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Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have:
  • At least two work item types that share the same checklist custom field ID
  • A dedicated template work item created for each type (see Creating and Managing Templates)
  • Access to Polarion Administration > Configuration Properties

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How Type-Specific Templates Work

When you assign a single checklist field (for example, testChecklist) to multiple work item types, each type can reference its own template work item. Checklist resolves which template to use based on the type-specific configuration property. diagram

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Step 1: Create Template Work Items

Create one work item per type to serve as the template source. Populate each with the checklist items appropriate for that type. For example:
  • CHEC-287 — template for user stories with items like “Acceptance criteria defined”, “Story points estimated”
  • CHEC-288 — template for requirements with items like “Traceability links verified”, “Test cases linked”
Any change you make to the checklist on a template work item affects every work item that references it. Create dedicated template work items that are not used for regular work.

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Step 2: Configure Type-Specific Properties

Open Polarion Administration > Configuration Properties and add a workItemTemplateId property for each type. The configuration property follows this pattern: 
nextedy.checklist._TYPEID._FIELDID.workItemTemplateId
Replace _TYPEID with the work item type ID and _FIELDID with the checklist custom field ID. Example — two types sharing testChecklist: 
nextedy.checklist.userstory.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId=CHEC-287
nextedy.checklist.requirement.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId=CHEC-288
Both properties use the same checklist field ID (testChecklist) but point to different template work items depending on the type.

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Step 3: Add More Types as Needed

You can extend this pattern to any number of work item types. Each type gets its own property line: 
nextedy.checklist.userstory.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId=CHEC-287
nextedy.checklist.requirement.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId=CHEC-288
nextedy.checklist.task.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId=CHEC-290
nextedy.checklist.defect.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId=CHEC-291
You can reference template work items from other projects using the projectId:workItemId format. For example: nextedy.checklist.userstory.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId=SharedProject:CHEC-100.

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Step 4: Configure Global Fallback (Optional)

If you want a default template for types that do not have a type-specific property, set a field-level property without the type qualifier: 
nextedy.checklist.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId=CHEC-300
The resolution order is:
PrecedenceProperty PatternExample
1 (highest)nextedy.checklist._TYPEID._FIELDID.workItemTemplateIdnextedy.checklist.userstory.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId
2 (fallback)nextedy.checklist._FIELDID.workItemTemplateIdnextedy.checklist.testChecklist.workItemTemplateId

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Step 5: Handle Type Changes with Reset

When a user changes the type of a work item (for example, from user story to requirement), the checklist may still contain items from the old template. To automatically reset the checklist on type change, add the monitoring configuration property: 
nextedy.checklist.checklistsIdsForTypeChanges=testChecklist
Specify a comma-separated list of checklist field IDs that should be monitored. When the work item type changes, any checklist listed here is reset to match the new type’s template. Work item type change action in Polarion For complete details on this feature, see Reset on Work Item Type Change.
When the checklist resets on type change, all manually added items and result states are replaced by the new type’s template. Ensure users save their progress before changing a work item’s type.

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Dynamic Template Selection

For advanced scenarios where the template must vary beyond just the work item type, use the workItemTemplateHolder configuration property. This property specifies a custom field on the work item that holds the template ID dynamically: 
nextedy.checklist._TYPEID._FIELDID.workItemTemplateHolder=myTemplateField
When workItemTemplateHolder is configured, its value takes priority over the static workItemTemplateId property. This lets you assign different templates to individual work items within the same type.

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Document Templates

For document (LiveDoc) checklists, the same pattern applies using documentTemplateId instead: 
nextedy.checklist._TYPEID._FIELDID.documentTemplateId=SpaceName/DocumentName
Use documentTemplateHolder for dynamic document template selection: 
nextedy.checklist._TYPEID._FIELDID.documentTemplateHolder=myDocTemplateField
If you reuse the same document templates across multiple projects, set the documentTemplateId at the global scope in Polarion’s global configuration properties. This avoids configuring each project separately.

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Verification

After configuring multiple templates:
  1. Open a work item of the first type (for example, a user story)
  2. You should now see the checklist populated with items from the type-specific template (for example, CHEC-287)
  3. Open a work item of the second type (for example, a requirement)
  4. You should now see a different set of checklist items matching that type’s template (for example, CHEC-288)
  5. If you configured type change reset, change a work item from one type to another and verify the checklist resets to the correct template

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See Also

KB ArticlesSupport TicketsSource Code
  • ChecklistService.java
  • DocumentChecklistView.java
  • ChecklistSetupService.java
  • ChecklistApplyTemplate.java
  • ChecklistFormExtension.java