Can a workflow user manually populate a custom user field?

[Phil Bustin]

In an issue, can a user select a status called "Business Analyst Assigned", which invokes transition "Assign Business Analyst", and somehow at that point select a pick-user-field value (if my terminology is correct)?

If not, how might a user populate the field?

[Vera · Accepted solution]

You can definitely do that in Jira Cloud! 

You simply need to create transitions between the original status -> Business Analyst Assigned. Once the transition is created, click on the transition, select Edit, add a screen which contains only the user picker field and publish the workflow.

See in-depth steps below.

---

Step 1: Create the Business Analyst Assigned Screen

1. Select Settings
2. Select Issues.
3. Select Screens.
4. Select the blue Add screen button.
5. Give it a name/description and click Add.

Step 2: Create the Business Analyst User Picker Field

1. Select Settings
2. Select Issues.
3. Select Custom Fields.
4. Select the blue Create custom field button.
5. In the "Select a Field Type" window, scroll down until you locate the User Picker (single user) option and select it. Give it a name/description and click Next.
6. In the "Issues" screen, select the checkmark next to the screen name that you created in Step 1.
7. Select Update.

Step 3: Create the Business Analyst User Picker Field

1. Select Settings.
2. Select Issues.
3. Select Workflows.
4. Select the actions (...) button of your workflow and click Edit.
5. Mouse over the original status and drag the little circle to the "Business Analyst Assigned" status to create a new transition. Give it a name.
6. Locate the Screen section and select the screen created in Step 1.
7. Click Add.
8. Lastly, select Publish Draft.

Afterwards, locate an issue that is utilizing the workflow and try changing the status to see if the screen pops up. As soon as the status is changed, you should receive a window that asks for the assignee which can be edited.

Let me know if you have any questions!

[Phil Bustin]

I will try to follow this.  I should have made it clear that I had already created the field, statuses and transitions.

[Phil Bustin]

I would like the user to select a value in the Business Analyst field value by selecting a  value in a drop-down list of members of a group I created called Business Analysts.  (I may already have done this.)

[Phil Bustin]

I succeeded in using the transition, but once I had assigned myself from a drop-down list that appeared as I entered my name, and then clicked the big status button on top of the field panel, I received an error message "You don't have permission to transition this workflow."  I think the problem might be that I'm now in a status that has no transitions.  I will instead configure the transition from some status to itself; however, I would like to be able to run the transition from any state, and would rather not create a dozen or more differently named transitions from many states to themselves--unless I can use the same transition multiple times.  I'll see what I can do.

Also, can I configure the Business Analyst field so that instead of having to type to see a drop-down, list, there is a list already present (in other apps, a left box and a right box, with the list in the left box)?

[Phil Bustin]

I have succeeded in using the same Assign Business Analyst transition from two statuses to themselves, but I don't think that's a great solution.  Better would be to rename the transition 'Update', but I would think there's a better way.  Possibly Jira could introduce the 'Any' status as an enhancement.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

If you are working with a Company Managed plan, you can create a custom Screen that includes that field. Then attach the screen to the transition in the workflow. When that transition is selected, the screen will display.

[Phil Bustin]

And the transition will pause for the user to update the field, and the user will click OK to execute the transition?

[Phil Bustin]

I created the screen and added to it the Business Analyst field.  The workflow was already active.  How do I add the screen to the transition?

[Trudy Claspill]

Open the workflow in Edit mode.

In the diagram click on the arrow for the transition where you want the screen to appear.

That will pop up a dialog like this.

Click the Edit button. That will open a pop up.

Select the new screen in the Screen field. Click Save.

Then Publish the workflow.

[Trudy Claspill]

@Phil Bustin 

Continuing to follow this thread, I'm a little confused on your use case.

You said you want the user to be able to pick a status transition to Assign A BA. Do you actually want issues to be in the status "Assigned a BA"? Based on your additional information it seems more like you just want to be able to assign a BA to an issue regardless of its status.

What problem are you trying to solve by having a Status/Transition for this task vs. just having a field that can be edited regardless of status? 

Maybe if you shared your current workflow with us then we would understand your use case better.

[Phil Bustin]

In a higher level workflow, perhaps a Story, that I started developing, I will have an Assign Business Analyst transition.  Its target status name is not important; it could be Business Analyst Assigned;  Creating Business Functional, or whatever I deem appropriate. 

