Custom field in JIRA

JIRA is very nice software and popular for bug tracking, issue tracking and project management. It also has been used for support management system.

I have been working in issue import module and playing with some interesting things. JIRA has feature to add custom field in issues. When you are importing issues directly into JIRA database, you should be aware of this. Basically customfield, customfieldoption, customfieldvalue are main table which deal with custom field and value. So, whenever you import issue, you can simply save values in customfieldvalue table with reference to customfield table (customfield is foreign key) and  jiraissue table (issue is foreign key). If field is type of select or cascade select, you have to take care additional constraint. For select, you have to save reference key in stringvalue field (of customfieldvalue table), which should be primary key in customfieldoption table. And, cascade select is same as select, but it requires parentkey which reference to parentoption in customfieldoption. ER diagram comes later.

You may like: Workflow in JIRA

JIRA workflow

Atlassian JIRAJIRA in my ass which has to be configured with MS SQL, and there is custom developed module to import issue from MS Excel.  JIRA already got custom workflow and imported issues have to be associated with existing workflow. It’s not easy as we think in JIRA. Diving into it for sometimes, I got pretty much idea actually how things works internally. It may be interesting to know how issues and workflow is connected.

Well, you got that. There’s table called os_currentstep and os_wfentry. There you should have entry and PK from os_wfentry should goes in workflow_id in jiraissue table. That’s it :-) . Sounds easy huh! Happy Thanksgiving!

JIRA as a Support System

Atlassian JIRAJIRA is best choice for bug tracking tool and it can be project management tool at the same time. Since few time, I was wondering how it can be fit for Support System. Now in version 4.0 (Beta), Atlassian addressed this need.

Features in 4.0, that makes JIRA as a Support System

  • Different Projects
  • Ticket (terminology changed for Support System)
  • Post-Ticket Pages
  • Work Queues
  • Email Integration
  • Custom Landing Page
  • Support Knowledge Base
  • Log Phone Calls To Tickets
  • SLAs
  • Escalate Tickets
  • Change Status After Comment

Since this is Atlassian’s first attempt to make JIRA as a Support System, some of features still not perfectly tuned or lacking. For example, there is not easy way to implement SLAs or ticket escalation. They suggested use Jelly Script or Service to enable those features. But that’s not easy for end-users (developer always has way).

Personally I would expect some more features:

  • Auto-Assignment: This can be achieved by work flow and post back function. However it would be nice to have more easier way.
  • Custom field on User Information: Like in issue, it would be nicer to have custom field option for user too. When it comes to support system, it may require to store more information about client e.g. Company Name, Address etc.

But it also include some nice and handy features like Email Integration and Change Status After Comment. Primarily JIRA is bug tracking tool so Atlassian must be showing way to developer that how to turn into into a Support System.  As overall, JIRA 4.0 can be a Support System.