Tag: WorkFlow

Editing the Active Workflow in Jira.

Hello Friends,

This is one of my tutorials regarding the Jira Workflow. As we know that workflow needs to be changed as per the requirements. Also once the workflow is associated it is in active state. That means no rights to edit the active workflow. But there is an alternative way to do this, rather than creating a new workflow for some little changes and then associating it which I guess is a tedious job. In newer version of Jira , it provides the privilege to create a draft of the active workflow which is like the carbon copy and we can make the changes in this draft and publish it instead of associating. This functionality is provided in the Jira versions 3.13 and above. Earlier there was no such process. Continue reading “Editing the Active Workflow in Jira.”

Default CC in JIRA while issue creation.

Hello Friends,

This is one of my tutorial for Jira users, regarding the scenario to add some specific users in CC by default during the issue creation. As we know that the “CC To” custom field is Jira’s default custom field and this might be used on issue screens for number of projects. So there may be question that, if we add the user in CC for this custom field then wont it be associated with all the issues in which there is CC To field?

Consider the scenario where two projects P1 and P2 have the two different issue types each. Lets say P1 has Request type and P2 has Bug type and both this issue type screen has CC To field. Now in this case how it would be possible if I want to add the default CC for Request Type Issue and not for Bug type.

Don’t panic friends, Jira provides the facility to Add Context to the custom fields i.e. we can select the default values for the custom fields for the different issue types in different Projects.

Lets see how we can do this-

For this login to Jira as admin and go to the administration panel and browse to the page where all Custom Fields are located. There search for the CC To field, there you will see the Configure link, that allows user to configure the custom fields. Once you are on the configuration page, you will see the Add new context link. Click that link.

Now once you clicked on Add new context, another page will appear that contains of three sections-

1) Add configuration scheme context:

It enable the custom field for that particular set of issues and each context can have its own configuration set (e.g. different default values, options). Here you have to add some description and Configuration scheme label regarding this.

2) Choose applicable context for issue type:

This allows you to select the issue type for which you want to add the context. Hence this will enable the custom field for these issues types in the context specified.

Lets, say we select the Request Type Issue.

3) Choose applicable context for particular project:

Here you have to select the particular project in which this configuration will work. Note that there are two radio buttons in which the first option will allow you to add this configuration globally to all projects. Make sure that you select those project which is needful.

Once you clicked Add, a window will open showing the configurations details you added. To add the user to be CCed click on Edit Default Value.

Once you click the Edit Default value button, another window will open where you can set the default value as CC for that particular issue.

Once the default value is set, this user will be present on the issue creation screen as a default, but this is editable i.e. user creating the issue can remove the user from being CC of this issue.

Hope this will help you friends.

Thanks,

Nikhil.


Creating Workflow In JIRA.

Hello Friends,

This is another blog related to Jira. All those who have knowledge about Jira, may have heard about the Workflow. Workflow defines the lifecycle of any issue through which transitions and steps through which the issue has to flow. The workflow specifies the following features-

* What are the available actions for the user at the particular step.

* Which user or Group of user can access this step/action.

* Functions / conditions that are executed after completion of the particular step.

* Functions / conditions that are executed after completion of the workflow (e.g. after close).

These work flows are assigned to Workflow Schemes and these schemes are further associated with the projects. Once associated with any project the workflow is said to be “Active“. And note that the active workflow cannot be edited. The Workflow can be easily understood graphically juat like any flow diagram, but there is no relation among them. Let us consider the following diagram.

Now we will create a jira workflow that will define the above flow diagram.

Step 1) Now login as jira Admin. Go to the Administration tab and there you will see the admin panel at leftside of the window. There in right panel goto -> Global Settings ->Workflows.

Step 2) When you click the workflow link, one new page will open. This page will show all the previously created workflow (if they were created) or else there will be atleast one default jira workflow. And at the bottom of the [page there will be a small window to create new workflow.

Step 3) Once you click on Add button a new page will open. This will show all the workflows (if available) along with jira default WF and the recently created WF. There is some information regarding the WF. Some of that is focused in the below screen.

As you can see there is already one step in the WF we’ve just created. To add the steps and configure the WF click on the Steps link. As I told earlier we can add/delete the steps in the inactive workflow only.

Step 4) When you click the Steps link, another window will open. This will allow you to add new Step to the workflow. Linked status determines the status of the issue when the issue has finished that transition step.

For e.g. if I am the Assignee and I have started the progress of the issue by clicking the “Start Progress” step then the status of the issue will be “In Progress”.

Similarly we can add various steps in the WF.

Step 5) After adding all the steps and its linked statuses it will look something like this.

Now lets add the transition to the workflow steps. Transition defines the WF steps to flow in a particular manner. TO add the transition click on the Add Transition link.

Step 6) Once you click the link, a new window will open with different options. Transition name defines the name for the transition and Destination Step tells about on which step the issue will move after this action.

Step 7) Similarly, after adding all the transitions the WF may look like as shown.

Now you can see that the Start Progress step contains two transition actions i.e. when the issue is in Start Progress the user can perform two actions.

There can be any number of transitions action on a single Step. One thing should be kept in mind that, no matter how many steps and actions are there in the WF, but the WF must have one and only one step that ends all the steps and action. In this case Close step is the last step and hence there is no transition after this step.

In this way the workflow is created. Now check the Flow diagram and the WF, you8 may find that it is similar in the flow. But to implement the WF in any project we have to assign it to the Work Flow Scheme so that we can associate it with the project.

We can create various custom WFs that will have conditions and validators. Just wait for my next blog.

Hope this will help you.

Thanks,

Nikhil Naoghare.