User Properties - How Do You Use Them?

[Chris_Annal]

I've read the instructions for adding the User Property Keys and Values, but I haven't seen any examples regarding the usefulness of this. I started by creating a Property Key for "Activated" and Value dd/mm/yyyy (date) for that key. The intent was to provide a means of perhaps tracking when users were added. Maybe create another for "Deactivated" when we have users who have moved on....but I'm wondering how OTHER companies use this feature in Jira?

Are there key/values that you use and have found useful? Is this feature only useful if you buy a plugin to extend it into workflows, etc? I'm interested in applying this to our users, but I don't have a firm grasp on its usefulness.

Any feedback is welcome!

Thanks

[Aleksandr Zuevich]

According to @Jobin Kuruvilla _Adaptavist_ Jira Development Cookbook:

JIRA lets you add key/value pairs as properties on any available entity like user,
group, project, issue, and so on. It uses OpenSymphony's PropertySet to do this.
Three major cases where PropertySet is used internally in JIRA are as follows:
- To store user preferences such as e-mail, full name, and so on
- To store application properties
- To store chosen preferences of Portlets/Gadgets on user dashboards
We can also use the PropertySet in our plugins to store custom data as key/value
pairs.
In earlier versions of JIRA, PropertySet was the only technology used to store
plugin information and other data related to plugins. But JIRA now supports a
technology called ActiveObjects

I'd add that plugin settings also allow to store data.

So I found it useful for the plugin development, e.g. I use issue properties to store issue approvement. 

Also you can use jira.issue.editable issue property to make issue editable/non-editable.

[Susan Hauth [Jira Queen]]

Hi Chris,

We use our user properties internally to store the Office and Manager of the employee.  We then use a post workflow function to copy the Office value to the field Office whenever they create an issue.  We also will use the value of Manager for approvals in various workflows in the same manner

For our external clients we use the property "Client" to populate the Client field as a post workflow function.  That in turn uses a listener to pull in the value of the Tempo account based on the Client field. 

Hope that helps

Susan

[John Funk]

Hey Susan,

Can you include some actual code examples of those things? Both the property code and the Post Function code. 

[Susan Hauth [Jira Queen]]

Hi John,

I find that Jira Workflow Toolbox the best for this.  Although I think scriptrunner will do it as well.

Here's the postfunction:

[Susan Hauth [Jira Queen]]

And here's what my properties look like: