Advanced Configuration and Dark Features

Certain advanced aspects of Structure's behavior might not have dedicated configuration pages, being controlled by application properties or system properties instead. Additionally, some features and behaviors are usually hidden from users by default. These dark features can be turned on for an instance by the Jira administrator.

Setting Application Properties

The easiest way to add and manage custom Structure properties and dark features is to use the Structure Dark Features and Fine Tuning interface.

• To add a new custom property or dark feature, enter the appropriate Property Key (see below for a list of available keys) and click Add Property.
• Once the key is added to your properties list, you can adjust its value by clicking the edit icon (pencil).
• To remove a custom property, click the trash icon.
• Once you have made all necessary updates, Structure must be restarted to apply the changes.

To access the interface, you must have Jira Administration permissions and enter the interface location directly into your browser: https://YOUR_JIRA_ADDRESS/secure/admin/StructureDarkFeatures.jspa

Guidelines for Editing Properties

• When an invalid property value is entered in the table, the default value is applied.

• Spaces are not trimmed, and may result in an invalid value.

• When you delete a property from the admin table, it's property value is set to the default value:

  • If the property was added with our admin interface, the value is set to empty value and the property is removed from the table after a page refresh.
  • If you set the value to empty (without deleting the property), the property will not be removed.
• Structure must be restarted to apply changes.

Setting System Properties

You can set System properties during Startup or using Script Runner.

Both of the following methods can also be used to set Structure properties; but we recommend using the Structure Dark Features and Fine Tuning interface as described above.

On Startup

You can set System properties using the -D Jira startup option, for example:

-Dstructure.sync.guard.email.admin.cycles=5

Configuring Jira startup options is described in this article. You will need to restart Jira for the properties to take effect.

With Script Runner

You can also set system properties using the Script Runner add-on.

1. Install Script Runner.
2. Go to Administration | Add-Ons | Script Runner | Script Console.
3. Select Groovy as the Script Engine.
4. Enter the following code into the Script text box, adjust property name and value as needed, and click Run Now.

System.setProperty("structure.sync.guard.email.admin.cycles", "5")

The changes take effect after you restart Structure, but the properties will be reset to their default values when you restart Jira. In some cases, for settings to take effect you have to reinstall Structure.

Available Dark Features

Structure size limit

com.almworks.jira.structure.AOBasedStructureManager.forestSizeLimit

100000

Structure Automation limits

structure.gfs.generationTimeHardLimit

600

Automation Defaults

structure.generator.defaults.disableUpdates

false

Activity Stream update limits

structure.activitystream.changesLimit

10

Hide Structure on the Issue page

structure.feature.showOnIssuePage

true

Manual adjustments

structure.gfs.manualAdjustments.enable

true

Hidden Issue Links

structure.feature.hiddenLinks.enabled

false

Index Consistency Checks

structure.indexConsistencyChecker.disabled

false

Alternative initial values for project/type when creating an issue in dialog

Normally, when the user creates new issues through dialog, Structure remembers the selected project and issue type and offers those the next time by default. This dark feature enables a different algorithm, which used to work in a previous version of Structure: the initial project and issue type are taken from the issue that was focused when "+Create" was pressed.

Managing Permissions

structure.permissions.allowAllUserGroups

false

structure.permissions.jiraAdminHasAllPermissions

true

Resolved icon (green tick)

structure.doneAttribute.byResolution

false

Show Archived Timesheets by Tempo Accounts in the Tempo Worklogged column

structure.tempo.showArchivedAccounts

false

Structure Export Timeout

For large, complex structures, it may take a long time to capture all the details of a structure required for exporting. In order to reduce the amount of time and resources required for export, after a set time Structure will attempt to use a cached version of the structure for the export. If this is not possible, it will continue trying to compile live data for a set time before the export fails.

structure.export.trySnapshotTimeout

120

600

Minimum time is 60 or 90 seconds, and it can take up to 60 seconds longer than the configured timeout, because lock time is measured in 30s increments (by default), and there are 2 or 3 loops where the exporter waits, depending on the attributes and forest spec.

Time in Status - Refresh Period

structure.timeinstatus.refreshPeriod

3600000

Time Tracking on the Issue Page and Issue Details Page

When viewing an Issue page in Jira or the Issue Details page in Structure, the Time Tracking section provides up-to-date time tracking details, and allows you to include time tracking details for sub-issues within the calculations. If these pages are taking too long to load, disabling this feature may help.

structure.issuePage.showTimeTracking

true

Link-related changes made by Generators or Synchronizers

By default, when a generator (see Generators) or Synchronizer creates, deletes or changes a link, the change appears immediately on an Issue Page, but it is not immediately indexed in Jira. Additionally, the change is not written to history, so it is not possible to review the changes on an issue's History tab.

This setup prevents link changes from negatively impacting system performance (a particular risk when bulk changes are made to issue links); however, there may be times when these types of changes need to be indexed immediately and/or appear in an issue's history. To enable this, simply update the following properties.

structure.bulkLinkProcessor.useLinkManager

false

false

Synchronizers

Synchronization lets you keep Structure issue hierarchy in sync with some other issue properties. This dark feature is disabled by default.

structure.feature.synchronizers.enabled

false

Synchronizer Cycle Guard

The cycle guard is a component that detects conflicting synchronizers and prevents them from cycling forever, overriding each other's changes. The table below describes the system properties that control the cycle guard.

structure.sync.guard.disable

false

structure.sync.guard.maxAutosyncsWithoutUserChanges

10

structure.sync.guard.stop.disable

false

structure.sync.guard.email.owner.disable

false

structure.sync.guard.email.admin.disable

false

structure.sync.guard.email.admin.cycles

10

Restart Structure

After applying a dark feature, it may be necessary to restart Structure for the change to take effect. To restart Structure:

1. Go to Administration | Manage apps
2. On the sidebar, click Manage apps
3. Locate Structure
4. Click Disable (when prompted, skip sending feedback)
5. Click Enable