How to customise texts in some Jira dialogue boxes

Summary

Sometimes it is possible to customise simple dialogue boxes in Jira to display custom texts, or add additional warnings etc.

Environment

This should work on any version of Jira, however, we only tested this solution in 8.20.7, it might not work on other Jira versions and the steps below might need to be adjusted.

Notice also that this is a direct and static text replacement on static dialogue boxes in the whole Jira instance, i.e. same steps can't be implemented on a per-project or a per-screen basis.

Purpose

To enable customers to customize some Jira dialogue boxes. Notice that the information below is provided on best effort and as is basis as customisation like this usually falls outside of Atlassian Support Offerings scope.

Example use case

You would like to change the message on the "Delete Issue" dialogue box, like below:

• Before

  

• After

  

In this case the text "Please confirm that you wish to delete this issue. Deleting an issue removes it permanently from Jira, including all of its comments and attachments. If you have completed the issue, it should usually be resolved or closed - not deleted." is deemed as auxiliary, and some customers may need to remove it or modify it to include a translation to a different language etc.

Solution

The solution will vary depending on which Default Language is Jira configured with (to check - click ⚙ > System > Default language)

Please refer to 2 examples below.

Example 1. "English - Australia"

1. Find the dialogue you'd like to change and save an EXACT copy of it.

2. Stop Jira

3. Browse to your Jira Installation Directory

4. Browse to the following directory within your Jira Installation Directory

   atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/com/atlassian/jira/web/action/

5. Locate JiraWebActionSupport.properties and make a backup

   cp JiraWebActionSupport.properties JiraWebActionSupport.properties.backup

6. Open the original file with a text editor of your preference and search for the dialogue you would like to change(Note this may be split across multiple lines and for the above example this what I found:

   JiraWebActionSupport.properties

   ## All keys from ./com/atlassian/jira/web/action/issue/DeleteIssue.properties deleteissue.title = Delete Issue: {0} deleteissue.title.subtask = Delete Sub-Task: {0} deleteissue.desc.line1 = Please confirm that you wish to delete this issue. deleteissue.desc.line2 = Deleting an issue removes it permanently from Jira, including all of its comments and attachments. deleteissue.desc.line3 = If you have completed the issue, it should usually be resolved or closed - not deleted. deleteissue.submitname = Delete deleteissue.subtask.warning = {0}Note{1}: issue''s {2} sub-tasks will be deleted.

7. Modify the text to your preference (Note this will affect ALL Projects and cannot be limited), For example:

   JiraWebActionSupport.properties

   ## All keys from ./com/atlassian/jira/web/action/issue/DeleteIssue.properties deleteissue.title = Delete Issue: {0} deleteissue.title.subtask = Delete Sub-Task: {0} deleteissue.desc.line1 = This is an example. deleteissue.desc.line2 = Modifying this file is not supported. deleteissue.desc.line3 = If you have completed the issue, it should usually be resolved or closed - not deleted. deleteissue.submitname = Delete deleteissue.subtask.warning = {0}Note{1}: issue''s {2} sub-tasks will be deleted.

8. Start Jira

9. Navigate to the page and generate the dialogue for the particular message you've modified and confirm it has been modified.

   

Example 2. Language Packs

Note the language packs file names will vary, in the below example I have modified the Korean Language pack.

In the event that you would like to modify a particular language you will need to perform the following additional steps

1. Find the dialogue you'd like to change and save an EXACT copy of it.

2. Stop Jira.

3. Browse to your Jira Installation Directory

4. Browse to the following directory within your Jira Installation Directory

   /atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins

5. Identify and make a backup of the language pack

   cp jira-core-language-pack-ko_KR-8.15.0.20211201009999.jar jira-core-language-pack-ko_KR-8.15.0.20211201009999.backup

6. Create a temporary folder in my case, I am modifying the Korean Language Pack and navigate into it

   mkdir korean cd <Jira Installation Directory>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins/korean

7. We will now need to unpack the Jar file into the above directory

   jar xvf <Jira Installation Directory>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins/jira-core-language-pack-ko_KR-8.15.0.20211201009999.jar

8. Navigate into the following directory and locate the following file:

   <Jira Installation Directory>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins/korean/com/atlassian/jira/web/action/JiraWebActionSupport_ko_KR.properties

9. Locate the string you'd like to modify in there and modify similar to the above steps

10. Delete the Language Pack "jira-core-language-pack-ko_KR-8.15.0.20211201009999.jar"

11. You will now need to repack the file and this can be done with the following command:

    jar cvf jira-core-language-pack-ko_KR-8.15.0.20211201009999.jar <Jira Installation Directory>/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/atlassian-bundled-plugins/korean

12. Start Jira

13. Navigate to the page and generate the dialogue for the particular message you've modified and confirm it has been modified.