As a Plugin Developer I would like to update the Rank of an issue using an API

COS:

• Java and REST API
• Document this
• Allow the rank of an issue to be updated
• Write ref app to test

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Uploading new numeric values to the ranking field directly (via SOAP or by manually specifying form arguments) fails.

In JIRA Client, we have a reordering functionality, similar to Greenhopper's, which can be supported by numeric values in a custom field. The user would rearrange issues, JIRA Client calculates numeric values for the order, and then tries to upload them to the server (either via SOAP RPC, or through Edit Issue HTML forms).

This used to work with Greenhopper's Ranking field very nicely. As of version 5.1, 5.2 (probably 5.0 too), it stopped working. If I upload a new Ranking value, it is ignored.

As much as I could gather, you have changed the semantics of the new uploaded value. It used to be exactly the value of the field, as with other normal fields. Now it seems to be exactly the ranking value of another issue, which is desired to follow the one being changed. (Please confirm - is that correct?)

If I may suggest a way to fix this, could you please:
1. Accept any numeric value X for ranking
2. If X matches the ranking value of any issue, act exactly as you do now
3. Otherwise, find the issue that has minimal ranking that is greater than X, and use it as the base issue similar to case 2.

In other words, instead of using "Issue[Rank=X]", use "Issue[min(Rank>=X)]" as the base issue for the change.

That way, the functionality would be more robust and compatible. (I understand the final value may be different from the uploaded one, but I think remote clients can cope with that. Also, you could take the exact uploaded value as a "hint" for the new value of the ranking field.)

Thanks!
Igor