I have three key questions:

1) Would the Business Analyst field then cascade to a subtask? 

2) Can I configure a workflow as a subtask of another?

3) What is the procedure for updating the value of a field, and if there is any difference, specifically a custom user field, without using a transition? 

I would likely in any case use the "Assign Business Analyst" transition I just renamed "Update Fields" to update any of a dozen or more custom fields, especially if after I find out how to update a field without a transition, I judge that the built-in procedure for updating a field is less convenient than a transition.  I already added the renamed transition to two statuses, pointing to the same statuses, and would add it to many other statuses.  It would be much easier and more appropriate to have an "Any" status, with the transition going from Any to itself, if that is a feature Atlassian might consider adding.

[Trudy Claspill]

1) A value does not automatically transfer form a parent Story to a child Sub-task. You would need to create an Automation Rule to automatically update the field in the child Sub-task(s) when the field in the parent Story is updated.

2) A Workflow is a set of issue Statuses and the rules from transitioning from one Status to another. A Workflow can be applied to 1..n types of issues. You can have one Workflow for a Story issue type, and a different workflow for a Sub-task issue type. I'm not sure that I understand your question, as I'm not sure of the context when you are using the terms "workflow" and "subtask" now what type of entity you are trying to reference when you say "another". Can you provide more information about what you mean by having "a workflow as a subtask of another"?

3) The procedure for updating any field is you simply edit it from the full view of the issue. Just click in the area of the field that displays its value and you should be able to change the value. You don't need to use a Status transition every time you want to edit a field.

Jira does not provide a method to  have a single workflow transition that supports a loop back to the starting status. You would have to add that looping transition to each status in the Workflow.

[Phil Bustin]

For question 2), what I'm thinking of is for Workflow A to create a task that uses Workflow B whenever a certain transition (say, "Create Software Subtask") is executed.

My recollection of the brief time I spent months ago creating a workflow in the Work Management app, is that this sort of construct was on the menu.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

[Phil Bustin]

"3) The procedure for updating any field is you simply edit it from the full view of the issue. Just click in the area of the field that displays its value and you should be able to change the value. You don't need to use a Status transition every time you want to edit a field."

I'm uploading a screen shot of what appears to be a Detail View of an issue, and I can't find a way to update any field, but specifically Business Analyst.  No mouse action on or around the field yields a way of replacing the value of the Business Analyst:

 field.

[Trudy Claspill]

Normally you should be able to update any field in this view simply by clicking in the area where the data is shown for the field. That should open the field for inline editing.

In my instance when I am in the same view you show, if I place my mouse in the data area of a field the field is highlighted as shown in this image. My mouse is positioned exactly where the red arrow is pointing.

And if I click in a field that is a selection list, like a User Picker field, then the list of available options displays, like in this image where I clicked in the Assignee field.

It is possible that the workflow has been modified to set a property for the issues in that Status to disable editing as described in this document. Or, maybe the Edit Issue permission in the Permission Scheme has been set such that there are restrictions on who can edit the issue.

[Phil Bustin]

While I'm so-far unsuccessfully googling for a roadmap to find the workflow and issue permissions screens, perhaps you can provide such a roadmap, please.

[Phil Bustin]

The permissions helper seems to show that I have the edit issues privilege for all the issues under a project, including the one in which I can't seem to edit fields.

[Trudy Claspill]

I see from the tags on this post that you have indicated you are working with the Free version of the product. According to this document, in the Free version you can't modify permissions, so my thought that the permissions may have been modified to remove the Edit Issue option for you is no valid.

You indicated previously that you have already edited the workflow, but then indicated two responses up that you can't find the workflow screen. To check if the properties of the Statuses in the workflow have been modified you would edit the workflow again, getting to it the same way you did previously when you were adding statuses and transitions. To then find out if the properties have been modified as described in this document you would edit the workflow, click on a status in the workflow, then click on Properties in the pop-up.

I'm at a bit of a loss to explain why you can't edit the issues. I have not seen any posts previously about a person using the Free version of the product being unable to edit issues.

[Phil Bustin]

I believe I can do everything except, in an issue detail view, click on a field and replace its value.