Auto update Summary on create issue screen or show bold text under Summary field

[vcatl2020]

I reviewed quite a few posts and looks like this is NOT possible without add-ons but still wanted to check.

Summary is a required field in JIRA cloud platform and I do NOT see a way to make it optional on JIRA software project field configuration. To workaround this problem, I could neither find a way to set a default value in Summary field on the create issue screen nor add a bold text (injecting javascript code into the description box of Summary field).  We do not want to go for add-ons just for this purpose, so wanted to run by community for seeking expert solutions.

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi @vcatl2020 - I am pretty positive you are correct that the Summary field is not a field that you can do bold or other Wiki type edits. 

You can have the system set the Summary field upon create to whatever value you like. However, it will not show a default with a value in it when you hit the create button. 

But, what would you put in there as a default? And how would you prevent all of your issues from having the same Summary value? That seems like it would get very confusing!!

[vcatl2020]

Hi @John Funk - Thanks for your quick response. The actual requirement is for taking out the Summary field from a specific issue type in a classic software project and a bunch of custom fields fits well for our needs. With this limitation, I was trying to default a value "Not applicable" in Summary field, which I did not find a way out. I created a field configuration scheme for this specific issue type and included a text "please enter as NOT APPLICABLE in summary field" in the description box of Summary field, which seems to work as expected but the down side is that I could NOT get it highlighted.

I understand that it might be very confusing for users, since the default value is NOT set on the create issue screen, so I wanted to rather highlight in BOLD/RED font for the text to appear under Summary field. Hope this makes sense.

I'm going to try out text field (ready only) or message custom field type fields to accommodate my requirement.

[John Funk]

What do you mean by "taking out the Summary field from a specific issue type"?

[vcatl2020]

first preference is for removing the field for display to users from a specific issue type, secondly if possible to make it optional and auto set to a default value on create issue screen and thirdly to set a bold highlighted text "N/A" to show up for Summary field (inserting this text with JavaScript in the description box of Summary field)

[John Funk]

You are not going to be able to get around that the Summary field is required.

What I don't understand is why you don't want to populate it. It is the title of the card and used throughout the system. What is the problem with letting the user populate it?

[vcatl2020]

You're right and it makes sense for user to populate the Summary field. I need to revisit on the team's requirement again, as I remember vaguely that they do NOT see the need for populating anything in Summary field as this issue type is meant for just adding new titles and run through the position duties and process within the company.

Nevertheless, users are going to enter some static text in Summary for each new ticket.

[John Funk]

Just a thought - but let the user enter whatever they want but then overwrite it at create with a combination of values from the fields you are capturing. 

[vcatl2020]

Sounds good, thanks so much @John Funk for your thoughts and suggestions.

[John Funk]

Let us know here how it ends up for you. When you have the solution, can you post and click the Accept answer button above to close this one out? Thanks!

[vcatl2020]

Will do, Thank You!

[Jarosław Solecki _Deviniti_]

I think that the only solutions are Jira plugins. Atlassian has been playing to introduce the default value for the summary field but they stopped working on that recently. 

You can set the default value for summary and other native fields with Dynamic Forms for Jira. You will also gain a few additional features like abilities to set value based on condition, and conditional show/hide fields, making them required or read-only.