How to create a template for issue description?

[Ronnie Hilmersson]

Hi everyone! 

I try to find out if there are a way to insert a template in the issue description that shows up for everyone when someone wishes to create a new user story. It could be a template where te designteam shoud do something, next part the test team and last one the developer team.

Any ideas? 

 

[Zeev Suraski]

So, turns out there IS a way to do it without adding any extra steps or changing the (human) workflow in any way.  It's just not very intuitive to come up with - and that's an understatement.  For the record - I didn't come up with it myself - I was given the tip from a new employee that did it in a previous company.  Still, getting it to work took some time.

Since it's anything but obvious, even once you have the idea - I'm sharing this, both to help others and also - documenting it so that if I have to do it again in the future I won't have to spend as much time tinkering with the system...  Note that this is from memory, so there might be small mistakes here and there - but the gist of it is correct.

Here's what you have to do (no doubt getting it to work is cumbersome to - but once it works - it works perfectly and flawlessly):

- Add a new custom field (a reasonable name would be 'Bug Description'), that contains the template you want to use as the default value (see https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiracloud/configure-a-custom-field-991923771.html for details).

- Go to the Field Configurations, select your field configuration, search for your new custom field, select Renderers and pick the Wiki-style renderer.

- Make sure you have a dedicated screen for creating issues of type Bug (Bug Creation Screen).  If you don't (by default you don't) - create one - start by simply creating a copy of your existing issue screen.  In that screen - add the new custom field you created in the previous step, and place it near the Description field.  Once we're done we'd want to remove the original description field altogether, but keep it for now as you're still tinkering with setting things up.

- Once that screen is created - create a screen scheme that associates the Create operation with the new Bug Creation Screen, and then, in your Issue Type screen scheme - associate issues of type Bug with that screen scheme.

If everything worked so far - then when hitting Create and selecting the issue type Bug, you should see the Bug Description field alongside the Description field.  When switching to another non-Bug issue type, it should disappear.  Works so far?  You're half way through:

- If you don't already have a separate workflow for bugs (which you probably don't) - now's the time to create it.  Just copy your existing workflow, and associate it with the issue type Bug.

- In that workflow - edit the Create transition, and add a Post Function that will copy the value of the Bug Description field into the Description field.  Here too - if you don't already have a separate workflow for bugs This is what it would look like after configured:

"The field Description will take the value from Bug Description. Source and destination issue are the same."

NOTE:  That post function must be the first one in order.  It must appear before the "Creates the issue originally." step, as unintuitive as it might sound.  Otherwise, it just wouldn't do anything (https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/post-function-on-create-issue-transition-appears-to-not-work-718836210.html).

Publish the workflow, and test it.  If everything is configured properly (and assuming I haven't forgotten any steps - it's been quite a journey), then whatever you put in the Bug Description field, would override anything that's in the built-in Description field (upon submission).  I.e., right after submission - if you open the issue - you should see whatever you put in the Bug Description field, appearing in the Description field (the Bug Description field shouldn't be visible when viewing an existing issue).  Given that the built-in Description field is updated, your workflow for viewing, searching - or doing anything else - remains completely unchanged.  This workaround only affects the issue-creation workflow.

If everything is working - you can now go back to the Bug Creation Screen, edit it, find the built-in Description field, and select Remove, as it's no longer relevant during creation of new bugs.

That should be it!

Let me know if anybody manages to pull it off :)

Zeev

[Thibault Lamadieu]

I just did, it does work flawlessly. My only issue is about having to use markup for formatting the default value. Other than that, it works well and should support a variety of scenarios.

Thank you very much for this guide !

[Ivan Z]

It took 1 hr to configure but then it works like magic. Thanks, this is smart!

[Arvid Kongstad]

Thank you very much, Zeev!

As warned, it took a while to set up but the guide was accurate enough and I managed to achieve the desired result, learning a thing or two about Jira in the process.

Hope you all have a nice day.

