How can I make a custom field required on creation of an issue?

Esther Strom, ACP-JA August 25, 2013

We're on 5.1, so I'm using the validators in transitions to make fields required as a ticket moves from step to step. However, Create isn't really a transition. How can I make a field required at the time of the initial save?

3 answers

1 accepted

13 votes
Answer accepted
Joe Pitt
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
August 25, 2013

Just make it required in the field configuration for the issue type/project

Esther Strom, ACP-JA August 25, 2013

How? As I said, we're on 5.1. Custom fields use the Jira Suite Utilities plugin to set up requirements on transitions. There is no "required" option on the actual fields in 5.1.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
August 26, 2013

No, you don't need the JSU to do this. Jira has, as Joe says, mandatory field options built into it.

Go into the field configuration scheme for the project, find the one you are using for the current issue type and you'll find there's a list of all the fields. There ARE mandatory/optional flags against almost all of the fields (certainly all the custom fields)

Like Siddharth Saire likes this
Esther Strom, ACP-JA August 26, 2013

I apparently can't respond to a comment, only an answer. But thanks, Nic, for the specific directions. I'm new to Jira, and pretty sure our documentation said the only way to handle required fields in our version was with the plugin. I wouldn't have known where to look.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
August 26, 2013

There's a lot to be found, I don't think any new admin is able to find it all straight away! (I certainly couldn't when I started with it, and Jira was a lot more simple in version 2)

It's quite likely your documentation is trying to cover the scenario where you don't want a field to be mandatory ALL the time. Jira doesn't really do this - the field configuraiton makes a field mandatory from "create" onwards, so it can never be empty. The use case here is for things like "we don't know what the root cause of an issue is until we've investigated properly, but we don't want to close issues without a root cause". That's when "make field mandatory" validators kick in!

Morgan Thunder February 23, 2016

Sorry if I'm missing something, but will this not make the field mandatory for all screens using that field configuration? That is, not just the create screen? What is the simplest way to make the field mandatory only for the create screen? Also, is it possible to associate a field configuration with a screen? Not and issue type or project. If I have only one issue type within 1 project but want a custom field to only be mandatory for 1 screen what are my options?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
February 23, 2016

Please, do not conflate field configurations and screens.  They are totally independent artefacts (so, no, you can't associate a field configuration with a screen).  It's better to not even talk about them together, as people get confused.

If you want something mandatory on create, but able to be blanked out later, you need to set it optional in the field configuration, and use a validator on transitions where you need it filled in.

Like # people like this
5 votes
RambanamP
Rising Star
Rising Star
Rising Stars are recognized for providing high-quality answers to other users. Rising Stars receive a certificate of achievement and are on the path to becoming Community Leaders.
August 25, 2013

you have to configure field require validator on create step.

got to workflow, click on new/Open step there you can see Create transition, click on it and configure validator there

Esther Strom, ACP-JA August 25, 2013

But I don't WANT to create a new step. Create Issue is a default Jira action. I don't want to mess with that, just want a way to make one of the fields required before being able to save a new issue.

0 votes
LukasG December 5, 2016

If someone in 2016 wants this feature there is the new plugin Workflow Essentials for JIRA. Its not free but will solve this problem very well. smile

In general: Edit the Workflow and in the Workflow Diagram click on the "Create" Transition and add the Mandatory Field Validator.

Ana Jimenez July 3, 2018

That should totally be included in Jira.

Like # people like this
Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
July 4, 2018

Atlassian for the most part, try not to duplicate the work their partners and vendors do.

Jade Whitla May 25, 2020

This is absurd. Requiring a field to have a value is not only a core expectation it is documented to exist as a feature - but it doesn't work as advertised.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
May 26, 2020

It works exactly as documented.  What do you think is different?

Jade Whitla May 26, 2020

From the View Field Configurations view ...

Screen Shot 2020-05-27 at 13.09.49.png

Field Configurations do not allow you, of themselves, to "make a field require a value every time it is edited" as documented. To achieve the stated goal the user must create a validation constraint on a transition and, if they don't want the validation constraint to apply to all issue types, create a new workflow for the issue type for which the field is mandatory. This is a whole lot of unnecessary hoop jumping and the very existence of this thread proves that it is not obvious to the user. The suggestion to use a paid third party extension to achieve such a simple and fundamental objective, while well intentioned, was absurd.

Suggest an answer

Log in or Sign up to answer