Just what are these SYSTEM fields?

Jim Malgieri

In the course of our creating and mapping of new fields we have seen system reserved fields. and have mapped to them. For example: the customer wanted to have a TITLE field and we mapped to the SUMMARY field since it seemed perfect for our needs,

• Is this OK?
• Are we messing something up further down the line?
• Does anyone have any suggestions - either regarding field usage or documentation to read?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

Yes, absolutely ok.

Summary is a required field on all issues, so reusing it for "title" (which is usually a poor choice of words to describe the field anyway) is a very good idea.

For the other system fields, the rule of using them is pretty simple - use them for data that is similar to or the same as what they're intended to hold. 

You won't mess anything up by doing this.  But for some basic good principles

• Re-use fields where you can, and keep them generic.  Don't have, for example, lots of slightly different "start date" or "status" fields.
• Do not duplicate field names, keep them distinct and clearly unique