How can I add history entry using REST API without modifying issue?

Question

I'm trying to explore adding custom history entry using REST Browser and I'm missing a few details:

* How can I just add a history entry without modifying issue? (I get the error saying "update" or "fields" is required)
* What is the "type"?
* What is the difference between "description" and "activityDescription"?
* Is it enough to put "id" of the "actor" or I need to generate/fetch all the other properties?
* How do I know what should be put in "generator", "cause", "extraData"?

To add more context I'm developing a plugin for JIRA cloud and I'd like to add history entries for changes that are not persisted in JIRA but are strictly related to JIRA issues.

For the sake of experiment I'm updating "description" and I get a 204 back from the server with "null" response body. The description changes, all the other information I'm putting in the "historyMetadata" do not show in the "Activity" widget on the Issue details screen.

Any hint will be greatly appreciated.

Władysław Bodzek · Answer

Hi, the simplest answer would be that I'm storing some information in issue properties and changing them currently does not add any entry in the issue history. That's what I would like to work around and also be able to specify custom message in the history along with this change.

unknown · Answer

Curious. What specific changes are you trying to put in the history?