[Evelien Schut]

Wow!! I managed to get it up and running as well, thank you very much for the extensive guidance!!!

[Stephanie Li]

Hi @Zeev Suraski

Thanks so much for your sharing. I have completed the steps in your detailed guidance. It looks good. But I still have two questions left here. Could you please help advise?

1. Publish the workflow, and test it.  If everything is configured properly (and assuming I haven't forgotten any steps - it's been quite a journey), then whatever you put in the Bug Description field, would override anything that's in the built-in Description field (upon submission).  I.e., right after submission - if you open the issue - you should see whatever you put in the Bug Description field, appearing in the Description field (the Bug Description field shouldn't be visible when viewing an existing issue). 

-- After this step, the Bug Description is still showing in my side. Could you please advise did I miss any step?

2. For the last step, when I remove the original build-in description from Bug creation screen, the post action "copy value from Bug Description to Description" seems not work any more. In the creation result, it only show the Bug Description but cannot show the original built-in Description.

Could you please advise?

Thanks so much.

Best Regards

Stephanie

[Stephanie Li]

Hi @Zeev Suraski ,

Thanks so much for your sharing. I have completed the configuration following your detailed guidance. Basically it works. But I still have two problems. Could you please help check and advice?

1. Publish the workflow, and test it.  If everything is configured properly (and assuming I haven't forgotten any steps - it's been quite a journey), then whatever you put in the Bug Description field, would override anything that's in the built-in Description field (upon submission).  I.e., right after submission - if you open the issue - you should see whatever you put in the Bug Description field, appearing in the Description field (the Bug Description field shouldn't be visible when viewing an existing issue).

-- After this step, both the Bug Description and build-in Description are shown in the page. How could I make the Bug Description invisible in viewing the issue created?

2. After the last step to remove the build-in Description field from creation screen, the post action "copy the value from Description to Bug Description" seems not work any more. Finally in the issue created, only show the Bug Description, but cannot show the build-in Description. Not sure where I got wrong?

Could you please help advice?

Thanks and Best Regards

Stephanie

[Anna Tairova]

Hi @Zeev Suraski , can you please help me.

Once I add Bug Description to Bug Creation Screen, Bug Description field automatically appears on all previously created bugs. I've created a screen scheme to associate create operation with Bug creation screen. But it seems like view operation also follows same Bug creation screen.

I want not to change any old bugs (created in the past), and new change with Bug Description field to occur only for newly created items - for all operations: create, view, edit.

Is there a way to do it? Or I misconfigured something?

[Sylvain Leduc]

Hi @Zeev Suraski , thanks :)

[Michael Khait]

oh man... this should not be this hard! I hope this will get resolved in the product one day.

[Viet H_ Nguyen]

Hi @Zeev Suraski
Thank you so much for the detailed guide! I applied and it is very successful!

One small comment/suggestion I want to add for this final step:
If everything is working - you can now go back to the Bug Creation Screen, edit it, find the built-in Description field, and select Remove, as it's no longer relevant during creation of new bugs.

-- If you remove it from Bug Creation Screen, the issue after being created won't show the description but instead will only show the Bug Description. I suggest not to do this but instead, go into the issue, click "Configuration" on the right-hand side under the "Details" box, and drag the Bug Description to "Hidden Fields". This will apply to all of the issues and will make all of the issues only show the built-in description field with all the copied content from Bug Description. 

Hope this helps to add into an already valuable guide!

Best,

Viet

[Viet H_ Nguyen]

Hi @Stephanie Li 

I think you have the same trouble which I faced. Probably the additional suggestion above will help you!

Best,

Viet

[Eric Jaskolka]

@Viet H_ Nguyen  I followed the process and your recommendation to hide the Bug Description field.  But there are only two choices, Hide if Empty or permanently hide.

1. Hide if Empty will not work because the original template has the markup.

2. Permanently hide then removes it from the Create Modal as well.

Am I missing something?

