Providing restricted edit functionality to users

[Ryan Grimard]

We are using JIRA within Engineering as a bug tracking system. I have a custom field called "Developer". When an issue is triaged, the triage team will transition a bug from "In Triage" to "Assigned for Development". At that time, they will pick a user for the "Developer" custom field. There is a post function on this transition that sets the assignee to the user in the "Developer" custom field.

I would like the assignee (the Developer) to be able to assign the issue to another developer. Ultimately, I would like a button that reads "Change Developer". However, this isn't a workflow transition since the issue isn't moving from one state to another. I am currently using the "Assign" action but that only changes the Assignee. I would like to change both the Assignee and the Developer custom field at the same time.

Is there a way to provide some sort of restricted Edit functionality that only allows users to change specific fields (Developer, in this case) ?

[Dieter · Accepted solution]

Your transition could lead back to the same state. it's not necessary to change the state in a transition.

As workflow condition you would ust allow the assignee and the workflow post function changes the data as you need them. They only drawback is tht you have to duplicate this to all the states where you want to allow to "Change Developer"

[JamieA]

Recent versions of jira have "global actions", only settable through the graphical workflow designer. Global actions can return to the same state and are available on every state.

[Dieter]

thanks for the hint. Really need to look closer at the workflow designer now. So a global action would also make this solution easily maintainable

[Vincent Thoulé]

Global Actions (and more) are available since the begining of JIRA !

Minyaa plugin (and Kaamelot plugin before) provides a way to link Edit Operation and a Global Action.

It allows you to use a dedicated Global action on edit operation using the the default Edit screen.

[Ryan Grimard]

I'm finally getting around to implementing this. I create a global transition called "Edit". I leave the destination step set to "(0) no result step". I added a test screen where the user can enter a comment. When I click the edit button the test screen comes up. I then click the Edit button on the test screen to confirm/close the screen. I get an error "step #0 does not exist"

[Vincent Thoulé]

Use the step -1 that means "Do a recursive Transision". Also you will be able to define a dedicated transition for Edit. You are able to define different with ad-hoc condition to propose Edit transition for th different project role by example.

[Ryan Grimard]

Let me take a step back. I want to provide a restricted edit capability. Certain project roles should have edit access to certain fields (custom fields). I was going to create a few "restricted edit for project role x" screens to achieve this. Does this sound like the right strategy?

How do I set the destination step to -1? Can you do that in the designer?

[Vincent Thoulé]

Yes, it is possible strategy. You can define global recursive transitions, each of them associated to a dedicated screen.

The StepId can be set to -1 by editing the Workflow XML descriptor.

JIRA Workflow Editor and Designer do not provide the capacity to set it to -1.

Minyaa Workflow Designer is able to perform such changes.

[Ryan Grimard]

Yes, it is possible strategy.

But is that what most folks do? It seems to me this would be a common use case.

[Vincent Thoulé]

It is my preferred strategy. I applied it since JIRA 3.7 .

But I will let other folks answer what is theirs.

[Ryan Grimard]

So this works for me, but now I can't make any changes via the designer or the old-school workflow manager. If I do, I lose the "-1" recursive configuration and my new "restricted edit" functionality transitions the issue to a different status.

This functionality MUST be common. I don't understand why it's not provided out of the box.