show custom text on screen

[Hadas Hamerovv]

I wish to show some instructions on a custom screen which appears during certain transition. Since I did not find another way I've created a custom field, gave it default text value and added it to the screen.

Now I see the field however it appears empty. The default text is not there.

Can anyone find explanation, or provide alternative way for showing instructions on a screen?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

What type of field did you use exactly?

[Hadas Hamerovv]

I tired bit a wiki field (multi line text) as well as single line text. 
but it is less important what I’ve used than what should I use. You are welcome to suggest whatever field or method to have so that the viewers will see some text as instructions 

[Hadas Hamerovv]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- Any idea for how to achieve this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

A text field is expecting the users to enter data into it.  Default text in those only gets filled when creating an issue, once it exists, you don't want default settings to override what a the creator entered (or deliberately left empty)

For instructional text, try using a "message field for edit" - these do not ask people for data, they just show their default text as non-editable text on the screen.  You need to us the "for edit" version of the field if you want the text to appear on a screen where users can edit data (edit issue and transition screens)

[Hadas Hamerovv]

Oh, I was looking for it and could not find it. I missed the fact I saw only the basic fields and not the advanced ones.

I tried the 'message field for view' as there is no reason for users to edit it. It did not work. Do I need to use the '_for edit' for it to work?

[Hadas Hamerovv]

Ok, Changed to _for edit and it does appear on screen. Thanks

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yeah, it's an odd one.  The message fields come from the Jira Toolkit, and I think they're a little clunky in the way they're documented when it comes to the difference between the "view" and "edit" versions of the field (and the implemention is clunky too, but having read the code for Jira and the Toolkit, I can understand why they have to be done the way they are)

[Hadas Hamerovv]

So when do you use the -for view- version of the field ?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That only appears when you look at an issue via the "issue view".

The Jira Toolkit was originally written for a very old version of Jira, one that only really had two ways to look at issues (the view screen and the issue navigator), and people had a bit more use for explanatory text when looking at issues (the plethora of ways of viewing issues nowadays probably makes that almost totally redundant).

I do remember a discussion with the writers about just how useful static text was on a view screen which came down to "it's probably not for almost all of our users, but as the coding for them is less than 10 lines which we'd already written while getting started on the message field for edit, we just left it in for those who might need it"

[Asher Francis]

Hi @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- 

In Jira Service Management, we are trying to create instructional text using the message field for edit and it does not display on the screen when creating an issue from an agent perspective. If I click on "Show fields" it is in the list

We added it to the Request Type and it does appear on the customer portal, but has a text entry field underneath it. 

Any ideas?

Thanks

Asher

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The message fields only apply to issues, not the requests that the customers see.

Instructional text for customers is something that should be done by the portal, it's not something for the issues behind the requests.  (that's my opinion, not a suggestion or even something for Atlassian directly.  I've talked about the portals with Atlassian's design team a few times about this, and they've got some stuff to think about on that)

[Asher Francis]

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks! For now I've just put a single check box and "Please do this thing and confirm you have done it by checking this box" as a workaround