How to clear a JMCF Transition Date/Time field upon a backwards transition

Question

We are using the Transition Date/Time fields to gather when an issue was moved into each status. However, we want to be able to clear that field if the issue moves backwards in the workflow.

Example/ Issue moves from Make Ready to Ready on 10/23. The Date in Ready field will say 10/23. On 10/24, we decide to move the issue back to Make Ready. Now Date in Make Ready is overridden to be 10/24. We want to remove the 10/23 from the Date in Ready field so when we collect metrics, we can recognize that the issue wasn't actually in Ready.

Have tried the Clear Issue Field post-function on the backwards transition and it has not worked. Does this post-function not work for JMCF fields?

David Fischer · Accepted Answer

You cannot clear calculated fields, because their value is not stored but... calculated. If the transition happened, it happened, and triggering another transition won't change the past.

For your use case, you can either create a standard date/time field and set it during the transition and clear it during the reverse transition (with the help of a post function such as the Set Field Value post function from our JMWE app), or you can create an additional Calculated Date/Time field that will return the transition date/time field value only if the issue status is Ready, and null if it isn't.