Identifying Owner of Custom Field

[Mark Symons]

Is there any way to identify the "owner" of a custom field within JIRA? Specifically, how can I recognise which custom field belongs to a plugin (and know which plugin) and which custom field was created in-house by my predecessor as admin?

I tried searching for open issues relating to this but had no luck.

[MinC · Accepted solution]

There are two indirect ways but this might require a bit of analysis or troubleshooting skill.

First is through the System Info - Plugins. Each plugin has a list of modules and some are custom fields provided by the plugin. For example, Date of First Response field appears in one of the modules for JIRA Charting Plugin.

Second will be through logs. If there is an error thrown when using the custom field, it will indirectly show the name of the plugin. You can refer to the following examples and check how it is being traced:

• JIRA Starts with Error Could Not Load Custom Field Type Plugin with Key 'com.atlassian.jira.ext.charting'
• JIRA Fails to Start Due to 'Error Retrieving Dependency of class com.atlassian.jira.toolkit.customfield.MultiProjectSearcher'
• Could Not Load Custom Field Type Plugin with Key 'com.atlassian.jira.plugin.linker linker

[JamieA]

It's true that some custom field types are provided by plugins, which should be easy to identify. But some plugins will just create custom fields of standard types if not present, and there is no link back to the plugin. Eg gantt chart plugin.

[Betsy Walker]

Here's a list I compiled some time ago. It only represents plugins we use at my company, but hey, it's a start. :-)