[Eric Jaskolka]

@Viet H_ Nguyen After sending my last comment, I figured it out. (I am only performing my testing with the Bug type at this time)

1. Add Automation rule to clear out the Bug Description field 

2. Configure the field Bug Description to Hide when Empty.

Whether you create the new Bug through the Create Modal, in the Backlog or through the Epic - create new issue; all perform the same functionally.

[Tim Harsch]

This path did not work for me.   I ran into this issue at the add Post Function step: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Work-Management-Questions/Custom-fields-not-available-in-quot-Copy-Value-From-Other-Field/qaq-p/1777892

Apparently you have to have one of the paid plugins jsu or jmse.  Since the bug was filed just last August (2021)  I'm guessing this is a new barrier to accomplishing the task @Zeev Suraski suggests.

[Parva C_ - Narva Software]

Hi everyone,

If you want easier way to add summary and description templates instead of this workaround, we released a new app: 

Issue Template for Jira

Please try it out and let us know if you face any issues.

[Tenzing Doleck]

Hi I was able to configure this - but with an outstanding issue. 

The post function works in that it is copying the customdescription field to the description field . However it only does so once ticket is done being created . Not at the moment when you hit create ..

So now when I hit create-- the description field is still bank 

This is my set up : 

[Dennis Christilaw]

THANK YOU!!! Thankfully, I had most of the work done already (separate workflows, screens and all that), so I just had to plug in the Workflow part and get my fields created.

I can say that this should NOT be this hard, but the fact that there is a viable workaround like this makes it work for me. I have one other project that this is going to go into and aI have to build everything for that one, so that will take a while.

Thanks again!

[Julian Kühnel]

This worked, expect for the workflow change. The reason is that it seems that you can only select standard fields. The custom description field isn't showing up (anymore).

[Dennis Christilaw]

This is really odd. I would check your Field Configuration. Make sure it is associated with the Screen you are working on. I did this BOTH times I have implemented this and have not had any issues with selecting a custom field.

Another thing, don't select from the dropdown, start typing the field name and see if it shows up that way.

Otherwise, not sure why Custom Fields are not showing up in the dropdown. Mine shows ALL my fields. Custom and Standard.

[Julian Kühnel]

> Another thing, don't select from the dropdown, start typing the field name and see if it shows up that way.

Worth a million thanks! Indeed, they were not showing up initially but after typing in it also shows custom fields. Thanks a lot!

[Anthony Fabbricatore]

Massively helpful, thank you @Zeev Suraski ! I have been crossing off so many different non-starter workarounds and this is the first one that actually works.

Hopefully Atlassian's product folks take note of how common a request it is to pre-fill a description for reporters, rather than relying on the messy and difficult-to-read forms UX.

[Sana Sharma]

Hi,
What to do in the scenario where I am trying to move this bug from my bug project where I have created this custom template view to a another project (say ABC)  where I want to track this bug as part of a sprint. 
The custom description field in bug project can not be mapped to the description field in ABC project. 

There is no way around this right? In this case all the detail in the description section will be lost, right?

[Thibault Lamadieu]

@Sana Sharma you might be able to have an automation copy the contents of the custom description field to the new description field.

Doc about copying field values: https://support.atlassian.com/automation/kb/automation-for-jira-different-ways-to-copy-the-value-of-a-field-into-another/

[Michael Haywood]

Maybe not a perfect solution, but we ended up using the "free" Automation tools built into JIRA. So when someone creates an issue, it adds our template details to the issue description and puts the original description into a section of the template. It also applies the labels we need. 

Not perfect in that it requires first creating the issue, then you get the template, but works for us!

[Joshua Urban]

Hey Michael- do you have any more info on this? Curious about this implementation.

[Michael Haywood]

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/features/automation Start here.

Basically, we setup an automation to trigger on Story/Bug creation. Then told it to add the labels we wanted, assign it to a person, add additional text to the description, etc...

