Incrementally add fields within workflows?

Question

Hi,

I'm just starting to explore JIRA. My first workflow is called "Setup new user" and looks more or less like this (simplified):

1. transition: create ticket
Here, I use a screen for providing data for the custom fields "first name", "last name" and "organizational unit"
--> status: TICKET CREATED

2. transition: assign user id 
Now, I would like to show a screen with the fields mentioned above, but they should be pre-populated with the provided values and non-editable. Also, I would like to display a custom field "user id".
--> status: USER ID ASSIGNED

3. transition: assign e-mail-address
...
--> status: COMPLETED

My questions are:

- Is this approach generally ok in terms of "good JIRA practice"?
- Do I have to define distinct and independant screens for each of these transitions?
- Is it possible to have pre-populated fields at all and to loop them through the workflow?

Any other commments are highly appreciated as well!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

I'm pretty much with Boris on this one - you'll want different screens for different purposes.  All I'd add is to bear in mind you can share them.  For example, use the same screen for "remove user" and "edit" so you can get to all the possible fields, or provide the same screen for "change of name/email"

If you've got custom select lists (organisation/business unit/office/location type info) then you can set default values for creating the issue.

Boris Georgiev [Appfire] · Answer

The approach sounds ok to me (however I'll like to see someone else also comment on that - @Nic Broughfor example )

You'll have to create a separate screens for the transitions, so you're able to control which fields are shown on each transition.

I think it will be hard to make some fields non-editable(there are hacky Javascript solutions but I'm not sure it's worth doing that), but you can workaround that by leaving them editable and adding a validator which will not allow the transition to be executed if the value of a field that needs to be "read only" was changed (groovy scripted validator will work here).

Tamsin Slinn · Answer

You would need to create a screen to go with each transition with just the fields you want to display, and link it to the transition inthe workflow.

I'd imagine you'd also want to create conditions on the transitions so that they could not proceed without the required fields being completed.

Any fields which had already been  populated at a previous step would show up as populated. I'm not sure how you'd make them non-editable. You might be able to do it with a readonly custom field which displayed the data from the original. Or you could just not display them on the individual transition screens, as the user could view the existing data before clicking to transition the issue.

Remember than users can also edit fields by clicking "Edit" from the main issue view. You'd need to remove the fields from the standard "Edit" Screen for the issues. Then any values you don't want changing would display in view mode, but not be editable.