Andrei Cuzuioc
14 February 2023
ScriptRunner Behaviours for Jira Cloud is here
Ready to conditionally change how fields behave in Jira Cloud? ScriptRunner Behaviours has arrived for Cloud!
We recently shared the great news that Behaviours – the number one most-requested feature for ScriptRunner for Jira Cloud – was coming soon. We're back with even better news: it's here.
This post covers what’s included in the first release, how you can install it, plus four use cases for you to try right now.
Install Behaviours now
Ready to start customising Jira Cloud fields like never before? Grab the app on Atlassian Marketplace!
Change Jira fields and more based on previous inputs
Ever wanted to conditionally change how fields behave in Jira? Set rules to show or hide a field based on another field’s input? This responsive, logic-driven customisation has been a longtime favourite feature of Data Center and Server users of ScriptRunner for Jira, and it has now been introduced for Jira Cloud.
Behaviours represents a powerful step forwards in the mission to accurately align your tools with your organisation's processes. In this blog post, we’re going to take a look at the first version of Behaviours for Jira Cloud. We’ll outline some of the things that administrators can create and customise, and provide some ideas to get you started with the feature as soon as it becomes available in your instance.
It’s a huge boost for customisation power on Cloud, and we know you’re as excited as we are to see this feature beginning to unfold on a new hosting platform.
Five fields to start with, more to follow
This first version of Behaviours gives us a foundation on which to continue building new capabilities and marks the beginning of our journey with Atlassian to bring the full power of Behaviours to Cloud.
From launch, you will be able to define Behaviours for five of the most popular system fields in Jira:
- Priority
- Summary
- Assignee
- Labels
- Description
What you can do with them
For the fields listed above, you will be able to manipulate these actions:
- Hide and/or show fields
As straightforward as it sounds! If someone raises an Issue with the priority of Highest, you may want to bypass the collection of certain information in the name of speed; you can now make that happen automatically for your users. - Change field names
A nifty little way to rename fields for your users to give a better experience across different ticket types. Make Jira truly yours. - Change field descriptions
You can change the field description (also known as “helper text”) to guide users on the information that they may need to provide, depending on their role, or the issue type, for example. Certain user types may need more guidance than others, or be able to provide different information to other user types. You can now reflect that right where it matters. - Set default field values
It is a truth universally acknowledged that (good) templates save time and reduce errors. You can responsively set up default field values to show prompts for your colleagues. Team leads can make sure that the right information is collected by providing a strong starting point using these “templates” where possible.
We’re already working on what comes next – hint: did someone ask for custom fields? – and we’re feeling energised by this first release of Behaviours: it marks a huge step forward for user experience and customisation of Jira Cloud. We’re honoured to be working with Atlassian to blaze the trail for others interacting with the Atlassian UI modifications API and strengthening the future of Forge.
The behaviours landscape
Check out our documentation to see what’s possible right now and what we’re working on next!
Is your use case covered?
Want to see if your use case can be handled on Cloud yet?
How to install Behaviours
We mentioned in our previous announcement that–because Behaviours for Jira Cloud is built on Atlassian’s Forge technology and ScriptRunner for Jira Cloud is built on Atlassian’s Connect platform–it needs to be installed as a separate app, dedicated to the Behaviours feature. The installation process is straightforward and familiar, via Atlassian Marketplace, but to access Behaviours, the Behaviours app must be installed on an instance which is also running ScriptRunner for Jira: it cannot be used standalone.
Once installed, the new Behaviours app interacts seamlessly with ScriptRunner for Jira. As with all our other features, you can manage Behaviours via the ScriptRunner administrative menu, allowing you to access your superpowers from a single place.
A quick guide to installation can be found in the documentation here.
Don't have ScriptRunner for Jira Cloud yet?
Take advantage of Behaviours first release
We’ve outlined a few ideas to get you started with Behaviours once it becomes available for your Jira instance.
1. How to hide/show fields to Jira Cloud users in certain roles or groups
You can create a behaviour which hides a field for a specific user group or–conversely–makes it visible only to a specific role.
In the example below, only the Product Manager can see the priority field. The field is not shown to other user roles. This helps both the Product Manager, who does not want others to be able to dictate priorities for their team, and other users, who will no longer feel the pressure to guess the priority of their issue simply because the field is shown to them. Win, win!
Watch this short demo video for how to create a behaviour that hides/shows field for user in certain roles or groups.
2. How to automatically set the value of a Jira Cloud field based on the selection of another
Using Behaviours, you can implement business rules and improve efficiency for those creating issues by adding some ‘if-then’ conditions to your issue creation screen.
In the example below, setting up a behaviour provides a way to automatically assign a ticket to a specific person if the priority level is set as ‘High’. This kind of conditional logic can be taken in all kinds of directions depending on the needs of your business to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks.
In the example below, setting up a behaviour provides a way to automatically assign a ticket to a specific person if the priority level is set as ‘High’. This kind of conditional logic can be taken in all kinds of directions depending on the needs of your business to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks.
Watch this short demo video for how to create a behaviour that sets the value of a field based on the selection of another.
3. How to pre-populate Jira Cloud fields with default text
Are your teams tired of typing the same things on issues again and again? Fed up of chasing one another for missing information because certain details weren’t provided? You can make that a thing of the past using Behaviours.
Give more structure for users when they create a new issue by setting default text in certain fields (see list of supported fields above). This customisation can be applied to specific issue types, making sure that the information collected is always relevant only for the work at hand.
In the example below, whenever someone wants to create a new Story under the ‘Engineering’ project, the Summary and Description fields are filled with helpful text that the user can then edit. Less work, more consistency.
Watch this short demo video for how to create a behaviour that pre-populates fields with default text.
4. How to change Jira Cloud field name and description
You can also make the issue creation screen more relevant to your teams, for a given project or issue type, by changing the name displayed for a specific field. It’s also now possible to add customisable helper text under that field.
In the example below, when the issue type is changed to Request, the Summary field is automatically renamed into Title and helper text is added under the field with further instructions.
Watch this short demo video for how to create a behaviour that changes the field name and description or follow the steps in the documentation.
We can’t wait to hear about how you’re using ScriptRunner Behaviours on Jira Cloud!
See what else we're working on
You can check out what the ScriptRunner for Jira Cloud team are focused on at any time by bookmarking our product updates page.
Install Behaviours now
Ready to start customising Jira Cloud fields like never before? Grab the app on Atlassian Marketplace!