How to make the Resolution field mandatory in the Resolve issue screen

[Kapil Podduturi]

Hello Community,

I need your help in resolving a situation I am in. 

Requirement: Make the resolution field mandatory when closing a Story.

Steps taken:

• Edited the workflow. Added Resolve issue screen to the Closed Transition.

• Resolve issue screen has 'Resolution' field.

• Tried by making the Resolution mandatory on the Closed transition by using validators.

All these are not making the Resolution field mandatory.

Also, cannot find how to make the field mandatory from the field configuration used by the project. Required - button is missing

Resolve issue Screen when trying to close the Story.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Um, actually, you don't need to do any of this.

If you put the resolution field on a transition screen, it will be filled.  The person closing the issue cannot leave it blank.

[Kapil Podduturi]

Hi, @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- I added the Resolve Issue screen as the transition screen and the Resolution field is part of it. I wanted to make it mandatory and hopefully make None as the default. Currently Done is the default value for the Resolution field. Screenshot is attached above in the question.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, there's an important point here that I think I need to explain totally differently:

You say "I wanted to make it mandatory and hopefully make None as the default" 

Resolution does not have a "none" value.  You can't make it a default because "none" is not an option for it.

"None" is what Jira displays for most select lists when they have no data and you don't want to fill anything in.  Resolution is different - it can be empty, but "none-meaning-empty" is not offered to people, a value is selected in updates.

If the resolution is on a screen where it can be entered, then it will have the current value selected, or if it is empty, it will have the default selected.

Either way, the person updating the issue will set the resolution to something.

You do not need to make it mandatory, it will always be filled by the update.

[Kapil Podduturi]

Hi @Nic Brough -Adaptavist-, thanks for your reply. I agree with what you said and 100% agree.

Please see the attachment below (this is from the JIRA server). I wanted something like this and if it is possible to do on cloud version.

Use 'Please Select' as default and make the field mandatory - Asterisk in Red.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I do not know how to explain this another way.

There is no option for "none", "please select" or any other phrase that means "resolution does not have a value".

You do not need one.  You do not need to make anything mandatory.  You do not need to do anything other than put the field on the transition screen (and never put it on a screen used for create or edit)

[Kapil Podduturi]

ok, thanks @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- .

[Jyothi Ravipati]

Hi Kapil,

Did you find any solution for it? As I was looking for the same.

Thanks in Advance

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The "solution" is to use the field as intended, as described in my answers and comments.

[Edward Vitalos]

This answer makes no sense. There are many cases where its helpful to provide additional details for a resolution so you can search by a resolution value. You can set other fields with a default value and make them require a change from the default value during a transition to Done Status. Why not this one? 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The answer explains how the resolution field works, I'm not sure what does not make sense to you.

Resolution works differently to other fields because it is intended for a different purpose than most - it tells Jira when an issue is resolved, with a brief generalised phrase about why.  The "can't leave it blank during an edit/create/transition" is deliberate - it makes it easier for a developer to resolve an issue when it needs to be resolved. 

If you want to provide additional details, fine, add another field and put a validator on it to make it mandatory during a "close" type transition.

I don't think the way resolution works is a good way to do open-and-closed in Jira, it does confuse a lot of new admins, but I do see that it gives us a lot of flexibility, and I'm not sure how I would redesign it.

[David Guthrie]

Here is my issue with how the Resolution field works. Since it is pre-filled and not madatory to change, when closing a Jira it easily gets mislabeled as say "Fixed" (default) when it should be "Can't Reproduce".

In human nature, if something is pre-filled and you are not required to take action on it, it is easily overlooked. That is why it would be better to have the Resolution field as suggested above with "Please select...". That way each time a Jira is closed, the user must take active action to choose the right resolution rather than Jira automatically selecting a default resolution that may not apply. This causes a ton of mis-categorized resolutions. 

Anyone have workarounds to this issue?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There are no "workarounds", it's not considered to be an issue, because it is working as intended.

[Edward Vitalos]

This work around worked for me.

1. Remove the Resolution field from all views but the Closed screen.
2. Remove the default value for the Resolution field.
3. Set a Validator up so that the Resolution field must be changed when transitioning to Closed.

Now all techs need to select a Resolution from the Resolution drop down list to close the ticket.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Again, you really do not need to do this.

The resolution field is always defaulted when on-screen, and you do not need a validator to enforce change.

[Kolja Sulimma]

I can't confirm this. 

When I open the resolve issue screen for an issue that has resolution set to "keine Lösung" (no resolution, but in German), the drop down list does not show that the current field value is "keine Lösung" and it also does not offer "keine Lösung" as a possible value for the field.

Instead it chose all other possible field values as options with a heading "bitte auswählen..." (please choose). 

This suggest that a choice between the shown options must be made. 
Maybe it is the intended behaviour to keep "keine Lösung" as the field value if no choice is made, but in this case the user interface design is broken: It suggest a choice must be made, it does not indicate the current value and it does not show what the result of your action will be.

[Kalin U]

1. Simply adding the field Resolution to a transition screen makes it required, ss Nic has already explained.

2. There's a second step: clearing the Resolution's default value to make it appear as Please select. Here a fellow community member explains it shortly.

And I would suggest removing the Resolution field from other (non-final transition) screens, so that it is entered in the final transition(s) only, once.

[Danielle Cambridge]

OK, after having the exact same issue and reading through all the answers, I think the key piece of missing info here might be a visual aid.

As Nic has been stating, you do NOT need to do anything special because just by the fact that you have to make a selection for the Resolution makes it required. I wasn't grasping that until I tried to actually hit the Complete button BEFORE changing the Resolution status. I was too busy wanting the red asterisk showing it was required.

When the screen first comes up there is NO red text.
If you don't touch anything and just try and select the blue Completed button in the lower right, it then gives you the red error text.

This has effectively rendered selecting a choice from the drop-down as required, as it will not let me continue until I do so:



Hope this helps others!

[Somesh Sahoo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3vhZJkJ52A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3vhZJkJ52A

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You don't need to do any of that, please read the answer above.

[k-p]

in resolve issue screen i added a validator! but it doesnt worked in request portal when i am clicking on resolve this issue. so does workflow validator words on portals? if yes, then how?