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Worklog Sheet plug-in adds also a page to JIRA administration. You can configure the following settings through the Worklog Sheet plug-in administration page:
- You can select which JIRA user groups have access to Worklog Sheet plug-in. (section "Permissions" at administration page)
- Yout can configure which are visible in the user selection list. (section "User Selection" at administration page)
- You can select the global issue filter that is used to filter the editable issues for Worklog Sheet. By default Worklog Sheet uses built-in "all issues" filter. It will be in use until a custom issue filter is selected. (section "Issue Filtering" at administration page)
- You can configure comment field appearence, data range validation and session timeout. (section "General Settings" at adminstration page)
- You can configure how Worklog Sheet looks and feels. (section "Localization" at administration page)
Below is described more detailed information about some configuration areas.
Issue Filters
It is essential in Worklog Sheet to have a good issue filter. Large amount of issues can cause performance issues and lead to large hard-to-read issue selection list. As a general guideline: a filter that best suits the purpose of Worklog Sheet would be one that lists active issues in as efficient manner as possible. The following aspects of JIRA can be used to create a good issue filter:
- Project – if the way how projects are organized in your JIRA instance allows, select only projects that are used for work logging instead of "All projects".
- Workflow – use issue status attribute to select only issues that are active, i.e. not resolved or closed.
- Current user/group – if you are using JIRA 4.0 or later, the advanced searching feature allows you to use the username and group information of the currently logged in user to limit the issue filter results. This can be used in conjunction with the issue assignee field or user/group picker custom fields. For example:
savedfilter = "Active Issues" AND assignee = currentUser() or
savedfilter = "Active Issues" AND Custom field name IN membersOf("jira-developers")
- Custom field – custom issue fields can be used to mark issues to be work logging issues or not. For example a custom field "Log work" with values "Yes" and "No" can be used in the issue filter to rule out issues with the custom field set to value "No".
- Combining the results of saved filters – with the advanced searching feature, it is possible to combine the results of two or more saved filters using logical operators such as AND or OR.
You can read more about the issue filter saving and advanced searching features of JIRA 4 here and here. For more information about issue filtering in older JIRA versions 3.13 and 3.12, refer to here or here.
Issue Permissions
The ability to see the Worklog Sheet link (to have access to Worklog Sheet as configured in the Worklog Sheet settings page) does not guarantee that work logs are viewable or editable through it. This is controlled by the Permission Schemes configured in JIRA. On these issue-level permissions Worklog Sheet currently relies on the Permission Schemes configured in JIRA. The issue level permissions affect on how a single user can edit his own or other's work log entries in a certain issue. The minimum permissions that grant the user to edit his or hers worklog entries (i.e. use Worklog Sheet) are:
- Work On Issues: The ability to view and add work log entries
- Edit Own Worklogs: The ability to edit own work log entries
- Delete Own Worklogs: The ability to delete own work log entries (optional, enables the "Delete" operation in Worklog Sheet)
Additionally in order for a user to be able to administer all work log entries, the user needs to be granted with the following permissions:
- Edit All Worklogs: The ability to edit work log entries of all users
- Delete All Worklogs: The ability to delete work log entries of all users
A tip how to hide work hours
There may be situation where users should be able to see the issue, but not the filled work hours. A solution is to have a different project (e.g. one that is called LOG) that is used specifically for filling in work hours. A link relation called "logs the work of/work is logged in" is made to indicate the relation between the work hour logging issue and the main issue. For example the main issue "CUST-12 Some issue" could have a work logging issue "LOG-4 (CUST-12) Some issue" linked to it. The issue filter configured in the plug-in could then be made to include the work logging issue and exclude the main issue.
Date Input Field Format
Worklog Sheet plug-in lets you select whether the date input field in the Worklog Sheet page is displayed in JIRA standard format (date and time) or date only format. When choosing either one of them, make sure that the date picker Java and JavaScript format is configured the same way in JIRA Look and Feel settings. For more information about this, see Advanced JIRA configuration with jira-application.properties at JIRA documentation.
By default the JIRA Java and JavaScript date formats differ from each other due to differences in formatting style. When changing the JavaScript formatting, you will have to know about Unix date function formatting.
JIRA Session Timeout (for version 1.0 only)
JIRA session timeout is set to 60 minutes by default. I.e. user sessions that have been left inactive for longer than 60 minutes will be terminated and all unsaved data will be lost. This can be a problem if work log entries are entered in small portions during the work day. In Worklog Sheet, pressing the Save buttons while on an expired session will lead to data loss as the save operation is ignored and user is forwarded to the login screen to authenticate. To avoid data loss, you can:
- Increase the session timeout value in JIRA web.xml deployment descriptor file. Instructions can be found at JIRA documentation. Please note that keeping sessions open longer will consume more server memory.
- Instruct Worklog Sheet users to click Worklog Sheet link in the JIRA top navigation bar every time prior to adding work log entries. Clicking the link will ensure that the session is still active and the user is logged into JIRA.
Worklog Sheet version 1.2 has a better solution for managing session inactivity.
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