• Cascading Select - Choose multiple values using two select lists.
• Date of First Response - Part of the JIRA Charting plugin - https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/wiki/display/JCHART/JIRA+Charting+Plugin, this is the date of the first comment on an issue by anyone who is not the issue's reporter
• Date Picker - A custom field that stores dates and uses a date picker to view them
• Date Time - A custom field that stores dates with a time component
• Days since last comment - Days since last comment
• Days since last comment - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this custom field contains the number of minutes, hours, days & weeks since the last comment on the issue.
• Domain of - The domain name of the reporter
• Domain of Assignee - The domain name of the assignee
• Domain of Reporter - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this contains the domain name of the reporter's e-mail - can be used as the reporter's "Company".
• Dummy Project Field - Dummy project field to enable multi project search
• Extended participants of an issue - Displays reporter, current Assignee, all Commenters and all user custom fields of the issue
• Free Text Field (unlimited text) - A multiline text area custom field to allow input of longer text strings.
• Group Picker - Choose a user group using a popup picker window.
• Hidden Job Switch - Hidden switch programatically set whether or not to create a Perforce job.
• Import Id - A read-only custom field that points back to the previously imported bug id.
• Issue Ordering Field - Part of the Custom Issue Order plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/Custom+Issue+Order, this custom field is used to order issues. With this plugin, any issue list can be ordered in a custom way. Useful for work queues or fine grained prioritizing.
• Job Checkbox - Checkbox to choose whether or not to create a Perforce job.
• Last commented by a User Flag - Displays true if last commenter who is not a JIRA developer (jira-developers group member)
• Last commented by a User Flag - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this custom field displays True if last commenter who is not a JIRA developer (member of 'jira-developers').
• Last Resolved Date - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this field looks up the date when status was last changed to Resolved. You can perform full date range searches on it.
• Location Select List - Part of JIRA Suite Utilities plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Suite+Utilities, this custom field is for selecting address from predefined list. Location will be shown as inline Google Map.
• Location Text Field - Part of JIRA Suite Utilities plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Suite+Utilities, this custom field is for specifying address in free form text. Location will be shown as inline Google Map.
• Message Custom Field (for edit) - A custom field whose default value will be displayed as HTML an 'Edit' screen.
• Message Custom Field (for view) - A custom field whose default value will be displayed as HTML on the 'View' screen.
• Multi Checkboxes - Choose multiple values using checkboxes.
• Multi Group Picker - Choose multiple user groups using a popup picker window.
• Multi Issue Key Searcher - Search for and order multiple issue by Issue Key
• Multi Issue Key Searcher - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this is a custom field that will allow you to specify multiple issue keys in an issue navigator search field and then order them in any way you like within the issue navigator results.
• Multi Select - Choose multiple values in a select list.
• Multi User Picker - Choose multiple users from the user base via a popup picker window.
• Number Field - A custom field that stores and validates numeric (floating point) input, including commas and decimal points. Although you can type in non-numeric characters, a validation error will be produced to prevent those characters from being saved. Also, when displayed, the values in a Number Field will be displayed without leading zeroes and with a thousands separator (i.e. 1,234 or 1,234.56).
• Number of attachments - A custom field that stores the number of attachments for an issue.
• Number of comments - A custom field that stores the number of comments for an issue.
• Number of comments and attachments - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, you can now also display and search for the numbers of comments and attachments of an issue. You can also perform range searches on either of them.
• Original Estimate - A field that enables original estimate searches by hours and allows in-line editing
• Original Estimate Range Search - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this custom field can be used to Search original estimates with a number range searcher. Searches are in hours only.
• Participants Field - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this field allows you to easily track issues that you've "participated in". These are defined to be any issues you've commented on, raised or are the current assignee.
• Participants of an issue - Displays reporter, current assignee and all commenters of the issue
• Project Picker - Choose from projects that the user can view in the system.
• Radio Buttons - A list of radio buttons
• Read-only Text Field - A read-only text label. Only possible to create values programatically (Used internally for imports from Mantis). Maximum of 255 characters.
• Resolution Date - Part of the JIRA Charting plugin - https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/wiki/display/JCHART/JIRA+Charting+Plugin, this stores the resolution date of an issue for query efficiency.
• Resolved date - Date that the issue was put into the Resolved status. NOTE: If you have the charting plugin installed, use the Resolution Date field instead
• Search Transition Caller Field - Part of the JIRA Transition Search plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/Jira+Transition+Search+Plugin, it allows searching for who invoked a particular transition.
• Search Transition Time Field - Part of the JIRA Transition Search plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/Jira+Transition+Search+Plugin, it allows searching for when a transition was executed.
• Select List - A single select list with a configurable list of options.
• Single Version Picker - Choose a single version from available versions in the project.
• Support Tool Bar - Displays the some action links on the issue navigator
• Text Field (< 255 characters) - A basic single line text box custom field to allow simple text input.
• Time in Status - Part of the JIRA Charting plugin - https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/wiki/display/JCHART/JIRA+Charting+Plugin,, this stores statistics about the amount of time/times an issue has spent/been in its statuses. This field is used to generate the Average Number of Times Spent In Status and Average Time Spent In Status Charts.
• URL Field - Allow the user to input a single URL
• User Picker - Choose a user from the user base via a popup picker window.
• User Property Field (< 255 characters) - A read-only custom field that displays a user property.
• User Property field - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this read-only custom field displays a user property.
• Username of last updater or commenter - Display the username of either the last updater or commenter depending on which happened most recently.
• Velocity processed Message Custom Field (for edit) - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this is a custom field whose default value will be processed by Velocity and then displayed as HTML on 'Edit' screens.
• Velocity processed Message Custom Field (for view) - Part of the JIRA Toolkit plugin - http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAEXT/JIRA+Toolkit, this is a custom field whose default value will be processed by Velocity and then displayed as HTML on the 'View' screen.
• Version Picker - Choose from available versions in the project.

[Mark Symons]

Thanks for the answers. The "Date of First Response" field from the JIRA Charting Plugin is a good illustration of the problem that I was trying to explain. There is nothing in the UI that gives any hint that the fieldis associated with a plugin. The thing is, the description field would be inappropriate for this use.. what is needed is info that is displayed to Admin but not displayed to users.

I guess I should log a feature request? As I already said, I tried searching but if there is something already logged I used the wrong search terms.

[JamieA]

You can't. What's the field name?

The gantt chart plugin adds a bunch of global custom fields.