Templates

[Carlyle Brown]

Is it possible to add templates within task description's in Jira tickets ?

[Sergei Gridnevskii]

As far as I know it is not possible. But you can try these workarounds:

1. Create issues using REST API and any programming language like Python (or even curl). You can then fill description in your script

2. Save template as a word file and paste contents to new issue view each time. This is a way our QA team works

3. Create empty issue and use Automation for Jira to set Description on Create Issue event.

4. Create a template issue and clone it whenever needed, maybe automation for Jira can help you here as well, e.g. by deleting unwanted Clone link.

[Germán A_ Isaurralde]

Hello @Carlyle Brown 

I think you can do that by creating custom fields, one per template you want and then use these custom fields in the issues. 

[remi.dc]

Hi,

I used custom fields on create screen to get data, then with automation on creation event, I write it on the description field.

h1. 0. Condition : 
*Instance* : {{issue.customfield_10157}} 
*Compte* : {{issue.customfield_10158}}

h1. 1. Scenario : 
{{issue.customfield_10139}}

h1. 2. Actual results : 
{{issue.customfield_10141}}

h1. 3. Expected results :
{{issue.customfield_10140}}

h1. 4. Remarks : 
{{issue.customfield_10161}}

[Andreas Springer {Actonic}]

Using Automation would also be my first thought. One automation for each template. Should work nicely, we are also experimenting with that. :)

[Wendy McCurdy]

We use automation to create a template when a new issue (story) is created. The rule runs when a issue is created and the issue type = story and it then Edit issue field= Description with the text.  

{color:red}_Go back and update the story with the following_{color}

As a <user role>, I <want/need/can/etc> <goal> so that <reason>.

h4. Acceptance Criteria
# [add at least on acceptance criteria]

h4. Original Description Added on Story Creation
{{issue.description}}

[Rich Wolverton]

There is a good discussion of a way to put default Text into any issue on creation at 

Default Text in Description 

We use it for both Stories and Tasks in some projects. 

[Shaun Newman]

We use an excellent and not too expensive plugin called Templates for JIRA and absolutely love it. Very flexible and you can create pretty complex templates too. I've used it in the past to have a big template with a deep hierarchy from Epic down to subtasks for a quarterly system maintenance project, it allowed us to generate the full backlog with a couple of clicks.

You can also keep it simple, e.g we have a bug template that pre-fills the description with all the sections we want folks to include.

Another advantage of this plugin is that you can add markup to prompt for required information when you initiate the template creation which can be super helpful.

I also use their hyperlink functionality to add links to JIRA's side bar so with two clicks my users can fire up a template and generate a ticket.

Lots of flexibility and the best bang for buck plugin we use.

I'm not a big fan of the "there's a plugin for that" approach at all, especially in this case as other products like Rally include this out of the box, but this one is a go to for me everytime.

[Sergei Gridnevskii]

There can be different situations where adding a new plugin is not possible. Mentioning a few:

1. Team is not the owner of Jira instance and cannot install plugins
2. Budgeting considerations. For me it's a shame that Atlassian charges per user basis even if plugin is used by 1% of users.
3. UI becomes slow and issue view looks overcomplicated.

[Shaun Newman]

Agreed, just included the option as we had a good experience with it and it might be suitable for someone. But 100% agree this isn't a solution for all.

[Sarka.skopalova]

Can you share here how the automation set up looks like? I tried to create it but didn't worked for me.

[Rich Wolverton]

If you read the full Comments tread in the Community Post referenced above, this is basically a Post function with a custom field that contains the Default text. The custom field is never used on any screen and the Task create screen does not have the Description field. 

1. Create and permission a Default Description custom field

2. In the initial Create transition, copy the Default Description to Description

3. Once the ticket is created, the user can update the Description that contains the default text. 

[Riley Venable]

If you are trying to create templates for issue fields, there are multiple good addons, but I will shamelessly plug the addon I support Smart Issue Templates for Jira. You can create and apply templates for any issue type. There are also scopes inside Smart Issue Templates to define where templates can be used and who can apply and view them, which is excellent in a large enterprise company.