Pre-populate but don't overwrite date field on transition

[Trudy Claspill]

We are using JIRA Server 7.6.4 and we have Adaptavist ScriptRunner v5.3.9.

I am a developer, but I'm new to script writing in JIRA, and with Groovy.

(Side note - if you have recommendations for tutorials on this topic, I would welcome the pointers.)

I have a custom Date Picker field - Started. When an issue transitions to In Progress I want to

- check if the field already has a value

- if it doesn't, then populate it with today's date

- if it does already have a value, don't change the value

- regardless, still allow the user to edit it before completing the transition.

I think a Behavior is the right way to implement this. I've found multiple examples for prepopulating fields, but haven't been able to get them to work quite right. My stumbling block seems to be figuring out if the field already has a value.

Here is the code I have tried.

if (getActionName() != "In Progress") {
return // not the In Progress transition, so don't set default value}

def cField = getFieldByName("Started")
def cValue = cField.getValue()


if ( cValue ) {
return // Actual Start date set previously. Don't reset}

def newValue = new Date().format("d/MMM/yy")
cField.setFormValue(newValue)

 With this code, the field is always set to the current date, even if it has a value.

Thanks in advance.

[Alexey Matveev · Accepted solution]

Kindly run the following script and have a look in the logs what is the value of the Started field when the field is empty:

if (getActionName() != "In Progress") {
return // not the In Progress transition, so don't set default value}

def cField = getFieldByName("Started")
def cValue = cField.getValue()

log.error("cValue: " + cValue)
if ( cValue ) {
return // Actual Start date set previously. Don't reset}

def newValue = new Date().format("d/MMM/yy")
cField.setFormValue(newValue)

[Trudy Claspill]

Thank you for the suggestion, Alexey.

Where will the log.error message be written?

Note I am working with an inline script in JIRA, not with an IDE.

[Alexey Matveev]

Errors will be in the atlassian-jira.log. You can find more info here:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jira063/where-are-the-application-server-logs-683542381.html

[Trudy Claspill]

In the log this message is getting written:

cValue: null

The same message is written when the field is empty and when it is already populated with data.

[Alexey Matveev]

I guess, you script works on the initialization of your behaviour. Add the Date Picker field - Started to the behaviour and add this script to the field.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello Alexey,

Based on your comment I finally realized my misunderstanding about the Behavior functionality, and the difference between having a Field Validator script vs. an Initialiser function script.

I moved the script to be a field validator script and it worked as intended.

Thank you for your help!