Setting a Custom Field Value using 'Custom Field Defaults' and Velocity

since 1.7.7

1 Summary
2 Example - Setting a Date field 1 day in the future
- 2.1 Create a new Custom Field Default
- 2.2 Showing the velocity context
  - 2.2.1 Specific Email related values
3 Add the Velocity code
- 3.1 Example: Email Address arrays:
- 3.2 Dates
- 3.3 Preview the output
4 Related articles

Summary

It is possible to script (using Velocity) a dynamic custom field value to add to issues. The script is parsed, and whatever value is present in the template after rendering, will be the value applied to the custom field.

For more information on using Velocity see the User Guide here: http://velocity.apache.org/engine/devel/user-guide.html

This guide refers to the legacy custom field default system introduced in version 1.7.7, which is found at the top profile level. Information on using the new project mapping-level system can be found here: Use Custom Field Defaults.

Example - Setting a Date field 1 day in the future

Create a new Custom Field Default

When the Field Value type is set to Velocity Scripted Value, the "Velocity Context" is expandable, showing the contents of the JEMH Velocity Context, with hyperlinks to online Javadoc.

Showing the velocity context

The icon pops up the velocity context available, including (for now) some static values that would be supplied during real processing

Example content:

Specific Email related values

since 2.4.21

context variable	Data Type	Description

context variable	Data Type	Description
message	javax.mail.Message	the raw message object
subject	java.lang.String	the Subject text
`$jemhUtils.getCatchEmailAddress().getAddress()`	java.lang.String	The Mailbox catchEmailAddress
toAddresses	javax.mail.InternetAddress[]	the to: addressees
ccAddresses	javax.mail.InternetAddress[]	the cc: addressees
bccAddresses	javax.mail.InternetAddress[]	the bcc: addressees (don't expect many here!)
allAddresses	javax.mail.InternetAddress[]	all addressees
body	java.lang.String	the post processed (html > markup) content – since JEMH 2.7.36 for Jira 7.10.x
jemhUtils	http://ppl-docs.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/JEMH/4.1.0/com/javahollic/jira/emh/api/IJEMHVelocityContextUtils.html	JEMH Helper class

Add the Velocity code

Example: Email Address arrays:

#foreach ($aCc in $ccAddresses) $aCc.getAddress() : #end

Dates

$longVal is defined as a variable, (with the value of the current time in milliseconds, plus 24(hours)*60(minutes)*60(seconds)*1000(millis) = 8640000), then the $dateFormatter is used with a specific style, based on the date generated from $jemhDateUtils.createDate:

#set($longVal = $currentMillis.longValue() + 86400000 )
$dateFormatter.withStyle($dateTimeStyle.DATE).format($jemhDateUtils.createDate($longVal))

Preview the output

Press the blue preview button to render the Velocity code in the Preview window.

After Submitting the form, the Custom Field Defaults section view will show the rendered Velocity values as applicable (here showing the next days date, 15/Oct/16 in a valid format):

Now, issues created, will have the Custom Field Test Date set with a dynamically generated value of 29/Mar/15, which is correctly parsed by JIRA and results in issues being created with the appropriate value: