How do I allow customers to select project name in service desk?

Question

Let me give some background first.....

I'm using Service Desk to let my JIRA users request changes to JIRA that are beyond the permissions scope for Project Administrators (e.g. new custom fields, new add-ons, etc.)

I'm using a single request type for all JIRA users so I want to let them pick the relevant project name from a custom field listing all project names (in order to eliminate back and forth questions and also because people don't read the help text where I ask them to insert the project name in the description field.)

I created a custom field "Project Name" using JMCF add-on that lets me use Groovey to grab an ArrayList of project names using:
ComponentAccessor.getProjectManager().getProjectObjects().name

I've having two problems with that field:

1. When I add it to the request type as a new field, it says it cannot be shown (must be hidden), which defeats the purpose of having that fields in the first place since i want the user to select the relevant project name for the requested change.

2. When I view an issue that field shows with error: Formula did not return a valid Option value

My question:

Has anybody experienced this problem and been able to solve it?  Any suggestions on getting past this roadblock?

Thanks, all!

Vincent Mutambuki { Mumo Systems } · Answer

Take a look at Abacus. You should be able to calculate select fields, radio button choices and check boxes. You should also be able to map text options from any of the fields mentioned for to numeric fields for calculations if you prefer giving your users text value choices.

David Fischer · Answer

JMCF offers calculated fields, which means that their value is calculated. Calculated fields are, by definition, not editable (since the value is calculated, not input).

What you're trying to do would require a single-select custom field type whose "options" would be calculated. There might be other apps that offer this.