What controls who I can @ in JSM?

[Jim Stewart]

Our help desk likes to be able to add an internal comment on an issue for anyone in the company. However, when they @someone, it only brings up a limited subset of people, mostly agents, and things like Git integration for Jira. (?) What controls who they can make comments to? Some particular group membership? 

[Alexandre de Sousa · Accepted solution]

Hi @Jim Stewart ,

Unfortunatelly you can't control who they can make comments to, you can just control who can mention someone in a comment.

But your situation seems to be caused either by a combination of *Browse users and groups* permission and *Browse project* permission or *Browse users and groups* and an *issue security level*.

The Browse users and groups is a global permission which allows, beyond other things, the users to mention @ someone in a comment, for example.

The Browse project permission is a permission which allows a user to navigate in a project.

Check if the users you or your partners desire to mention have the *Browse project permission* in the project you want to do this or if the ticket you are doing this isn't in an *issue security level* that the user isn't in.

I hope this can help you.

BR,

Alexandre de Sousa.

[Jim Stewart]

Yes, I understand fully what you're saying in terms of permissions. I don't recall encountering 'issue security' before. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Issue security allows you to secure individual issues in a more widely shared project, doesn't affect who can mention, but it will limit who can be mentioned - no point in mentioning someone who can't see the issue.

[Jim Stewart]

It occurs to me that the "users they want to browse" aren't even necessarily Jira users as such. They could be anybody in the company up to and including the CEO. So is there a way to make that happen? Do we have to use licenses and create everyone in the company as some level of Jira user or in some group just so we can mention them? I suspect so but how to go about that? 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Mentions can only work if the account is known to Jira as a user.  So yes, you'll have to licence people to use the system if they are going to, well, use it (even if it's only for a mention)

[Jim Stewart]

Wow, this is super important so I'd better be sure I get it. So if we have 30 people currently licensed in JSM - and we have 100 licenses - I have to license everyone who I might mention? Or is that across all Jira licenses as we use Jira software as well. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

To mention someone, they have to have an account in Jira - the system has to be aware of them.  It doesn't matter how they get the account, via Core, JSM or Software.

[Jim Stewart]

Ok, that won't go over well at all but I'll let them know. 

[Jim Stewart]

Ok. I think I see a workaround here but I wanted to get your opinion. We are migrating over from Zendesk where they used cc (or some equivalent) for non-licensed users. So I can see us adding licenses perhaps for those users we frequently loop in. Is there a cc-like mechanism for non-users that will alert them even if perhaps not the most optimal solution? 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Not directly.  There are some functions which can let you send email, but they're not going to be related to mentions.

If you're moving to Jira Service Desk though, are you taking full advantage of the "customer" functions?  That are accounts you can talk to.  You can't mention them, but then there's no need to - communication with them is done through the portal channels.

[Jim Stewart]

Sigh. I got it. I mean I got the mention thing to work. I went over everything with a fine tooth comb. Then I went back over Alexandre's note. What was missing was the jira-software-users "Browse Project Permission." And then it worked! (For the record, we have almost 500 people licensed in Jira software.) If our HR people need to mention someone outside of that, well, we either grab another license or they email them. Anyway, thanks! 

[Alexandre de Sousa]

Hi @Jim Stewart ,

I’m glad my and @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- considerations could help you.

I hope you have a great day!

BR,

Alexandre de Sousa.

[Jim Stewart]

Yes, I am a little slow getting it at times but once I get it I get it. I will say yours is the most granular software I've ever seen in terms of permissions. The default seems to be no (or little) permissions and then you have to add them as you go. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You didn't seem slow to me!  It's software that has a lot of evolved complexities and it's hard to explain well, and I think you got it a lot faster than many people we've had similar questions from.

The default in a newly installed Jira is actually wide-open - you get a group that says "can log in", but it is then used by default in the permission schemes, so anyone who can log in gets access to all the projects and you have to do some work to get that removed after creating every project.

If you are seeing a default of little-or-no permissions and then add as you go, then I would guess that one of your admins has decoupled the "can log in" from "can see project automatically", which is a really good thing if you do need any limited-access projects.

[Yatish Madhav]

@Jim Stewart  thank you for this post ... and @Alexandre de Sousa  thank you for the reply. It helped. 

I agree with @Nic Brough -Adaptavist-  , the granularity of permissions is amazing and at the same time tricky to fathom

Thanks for this. it help me resolve a mention issue an internal customer raised.