While many other software systems provide users with limited control over the presentation of screens, Jira is very flexible when it comes to screen customizations. You can create your own screens and decide what fields are to be placed on them and their order. You can also decide which screens are to be displayed for major issue operations. In Jira, you can create and design customized screens for the following operations:
- Creating an issue in the create issue dialog box
- Editing an issue when an issue is being updated
- Viewing an issue after an issue is created and is being viewed by users
- Transitioning an issue through a workflow (workflows will be covered in Chapter 7, Workflows and Business Process)
Screens are maintained centrally from the administration console, which means you need to be a Jira administrator to create and configure screens. Perform the following steps to access the View Screens page:
- Log in as a Jira administrator user
- Browse to the Jira administration console
- Select the Issues tab and then the Screens option; this will bring up the View Screens page
The View Screens page lists all the screens that are currently available in your Jira instance. You can select a screen and configure what fields will be on this screen and decide how you can divide a screen into various tabs.
For each of the screens listed here, Jira will also tell you what screen scheme each of the screens is a part of and the workflows that are being used. You have probably noticed that, for screens that are either part of a screen scheme or workflow, there is no Delete option available, as you cannot delete screens that are in use. You need to disassociate the screen from screen schemes and/or workflows to delete them, as shown in the following screenshot:
As shown in the preceding screenshot, for each screen you can perform the following operations:
- Configure: This configures what fields are to be placed on the screen. It is not to be confused with the Edit operation.
- Edit: This updates the screen's name and description.
- Copy: This makes a copy of the selected screen, including its tabs and field configurations.
- Delete: This deletes a screen from Jira. This is only available if it is not being used by a screen scheme or a workflow.