The only downside is if you're using the 'Create' modal, you won't see all this until after the story is created. It's most helpful to our users who insert stories using the add feature at the bottom of the backlog. Once you enter the story and hit save, clicking it to open it will show all the automation stuff.

[Aline Chapman]

@Michael Haywood I am using the same solution you describe, however how were you able to "add additional text to the description"? This is the missing part for me.

I appreciate if you can share this information.

[Michael Haywood]

Here is an example of how we did it. {{issue.description}} is what the person typed in when first creating the issue.

[Aline Chapman]

That's exactly what I have in place. Thanks for sharing!

It does add the template upon creation, but if when creating the issue the users adds text in the description field, then the automation does not remove the user entered text (which is good).
I was trying to see if the automation could add the template in addition to leaving what the user entered in the description field. Do you know if that is possible? Thanks again!

[Michael Haywood]

I would think the  {{issue.description}} is what would handle that. Wherever we have that inserted into our templates is where the original user-entered description shows up after the automation runs.

[Aline Chapman]

I was missing this part: {{issue.description}}

Now that I added it it works as intended. Thanks again for your assistance!

[Deleted user]

@Michael Haywood Oh my, this is almost perfectly what I currently need!!

Thank you so much for sharing.

[Sloan]

Hi Ronnie

Out of the box this is not possible in Jira.

There are multiple ways to implement this functionality with apps. @Kumar already explained one way.

You could also use one of these apps:

• Description Templates for Jira (Cloud and Server)
• Issue Templates for Jira (Cloud and Server)
• Default Values for 'Create Issue' screen (only server)

These are the ones I know. If you search in the Atlassian Marketplace you maybe find a few more.

Cheers
Niklas

[Parva C_ - Narva Software]

Hi everyone,

We just released an app: Issue Template for Jira

It allows defining template for summary and description fields will will be automatically pre-filled for all users when they open the create issue window.

There exists solution for team managed projects like other users have posted, however our app also makes it possible for company managed projects.

This app is currently in beta. You can install it free from Atlassian Marketplace.

Please try it out and give us feedback.

Regards,

Parva

See the demo template in issue create window screenshot below👇

[Catherine Ojok]

I've just set this up and it looks like it will save all the headache of the long workaround of the top answer here. Thank you for doing this!

[Dennis Christilaw]

This is a great solution, as long as it's free. If they add a cost to it using the Atlassian licensing model (per user), then it's going to outlive it's usefulness to cost benefits in comparison to just doing the leg work on the free fix.

Just my thoughts.

[Ta Minh Thuy]

Hi guys,

No need to use add-on in this case. All you need is creating a custom field name with the same name, Description and in the Field configuration, you render the field to make it wiki :)

It will looks exactly the system field Description :) From this newly created custom field, you can add template as you wish.

I did it!

[Fábio Magalhães Costa]

Worked for me! Thanks!

[Barış Özer]

Hi @Ta Minh Thuy 

Can we do it for free on Jira Cloud?

When there is a "create" issue in the project, I want the desired texts to appear in the "description" field.

Can you please explain? Can you also post a screenshot?

Thank you very much! (:

[Birger Püschl]

Found this free app which might help

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211873/default-values-for-create-issue-screen-issue-templates?tab=overview&hosting=cloud

[Scot Angus]

Just look at all the time hundreds of people have spent trying to do what should be really simple for Atlassian to implement. Companies agree to buy the software even though it doesn't do the most fundamental things teams need it to do. This is because "teams" don't buy the software... the executives do, and this template thing... well that's not important to them.

[dagny wicklund]

Hi! 
First off, thank you for detailed description! 
I got all the way to add a Post Function that will copy the value of the Bug Description field into the Description field. But I am not able to do that. I don't have any post function called Copy value from field to field. I tried googling this, and from what I can see this is only available in Jira cloud. Is that really so? And if so, does anyone have any suggestions for how to create a template for issue description on prem?

