ProForma and Request Create Date

Question

Hi,

we want to use ProForma to collect all the data needed to create an invoice. After the form is submitted and some workflow magic within Jira, it is exported as PDF and send to another application where the invoice is processed.

However we struggle with the request date. Obviously, we need a date on the invoice. We want to keep it easy and use the creation date of the request. So, how can we bring the creation date into the form, ideally without asking the user to put the actual date into the form.

Any ideas, also creative ones, appreciated. Thanks.

Kind regards,

Tobias

Tobias · Answer

Thank you Andrew for your support. I was not aware of hidden fields being included in the PDF export. I'll check that out.

Actually I've went in the direction you suggest, however, I did not use a Jira field as to populate it with the actual date would only be possible after creation of the issue. From my knowledge, Automation is not able to add options to Jira fields are set default values on Jira fields.

So here is the approach I took (prerequisite: Insight which is part of JSM Premium):

1. Create an Insight Object type e.g. FormData

2. Create an Insight Object "Actual Date"

3. Create an Automation Rule to update the "Actual Date" as required. I used the "scheduled" trigger (do not create new objects as the object key has to be constant to show and select always the latest date in the form)

4. Create a data connection which uses the object key as identifier and the Name as label. If updated value of Insight Object should be reflected immediately, disable caching.

5. Configure a field in the form with a link to the data connection, set default to actual date.

Step 3 was a little tricky. I appreciate the contribution in Jira KB which helped me to navigate in the right direction quickly.

Okay, that's it. :)  If someone needs help to follow this approach, don't hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Tobias

Andrew Daniels_fm2jr1 · Answer

Hi @Tobias

I'm Andrew, a Support Engineer for the ProForma product. I hope you're well!

Depending on your flexibility of the format of the request date field  - whether it needs to be a "date" type field, or a text field which contains a date in a particular format [e.g. "DD/MM/YYYY", "DD MMM YYYY", etc), it could be possible this can be achieved using Automation within Cloud, and copying the smart value for the created date into a Jira field [e.g. {{issue.created.format("dd/MM/yyyy")}}] which you would link to from a ProForma text field. If you don't wish/expect the user to specify the value, you can opt to hide the field from the user using conditional sections.

What do you think? Does this idea make sense?

Let us know what you think and if you require further assistance.

Regards,

Andrew.