Custom Field Display Requirements

Author: Ryan O'Leary

This feature is documented here: http://bugs.mantisbt.org/view.php?id=5744

Mantis allows for creation of custom field definitions for bugs. Currently, Mantis implements code allowing configuration of when the each custom field is displayed and when each custom field is a required field. The current configuration allows the user to specify the display/require option on 4 conditions; report, update, resolved, closed. The report, resolved, and closed conditions each map to one Status. The update conditions maps to all other statuses.

This feature will allow the individual mapping of custom field display/require properties with every individual Status.

• Add a field to the custom_field table to store the serialized array of display options for every status (varchar(255)). This data is stored as a serialized 1-dimensional array in the format a[status_id]=[display_value] where display_value = {0=none;1=display;2=require}. – NOTE: This will limit the amount of statuses to around 27. If we want to support more than 27 Statuses, we should make this a TEXT field instead.
• Delete the existing fields that are used for display/require properties in the custom_field table. (display_report, display_update, display_resolved, display_closed, require_report, require_update, require_resolved, require_closed).

• Add string $s_edit_custom_field_status_title for the Custom Field Configuration page sub-title.
• Add strings $s_custom_field_require, $s_custom_field_display, $s_custom_field_none for the Custom Field Configuration column titles.
• Remove strings $s_custom_field_display_report, $s_custom_field_display_update, $s_custom_field_display_resolved, $s_custom_field_display_closed, $s_custom_field_require_report, $s_custom_field_require_update, $s_custom_field_require_resolved, $s_custom_field_require_closed as they are no longer required.

The most visible change to the users is in the configuration of custom fields. Each field now has a table at the bottom showing the mapping of display value to Status. An example is here:

The setting applies to viewing bugs, updating bugs, and changing status.

As part of the patch attached to bug 5744, I've added a function called migrateCustomFieldDisplay(). This function will take the current custom fields settings using the display_ and require_ fields and transition them to the new display setting array. In the patch, the function is never called. During an upgrade, the function needs to be called AFTER the php patches have been applied, AFTER the new field has been added to the custom_field table, and BEFORE the old display_ and require_ fields are removed from the custom_field table.

The strings specified above that were removed, were only removed from the strings_english.txt file, not any of the other languages. Same with the strings added.

Not sure if this is correct, but in the MantisConnect API code, the new field that stores the display value as a serialized array returns it as such. So you'd get something like: “a:10:{i:10;i:2;i:20;i:1;i:30;i:2;i:40;i:2;i:50;i:1;i:60;i:1;i:70;i:2;i:71;i:2;i:72;i:0;i:73;i:0;}”

thraxisp - What happened to the 'Advanced' setting? This controlled fields that were displayed on the Advanced pages.

• roleary - The Advanced setting is still available (it's above the screenshot that I attached). However, I believe that “paulr” has taken my patch and is modifying it, and that the Advanced setting is something he's changing. Part of this is because it obviously doesn't make sense to have a field 'Required' and 'Display only on Advanced'. When he finishes his update, I'll change this page.

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thraxisp - I assume that the visibility by access level is retained. That is, viewer can't see fields with the read parameter set to a higher level.

• roleary - The visibility of fields is retained. Again, this could lead to a business rule issue where a field is not visible, but has been marked as 'Required'. In that case, it actually wouldn't get checked because it wouldn't have been displayed… I think. This issue will probably also be resolved by paulr's changes.

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