issue here as maybe you are in my same situation and you can help me out.

My goal is for each Work Type to display a specific set of fields to the Reporter by customizing the "Configure field" option (please see attached screenshots for reference). However, after configuring and applying the changes, the settings are not saved—the configuration reverts to the default state each time.

You access the fields configuration here:

And then 

You select what fields you want to display as a Reporter by selecting Custom fields and you are expecting that from the moment you apply this selection all Reporters will display the set of fields you want them to see for that Work Type. Otherwise, if you select All fields, the Reporter will display all fields. 

In reality this does not work. After some time the configuration you saved is no longer there and it is displaying some "random" fields for no reason. Plus, if you are changing the configuration for a Work Type, it is going to mess up the fields configuration with the other Work Types.

The only workaround I found is to select All fields. In this way the system will display all fields for all Work Types (even if you choose this option to be applied only to one Work Type) and to make sure the Reporter will not use fields I wanted to keep hidden from them during the ticket creation, I will need to write DO NOT USE in the descriptions of the fields, so that I will fill those fields once the ticket is created and I can process it.

Impact:
This issue negatively affects the user experience, as users are unable to see all the relevant custom fields required to create issues properly. This could lead to incomplete issue submissions and delays in resolution.

Request:
Could you please investigate why the field configurations are not being saved for these Work Types and advise on how to resolve this?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Emanuele Tonetti 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

First be advised that this is a user community, not the method for interacting directly with Atlassian support. If you want to interact directly with Atlassian Support your Jira administrators can create a support ticket at https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

As users we can share our knowledge and offer advice, but we cannot directly access your instance or accounts to investigate your questions.

The Configure Fields option within the Create dialog is not a global setting. That is an individual user preference setting. This is by design.

I don't think the design includes retaining the configuration for each project/space and work item type. 

If you want a specific set of fields used for each work type, go to Space Settings > Work Types. Select a work type. Ensure that in the center section of the display where it shows Description Fields and Context Fields you have there only the fields you want displayed for that work type. Any field that you don't want to show, click on and drag to the panel on the far right. Save any changes you make. Do that for each work type.

It will still be a user preference whether or not all fields or a set of custom fields is displayed in the Create dialog, but if the All Fields option is displayed then only the fields in the Layout for that work item type in that project should be displayed.

[Emanuele Tonetti]

Hi @Trudy Claspill thanks for your answer. I am aware that in the community you can "only" offer advice and cannot directly access my account. I only wanted to point out that I am also contacting the Support, that's all.

Going back to the issue, I already set each and every fields in the Work Types. I find counterintuitive the fact that I cannot decide globally how my Work Type should be displayed for all those who are about to create a Work Type in my project. Moreover, what it does not add up, is the fact that if I choose All fields in the Configure Fields option, this seems to be applied globally and for all three Work Types I created, whereas if I choose Custom Fields it does not and it messes up with the other Custom Fields. Why is that?

Is there a way at least to set All fields in the Configure Fields option to all the Reporter that create a Work Type in my board?

That's of paramount importance for us.

[Trudy Claspill]

That configuration in the Create dialog for displaying All Fields or Custom Fields does not support:

1. specifying All Fields or Custom Fields based on the selected project
2. specifying All Fields or Custom Fields based on the selected issue type
3. specifying All Fields or Custom Fields based on the combined selection of  project and issue type.

It is a user preference, not a global configuration option, or a project or issue type configuration option. When a user selects the All Fields or Custom Fields option, their preference applies to all projects and issues types for that one user when they are creating items.

The configuration is "saved" as either All Fields all the time or Custom Fields with the specific custom fields specified.

If I understand your experience correctly, it "messes up" when Custom Fields is selected because

1. The user is initially viewing issue type A, and selects custom fields applicable to issue type A.
2. The user then wants to create an issue of type B which has a different set of custom fields. But the configuration can "save" only one set of selected custom fields. So, when issue type B is selected the dialog displays what ever fields were selected for issue type A that are also used in issue type B.

There is a change request asking for the option to be able to set the configuration to "All Fields" for all users. You should add your vote to it.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-87453

I don't see a change request to have a global setting for setting the Custom Fields option with selected fields to affect all users. Nor a change request to be able to have those user preferences recorded per project, per issue type, or per project/issue-type pair.

You can also provide feedback directly to Atlassian on this functionality through support cases or the Feedback option under the Help menu within Jira.

Other options that help you control which fields are visible would be the ScriptRunner Behaviours app or the Appfire Live Fields app . Each of those will allow you to conditionally hide fields on the Create screen. They do have limitations regarding the types of projects where that is supported.

[Emanuele Tonetti]

Thanks @Trudy Claspill for clarifying all that, I voted and I will check these two apps you suggested!

I still find it very strange that there is no possibility to do what I am asking, as I thought it was such a basic request. 😅