Is there an alternative to burningcode's now defunct Jira Watchers Custom Field plugin?

[Ken Wood]

I searched, if answer is there I missed it. I followed the tag for the plugin, it the answer is there I missed it.

Is there an alternative to burningcode's now defunct Jira Watcher Custom Field plugin?

[John Stoffel]

I'm in the same boat, and wondering the same thing.  It's been working with version 8.5.x for a while, but I need to upgrade to 8.13.10 now.  

Ken, are you running Jira v8.13.x and is the plugin still working for you there?

[John Stoffel]

We bit the bullet and upgraded anyway, and it's working. At least as far as I can tell. 

[David Mahoney]

When we upgraded to 8.13 in 2021Q1, it was still on the supported list.  I would have noticed otherwise.  I just discovered it was dropped 10 minutes ago when I was trying to find a link to docs for a user!

[John Stoffel]

Blech.  I just upgraded to 8.13.13 this morning... didn't notice anything.  I suspect it will have to be disabled for the next big upgrade process.  

[Darren Monahan]

It definitely breaks in 8.21.1.

[Pam Weber]

Thanks for providing that info on 8.21.1, Darren.  We'll be going to 8.20.5 (LTS) shortly and will watch to see if this breaks in that release as well.

[John Stoffel]

How bad is the breakage?  I guess we will be moving to something newer when we get a chance, but honestly, this is a slowly dying instance so it might just move to the cloud at some point.  Maybe.  I just admin the system, not the Jira info itself.  

[John Stoffel]

So I haven't a clue how this plugin works, can someone explain to me how I would check if it's even being used or setup in Jira?  Assume I know nothing of Jira, but I do know Linux/Postgres/Apache, etc.  So even though I have it enabled, it's not clear if it's actually in use. 

Otherwise I guess I'll clone to a test instance, disable it and see what breaks, but I haven't a clue how to test it.  

Or what to replace it with if it does break and my users say they need it.  

Fun......

[Derek White]

@John StoffelIt adds a custom field. You should be able to go to Administration > Custom fields and find the field by type. If you find some, you can track back via their screens to project etc. and find where they are used.

[John Stoffel]

Thanks for the hints.  Looking at my setup, it looks like the darn thing isn't even used.  Heh.  And nothing has broken according to my users in the test instance I setup for them which was a clone of production.

I apprecaite all the help people have given me here. 

[K M]

The plugin broke after upgrading to 8.22.2 as well and now I am not really sure if there is any replacement for it?

[Michael Thompson]

We just upgraded our test environment from 8.20.1 (still works) to 8.22.2, and it is broken.

Effects:

• Cannot re-index Jira
• All dashboards fail
• All filters fail

Those were the ones I noticed, but it's more than enough to stop us from upgrading production. We rely heavily on watchers and the similarly failing Jira Component Watchers app, and now we are stuck.

I will not that if I disable the two apps I can still add/remove watchers from existing issues, but I cannot add them to new issues.

[K M]

I somehow managed to fix the plugins by decompiling them and fixing the broken constructor. The actual issue has been already reported - https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-73747

[Matt Van Kuyk]

Hi @K M ,

could you share the "fixed version you created" OR the steps to do it ourself?

thank you in advance.

Kind regards,

Matt

[K M]

@Matt Van Kuyksure, but which plugin? `jira-component-watcher` or `jira-watcher-field`?

[Matt Van Kuyk]

Jira-watcher-field

[K M]

Which version? And how can I contact you? (any email?)

[Matt Van Kuyk]

version 2.8.1. You can contact me on _.

[K M]

Oh.. I only fixed versions 2.8.3 and 2.8.5. Not sure how compatible they are with 2.8.1

[Matt Van Kuyk]

2.8.5 is perfect .

[K M]

I will try to send it to you later this week - if I don't (I will be at a conference) please remind me about it.

[Matt Van Kuyk]

Thank you for that, I see the app itself not available anymore on the Marketplace... 

[K M]

Yeah, unfortunately I couldn't find anything, neither bitbucket repository nor the addon on marketplace.

[Matt Van Kuyk]

But I will wait until you get back to me. Looking forward to it :-D

[K M]

hey @Matt Van Kuyk your email is not visible anymore in one of your replies :P

[Matt Van Kuyk]

Hi  @K M ,

it is [].  

Kind regards,

Matt

[K M]

Great!

[Feijian]

@KM or Matt could you please send me the copy of the plugin as well ?

[Matis Aas]

@Matt Van Kuyk 

Hi Matt, how can I contact you? Would you mind sharing the fixed version of Jira Watcher Field with me too?

[Arty Kov]

@Matt Van Kuyk @K M  Hi, would you mind sharing the fixed version of Jira Watcher Field v. 2.8.5 with me plaese? artemspecspec@gmail.com

[Pam Weber]

We moved to 8.20.6 (LTS) and it did not break there.  Looking at all the other comments, it appears to first break on 8:21.