Custom Variables in the Service Desk Notification Automation

[Lesly Cracchiolo]

Hello! I am trying to add a custom variable to the automated email response in my service desk. It says in this ticket: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSDSERVER-4642

that the work around is to add the custom field as part of the variable. For example, my response currently looks like this: 

"Hello! Your balance of ${balance.due} is due."

Balance Due being the custom field. However I get this error when trying to save: You can't use ${balance.due} with this rule. Check the variable dropdown menu for a list of variables you can use with this rule.

Does that mean the information on the above atlassian ticket is incorrect or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks! :) 

[Petter Gonçalves]

Hello @Lesly Cracchiolo

Thank you for reaching out.

By the tags added to your question, I believe you are using Jira Cloud application. Is that correct?

Please, allow me to provide you with some concepts so we can better confirm we are on the same page here:

The feature request you provided (JSDSERVER-4642) is related to Jira Server application, where the workaround option to add custom fields to the e-mail notifications would be to add them to the ${request.details} variable. 

That being said, Jira Cloud application does not have the ${request.details} variable, so that mentioned workaround is not applicable to your environment. Below, you can check the correct feature request related to Jira cloud:

Ability To Add Custom Field Values to Service Desk Notification Template

Feel free to vote and watch the suggestion to increase its priority and also receive notifications about any updates.

As a possible workaround in Jira Cloud, you can use the Jira Automation feature to send the notification with custom fields instead of the default notification template. These would be the steps to configure it:

1. Navigate to your Project > Project Settings > Project automation (Not automation)
2. Create the rule as you need by following the template below, using smart values to reference the field variables in the body of the email:
   
3. Navigate to Project settings > Notifications and turn-off the notifications to avoid duplicated e-mails.

P.S: We do not recommend the workaround above to be used for ALL the notifications you have because of the following reasons:

1. It's not that easy to manage your notifications from the automation menu, so you can run into issues if a wrong parameter is added by mistake
2. A high number of rule executions can cause performance issues in your site

That being said, use that workaround carefully only for a specific notification that you want the custom field value to be displayed. 

Let us know if you have any questions.