visible custom fields without default value?

Question

What is the best way to have custom fields (and the screen tabs they occupy) appear by default in a situation where transitions have field-based validations?

* In the past, I've set a default value to ensure a custom field is visible
* I'm currently developing a workflow requiring key fields have a value to transition
* Setting a default value would seem to negate the control
* Not setting a default value makes the fields (and tabs) disappear

I'm using JIRA server with Portfolio and Service Desk. I'm using JIRA Suite Utilities to require fields during a workflow transition.

Bryan Collick · Answer

So after a lot of experimentation, I was able to find a solution for this with @Joshua Goffstein.

Here's the solution we settled on: transition screens.

* Transition screens allow you to validate that fields were given a value before moving an issue to the next status.
* Once the field is given a value, it appears on the view screen as soon as the transition is completed.
* This relieved the need to place default values just to be visible, and it also ensured all fields would be visible when they should be (effective control).

The downside is progressive visibility (not all fields are visible from the first status), but that was a minor issue for our situation.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

As I said, there's no way to do this.  If you want a field to appear on the issue view, you need to have data in it.

Bryan Collick · Answer

Joe I 100% agree with you--it makes bad data.

How, then, do you make custom fields visible? I can't expect my users to regularly fill out fields they can't actually see. Is there some documentation on this because I also understood default values as the workaround for this.