Is it possible to make it mandatory for comments to be included before a task is closed?

[Kristine Gemici]

Is it possible to make it mandatory for comments to be included before a task is closed? This can be either a pop up box for closing comments or for the already existing comments box. We are trying to make sure that further explanation has been provided before closing a task. 

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Kristine Gemici 

What type of project does this concern? Get the project Type information from the Type column on the View All Projects page under the Projects menu.

For a Company Managed project you can add a Transition Screen to the transition to your closed status. You can then add a Validator to that same transition to confirm that Comment is not empty. The screen will display when the user executes the transition. The Validator will ensure that they enter something into the Comment field to complete the transition.

Transition Screens are not yet available for Team Managed projects.

[Kristine Gemici]

Thanks Trudy! This is a company managed project, so I will be able to roll it out to all projects if I can do that for the template; however, I was hoping that the mandatory requirement would come up for the user trying to close--- the idea is that when they try to select "Done" then a popup will show up requiring them to add a comment before it will allow them to close. We do not want a single person or group to be an owner of that. 

Is this possible? Atlassian actually implemented something similar but for when a task is deleted.. Jira now requires you to enter "delete" before you can delete a task. 

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello Kristine,

Yes it is possible, and that is exactly what the solution I describe does.

First create a screen to add to the "Done" transition.

All screens that you create will have the Comments field on them without having to add it explicitly. It is not possible to get a screen that has just a Comment field on it. You will have to add another field. Attachment is a "harmless" field to add.

Go to the Workflow that applies to the project/issue type where you want to apply this. Edit that workflow.

Select the transition to "Done". Confirm that the Screen setting says "None".

Assuming that it does, click the Edit button in the upper right. Set the Transition View field to the Comment screen you created.

Click the Update button. 

Go to the Validators tab for the transition and select Add

From the options available select "Field Required Validator". Choose that one and click Add.

In the Fields Required select Comment. Optionally add a message that you want to display if the user leaves the Comment field empty. Then click Add.

Publish the Workflow.

Now when you transition the affected issue to Done...

...a pop up dialog will display the Comment (and Attachment) fields.

If the user clicks the button to complete the transition without having entered a comment, the transition will not complete. If you put a message in the validator, that will display.