How to Add Custom Options into Field Options Sync [Dictionary]

Using the Field Options Sync use case with the Dictionary type, you can synchronize an external list with a native Jira custom field. This works well so far if you want the custom field to be exactly as the data source provides the data. In some cases, you may want to add additional field options, but they are not present in the data source. So far, any manually added field options are disabled after each synchronisation if they are not present in the data source. But there is a workaround…

Sample Data Source

Let’s say you are using the File Options Sync with a data source named original that returns the following data:

JSON

{
    "result": [
        {
            "Id": "001",
            "Name": "Name1"
        },
        {
            "Id": "002",
            "Name": "Name2"
        }
    ]
}

This will result in a custom field select-list that has 2 options: Name1 and Name2

Additional Field Options

To add custom values to this data source let’s create a custom JSON file on your local computer and name it extension.json

CODE

{
    "result": [
        {
            "Id": "Custom001",
            "Name": "Manual1"
        },
        {
            "Id": "Custom002",
            "Name": "Manual2"
        }
    ]
}

It should be structured like the original data source and the ID fields should not collide with any ID from the original data source.

Create a new data source of type File and upload the previously created extension.json and name the data source extension for example.

Merge data sources

Now create a third data source with a name like merged data of type Merge Data Sources and select the extension and original data sources from the drop down.

Testing the merge will now return data looking like this:

CODE

{
    "result": [
        {
            "Id": "Custom001",
            "Name": "Manual1"
        },
        {
            "Id": "Custom002",
            "Name": "Manual2"
        },
        {
            "Id": "001",
            "Name": "Name1"
        },
        {
            "Id": "002",
            "Name": "Name2"
        }
    ]
}

Now you only have to change the data source in the Field Options Sync from original to merged data and now your custom field options will be synced automatically.