An information system such as Atlassian JIRA is only as useful as the data that goes into it, so it is no surprise that JIRA is very flexible when it comes to letting you customize the fields and screens. JIRA comes with a suite of default fields to help you get it up and running quickly, and it also allows you to add your own fields, called custom fields, to address your unique needs.

In this chapter, we will learn not only about how to create these custom fields in JIRA, but also the different behaviors that these fields can have. We will end the chapter by showing you an example of expanding the types of custom fields that you can have with third-party add-ons, and using scripts to create your own field logic.

JIRA comes with a number of issue types out of the box, that are designed for software project management. However, over time, you might find that these issue types do not apply to all of your projects, and you have added your own. In this recipe, we will look at how to manage the issue types so that each project can have its own set of issue types.

Required fields such as Summary and Issue Type have a little red asterisk next to them, which means they must have a value when you are creating or updating an issue. This is a great way to ensure that users do not skip filling in important information.

We will look at how to make any fields of your choice required in this recipe, with field configurations. A field configuration controls the behavior of a field; this includes the field's mandatory requirements, visibility, renderer, and description.

By default, the assignee field has an unassigned option, which is equivalent to making the field optional. If you check out field configuration, you would realize that you cannot make the assignee field required, as there is no such option available.

In this recipe, we will look at how to disable the unassigned option, effectively making the assignee a required field.

How to do it...

Proceed with the following steps to disable the unassigned option:

1. Log in to JIRA as a JIRA administrator.

2. Navigate to Administration | System.

3. Click on the Edit Settings button.

4. Scroll down, and select the OFF option for Allow unassigned issues; click on Update.

As shown in the following screenshot, once the option is disabled, issues can no longer be unassigned:

There will be times when a field is no longer needed. When this happens, instead of deleting the field, which would also remove all its data, you can choose to hide it. So if you need the field again further down the track, you can simply unhide it, and retain all the data.

In this recipe, we will be hiding both the Priority and Due Date fields.

Most custom field types, such as select lists and text fields, can be rendered in multiple ways. For example, select lists can be rendered either with an autocomplete feature or as a simple, standard drop-down list.

In this recipe, we will be changing the Components field to use Select List Renderer so that we can see all the available selections.

As we have seen in previous recipes, you can configure a field's behavior with field configuration. JIRA not only comes with a default field configuration that is applied to all project and issue types by default, but it also lets you create your own so that you can choose the projects and/or issue types to apply your field configuration to.

In this recipe, we will make the Description and Assignee fields required only for the Task issue type.

JIRA comes with three screens by default: the Default Screen, the Resolve Issue Screen, and the Workflow Screen.

In this recipe, we will look at how to create a new screen from scratch, and then make it appear when we are creating a new issue of type Task.