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Streamline Issue Reporting

Last modified: 23 July 2024

You can set up a basic issue reporting process without workflows. It all starts with the configuration of the custom fields in your projects. For most custom fields, you can choose whether the field can or can't be empty.

If the field can't be empty, assign a default value in the configuration. This value is automatically assigned to each issue reported in the project. Moreover, you can't clear the value of the field, only replace it with another value.

By defining whether fields can or can't be empty and setting default values accordingly, you can effectively set the starting point for new issues in your project.

While field configuration options are useful, they have some limitations. There are a number of use cases that aren't addressed by empty values and default values:

  • You want to require a value in the Due Date field. Fields that store simple values (like string, integer, float, date, or period) can't store a default value. In new issues, these fields are always empty.

  • You want reporters to set the value in a specific field without suggesting a default. For example, you want to assign each task to a Subsystem, but there isn’t a logical value that you would suggest as a default.

  • You want to set default values dynamically. For example, you always want the Due Date to be two weeks from today.

  • You want to provide your customers with a template for reporting issues. The template contains predefined values for custom fields and a default description.

  • As an extension of the previous case, you want to provide your customers with a collection of templates for issues in the same project. Each template varies based on the value that is selected for a custom field value (like Type) or can be applied to a draft using menu actions.

Support for these use cases can be implemented with various workflow rules, some of which are already available as default workflows in YouTrack.