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Default comment visibility

Volker Jakob

We're using Jira Cloud with customers and currently use different projects for keeping internal discussions private. Customers comments will be synced to the internal project but not vice versa. This basically works good despite the fact, that there are two projects.

Moving customers and internal staff into a single project requires us to actively differentiate between public and internal comments. I'm aware of the comment visibility function and this will for sure suits most needs.

But, I'd like to change the default comment visibility to an internal role. That way it's made sure that no internal comment will be accidentally visible to customers. Instead, the need to be actively set via the dropdown.

I already searched on the web and in this forum but with no luck so far. Does anyone have a hint on how to achieve this?

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Matthew Sinclair

Are you referring to Jira Service Management? Or Jira propper?

Jira in-itself doesn't support internal/external commenting. You either have access - or you don't.

If this is JSM - there's a global behavior configuration added as of last year that may help to a point. This requires Jira-Admin (As opposed to Space Admin) level access however.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSDCLOUD-14319 Discussion source

https://www.loom.com/share/2b7831628be44f63ae8dac83db9438ae Loom to show how.

Seems the feature set is not quite where folks want it and its been an ask for a while now.

We've not had too much trouble in our instance - but there are ways to work around it to a point.

Hopefully gives you some ideas.

Volker Jakob

Hey @Matthew Sinclair thanks! Unfortunately I'm talking about regular Jira.

Viswanathan Ramachandran

Hi @Volker Jakob

Currently, no native setting to change default comment visibility away from All Users. You may continue to use Internal option for JSM projects and choosing the drop down roles for software projects.

If it helps and company process allows:

You can check this marketplace app - https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1212192/comment-security-default?tab=overview
Or use Scriptrunner behaviours to lock in pre-selected roles/groups automatically

Volker Jakob

Hi @Viswanathan Ramachandran

thanks for suggesting this marketplace app. It reads promising and is at a first glance the solution I'm looking for. However, it relies on a Chrome browser extension that is necessary to work with. As I'm dealing with external users this isn't a valid solution for my needs.

Thanks!

Matthew Sinclair

Yeah if this is Jira "proper" - it's just not simply available as a feature.

Any/all comments are visible if you have the Browser Permission on the space.

The only other option I can think of would require use of Issue/Work Type Security - but that would lock out entire groups in terms of visibility.

And already mentioned - marketplace/scriptrunner/et al - but you may find that non-viable.

If you are interacting with Customers - you should consider switching to the Service Collection Suite to enable that kind of interfacing - albeit not perfect - certainly gives you more options.

Jira wasn't really designed to interface with customers vs agents in that regard.

Volker Jakob

Thanks for pointing me to JSM. I always thought this is somehow limited / designed for ITSM but maybe it's worth looking into it regarding simple issue management for client work.

Thanks!

Mia Tamm _Simpleasyty_

I think the last point is probably the key one here: once external customers are part of the workflow, JSM starts making more sense even if the process itself isn't really “ITSM”.

The portal/customer model gives you that separation between customer-visible replies and internal collaboration without having to recreate it through permissions and conventions in Jira.