Custom Field should NEVER be referred to only by name in the UI

Question

I think since the very early days in Jira Data Center, custom field names have never been unique.

Yet, all over the interfaces, you have selection for custom fields that show nothing but the name.

This is from CSV import (old experience):

One Team is my custom field, with its context restricted to my space only. The other Team is a locked field so I can't get rid of it even if I wanted to.

You have the same problem in Space settings | Screen as well.

KC Wong_akqwi1 · Answer

A known behavior that do not tell you which field is which when you are trying to add them to a screen.

I'm looking at no less than 6 custom fields named "Start date", some datetime, some date, but the UI tells you nothing. Those fields were made by others, unfortunately with global context, so all company-managed spaces see all of them.

Not even sure if their order in the dropdown list is deterministic/consistent or not.

Definitely not problematic. Just a known issue that Jira sucks.

Would it kill anyone if they display the custom field id too? Why are they allergic to displaying the ids that you must use in REST APIs? Not just for custom fields but everything. Project id. User account id. Why not include those in the UI properly instead of having to jump through hoops like parsing the URL or making a REST API call just to grab them? Some of the new UI changes show a floating panel instead of opening a new window (e.g. custom field context) so you can't even check the URL.

If project key is unique why not all REST API take it? Get custom field options by context id requires project id, not project key.

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

@KC Wong

I wouldn’t call it a problem; it is known behavior.

Restrict Team-Managed custom fields name if already exists another custom field with the same name

[JRACLOUD-98175] Restrict or warn against creating custom fields with duplicate names in Team-Managed Spaces - Create and track feature requests for Atlassian products.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @KC Wong

As this is a user community it is not the best venue to ensure that your feedback is received by Atlassian and documented as a Suggestion/Change Request.

Better methods are to open a support case with Atlassian directly, and get from them an ID for a corresponding change request, or provide the feedback to them through the Feedback option under the Help menu within the Jira application.