Jira Project Administration - Custom Screens/Control

[ryan McCullough]

I've been tasked with creating a bulk issue approval facility. The current proposal is to lanch this interface within the JIRA Project screen using a button adjacent to the "Project Administration" button. I'm currently looking for ideas how to inject/configure buttons in the project layer, and furthur how to fulfil following screens. I've only done a few months of JIRA plugin development using Reports, so please feel free to give the New-Guy treatment here. Thanks Everyone :)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The first thing to do is tell us what you mean by "bulk approval".

It's actually quire easy to add another tab to the project screens if that would help. But the screenshot you show will need you to hack the existing "project summary" tab code to add another linke, which is a little more ugly (I don't think it can be done as a plugin, although I am sure the code tweak is minor). The difficult bit is actually going to be what it actually does!

[ryan McCullough]

about bulk approval... higher-ups in a govenment agency will have the ability to "approve" issues to be worked by marking a custom field/flag. An interface will be developed to perform this mass-edit across a group of tickets.

About the feasibility of the "Bulk Approval" button: This is really good information actually... would you be willing to say that getting a button into that location in a single project only, would be a less than simple approach? if so, I will help me build a case against that feature, as our origional idea was to add a left nav tab, as you suggested.

thanks for your help!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ah, that's good. Off the top of my head, and to completely avoid any custom code, I would

1. Add a field to hold the flag (probably a multi-check-box with only one option of "approved")
2. Do not put the flag on the standard create/edit screens
3. Amend your workflows so that there is an explicit "approve" transtion, with conditions that only allow your "higher ups" to perform the transtions. Put the approve flag on the screen it uses (Or, if you are happy with the odd plugin, add one that allows you to set custom fields in post-functions, and set it for them!)

You'll then be able to use the standard bulk-edit interface. Which leads me on to suggesting that your amendment to the project screens can be kept relatively light by leading approving users through the bulk-transition that sets the flag.

The reason I balked at adding a random link in there is because it measn you'll need to hack part of the core - that's a maintance headache because you'll have to hack and retro-fit it to every upgraded version, and if there's security patches it may vanish and so-on. It's also going to have to link to a lot of code that you'll need to write to support it.

A panel as a plugin is simply easier to maintain - the handful I wrote for 3.13 actually still work fine in 4.4, so upgrading them is a doddle, and, I think your "higher ups" would appreciate a lot more info in the panel than just a link. Because you could whack in stuff like "the filter for all unapproved issues is showing 17 outstanding irems and here they are" and so-on. Panel security is a doddle as well - it's only a couple of lines of code to decide whether to show the panel or not, and Jira does all that work for you.

[ryan McCullough]

Ok, one last item: how would it be possible to enable standard bulk edit attachments, as wreckless as it is. (I promise, my hand is being forced here!)

[ryan McCullough]

Nic, thanks for you help us to understand this is a "hack", we are now moving away from said hard code hack, and are now planning to use a left side tab as the entry-point for this feature. :)

and advice on where someone like me can find a good example/prof of concept for a custom screen using the left side nav?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There's a really simple project panel at https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/source/browse/JPCS (I apologise for the code there - it works, but I'm not a coder, so I'm not going to pretend it's nice)

It's the "show admins" thing - all it does is give you a panel with a list of the current Jira project admins on it, but it should show you the structure etc. It's coded for v4, but I think you can just throw 99% of the hava away as you'll want to replace it anyway.

[ryan McCullough]

Thanks again Nic,

This has been really helpful getting started with my development project :)

[ryan McCullough]

Thanks Again Nic,

This has been really helpful getting started with my development project :)

[ryan McCullough]

Ok, one last item: is it possible to do bulk attachments, as wreckless as it is. (I promise, my hand is being forced here!)