Working with workflows
Here's an example of a default workflow:
Statuses and transitions
A status represents the state of an issue at a specific point in your workflow. An issue can be in only one status at a given point in time. When defining a status, you can optionally specify properties.
A transition is a link between two statuses that enables an issue to move from one status to another. In order for an issue to move between two statuses, a transition must exist.
A transition is a one-way link, so if an issue needs to move back and forth between two statuses, two transitions need to be created. The available workflow transitions for an issue are listed on the View issue screen.
Active and inactive workflows
There are slight differences between editing an inactive and an active workflow. We place restrictions on the modifications you can make to an active workflow, due to the impact the changes will have on projects and/or issue types that use this workflow.
| Workflow status | Description |
|---|---|
Inactive workflow | An inactive workflow is a workflow that is not currently being used by any projects. Because there are no issues currently transitioning through an inactive workflow, you can edit the workflow's steps and transitions directly. For details on this, see Working in text mode. |
Active workflow | An active workflow is a workflow that is currently being used by one or more projects. When you edit an active workflow, JIRA first creates a draft of it, that you can then modify as you see fit. When you've finished, you can publish your draft and, optionally, save your original workflow as an inactive backup. The following limitations apply when editing the draft for an active workflow: |
Workflow designer
The workflow designer is a graphical tool that allows you to see the layout of your workflow and to create and edit a workflow's steps and transitions. You will need to log in as a user with the 'JIRA System Administrators' global permission to access the functionality described below.
With the workflow designer, you can:
- Manage status and transitions: add, click and drag, or select to edit properties (Workflow properties) to rename, or delete (from the workflow but not JIRA).
- Add a global transition that allows every other status in the workflow to transition to the selected status. Select Allow all statuses to transition to this one in the properties panel for the transition.
- Change the screen that a transition uses. See Working in text mode for details.
- Configure advanced transition options, such as triggers, conditions, validators, and post functions. See the Advanced workflow configuration page.
Creating workflows
There are a few ways you can start a new workflow. These include cloning an existing workflow, creating a new workflow, and importing a workflow.
Copy an existing workflow
- Choose
> Issues. - Select Workflows to open the Workflows page, which displays all of the workflows in your system.
- Copy an existing workflow using the Copy link in the Operations column (shown above). Enter a name and description and select the Copy button.
- Customize it by adding or editing steps and transitions.
When you have finished customizing your workflow, see Managing your workflows for details on how to use it with a JIRA project.
Create a new workflow
For advanced administrators
- Click Workflows in the left-hand nav panel, then Add Workflow at the top of the screen.
- Enter a name and description for your workflow. Click Add.
The workflow opens in edit mode, and contains a step called Open and an incoming transition called Create. - Continue with your workflow customizations, by adding and editing steps and transitions.
Import a workflow
Please see the documentation on Importing workflows.
Configuring a workflow
Editing a project's workflow
Whenever you create a new JIRA project, your project automatically uses the default workflow scheme. The scheme associates all available issue types in the project with the JIRA system workflow. Since neither the JIRA system workflow nor the default workflow scheme are editable, JIRA creates an editable copy of the system workflow and workflow scheme for your project.
- Choose
> Projects, and select the relevant project. - On the Administration page for the project, click Workflows.
- Click the 'edit' icon at the top-right of the box, and JIRA automatically does the following:
- Creates a draft copy of the system workflow named 'Your Project Name Workflow (Draft)'.
- Creates a new workflow scheme for the workflow named 'Your Project Name Workflow Scheme'.
- Associates any existing issues in your project with the new workflow.
- You can now edit your draft workflow. Click on a status or transition to see editing options in the panel that appears.
- When you are finished, click Publish Draft. The dialog allows you to publish your draft and, optionally, save your original workflow as an inactive backup.
Setting the resolution field
In JIRA, an issue is either open or closed, based on the value of its 'Resolution' field — not its 'Status' field.
- An issue is open if its resolution field has not been set.
- An issue is closed if its resolution field has a value (e.g. Fixed, Cannot Reproduce).
This is true regardless of the current value of the issue's status field (Open, In Progress, etc). Therefore, if you need your workflow to force an issue to be open or closed, you will need to set the issue's resolution field during a transition. There are two ways to do this:
- Set the resolution field automatically via a post function.
- Prompt the user to choose a resolution via a screen. See Working in text mode for details on this.
Renaming workflow transition buttons
If you copied the system workflow and you wish to rename the workflow transition buttons on the View Issue page, you must delete the following properties from all transitions in the copied workflow:
jira.i18n.titlejira.i18n.description
Otherwise, the default names (i.e. values of these properties) will persist. Read more about transition properties.
Working in text mode
Text mode is an advanced way of working with workflows, and it shows the difference between steps and statuses. In text mode, you work directly with steps. For details, see Working in text mode.
Advanced workflow configuration
See the documentation on Advanced workflow configuration.