Automation - Status - does not seem correct

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

I have an Automation that runs and at the end the Status is "NO ACTIONS PERFORMED" despite the fact that I received the email that I set the automation up to send if a condition was met. I would expect a different status that indicates the actual situation.

This is the status and run details:

Is this a bug in Confluence Automation?

Kind regards,

Glyn

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Glyndwr Bartlett 

That is a curious symptom; I just tried to replicate it in a Free license, Cloud site and was unable to do so.  And, I do not see that symptom listed as an open defect in the public backlog.

Would you please post images of your complete rule and of the audit log showing all the sections expanded?  Those may help to provide more context for this one.  Thanks!

Kind regards,
Bill

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

@Bill Sheboy Please find the images requested attached.

Kind regards,

Glyn

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks for that information, and...

The log you show does not match the rule images.  Please note the differences in the Page branch criteria versus what the log shows.  Did you change the branch just for testing it?  Regardless of that...

I created a new test rule very similar to yours and I got the same result: With a CQL condition to test the parent, the rule log showed "No Actions Performed" even when they were performed inside of the branch.  Thus, this is a defect with Confluence automation rules. 

If you are on a paid Confluence license, I recommend contacting Atlassian Support to ask their advice and to log the defect: https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

If you are not on a paid Confluence license, you can submit feedback from the question mark at the top-right of the page to notify them of the defect.

In the interim, the only workaround I can think of for this scenario is to use the REST API endpoint to find the pages with CQL with the Send Web Request action, and then iterate over them with an advanced branch, or send the results in one single email with list iteration. 

I expect that method will be significantly faster as the test rule I tried took over 4 minutes for just 30 pages while the REST API will be just a few seconds.  (The slow down appears to be the CQL condition.)

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

Hi @Bill Sheboy ,

Thank you. Yes, I changed the duration so I could test it. This is the free version so I have submitted feedback as you suggested.

Kind regards,

Glyn

[Levente Szabo _Midori_]

@Glyndwr Bartlett As a Marketplace Partner, I often talk to Confluence users who experience strange behaviour with Confluence Automation (like this team).

To your point, I recommend trying the free version of Better Content Archiving and Analytics, which brings advanced page status and notification solutions to Confluence Cloud.

It implements its own automation framework, so it's not limited to teams like yours and runs more reliably. I think it may fit your requirements unless you insist on continuing to use Confluence Automation.

Drop me a line at levente.szabo@midori-global.com if you want to discuss your exact use case.

(I'm part of the Midori team developing Better Content Archiving and Analytics for Confluence since 2008.)

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

Hi @Levente Szabo _Midori_ , 

I will check this out, thank you.

This is a very short gig for me so I will ensure the details are included in my end of project report.

Kind regards,

Glyn

[Fazila Ashraf]

Hi @Glyndwr Bartlett 

This is interesting! Is it specific to this automation or you observe the behaviour in all others as well?

[Glyndwr Bartlett]

@Fazila Ashraf I do not have a lot of automations as we are limited to 10 successful runs per month. I have an automation that adds a Label to a page when it is created and that ends with "SUCCESS".

Kind regards,

Glyn