Thanks

[Pavel Pavlovsky_AppLiger_]

Hi @Ronnie Hilmersson ,

You can also try Easy Templates for Jira Issues add-on . Your team will be able to create Jira tickets (even with subtasks) from saved templates like Stories, Bug reports and other processes.

Cheers,

Pavel

[Kumar]

Hi @Ronnie Hilmersson   by using the Behaviour Plugin you can a default description 

Admin Settings > Add-ons > Behaviours > Give a name and Add > Right Side choose Fields >

Select Description  and add below Script with Template >  Save it > come out from that

Window > Choose add Mapping in that Select Project and Issue type and save it.

def desc = getFieldById("description") 

def defaultValue = """ // ...Start Adding the Default Template       

End Here..""".replaceAll(/    /, '')

 if (!underlyingIssue?.description) {    

desc.setFormValue(defaultValue)

}

When you try to create that project Issue it will show you default given template in Description Field .

I hope it Helps.

Thanks,

Kumar

[Vineela Durbha]

Hi Kumar,

I tried the above as suggested by you but it didnt set any default text on description field. Any idea where is it going wrong?

[Rafi Barry]

Hi, I know it's been a while since this last answer..
I've tried this solution as well, so the "description" field is using the inserted template. But now, each time text is added in newly opened bugs, while using this template, after selecting a different field to fill, the "Description" field returns to it's default state, and erase the user's inserted text...
Any ideas how to overcome this problem/ or there is a solution for that?
Thanks,
Rafi.

[Johan van de Ven]

We have solved this by simply installing the addon "Default values for 'Create issue' screen - Issue Templates" . 

Using this app you can create default issue descriptions and select for which projects and issue types to apply them. 

[nikolaos.voulgaridis]

Hello together,
I don't know if I'm in the right place.
It's about Jira tickets. Some tickets are displayed in tables in the description (HTML). Sometimes the texts are not displayed correctly. Can someone help me here?

[Roman Tsoi]

@Parva C_ - Narva Software I don't have your widget working. Can you help me? Can you write your email, I'll get back to you. The sooner the better)

[Parva C_ - Narva Software]

Hi Roman,

For any issues related to our app Issue Template for Jira, you can send us an email at support@bitwelt.atlassian.net

Regards,

Parva

[Adnan Ali]

This is the first step in the process. Now is the time for the workflow to be published and tested.  My journey has been quite a journey - I still haven't forgotten a step - and I haven't forgotten a step yet. It is important to note that, once all of the settings have been configured, whatever you put in the Bug Description field overrides anything that is already in the built-in Description field (upon submission).  I would like to stress that if you open an issue after submitting it, whatever you put in the Bug Description field should appear in the Description field (the Bug Description field should not be visible when viewing the existing issue). 

As far as I can tell, after this step, the Bug Description is still intact on my side of things. Would you mind letting me know if there is anything that I have missed in the process?

 The second is the most important. When I remove the original description from the Bug creation screen, it appears that the post action to "copy value from Bug Description to Description" no longer works. In the creation result, a Bug Description is displayed, but it is not displayed along with the original built-in description that was inserted by the developer.

[Rachel Irving]

A side effect of implementing this seems to be when cloning an issue the default template overwrites the cloned issue's description.  Has anybody worked around this issue?

[Deleted user]

It might be a silly question but does this apply to Jira Cloud as well?

[Michael Haywood]

I can confirm my solution above works on Cloud. I haven't tested any of the others. Two years later and we are still using this method and works well for our team.

[Tenzing Doleck]

Hi I was able to configure this - but with an outstanding issue. 

The post function works in that it is copying the customdescirption field to the description field . However it only does so once ticket is done being created . Not at the moment when you hit create ..

So now when I hit create-- the description field is still bank 

This is my set up : 

[Paul Rowlands]

A simple approach is to create a dummy ticket and clone from that...

[Ronnie Hilmersson]

Hi!

Thanks everyone! It was exactly what I was looking for! 

Best regards/Ronnie

[Michael Haywood]

Which solution did you end up using?