Delete unwanted users in JIRA On-Demand

[alex-touchnote]

Hello,

I have to state from the start that I know how to de-activate users, remove the access to applications and so on, so it's not a question of freeing places on our current license ;)

I want to delete users regardless of whatever data they created. We employ outsourced developers and thus add new users reasoably often. I can obviously use filters to see desired users but the truth is that once the given contact is finished, this particular user can be not working with us anymore. So all this results in just adding and adding and adding. Using "standard" user name is an option but it is ugly, it makes it all soulless...

Is there any solution to such scenarios?

Regards,

Alex

[alex-touchnote · Accepted solution]

so to summarise:

1. It's in the permission scheme(s). You'll need to check every active permission scheme.

Personally, if I were you, I'd just add "can delete anyone's comments" for Jira administrators only (there's no audit logs on deleted comments), that way none of your other users will click the wrong thing :-)

2. Go to person's profile, check all comments and remove them OR add custom participants field, filter issues by it and remove comments accordingly.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No, you can't. The tool is built in a way to prevent you destroying information, and that includes user activity (that's actually the single most important audit point in many fields that Jira gets used in).

The solution is to accept you can't destroy user information without major surgery. (And a visit from the regulators or the police if you're working in financial or defence fields)

[alex-touchnote]

That's a real pity. I even transferred all *important* information (ie reassigned tickets, removed persons from watchers etc) but I can't find a way to remove people's comments - and that stops the deletion.

And we aren't working in any sensitive areas ;) so user's removal is absolutely safe abd sound. Why can't admin remove comments?

Btw, is it possible to search issues by specifying who made a comment?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ooh, well, you can delete comments - just a matter of setting permissions to allow "delete anyone's comments"

However, no, I can't think of a quick easy way to identify them.

Edit - yes, click "comment" and then have an idea! Use the Jira Toolkit, it has a "participants" field - add one of those fields if you haven't already, re-index and then you can run a search for "participant = person I want to remove"

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's in the permission scheme(s). You'll need to check every active permission scheme.

Personally, if I were you, I'd just add "can delete anyone's comments" for Jira administrators only (there's no audit logs on deleted comments), that way none of your other users will click the wrong thing :-)

[alex-touchnote]

I'd be very grateful if you explain me where to find "delete anyone's comments" setting!

[alex-touchnote]

Great, thanks, permission schemes do the trick.

Now - what exactly did you mean by "Edit - yes, click "comment" and then have an idea! Use the Jira Toolkit, it has a "participants" field - add one of those fields if you haven't already, re-index and then you can run a search for "participant = person I want to remove" ? I'm not sure I follow you in regards to Jira Toolkit. It's enabled but what should I do in comments?

Edit: I finally managed to get to some acceptable solution for identifying tickets with comments. It's visible in Profile's activity stream, so it's not ideal but works for me!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I meant that as I clicked "comment", I had an idea on how to find the comments - the "participants" field lists all users who commented on an issue, so if you search it for the user you want ot remove, you'll get a list of issues where they commented, so you can delete them.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ah, no. Close, but not quite.

Watcher is a system field (it's always there, unless you turn it off). It lets users simply add themselves to the issue so that they get updates about it, but they don't need to comment or update the issue in any way, it's purely "I have an interest". I use it a lot on Atlassian's Jira to keep an eye on issues that matter to me.

Participants is a simple "derived" field for helping with searches. It basically contains the reporter, the assignee and anyone who has commented on the issue. It's more like saying "tell me who has done things with this issue" (assuming they comment on every interesting change, of course)

You need to add a participants field in order to get the data out for it - custom fields, add, choose "participants", call it anything you like, and make it global so it covers all issues. I wouldn't bother putting it on any screens, it's most useful for searching! (I quite like filters like "Open and I am in the participant field" for keeping an eye on stuff)

[alex-touchnote]

hmm, I dont see "participants" but I see "watcher" - perhaps that's the same thing

[alex-touchnote]

aha! let me try...

Edit - Fantastic! That answers all my questions, thanks!