Reading a Forms(Proforma) field value without the JSON tab

[#1]

Important Notice: This documentation is no longer functional due to the deprecation of Forms Properties. For more information, please see the Atlassian Changelog.

To access forms properties after this deprecation, please use the new Forms Smart-Values feature:

• Manipulate Access Smart Values for Forms and Form Fields

📘 For more detailed information on using Forms Smart Values, refer to the article below:

• Using Forms Smart Values

Alternatively, you can access these properties via the Jira Forms REST API. Here is a general guide to help you access these properties:

1. Retrieve form template IDs from a project using this API:

   https://api.atlassian.com/jira/forms/cloud/{cloudId}/project/{projectIdOrKey}/form

   This will return all forms for your project, allowing you to identify each formTemplate ID.
   
2. Access the properties of a form template:

   https://api.atlassian.com/jira/forms/cloud/{cloudId}/project/{projectIdOrKey}/form/{formTemplateId}

   
3. Get form IDs from an issue using this API:

   https://api.atlassian.com/jira/forms/cloud/{cloudId}/issue/{issueIdOrKey}/form

   This will return all forms from an issue, enabling you to find each form ID.
   
4. Access form properties and responses from a form attached to an issue:

   https://api.atlassian.com/jira/forms/cloud/{cloudId}/issue/{issueIdOrKey}/form/{formId}

   

---

🔍 This section is for historical reference only. It describes deprecated methods used by ThinkTilt (Proforma) and is no longer applicable to Jira Forms.

As features evolve, support for Automation for Jira to access form contents via SmartValues will improve. You can use the Entity Property Tool for Jira to inspect form data. This tool facilitates automation building, though it is not officially supported. Please use it with caution to avoid disrupting form functionality.

Note: This tool is not officially supported, so please be careful when working with these properties, as improper modifications can break a form.

If you prefer not to use the Entity Property Tool and instead use the Proforma API, access the structure using the link below:

https://.atlassian.net/rest/api/2/issue//properties/proforma.forms.i1

💡 Tip: The "i1" signifies the form's order on the ticket. For the second form, use "i2", and so on.

📚 Important related documentation:

• Use forms in Jira Service Management
• How AFJ works
• Smart values

Forms API for Cloud:

Development on new Forms API functionality is underway, with experimental APIs available. Marketplace Partners can integrate forms into their products.

For more information, please refer to the features below:

• JSDCLOUD-10671 - REST API for Proforma/Forms in Jira

ℹ️ Note: Forms API documentation is available here. We are continuing to enhance this functionality, which is why this issue remains In Progress.

Workaround steps:

With the Entity Property Tool for Jira installed, add the desired form to a ticket and navigate to the Entity properties tab, as shown in the screenshot below:

The structure to access data is as follows, where AAA is the question ID number (not the Question Key):

• Text/Email/URL/Number Fields: {{issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".state.answers.AAA.text}}
• Date Fields: {{issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".state.answers.AAA.date}}
• Time Fields: {{issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".state.answers.AAA.time}}
• ID of a user: {{issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".state.answers.AAA.users.get(0).id}}
• Choice Fields: {{issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".state.answers.AAA.choices.get(0)}}
  • Note: This will only return the choice ID, not the text. Retrieving the text is complex for Automation for Jira.

Regarding the limitation with Choice Fields, we have an item in our development backlog aimed at improving this:

• JSDCLOUD - 13694 - Forms Properties: Access choice field responses as text, not IDs

In the Entity property box, entries like "proforma.forms.i1", "proforma.forms.i2" indicate the form's order:

Using a code editor like Sublime, you can paste form properties and find desired fields and IDs, as shown in this screen recording:

[Amanda Ward]

Does this actually work now? All the reviews in the marketplace say this app doesn't work. 

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hey @ama

I hope your week is going well!

The ProForma app isn’t more available on the Atlassian Marketplace. As part of the integration between ProForma and Atlassian, it is now natively available in Jira Service Management projects as the new Forms.

Also for more information on the new availabilities of Forms for JSM, JWM, and JSW products, we will be updating our users via email and also our roadmap here: Atlassian cloud roadmap

Thanks! :D

[Charles Trilha]

Nice Article!

ProForma Legend, Bruno!

[John Funk]

Hi @Bruno Altenhofen  so it is just references to these values? Or can I actually use the in the automation? For example if my automation rule looks like: 

Shouldn't that put the date from that question on the form into the Due date when the issue is created? Because if it should, that is not working for me. Same with Text fields. Is there something I am missing? 

