Fields
Fields lists every custom field with Jira's evidence of its use and the flows that use it, so you can decide whether a field can go, and it finds fields and statuses that are copies. It changes nothing in Jira.
On this page
Before you start
Fields is for Jira admins. A Jira admin turns on its background checks in the tool's settings, or with Turn on on its card. TuneCraft then reads the custom fields and statuses once a day. The first reading starts within the hour and takes a few minutes on most sites. To see which flows use a field, scan your automation export first: see Automation.
The Fields page
The page opens with summary tiles, most of them filters of the table below. The table shows each field with its state, when it was last used, its screens, contexts and spaces, the work items with a value in it, its filters and its flows. Use Show to filter: every field, fields that may go, fields on no screen, fields that are locked or managed by an app, and fields whose use is unknown to Jira. You can sort, find a field through Jira's own field search, and download the list as CSV. A row opens into Jira's evidence, what TuneCraft does not check, and the next step.
When a field may go
A field May go when all of these hold:
- it has not been used for longer than the months set in Fields settings, or Jira cannot say, or it is on no screen and in no context;
- Jira counts no work item with a value in it;
- no flow of the last scan uses it;
- once the Filters tool has read the site, no filter names it.
Jira says "Not tracked" or "No information" for a field whose use it did not record. TuneCraft reads that as unknown use, so the work items with a value decide.
A field is never proposed when it is locked, managed by an app or another Jira product, one that Jira cannot search (its values cannot be counted), or has a value on any work item TuneCraft can browse. The states are May go, Flows not checked, In use, Locked, Managed by an app, Can't count and Not counted yet.
A field that Jira's evidence says may go, but whose flows or filters TuneCraft could not check (no fresh scan of the flows, the Filters tool has not read the filters, or TuneCraft is not sure), is counted apart as "flows or filters not checked".
Steps spent on fields nobody sees
A field that flows set but that no screen shows and nothing reads costs steps for nothing. Fields says how many flows set it and how many steps a month those flows use in all, measured or estimated. Setting the field is only part of those steps.
Copies
Copies groups fields that share one name and one type. Names are compared without case, spaces or hyphens, and without a trailing "(migrated)". Copies count toward Jira's field limits and make searches and reports harder to read. TuneCraft suggests keeping the copy with the most work items with a value, then the most flows.
The page also groups company-managed statuses of one name, with their category, the space of a team-managed one, and their flows.
To merge copies, move their values to the one you keep in Jira, change the flows and filters that use the others, then delete them. Merging statuses changes workflows and moves work items: do it in Jira's workflow editor. A daily check looks for new copies.
What Fields cannot see
- Jira counts only the work items TuneCraft can browse. Work items in spaces it cannot browse, or under a security level it is not in, are not counted. A count can be up to 7 days old.
- TuneCraft does not check dashboards and their gadgets, boards, workflows or schemes for a field. Check a field there before you delete it.
What it costs and what it keeps
A reading costs about 1 Jira point for each field and 2 for each count of work items (measured), within TuneCraft's hourly budget for background checks. For each field it keeps the id, Jira's type, its counts, the day of its last use and a code of its name for copies, never the name. For each status it keeps the id, category, space and a code of its name. If you turn the checks off, what they read is removed within a day.
Questions about the app? Write to info@plugincraft.ca.