Automation Not Triggered for All Issues Imported

[Sage Lesko]

Our team-managed project has a list of issues that are created monthly. As we work through them, eventually we receive a payment from manufacturers. We want to record these payments in Jira using an CSV upload.

I've created a new issue type that when imported via the CSV, links to an existing issue (Epic) and updates a custom field within the Epic.

I've been successful if I do a smaller amount of payments to upload, but the automation doesn't work completely when a larger amount of issues are uploaded. I've been testing uploading larger and larger number of rows, and interestingly enough, came across one test that had half of the issues link properly to the epics and updated the custom field, while the other half uploaded and link properly, but did not update the custom field on the epic.

This is my CSV file, where the first 3 issues highlighted in blue did not update the fields in the Epic:

This is the audit log of the automation. I've expanded one of each type of automation: one that was successful and one where "no actions were performed":

This is an epic that shows the linked issues and updated the Payment Amount custom field:

This one shows that it was linked successfully to the epic but the Payment Amount field was NOT updated:

Clicking on the imported issue the Payment Amount was uploaded successfully:

[Sage Lesko · Accepted solution]

Here's the solution I found:

1. To update the imported issue to a new status

2. Updating the related issue when the status is transitioned and checking the box for allowing other rule actions to trigger this rule.

Thank you everyone for all of your help!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Sage Lesko 

When asking for help related to an Automation rule not working as you expect, it is necessary for us to see the rule to try to debug it. Please provide screen images showing the details of the rule.

[Sage Lesko]

Hi, I answered above instead of replying but here is the outline for the Automation:

Issue Created:

Issue Type Condition:

Branch rules for Linked Issues:

Then Edit Issue:

[Trudy Claspill]

How is the link created between the newly created issue and the Epic?

If that is part of the CSV upload it is likely that the issue creation action is completed before the Link is created, and the Link doesn't exist at the time when the rule is run.

Try adding a Re-fetch action between the Condition and the For branch. That will slow down the rule a tiny bit and perhaps allow enough time for the Link to be created before the For branch runs.

[Sage Lesko]

Correct, the link is created in the CSV upload.

The upload map fields are as follows (screenshot is from another Jira project, so ignore the different Project Key):

I tried added a re-fetch action in the automation, as seen here:

All are now showing as "successful", but you can see that the automation still didn't "kick in" until the final three rows of the upload file:

Automation Audit Log:

Automation expanded to show where automation did not update epic successfully:

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Sage Lesko 

Adding to the ideas from Trudy...

First, I suggest moving the Re-fetch Issue action to immediately after the Issue Created trigger.  That is a common work-around for timing problems caused by that trigger firing so quickly.

Next, this seems like a timing / race-track condition.  Would you please post images showing the issue history (including the create) for one of the issues that worked and one that did not?  I wonder if those will show a non-trivial time difference between the create and the linking.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Sage Lesko]

Hi Bill,

Here is one that was successful:

Imported Issue:

Linked Issue:

"Unsuccessful":

Imported Issue:

Linked Issue:

I updated the order of operations for the automation rule to re-fetch immediately after the Issue Created step, and was still unsuccessful for all imported issues.

[Bill Sheboy]

Yup, we see two different entries as the link happens separately.

For the created issue, if you hover over the values in the issue history for created versus linked, how much time difference do you see?

UPDATE: I just tried this for an on-line (not imported) issue create and even that one shows two different history entries.  (Seems like a design choice / defect to me.)

So a work-around for this may be to rethink your rule to use a different trigger (plus some conditions) so the Issue Linking is what triggers the rule.

[Sage Lesko]

Hey Bill,

There seems to be negligible time; no seconds are included if I click on the time, only up to the minutes (sorry, didn't realize I could do that before!).

I will have to re-think the automation like you suggested.

I really appreciate the help I've received from you and Trudy! Thank you!

[Bill Sheboy]

Even less than a second difference could cause a problem for the rule, so the trigger change will help.

[Jack Brickey]

i wonder if a manual rule approach might work?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi, Jack!  That would work, although I believe the idea was to have the issue import drive the updates automagically...without the manual actions.

[Jack Brickey]

yes for sure but was wondering if the import might be the culprit. a manual test would confirm maybe. Too, given that the CSV import is manual, the additional step of "run rule" would not be too expensive.

[Sage Lesko]

For anyone else curious or looking for a similar solution, I was finally successful by using two automations: 

1. To update the imported issue to a new status

2. Updating the related issue when the status is transitioned and checking the box for allowing other rule actions to trigger this rule.

Thank you everyone for all of your help!

[Sage Lesko]

Hi, here is the outline for the Automation:

Issue Created:

Issue Type Condition:

Branch rules for Linked Issues:

Then Edit Issue: