duplicate description field

Question

Hello folks,

Unfortunately, Multiline text edit custom fields suck.

Firstly, I can't seem to find a way to stop them being collapsable

Secondly I can't seem to find a way to change the order in the issue screen (I'd like them after description)

Thirdly, the styling is terrible.

Ideally what I'd like is to copy the default description field a few times, add those to the issue screen and then allow me to maintain the same look and feel of description.

Anyone got any ideas? (I've also not found a plugin that can do this, I assume I have to edit the default templates/properties etc in the JIRA config itself, rather than any kind of custom field)

Thanks!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

I'd start at https://developer.atlassian.com/index.html to get a feel for it.  For 1 and 3, look for writing your own custom field add-on.

I would not try to hack the core code though, that way lies madness (and zero supportability and difficult upgrades)

Russ Watson-Thomas · Answer

Ok, the good thing is not impossible

Do you know of any resources I can look at to get a handle on making these changes. Luckily, I'm a little tech handy so I can probably duplicate and amend the templates without causing to much trouble. The coding a new custom field type might be the same kind of thing (I could steal the current description code from core and make a new custom field from that or something).

Happy to play when I know what I'm looking at

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

You'd need to write your own version of them to solve points 1 and 3.

Point 2 would require coding in the core of JIRA, as the issue view pulls things out into panels - date/time, users, time-tracking, remaining system fields (including description) etc, and then the custom fields get their own section.