How do I make "resolution status" NOT required?

[AJ Palmer]

Hello,

New Atlassian User just trying to get a grasp of things. I've been reading over https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver073/specifying-field-behavior-861253403.html to understand how to edit fields and field configurations better. 

It specifically says under editing a field that I should have the option to make any field required or not, however in my Jira Fields view for "Resolution" I only see "edit, hide, screens". If I go into Edit, it just allows me to change the description.

Am I missing something? Am I not on the right screen?

Thanks,

[Mikael Sandberg · Accepted solution]

Okay, so lets see if this answers your question. Resolution is one of the default fields in Jira and is always a required field and has the value Unresolved until you set it to something else.

You cannot make it an optional field, there are built-in functionality in Jira that uses this field, so to make it "optional", do not add it to a screen besides the view one, and use post functions in your workflow to set it.

[Mikael Sandberg]

The way to make the resolution field optional is to not add it to a screen, you cannot set it to optional/required from the field configuration. I would recommend to instead of adding it to a screen, use post functions in the workflow to set the resolution.

[AJ Palmer]

To my understanding I thought all fields had to belong to a screen in order to show up? 

Is there a way to just add any field to something without applying it to a screen?
Would this then need to be added manually every time a new item was created?

[Mikael Sandberg]

Yes, a field has to be on a screen if you want the user to add values to it. You could use a post function to set a field value and then just have it on the view screen without allowing the user to edit it. 

Resolution is a bit different, if you add it to a edit screen, it will become a required field. In my environment I only show resolution on the view screen and set the values with a post function.

[AJ Palmer]

Alright that's good to know. Though I still don't think it answers my question, it's a good idea to have moving forward. 

[Hendrik Scheider]

I am left with the same open question, while not contesting the accepted resolution:

• Jira documentation states that required fields must be added (at least) to the creation screen
• `resolution` is required (always, I learned, but ok)
• ergo: resolution must appear on the creation screen

Not having a field, that's required for a particular issue type, configured at least in the creation screen should lead to an error, should it not ?

Unless, due its special nature, Jira will set it to the value "unresolved" regardless whether the field has been configured in the creation screen or not.

[Mikael Sandberg]

Hi @Hendrik Scheider,

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

This should be it's own question and then just reference this one.

The resolution field is a special one, it will only be required if you add it to a screen. So if you add it to the create screen you will have to set it to a value, but that would also mean that Jira would consider the issue as resolved as soon as you create it. It is not recommended to add the resolution to a screen until you have resolved the issue. You can learn more about the best practices regarding resolutions in this KB.