Questions about linking custom fields in portal forms to JIRA fields

[Chris Crecelius]

Hi folks. We have a portal form with a custom field that is not currently linked to a JIRA field so we are unable to report on that field. We would like to change that and understand that the linking is needed but had some questions about the impact of making that change.

The scenario is a stock out request for retail POS and the custom field is the reason for the items to be stocked out, for example, supplier delay, damaged goods, etc. How would we know which JIRA field best fits for linking the custom field? Does linking a custom field to a JIRA field mean that other forms using the field will pull in drop down options from the linked custom field? Would making this change make past tickets reportable?

Appreciate any guidance, thanks.

[Brant Schroeder · Accepted solution]

@Chris Crecelius Here are instructions on how to link a form field.  https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/link-a-form-field-to-a-jira-field/ I am not sure if linking a field that is already created will populate the custom field upon linking.  I am guessing that it would record it on form submission but you will not know until you try it.  

[Chris Crecelius]

Thanks @Brant Schroeder For field values that don't fit with anything already in JIRA, how do you choose which field to link? I may not be understanding what linking does but we're not trying to collect a value like Priority on the form using different values. Our use case is adding a field to capture a reason retail items would be out of stock so we're working with values like 'damaged product', 'supply chain delay', etc. How do we know which field to link to in order to capture those kinds of values? Are there other considerations we might be missing when choosing which fields to link to?

[Brant Schroeder]

@Chris Crecelius You would need to create a custom field that you then link the form field to. https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/create-a-custom-field/