visible custom fields without default value?

[Joshua Goffstein]

What is the best way to have custom fields (and the screen tabs they occupy) appear by default in a situation where transitions have field-based validations?

• In the past, I've set a default value to ensure a custom field is visible
• I'm currently developing a workflow requiring key fields have a value to transition
• Setting a default value would seem to negate the control
• Not setting a default value makes the fields (and tabs) disappear

I'm using JIRA server with Portfolio and Service Desk. I'm using JIRA Suite Utilities to require fields during a workflow transition. 

[Bryan Collick]

So after a lot of experimentation, I was able to find a solution for this with @Joshua Goffstein.

Here's the solution we settled on: transition screens.

• Transition screens allow you to validate that fields were given a value before moving an issue to the next status.
• Once the field is given a value, it appears on the view screen as soon as the transition is completed.
• This relieved the need to place default values just to be visible, and it also ensured all fields would be visible when they should be (effective control).

The downside is progressive visibility (not all fields are visible from the first status), but that was a minor issue for our situation.

[Joe Pitt]

DO NOT set a default value just to make the field visible in the issue details. At my first job working with JIRA management didn't like the field not being visible and required it be set to TBD against my advise. After a couple months of this practice when we ran a report TBD was still in the fields. Since there was a value we couldn't make them fill it in as required during a transition and most users didn't change it to a valid value during the transitions. We removed the default values so we could get meaningful data. 

[Bryan Collick]

Joe I 100% agree with you--it makes bad data.

How, then, do you make custom fields visible? I can't expect my users to regularly fill out fields they can't actually see. Is there some documentation on this because I also understood default values as the workaround for this. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There's no way to do this.  You've set up a situation where you don't want a default value in a field at the same time as wanting one.  You need to decide which is more useful for you and go that way (possibly on a field by field basis)

[Joshua Goffstein]

I really don't want to set default values; it's a workaround. If I didn't have to set them to make fields visible, I wouldn't ever set a default value. 

The objective for me would be:

• As a user I can see custom fields regardless of whether field has value so that I know I've provided all info.
• As user I cannot transition a ticket unless specific fields have value so that the next step always has sufficient info.

If I can achieve that without default value, I'd love to know how. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

As I said, there's no way to do this.  If you want a field to appear on the issue view, you need to have data in it.