During transition in workflows, do we have ability to append text instead of replace

[Pan Wong]

Currently we have custom fields that are text fields

Everytime we go from one transition to another and update the text from the edit screens, the text gets replaced. Is there anyway to just append the text to what is currently there already?

Thanks

[Amy Biasella]

Hi Pan,

We do what you need in one of our business workflows using the JIRA Workflow Toolbox plugin with a post-function called "copy parsed text to a field". This unfortunately doesn't look like it's available to OnDemand users.

In case you (in the future) or other users find it helpful, I will describe the steps:

1. Create a new screen and associate it to the relevant transition
2. Create a second custom field ("CF2") to capture the data to append to your original custom field ("CF1"). Add CF2 to the screen you just associated to the workflow in the previous step.
3. In the same workflow transition, add "Copy parsed text to a field" as a post-function.
   • Target Field is CF1
   • Text to be parsed and then copied to target field should have the field code of both CF1 and CF2. (CF1 first to append, CF2 first to prepend)
4. In the same workflow transition, add "Clear field Value" as a post-function.
   • Field is CF2
5. Publish!

It would be nice if The Jira Suite Utilities plugin could allow appending with the "Update Issue Cusom Field" postfunction, since that plugin is available ondemand. There is an improvement issue at their bug tracker, if you'd care to vote for it.

[Pan Wong]

We would like to use comments however because we using it in part with code deployments we want to have easier visiblity as oppose to searching through all the comments if people were to put comments and code deployments in the same area

[Natalie Hobson]

Ah, I see what you mean. Any reason why you aren't just using "Comment" then?

[Pan Wong]

Hi,

Thanks for the responses.

Natalie

We do see the text that we can edit but we were hoping that we can avoid this. The reason being we do not want people deleting the text (accidently or on purpose) by the assignee or by other people.

[Justin Alex Paramanandan]

Add the custom field in question to a screen, and then associate this screen with the workflow transition that you prefer (in this case, the workflow transition that allows you to edit the field).

This will, in effect, showcase the screen with the field that you would like to edit whenever you perform the transition; since this transition is set to show this screen.

[Pan Wong]

We are already using a new screen with the transition.

We want to be able to avoid seeing the previous text cause that will allow for any deletion by other people who are going through the workflow.

[Natalie Hobson]

That's odd - if you have the field on the transition screen (or on an edit screen), it should display whatever the current text is and the user should be able to add new information to it without overwriting what's already there. Are you sure this isn't a case of user error? Or do you mean that you are updating the field via a post function off of your transitions?

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]]

You will need to have a post function that appends the text. It is not possible in JIRA onDemand though as new customizations/plugins are not allowed on onDemand.

[Pan Wong]

do you know what plugin or customization we can do if we were on a hosted platform?

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]]

You will have to do some coding/scripting for sure. I haven't seen an append post function.

[Pan Wong]

hm unfortunately not an option

thanks for the reply!