How or what add-on allows me to set the value IDs of custom field options?

[Al Johnson]

When designing a web page we all know we can give dropdown, checkbox, radio button, etc., options both 1.) a display value and 2.) a value.  Usually the value is used as the "value ID" of the option.  But, with the OOTB fields types in Jira as well as some 3rd party field types, none of them allow the configuration of both a value ID along with a value display name.  Behind the scenes Jira assigns IDs to the value options which can be seen in the DB as well as the source HTML on the page where it is used but there is no way to configure the IDs ourselves.

Anyway, I'm looking for an add-on that allows me to create some common form input fields (checkbox, radio button, dropdown, etc.) with configurable value option IDs.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

There is no way to do that, it would require a rewrite of some of the fundamental parts of Jira from the ground up.

That isn't going to happen, because there's no perceivable use for it.

Could you explain why you think being able to choose underlying ids would be of use, rather than letting the service handle it all for you whilst providing perfectly good labels?

[Al Johnson]

Application integration

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That doesn't really explain it.  A proper application integration would use the values and be aware of the changes.

[Al Johnson]

No, you don't use presentation layer display values.  You use value IDs.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm sorry I was not clear.  It is up to your integration to seek the ids, not dictate them to another system.

[Al Johnson]

It's not dictating, it's coordination.  If the value IDs are not merely surrogate keys, but real world unique identifiers, then the natural and straightforward approach is to use those unique identifiers.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, your integration should co-ordinate with Jira.  Not tell it what to do.

Take a look at a Jira database like the one I was trying to repair today.  Are you seriously proposing that you want to manually set the id for every one of the 25,000 options and labels we skimmed over today?

IDs should be co-ordinated, yes, but not dictated.  It is up to your integration to understand them, not tell it what to do.

[Al Johnson]

No, that's not what i'm saying.  Thanks for your input Nic.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think I may be misunderstanding what you're saying, for which I apologise. 

My understanding is that you want to tell Jira what IDs you want it to use to uniquely label its internal objects.  Is that wrong?