Customize look & feel of custom fields

The second step in configuring a connected custom field consists in setting up how the data retrieved from an external source will be displayed in your Jira issue.

Custom field type

In this section you can select whether your field will be a snapshot or an object.

Once this choice has been made during the first configuration of your field, it cannot be modified. Please make sure that you know the differences between the two types.

Snapshot

If no dependency is needed on this field, or if the dependency is based on its display value, you should use the snapshot type.

Object

With this type, you will be able to configure two attributes that can then be used in connected custom field queries: ID (.id) and Template (.value). Both attributes stores values as a String type.

The ID attribute is stored directly in the object and is useful for dependencies.
Only the value configured in the Template attribute will be displayed in the issue.

The object type also lets you have “live” fields.

You can learn more about fields dependencies in our dedicated page: Dependencies between connected fields.

Recalculate displayed value on issue view

For the object type, the option “Recalculate displayed value on issue view” is available.

When enabled, the connected custom field becomes “live”, meaning that its value is updated each time the issue is viewed (in addition to “each time the field is edited”, which is the case for all connected fields).

In order to recalculate the display value, you must enter a new query "Live REST Endpoint" (for REST API custom fields) or “SQL live query” (for database custom fields) that will use the value stored in the "ID" object attribute in it.

Known limitations

Here are a few known limitations when using Object custom fields:

Difficulty of integration with Jira Automation
- update triggers work, but you can't easily push a value into the field, it must follow the right object format.
Some gadgets don't work with Object custom fields
- you can vote for the feature request here.
The “live” update takes into account our 5-minutes cache, which means that it can take up to 5 minutes to reflect data source changes in the connected custom field.
For live fields, the value is only updated when the issue is viewed, nowhere else, which can lead to discrepancies on reports or JQL filters.
If the live field is a parent, make sure to use the ID attribute to make your dependency, as the display value change on issue view won't trigger children fields update.

Template

This section lets you define the output of your external query.

The values of connected custom fields are generated in two steps:

a query is made to the external data source, which retrieves a result set
a template is then applied to the result set

The ouput of this template depends on the custom field type, it can be a list of options for select lists, or a text string.

For select lists, you can use the following template:

CODE

${row.name}

For read-only fields, you can use the following template:

CODE

${data.name}

Learn a lot more in our Template guide.