Previous status isn't working as required

[Kalle]

hi,

I want to add Previous Status condition to transition Closed.

I tried to change workflow so that users can't directly Close the issue - they certainly have to use Step "In Progress" before closing it (somewhere between other Steps, no matter where).

So I added condition to transition "Closed", using "Previous Status" condition with status "In Progress". But if I work with issue I can't directly go from Step "In Progress" to Closed because this is not allowed .. like the Status "In Progress" isn't updated somewhere. So after changing to "In Progress" I have to change it to something else (TODO or QA) to see the button "Closed".

I have tested the "Previous Status" with other options and configurations as well - First I tried with "Most recent status only" (condition's option), Secondly I tried adding "previous status" to transition Validator - no success .. after choosing "In Progress" I can't directly close the issue.

Should I use some kind of Post Function with transition "In Progress" to update/index some fields? Or maybe it isn't working this way because some inner logic of jira?

I have 4 Steps (TODO, In Progress, QA, Closed) and all have global transition (ALL). There isn't any special configuration, just standard workflow. Plugin: JIRA Misc Workflow Extensions latest; jira: 6.1.

[David _old account_]

Maybe I didn't quite get what you're trying to achieve, but I was thinking that you could combine the Previous Status condition with a field value condition on the status field using OR. You can find several field value condition implementations in various free plug-ins.

[Kalle]

Maybe I am missing something but I can't remove global transition only from one Step/Status.

My example was that I have 4 Steps/Statuses but in real life this is much higher (like 10-15 steps). The point of using global transition is not to make different transitions between every step/status otherwise if I do that I have like 10 times more transitions to admin.

And as I said this sounds like workaround not real solution. If this condition (previous status) can't take into account current status then Maybe I must not use this condition and there are better solutions

[Yit Wei]

Hi Kalle

You actually only have to configure 1 additional transition, which is the "Closed" transition from "In Progress" (status) to "Closed" (status). All other "Closed" transitions are using your previous one. (I assume it's the global by default)

Also, as you mentioned, if you create the additional transition, there will be 2 transitions from "In Progress" to "Closed" if the issue goes through the step "In Progress" two (or more) times. That is why in my previous comment, I mentioned that you have to remove the existing "Closed" transition (which contains the 'Previous Status' condition) from the "In Progress" (Status) before creating a new "Closed" transition (without the said condition). This way, "In Progress" only have 1 "Close" transition. No matter how many times the issue moves through the "In Progress" status, it will only show 1 "Close" transition.

Hope I have clarified it for you.

[Kalle]

Hi,

I'm sorry for late reply.

I tested this workaround and it works .. but I have to create separate transitions for all the steps to "Closed" (by default I use global) or if I create additional transition from "In Progress" to "Closed" both transitions will be displayed if the issue goes through the step "In Progress" two (or more) times. These solutions aren't very elegant.

[Yit Wei]

Hi Kalle

It seems that the 'Previous Status' condition doesn't count the status which you are in (When you transition from TODO to In Progress, In Progress does not count as a previous status).

What you can do is remove the "Closed" (transition) from the "In Progress" (status), and create a new transition which also points to "Closed" (Status). Do not configure the 'Previous Status' condition for this new transition.

This will allow 'In Progress' to always be able to transition to "Closed" (status), while TODO and QA cannot transtition to "Closed" without the issue first having gone through 'In Progress'.

It sounds pretty confusing but I can try to explain it in more detail if you don't understand this.