Can I make "deprecated" (old, unused) components unselectable in create and edit screens?

Question

Our list of components have changed over time.  We've "deprecated" some components, meaning we don't use them for development any longer (or we have a new name for that particular area of the product and so we created a "new" component).  The "deprecated" components still appear in the list of components that can be selected in Create and Edit screens, however, and users continue to select them when creating new issues.  This causes some frustration with our Product Owners.

We don't want to delete the "deprecated" components because the are attached to closed issues we may want to search for (by component) later.  I'm wondering if there is a way to "hide" these components from create and edit screens so that users cannot select them for new issues.

Rahul Chaudhari_z7rfme · Answer

I am not sure if users are still pursuing the solution for this problem. I found the following strategy works the best for this scenario.

1) Create custom field (multi select) named "Deprecated Components" and add a project specific field context to it.

2) Add the complete component names as options for the new custom field in the context of the specific project.

3) Then using the bulk issue change or any other script based solution, copy/replicate the component selection as options for the newly created custom field

4) Make sure the custom field is only added to the "issue view" screen of the specific issue types  which will make this field read-only for the users.

5) Remove the components stripping off the deprecated component values.

5) If there are any JQL filters that use the component as filter condition, they can additionally include this new custom field to refer to old issues assigned to those deprecated components.

William King · Answer

Thanks Matt- we did something like this - [DEPRECATED] original name - but users continue to use them anyway...  hence the frustration for the POs.  I suppose adding "zzz" will send them to the bottom of the list, so maybe that would help but I'd prefer to hide them if I Can - the way we do with deprecated items in a selectable list in a custom field- but I can't see a way to do that.

Matt Doar_tzgiej · Answer

Rename them with a prefix, e.g.

zzz DO NOT USE original component name

It's ugly but works