With the new issue view and layout options, why have screens for edit and view operations?

Question

Sorry if this is a really low-level question, but I have recently been diving into Jira training and have been struggling to get my head around this since the new issue view was released, even with the support documentation.

The Jira admin creates the screens and maps them to operations (i.e., create, view, edit). Now with the issue view function, project admins can just re-arrange or hide fields when an issue is viewed or edited.

Doesn't that seem to negate the work the Jira admin did to set the screens for the view or edit operations? What is the point of having view or edit screens then? The only thing I can think of is that it the Jira admin just controls the fields that can be present on the screen, but allow for the project admins more control to make changes relevant to their project, which would be useful if the screen is shared across projects. But if that is the case, why are there still separate screens for view and edit operators and not just one screen for a single view/edit operator?

Thanks for any insight!

Michael Roldan · Answer

I have two screens, one for create/edit and one for view, with the edit screen having a sub-set of all the view fields.

I see the behavior you describe, with the "view" fields being "read-only" in the edit screen, which is really nice and what I wanted. :-)

The issue I have is when you select "Create Issue" the fields are displayed in the order set in the "Configure Screen" and not in the "Issue Layout".

The "Configure Screen" page has this note:
"You can configure the order of fields and tabs in a project by going to Project settings > Issue layout"

And the "Issue Layout" has this note:
"Field order in the global screen configuration won't affect the layout of the issue view."

The layout is used correctly in all other places, whether "view in sidebar" or "popup" or "full screen". The issue in only present when creating an issue.

I realize the workaround is to reorder the fields in the "Configure Screen" page but seems to go against the notes, so I was just wondering if I missed something?

John Funk · Answer

Hey Alex,

When you are using the new issue view screen now, it kind of combines the view and edit screen into one. This means that you are automatically in Edit mode when you enter the screen for fields that exist on the Edit screen. If the field is not on the Edit screen but is on the View screen, then you can see the field, but you can't edit it. So the functions are still there, but you have on less click to have to do to get into "edit mode" when you load the screen.