[John Funk]

@Simon Herd 

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hey @John Funk 

Apologies for my delay in responding to you (I was a little off in the Atlassian Community these last few days). So you can use Forms data with Automation for Jira without having to link them to Jira fields. The date field in the forms unfortunately has a limitation in that it doesn't respect Jira's default date and ends up converting it. But we have a bug already open for that:

• JSDCLOUD-11103t - Forms date format is not the same as Jira date format

So, to further clarify this matter, I went ahead and created a screen recording demonstrating how to use the form's date and date/time field without needing to link them to a Jira field in an automation rule:

• 
  
  

I hope I was able to give you a clear overview of this case and if you have any questions or need further assistance, just let me know and I'll help you!

Thanks,

[John Funk]

Hi @Bruno Altenhofen  - Super - that worked!!

Sorry, one more thing. Can you give me more detailed guidance on how the select lists should work? (including single pick list, multi-pick list, radio buttons, and checkboxes!). I want to be able to do the same thing - select the value from the form and have it populate another field - probably just a Paragraph or multi-line text field is where I would place the value. 

Thanks in advance!!

[John Funk]

Hi @Bruno Altenhofen  - Any more feedback? 

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hey @John Funk 

So about the select lists, based on the present design, when it comes to handling/recording values chosen in choice lists(dropdowns, checkboxes, etc), ProForma keeps the choice list field ID in the JSON and returns the associated value when the form is displayed. Another bit of info you may want to know is that currently due to only getting the ID for the choice chosen(and not the answer itself), unfortunately accessing Choice list values does not work for smart values. This is a known limitation between ProForma and A4J.

Therefore, the main issue here is that the Jira Form Choice Fields type doesn’t have the "text" corresponding to the id of the option. That's why at the moment it is not possible to get the "text" but only the "choice id". For example, below I show the property of a Text Field compared to a Choice Field:

"state": {
    "visibility": "i",
    "status": "s",
    "answers": {
      "1": {
        "text": "Bruno"
      },
      "2": {
        "text": "",
        "choices": [
          "1"
        ]
      }
    }
  },

Note that the Choice Field that is represented with id 2 only has the id of the option that was chosen which is the id number "1" and the 'text' property from the Choice Fields will always be empty ("text": "",).

With that in mind, the only possible workaround is using an automation rule to override the "choice id". I made a video showing an example of how to achieve this scenario, please refer to the link below:

• 
  
  

I comprehend that this might not have been the solution you were looking for and I wish there were more I could do on my side to address this for you.

Also, allow me to share with you these feature requests that we have related to this topic:

• JSDCLOUD-10671 - REST API for ProForma/Forms in Jira
• JSDCLOUD-10697 - Forms Automation: Access form fields with smart values

Please let me know if I can be of any more help!

Thanks,

[John Funk]

Hi @Bruno Altenhofen  - though not ideal, it is definitely something that I can use and implement. Thanks for sharing!!

Will there be a Forms team from Atlassian at Team '23? I would love to meet some of you in person!

[YY Brother]

• Choice Fields: {{issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".state.answers.AAA.choices.get(0)}}

  • Note this will only return the ID associated with the choice rather than the text.

  • The text of the selected choice value is stored is difficult for Automation for Jira to retrieve. It is stored as:
    issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".questions.choices

Then how to use jira smart value to get the selected choice value? 

[Chetan Hassarajani]

Hello,

I have a form where i am asking the users what do they need. This is a checkbox. They can order desktop or laptop or phone or headset all 4. How do i use the entity id to find out which ones are checked. Here is what the JSON looks like.  What will follow this: 

{{issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1.state.answers.2.

      "2": {

        "type": "cm",

        "label": "I want to order the following:",

        "description": "",

        "validation": {

          "rq": true,

          "mns": 1

        },

        "choices": [

          {

            "id": "1",

            "label": "Desktop, monitor and/or accessories",

            "other": false

          },

          {

            "id": "2",

            "label": "Laptop, tablet and/or accessories",

            "other": false

          },

          {

            "id": "3",

            "label": "Smartphone and/or accessories",

            "other": false

          },

          {

            "id": "4",

            "label": "Teams headsets",

            "other": false

          }

        ],

[Mateus Martins]

Hi @Bruno Altenhofen

Are you guys planning on making it possible to retrieve the selected choice value (issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".questions.choices)?

If so is there a feature request for me to follow up with?

Cheers

[Fabian Dengel]

Great writeup @Bruno Altenhofen , much appreciated insight and very helpful for use in Automation!

