Not able to view Issue types from within the Project Settings

Summary

You are not able to view any Issue types from within the Project Settings, instead, you see the following error message in the UI:

Screenshot for the exact scenario:

At the time of the error, you should be able to see the following error stack trace in the atlassian-jira.log file:

This is failing at WorkflowActionsBean.getFieldScreenIdForView, which means that Jira is trying to find a screen for a workflow transition, but instead is getting an empty string, see this specific error message:

Diagnosis

In order to identify the workflow with a missing screen in the workflow transition you need to do either of the following:

1. Run the below SQL query which will find all workflows where the view is set to a value, but the corresponding fieldscreen id has no value:

   • 1 select * from jiraworkflows where descriptor ~ '(view=){1}((?!action).)*(<meta name="jira.fieldscreen.id"></meta>){1}';

   • From the above SQL output, you can copy the descriptor column output in the text editor and search for jira.fieldscreen.id with the missing screen ID for the workflow transitions explained below.

2. Export the workflow in XML format and save it locally. Then you can run the below grep command in the terminal from the location where you have downloaded the workflow.

   1. Replace the filename.xml with the actual workflow filename:

      1 grep -n -B4 '<meta name="jira.fieldscreen.id"><' filename.xml | grep "view="

These are example workflows for valid and invalid configurations which causes this issue:

❌ The following example is invalid and needs to be fixed. Because of this, we are running into this issue

ℹ️ From the above, if you see action id="41" has view="fieldscreen" but the id of the screen is not defined below in <meta name="jira.fieldscreen.id"></meta>

✔️ The following example is valid and does not need to be fixed, this is because in the action tag no attribute with view="fieldscreen" is mentioned when the transition Close happens.

✔️ Another example that is valid and does not need to be fixed:

Where do I find the id of the screen?

• From the DataBase, if you know the screen name you can get the id from fieldscreen table:

  • 1 select * from fieldscreen where name like '%name%';

• From the UI where the screen is associated with the transition:

• If you open the workflow in text mode you should see actions associated with multiple transitions.

• You will see that there should be a number associated with the transition that is <action id > number which you find in the XML format of the workflow (as shown above).

• The below screenshot show's this.

• If you click on Transition you should see if the screen is present or not.

• The 2 screenshots below show one with the screen name and one without.

Cause

⚠️ In the XML format of workflow for any transition, if the screen id is missing in spite of mentioning the fieldscreen in the view attribute of the <action> tag, then you would encounter this issue.

💡We suspect this is most likely to occur if you are importing any workflow from one server instance into another in Jira during the import of workflow automatically assigns new screens and fields present in the existing server.

ℹ️ Because of the null screen ID in the workflow configuration, it prevents editing of the workflow from the UI.

Solution

You have three different options to resolve this problem:

1. Update the workflow with the id of the screen from UI :

   • Edit those workflows in the GUI using Text mode

   • Edit the respective transitions in Text mode, and make sure to use the correct ID see the example examples mentioned previously.

   • Add screens accordingly

   • Save & Publish the workflows

2. You can edit the XML workflow by exporting, modifying, and then importing it back in:

   • Export the Issue workflow locally in the XML format.

   • Edit the XML format of the workflow by updating the screen id.

   • Import the updated workflow and associate this with the respective Issue type.

3. You can update the affected workflows manually from within the DB (use this as a last resort in favor of the above options!):

   • Schedule downtime to Shut down Jira and take a full backup of the database.

   • Use the SQL query in step 1 of the Diagnosis to get the affected workflow.

   • You have to update the descriptor column only for impacted transitions.

   • Work with your internal DBA for assistance in constructing the following query:

     1 2 update jiraworkflows set DESCRIPTOR = REPLACE(DESCRIPTOR,'<meta name="jira.fieldscreen.id"></meta>','<meta name="jira.fieldscreen.id">fieldscreen_ID</meta>') where ID in (workflow_ID);

     • ⚠️ Take note of the following ⚠️

       • The 2 placeholders above must be replaced with the correct IDs for your instance:

         • fieldscreen_ID

         • workflow_ID

     • It is important to note that the query should not replace any transitions which do not have any screens.

• • Restart Jira and verify that the problem is gone.

  • Lastly, edit the affected workflows -> edit the transitions -> update them with the desired screens where necessary -> Save & Publish.

ℹ️ If you cannot edit a transition in Text mode (getting a similar error), retry editing it in Diagram mode by:

• • Edit the transition -> associate it with a screen -> save

  • If the transition shouldn't have a screen, then edit it again -> remove the screen -> save