Can any issue's fields be edited at any time, and how?

[Phil Bustin]

Can any issue's fields be edited at any time, and how?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Phil Bustin 

Generally speaking, yes, any field can be edited at any time through the Issue Details view. There are some native limitation such as:

- You can't directly edit some date/timestamp fields that are recorded automatically based on events, such as the Created date, Updated date, and Resolution date.

Limitations may be imposted by customizations such as:

- It is possible to prevent edits to an issue when it is in a specific Status by using Workflow Properties.

- You can block editing of some information through Permissions.

- You can block editing of some information by removing them from the screen associated with the Edit Operation in the related Issue Type Screen Scheme and Screen Scheme.

[Phil Bustin]

I should have qualified my question: Can a user, when an issue is opened for transitioning (that would be the view screen), edit ordinary custom fields?

I see that whether the fields are in the section on the right, or in the left section in a tab I created, I can simply click and edit them.  It wasn't obvious because the fields don't appear updatable--a neat trick.

[Juan Carlos Vera]

The Fields that appears in the "View Screen" have to appear in the "Edit Screen" too. To be editable Fields.

If the field is associated to de "View Screen" but not to the "Edit Screen"... it can´t be updatable.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello Phil,

When I mention the Issue Details view, I am referring to what you see when you view an issue.

You may have clicked on the issue card in an agile board and gotten a pop-up showing the details of the issue...

Or you might get a condensed view of the issue in the sidebar...

You may have clicked on the key for an issue in the breadcrumbs at the top of a display...

...causing the issue details to display in a new browser tab, looking pretty much the same as in the pop-up I showed above.

The More Fields option that shows in all of those cases is just a way for you to de-clutter the default display by having some of the fields not shown all of the time but available to see when the user wants.

As I mentioned in another of your posts, it is atypical to use in a workflow transition the same screen that you would use for the issue operations (Create, Edit, View). During issue transition if a screen is presented it usually is a custom screen that displays just the field that the user may need to fill in specifically during that transition.

The ability to edit fields presented on a screen during transition will be subject to the same restrictions imposed by Permissions and Workflow Properties.

It should not be necessary to create a special workflow Update transition just to enable the users to edit an issue's fields unless some other customizations have been implemented that would prevent the user from editing the issue in the screens I showed above.

[Phil Bustin]

Yes, I agree.  Many months ago, when I created the Update transition, I was unaware that the innocent-looking fields in the view screen were in fact updatable.

[Juan Carlos Vera · Accepted solution]

Hello @Phil Bustin 

The correct answer would be very broad, but in summary:

Yes, most fields in a Jira issue can be edited at any time, as long as you have the appropriate permissions to do so.

Some fields, such as the issue summary and description, can also be edited directly from the issue view page by clicking on the field and modifying the text.

Others haver to been asociated to the Edit Screen, or can be modified by Automations, Script functions, Bulk changes, etc...

It's important to note that certain fields, such as the issue type, can only be changed by certain users or in certain situations. Additionally, some fields may be locked or have restrictions set by your Jira administrator.

;)