Unfortunately, the redundant mapping of choice values makes it very tricky to maintain a single-source-of-truth, so we are almost forced to fall back to mapping to a custom field and set the values there (which are then easily extracted via CF smart-value). To add on to @Mateus Martins previous comment: Any updates on that front or a request you could point us to?

Again, many thanks for sharing your valuable knowledge regarding the "under the hood" attributes of ex-ProForma :)

Cheers,
Fabian

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hello @Fabian Dengel 

Thank you for your kind words! :D

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news here, but at the moment isn’t possible to manipulate the Forms Choices fields in this way.

Therefore, I've created a feature request related to this topic for our development backlog aimed at improving this as well:

• Forms Properties: Able to access the information and not the ID of choices fields responses

I'll also update this article with this feature request.
@Mateus Martins FYI

Thanks guys!

[Patricia Francezi]

Hi @Bruno Altenhofen 

Im using some of this solution to get the information from answer and using automation to populate the values in Assets objects .

The main issue currently for me is about this 

Tip: The "i1" is the number of the form attached to the ticket. So if you have 3 forms attached and want to access the second, it will need to use "i2".

I have 3 forms in my issue in a certain fase of the processes.

The second is the one of my interested.

For some reason we didnt find any information this ID may change for the same form, and we are seeing an i4 on the same form 

Second issue - the i2 is still in place, and the new one i4, have the most recent data. Do you know if this is a bug? 

Any way to not having this happening?

- The steps 

I submit  the 2nd form once i2

SOmetimes I need to reopen for edits - I reopen for customer Edits, and then the form is submited again. 

At this point, the i2 remains there in the properties, and a new one with new info is created as i4. 

The 3rd time I change the form the same way does not create a 5 or 6 id for the same form. 

With this ID changing I Cant rely in the automation for 2 reasons: 

- If i use the old id i2 it wont get the current data

- if i use 2 different automation to point to i2 and another to i4 what will happen is that depending on what was the first one worked by automaion i will have the wrong information. 

[Kyle Krug]

An additional useful reference that they don't have documented is how to reference paragraph fields. I found the below syntax works:

 {{issue.properties."proforma.forms.i1".state.answers.AAA.adf.content.content.text}}

[Dario Otranto]

Hi team.

@Bruno Altenhofen Our implementation stopped working and we owe: 

proforma.forms.i1

Error loading the property! Disabling modification of this property.

Did not perform operation successfully

Do you have any idea what’s going on?

Thanks

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hello @Dario Otranto 

Allow me to share with you that that the forms properties have been deprecated.

To access forms properties after this deprecation, please use the new Forms Smart-Values feature:

• Manipulate Access Smart Values for Forms and Form Fields

For more detailed information on using Forms Smart Values, refer to the article below:

• Using Forms Smart Values

Thanks!

[Shawn Gibbons]

@Dario OtrantoI am having the same issue.  Did you ever get an answer on this?

[YY Brother]

Hi @Bruno Altenhofen 

May I know when you deprecated the old way to manipulate the forms props? I meant not available to use normally. I haven't changed the customer's automation rules yet.

Thanks

Yong

[Dario Otranto]

@Shawn Gibbons Yes, I had but I was struggling a little, I solved it using the capture via smart values, previously getting the template ID:

{{issue.forms.YOUR_FORM_TEMPLATE_ID.get(0).1}} --> put this in a Custom Field.

To obtain the template ID, go to de Dev Console in your Web Browser (inspect tool).

1. go to Network tab
2. in All tab, filter by "form"
3. in Name you will able to see {_form_}, in my case, {1}
4. in Preview go to Design --> Settings --> TemplateFormID

And that's all!!

@Antony Delgado FYI

[Frank Vandebergh]

I am a bit surprised there was no further warning about the existing proforma properties going to be deprecated and a timeframe? 

I am following changelog and I knew about the new forms property for which I am very grateful but it was not clear that the existing way to access forms fields was going to be deprecated at the same time.

We have a customer with many automation rules accessing over 100 form fields and during the holidays this just stopped working. 

[Jamie Jones]

While acknowledging that the entity property method for extracting form data was an "unofficial" one, it was nonetheless documented and referenced on your website in several places for quite some time. In the absence of an official solution - I have little doubt that it would have also been leveraged as a workaround for many customers during that time. 

The depreciation of this method and introduction of it's official replacement was very poorly communicated, I check the release/updates page weekly and never saw this mentioned once.