Custom fields support SIL script

Product Discovery hides some custom fields from Jira's standard interface, making them difficult to reference in scripts. This page explains how to use a diagnostic SIL script that discovers hidden custom fields in Product Discovery projects.

Here’s what the script does:

Finds all custom field IDs in your Product Discovery projects.
Automatically generates SIL aliases for the discovered fields.
Creates aliases directly in your sil.aliases file.
Displays manual alias code and links to documentation if automatic creation fails.

For additional details, see How the script works section.

Contents: 1 How to run the script 1.1 What to watch for when monitoring the script 1.2 Script code 2 How the script works 2.1 Step 1: Field discovery 2.2 Step 2: Alias creation

How to run the script

This script works on any Jira Cloud instance without modifications.

Create a new file in the SIL Manager.
Copy the script code from the code section below.
Click Run.
Monitor progress in the console tab at the bottom.

What to watch for when monitoring the script

Check your sil.aliases file after running the script.

Occasionally, line breaks can be missing at the end of the file (usually from manual editing), causing new aliases to merge with existing ones incorrectly. When aliases get combined this way, they become malformed and won't work properly.

Example of a sil.aliases file with a line break issue causing aliases to merge incorrectly.

Review error messages in the console output.

Review error messages in the console output. If alias creation fails, the script displays the exact alias code to add manually and links to documentation for instructions.

Console showing alias creation results with one error requiring manual fix.

For manual alias creation instructions, see the Managing aliases in the sil.aliases file page.

Check known limitations.

Some behaviors and restrictions are documented in the Other known limitations page.

Script code

The code below is longer and more complex than typical SIL scripts because it's designed to work on any Product Discovery setup without modifications. Don't let the complexity discourage you; most SIL automation is much simpler than this diagnostic tool.

struct _pdField {
    string name;
    string id;
    string alias;
}

function camelCase(string name) {
    string [] words = split(name, " ");
    string cc = toLower(words[0]);
    
    for(int x=1; x<size(words); x++) {
        string nextWord;
        for(int l=0; l<length(words[x]); l++) {
            if(l==0) {
                nextWord = toUpper(words[x][l]);
            } else {
                nextWord += words[x][l];
            }
        }
        cc += nextWord;
    }
    return cc;
}

_pdField [] allPDFields;
string dots = ".";
runnerLog("Starting dynamic search of Jira Product Discovery fields:", true);

for(string proj in allProjects()) {
    JProject p = projectObject(proj);
    
    if(p.projecttype == "product_discovery") {
        runnerLog(dots + " Scanning project <strong>" + proj + "</strong>", true);
        dots += ".";
        for(string issue in selectIssues("project = " + proj, 100)) {
            for(string af in arrayKeys(getIssueFields(issue, true))) {
                if(startsWith(af, "custom")) {
                    string name = getCustomFieldNameById(af);
                    allPDFields[name] = {name, af, camelCase(name)};
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

runnerLog("Dynamic scan complete, <strong style=\"color:blue;\">" + trim(size(allPDFields)) + "</strong> fields found in scan.", true);
runnerLog("<hr>", true);

//--new section--

runnerLog("");
runnerLog("Starting heuristic search of Jira Product Discovery fields:", true);

string [] knownFields = "Category|Customer segments|Documents|Goal|Idea archived|Idea archived on|Idea short description|Product Area|Rank|Request participants|Roadmap|Teams";
int added = 0;

for(string k in knownFields) {
    _pdField test = allPDFields[k];
    
    if(isNull(test.name)) {
        allPDFields[k] = {k, null, camelCase(k)};
        runnerLog(k);
        added ++;
    }
}

runnerLog(".", true);
runnerLog("..", true);
runnerLog("...", true);
runnerLog("Heuristic scan complete, <strong style=\"color:blue;\">" + trim(added) + "</strong> field(s) found in scan.", true);
runnerLog("<hr>", true);

//--new section--

runnerLog("");
runnerLog("Creating SIL aliases for Jira Product Discovery fields:", true);
int success_count = 0;
int error_count = 0;

for(_pdField f in arrayStructSort(allPDFields,"name")) {
    boolean result = admAddCustomFieldAlias(f.name, f.alias);
    
    if(result) {
        runnerLog("<strong style=\"color:green;\">Success</strong>: SIL alias created for \"" + f.name + "\": <i>" + f.alias + "</i>", true);
        success_count ++;
    } else {
       string message = "<strong style=\"color:red;\">Error</strong>: The SIL alias for " + f.name + ": " + f.alias + " was not able to be created for an unknown reason.";
       message += " It's possible this occured because the alias already exists.";
       if(isNotNull(f.id)) {
           message += " The SIL alias for will need to created manually. See <a href=\"https://appfire.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PSJC/pages/496206151/Managing+Aliases+in+the+sil.aliases+File\">this page</a> for instructions.";
           message += " Insert the following text into the sil.aliases file:";
           message += "<div style=\"width:25%;background: #b3bac5;margin-left: 25px;padding: 0.25em 5px;\">" + f.alias + "=" + f.id + "<div>";
           error_count ++;
       }
       runnerLog(message, true);
    }
}

runnerLog("Done! <strong>" + trim(success_count) + "</strong> SIL aliases were created with " + trim(error_count) + " errors.", true);

How the script works

The script follows a two-step process: first, it discovers all custom field IDs in your Product Discovery projects, then automatically creates SIL aliases for those fields.

Step 1: Field discovery

The script uses two methods to discover fields, with progress and results displayed separately in the SIL Manager console for each method.

Console output showing script progress and results for both search methods.

	Dynamic search	This scans all search Product Discovery projects and examines every idea to find populated custom fields. It automatically picks up new fields that Atlassian adds without requiring script updates. This method works because custom fields only appear in API responses when they contain data. By examining every idea across all Product Discovery projects, the script maximizes the chances of finding each field in at least one populated instance.
	Static search	Also known as heuristic, this search uses a predefined list of known Product Discovery fields as a backup method to catch fields that weren't found in the dynamic search.

Step 2: Alias creation

Once field IDs are discovered, the script generates camelCase aliases and adds them directly to your sil.aliases file. For example, 'Idea short description' becomes ideaShortDescription.

If alias creation fails, first check if the alias already exists in your sil.aliases file since this is the most common cause of errors. For manual creation instructions, see the Managing aliases in the sil.aliases file page.