Create new task screen looks different between users

[Lilly]

I have 2 users: one user is administrator and the other is in the developers group. when the admin user tries to create a new task the actual screen he sees is different then the screen the user in the developers group. The administrator has fields such as Assignee that doesn't exist for the developer.

[Lilly · Accepted solution]

The answer to this issue was to change the option in "Configure Fields\Show Fields" from "custom" to "all".

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That sounds like a plugin of some sort - could you explain further?

[Lilly]

I think this isn't a plugin issue. When a user creates a new issue, on the upper right corner this a tab called "Configure Fields" which I've learned configures which fields are visible to the user. When the developer created a new issue, the "Configure Fields" was set on "custom" which means not all fields were visible. Once I changed it to "all" the forms appeared the same for the administrator and the developer

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ahh, no, that's a built in feature - the later versions of Jira allow the users to hide fields they don't care about, on an individual basis. At some point, the user has changed their settings. That was going to be my next guess (but I wasn't that familiar with it and didn't recognise the wording, hence the guess at a plugin)

Worth remembering - we'll both probably discover more users doing it.

[Lilly]

Actually, the custom setting was the default one... Right after I created this developer user, I logged in to the system using it and tried to create a new issue. This is how I found the difference.

I would expect that by default, all the fields would be visible.

[dcbyron]

On running the experiment with entirely fresh users, I can confirm the following: there is indeed a bug, but it's slightly different from what I described.

SCENARIO:

On first view of the "Create Issue" screen, all expected fields are visible. But if you click on the "Configure Fields" dropdown and simply select the "Custom" command link, you'll see (referencing the components I listed above) that Description and Priority are ticked by default, but Assignee, Attachment, and Due Date are unticked by default.

This is so even though the (fresh) user has not deselected them.

In other words, a user who clicks the picklist to see what it is, and then clicks Custom, and then clicks the modal dialog to dismiss the popup may involuntarily, and unexpectedly, have gui components removed from the screen (and the screen revision persisted) by that operation.

The upshot:

When first clicking the "Custom" command link in the Configure Fields popup, only a subset of the listed components are selected by default.

The desired behavior:

Clicking the "Custom" command link should not only list all relevant components in the popup, but should show them all as selected by default. Only a user gesture (namely, unticking a box) should deselect a component that was visible when the popup was invoked.

[dcbyron]

I want to confirm what Lilach Eisenberg has said.

Although I appreciate his desire to help, Nic Brough's "At some point, the user has changed their settings" is not an acceptable answer here, and neither is "There are some fields that can only be set if you have the right permission".

SCENARIO:

I created a new project and two users, Alpha and Beta. I placed Alpha in an "First" group and Beta in a "Second" group. I assigned the "First" group to the Project Administrator role and the "Second" group to a "Team" role. To both the Project Administrator role and the Team role, I granted "Assign Issues" and "Assignable User".

No security scheme or other complicating factor is in play.

(In addition, I created a custom screen containing only the gui elements Summary, Issue Type, Priority, Due Date, Assignee, Description, and Attachment. I mapped this screen to all operations in a Screen Scheme, and in an Issue Type Screen Scheme, I specified this screen scheme as the default for all issue types. I ensured that the project was configured to use this configuration.)

RESULT:

By default:
When Beta in the Second group in the Team role selects "create issue", Summary, Issue Type, Priority, Due Date, Assignee, Description, and Attachment are visible.
When Alpha in the First group in the Project Administrator role selects "create issue", only Summary, Issue Type, Priority, and Description are visible. The fields Due Date, Assignee, and Attachment are not, and must be selected via the embedded "Configure Fields" component.

Desired solution:
All relevant fields should be displayed by default; none should be hidden by default.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Doesn't matter if it's "not an acceptable answer", it's still the right answer (unless there's something else we don't know about)

Try the tests with completely new users, I suspect you'll find that while Beta probably is a new user, you've been changing settings for Alpha and that's what Alpha is inheriting.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There are some fields that can only be set if you have the right permission.

You mentioned assignee - that field will only be offered on create/edit screens if the current user has the "can assign issues to people" permission.

You'll find reporter (can edit reporter), fix versions (needs resolve issue) and due date (schedule issue) are similar, and I seem to remember that there's more.

Check the permission scheme for the project.