Workflow steps shown on issue screen with Greenhopper Simplified Workflow

[Terry Skene]

Asking as a result of the issue discussed here: https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/108056/anonymous-user-can-change-status-of-issue...

We are using a Greenhopper Simplified Workflow, which does not appear to have transitions defined by default. On the default issue screen, it shows the workflow steps/stages in addition to the transitions (if any are later defined). How do I show only transitions as workflow options on the issue scren and not show the workflow steps/stages? My ultimate goal in doing this is to disallow anonymous workflow changes as described in the other discussion above.

Thanks in advance!

[Terry Skene · Accepted solution]

Thanks again Justin for the feedback. One option would certainly be to create a new (non-GH Simplified) workflow, but I swear there was a reason we needed the simplified workflow that I can't remember at the moment...

In any case, we now have a resolution for this using our existing workflow with a few modifications.

It all came down to the “Global Transitions” that are added to the workflow when a GH Simplified workflow is created. A global transition is created for each step in the workflow using the same name as the step and each of these transitions allows users to move an issue from one step to any other step. This is the diagram view of this workflow (note that no transitions exist, other than "Create Issue" in the diagram):

After working with Atlassian support, we found that we can implement one of two options to solve our initial problem:

a.) Delete all global transitions from the left column by selecting each one and clicking the red icon with a minus in it, leaving only the steps in the workflow diagram. Then, add transitions with conditions and/or validators to the diagram.

b.) Add conditions and/or validators to the global transitions to restrict access to authenticated users.

Accomplishing the first option (a) is relatively straightforward if you’re familiar with the workflows. However, accomplishing the second option (b) isn’t that obvious and is only possible from the text view of the workflow. Here is what I did:

1. From the workflow edit screen, select the text view:

2. Click on a transition in the transitions column:

3. Add a condition to restrict access:

I typically use this one:

4. Repeat for remaining global transitions in the transitions column

Atlassian is aware of how confusing this is and is planning on addressing the issue <someday>. I personally hope that part of their solution will be to get rid of global transitions altogether.

[Justin Alex Paramanandan]

Hi Terry,

From what I understand in your question, you would like to hide the View Workflow link (beside the status) when you are viewing an issue. Am I right on track for this?

If this is the case, have you tried to revoke permissions to View (Read-Only) Workflow (in the project's permission scheme) to only yourself, specific groups or no one at all? This will disable the workflow from being accessed by anonymous users in understanding the flow of an issue; while maintaining the view of the transitions possible when in a particular status.

It would look something like this:

BEFORE

CONFIGURING THE PERMISSION

AFTER

I believe that this is what you're looking for? Let me know if it isn't. :)

[Terry Skene]

Hi Justin,

Thank you for the response, but unfortunately, that's not what the issue is. When you convert your project to use the "GreenHopper Simplified Workflow", it adds the status values (a.k.a. "steps" or "stages" depending on what context you're in) to the row of buttons above the "details" section.

Using your screenshot as an example, if you converted your workflow to the GreenHopper Simplified workflow, it would add an "In Progress" button (your status highlighed in the red box) to the row, next to the transitions you have up there already: "Stop Progress" and "Resolve Issue". It would also add the other possible statuses you have in your workflow ("Resolved", etc). Furthermore, clicking on one of these status buttons changes the status of the issue to that value. This basically makes the transitions uncecessary since you can just move the issue through the workflow by changing the status. These status buttons that show up in the row after converting the workflow are what I can't seem to get rid of.

While you can set a condition on the transition from the workflow edit screen to hide/show transitions per user, there is no way that I can find to set a condition on a status and it shows up even when a user isn't logged in, which is the big issue here. I want anonymous users to be able to browse issues, but I certainly don't want them moving them through the workflow.

Hopefully that makes sense.

[Justin Alex Paramanandan]

HI @Terry,

I've got around to testing the Simply Workflow option in Greenhopper, and I believe I found the root cause to the issue that you meant. From your recent comment, I understand that when you're on a particular status (In Progress, for example), the transition buttons would show all possible transitions that issue can go to (including In Progress).

From what I gather in my findings, the cause of this happens to be because all transitions, validations, conditions and post-functions are removed when you migrate a project's existing workflow to the GH Simplified Workflow. Below is the alert window that you will be presented when you are about to convert to the simplified workflow:

And if you chose to Simplify, this is the resulting look of the workflow (we are looking at the In Progress step):

Notice that from that step, you can go to all possible transitions that is available. I believe that this is the function of the simplified workflow: to ease the transitions when you are performing a scrum/kanban work.

To be honest, I'm not really a fan of this (as are you as well) since anyone can perform transitions to anywhere, and even can perform cyclic transitions (I've tried clicking the In Progress transition when the issue is in an In Progress state, and it just stays there).

If you would like to remove certain transitions from a possible state, there are two ways I'll suggest:

• either you have a new workflow and associate that workflow to your project (this will ensure that certain statuses are limited to certain transitions; such as Open > In Progress > Resolved > Closed instead of Open > In Progress > In Progress > In Progress > Resolved > Closed).
• or, you can edit the existing simplified workflow to remove the transitions that do not seem valid to your process. Have validations, conditions and post functions if necessary.

Hope this helps!