If I remove an issue type from a Workflow Scheme, will the past issues be deleted?

[Angela]

I have an issue type (Email Deployment) that I no longer want to have as an option in my Workflow Scheme. I see in the Settings/Workflow Schemes that I can simply 'edit' and then delete that issue type, but my question is what happens to those previously created tickets (Email Deployment)? Will they remain or be deleted?

I want them to remain, I just don't want hat issue type as an option for new ticket types moving forward. 

[Robert Wen_Cprime_ · Accepted solution]

When you delete an issue type from a Workflow scheme, you're really removing that issue type's association with a specific workflow spelled out in that scheme.  That issue type will then be associated with the workflow set aside for all Unmapped Issue Types.

What you're looking to do is remove the issue type from the project's Issue Type Schemes. Jira will then prompt you to remap the existing issues to a different issue type.

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Hi @Angela,

The issues won't be deleted. But Jira will detect that there are issues of the specific type in your project and will ask you to migrate them to a different issue type in your project (you cannot have issues in a project of a type that is no longer there).

That may have some additional implications: changing the issue type may also result in the workflow and screens of your issues to change. Again, Jira will alert you and ask you to decide what you want to do there (convert olld workflow statuses into new ones, potentially remove data from certain custom fields that are not on the screens of the new issue type).

In this scenario: prepare. Have a look at the differences in configuration between your current issue types and make sure you know how you want to convert your old issues.

As an alternative, you can also move your old issues to a different project (or different issue type in your current project first) before you remove the old type from your issue type scheme.

Hope this helps! 

[Kelly Arrey]

Hi @Angela, another approach is to set up a workflow that has a very restrictive validator on the Create transition, so that no one can create issues, and then assign that workflow to the Email Deployment issue type in the Workflow Scheme for the project. That way the existing tickets will live on, but no new tickets can be created.

[Raj Vora]

Hi @Kelly Arrey : 

How do you set up a restrictive validator on create transition?  Is it a pretty straightforward process or do you need to write a custom program in ScriptRunner? 

Is there an example anywhere online (I tried searching and couldn't find one?  Thanks!

[Kelly Arrey]

Hi @Raj Vora, it's pretty straightforward. My recollection is that there used to be more choices of validators on our Cloud Jira system, but at the moment it seems like the most restrictive validator is the "Permission validator", and the most restrictive option is "Project Administrator". So all you have to do is make sure that your project admins in the relevant projects know not to create any of these issues. If that's enough for you, here's how to do it:

1. Find the relevant workflow on https://{your-instance}.atlassian.net/jira/settings/issues/workflows
2. Edit the workflow
3. If it comes up in the text mode editor, switch to Diagram mode
4. Click on the "Create" arrow 
   
5. Click on Validators
6. Click on Add validator
7. Click on Permission Validator, click Add
8. Select the Administer Projects permission, click Add
9. Publish Draft
   1. This will bring up a panel which will prompt you to save a backup - that's generally a good idea!
10. You're done!

HTH, 

Kel

[Raj Vora]

@Kelly Arrey :  Thanks!  I'm just catching this now, but in the tags section above it only lists JIRA cloud.  Do you know if your solution works only in cloud or server as well?

[Kelly Arrey]

Hi @Raj Vora We originally did this on server, but we migrated to cloud a couple of years ago so I don't have current info. Worth a shot though.