Can I have custom field name displayed differently from its name defined in the system settings?
Asked by Becky Yu:

Hello Atlassian Community experts,

**We'd like to know if anyone knows whether there is any existing 3rd-party plugin that can help us to have the custom field name renamed on the all the screens (create/edit/view screens) while the name remains unchanged on the backend. Or any alternative solutions are welcomed.**

Story behind this:

Based on my research, Jira does not allow custom fields to have a separate display name from their "logical" name, which is defined in the system settings. This limitation has already been logged as a feature request to Atlassian:

<https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-39586>

(If this issue affects your team, please upvote the request to gain more visibility!)

This limitation creates challenges for us. While we aim to reuse generic field names like "Product" across multiple projects, the meaning of "Product" can vary between projects. Often, we find the need to have two "Product" fields in different custom field types (e.g., a single-select in one project and a multi-select in another). This causes confusion for our users, especially when they perform JQL queries. Although users can differentiate between the fields using custom field IDs, this creates a poor user experience, as it's unreasonable to expect users to remember which field ID corresponds to the "Product" they use regularly.

To mitigate this issue, we have implemented a guideline to add a suffix to custom field names where necessary. While this helps reduce confusion, it doesn't fully address the core problem---it still hampers the user experience.

Currently, our only workaround is to use a ScriptRunner Behavior script to change the field label on the create/edit screens, like this:

```
def field = getFieldById(getFieldChanged())
field.setLabel("My Custom Summary")
```

We can also inject the following JavaScript code in the field description through the associated field configuration:

```
<script>
  const label = document.querySelector('label[for="customfield_17702"]');
  if (label) { 
    label.textContent = 'Product'; 
  } 
</script>
```

However, this approach is quite hacky and poses maintenance challenges.

We are looking for a more sustainable solution. so again, **does anyone know of a third-party plugin that can help rename custom fields on all screens (create/edit/view) while keeping the logical name unchanged in the backend? Any alternative solutions are also welcome.**

Thank you for your insight in advance.

Jira Version: 9.12.0 Data Center


Answers:
author: Ashish Mani Tripathi
body: Hi [@Becky Yu](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5517266) : Really a great question and use case but as far as I know we don't have anything as such currently. I'm totally agree with your research and the response you received earlier.

You would use 'product' for single select field and 'products' for multi select field to avoid confusion. To provide more clarity while selecting the options, you can use help text.

Each projects can have it own drop-down values with different help text.

Hope this will help you. But yes I'm also eager to see if anything comes in future on the same line.

Thank you.

comments: author: Becky Yu
body: Hi Ashish,

Thank you for your response --- I really appreciate it!

We understand the flexibility of using different field types with the same name, but the challenge arises when users run JQL queries. In our case, the "Product" field is used in different departments, and it's difficult for users to distinguish between them. Unfortunately, as far as I know, the helper text doesn't display in JQL searches, which would definitely be useful in this situation!

Thanks again for your input. I'm also hoping we might see improvements around this in the future.


author: Ashish Mani Tripathi
body: In JQL, you can use respect project and then select 'product' field. So that you will have that project related drop-down options available for users to select.

Hope this will help you. Otherwise agree with you we need to wait for atlassian to provide some solution on this.

Thank you for your question.


author: Becky Yu
body: [@Ashish Mani Tripathi](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5505617) - interesting! we don't see a way to provide project-specific options for users to select, is that available for Jira Data Center? It would be really helpful if you could provide some more details or screenshots to that.


author: Ashish Mani Tripathi
body: This is available in all types of Jira. If you are in advance JQL screen then just use below query:

Project = xxxxx and product = zzzzz

In place of xxxxx, you can write your project name/key and in place of zzzzz, you can mention your desire product.

And if you are on basic filter screen then refer the attached screen shot. Under more, you can type 'product' field and then select the desired drop-down options under it.

Hope this will you and your projects. If yes, then please accept my solution.

![Screenshot_2024-09-24-09-02-48-92_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/348862iA36FCA292A63E2B1/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot_2024-09-24-09-02-48-92_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg")

Cherrs!!!


author: Becky Yu
body: Ah I see. I use advanced filter more often so I wasn't aware this for the basic filter. Thank you for sharing :)


Tags: custom-field

data-center

jira-data-center

scriptrunner