Add assignee from custom field: automation says successful but work item field is not updated

[Katie_Gilbert]

I am trying to create an automation to assign specifically-named subtasks based on the user in a custom field in the parent task. The automation pictured says it is successful, but the Assignee in the subtask remains unassigned. I've searched the forums and everything I've found suggests what I've already tried - currently I have the custom id of the custom field for the smart value, but I've also tried the name of the custom field with the same results.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[Mikael Sandberg]

Hi @Katie_Gilbert,

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

The custom field that you are using to set the assignee, is that field a user picker field? Or is it just a text field? In order to set the assignee you need to use the Atlassian Id for the user unless the other custom field is a user picker one.  

[Mikael Sandberg]

To set the assignee based on a text field you can use that to find out the Atlassian Id by doing a web request to Find users endpoint, the result will have the Atlassian Id in it. Once you have that then you will use the More options and the Additional fields area to set the assignee like this:

{
 "fields": {
   "assignee": {
     "id": "{{webResponse.body.accountId}}" 
   } 
 } 
}

[Valerie Knapp]

Adding to what @Mikael Sandberg says, there is also a dedicated action to assign the work item / issue, you could try using this as well instead of the edit work item action to see if that helps.

[Katie_Gilbert]

Thank you for the responses @Mikael Sandberg and @Valerie Knapp

I believe the custom field is a user picker field, not a text field - the field type is "People".

I did try the dedicated action to assign the work item, but the smart value did not work in this case, either (see screenshots) - it should be copying the user listed for Merchandising Manager (MM) to the Assignee field for TVMRO_416, but it remains unassigned.

[Mikael Sandberg]

Okay, what I would do is add a Log action to verify that {{issue.customfield_11322}} has a value or not and then go from there.