Automation rule to update the end date in parent issue

[SSU]

How can we automatically update child issues end dates for higher level issues like parent issues. the parent issue should automatically take the end date & start date based on  first issue or second child issues date  in jira dc how can it be possible. Can we set automation rules for this ?

[Tobias H]

Hi @SSU!

I'm not familiar with DC, but how I would do something like this in Cloud would be:

Trigger: When issue updated
Add IF/ELSE Conditions (optional)
Then create a "Branch rule / related issue" and select "Parent"
To the branch, add an action to update issue and in the drop down selector you select "Start Date" and "End Date"

In the field you can use parameters like {{issue.subtasks.startDate.min}} {{issue.subtasks.endDate.max}} 

Hope that works for you :)

[SSU]

Under action there no option called update issue in dc 😕 

[Tobias H]

Oh sorry, it's called "Edit Issue" (in Cloud at least) I just typed it wrongly.

Looks like this in Cloud:

[SSU]

It's giving option issue to copy value from current, trigger, parent,epic, destination issue 🤔.I need to achieve : "We have our customized parent issues. Under a parent issue, I have child issues which are story, task, and bug. Whenever I create issues under a parent issue, the parent issue should automatically take the start or end date based on the first or second child issue."?

[Tobias H]

Hmm, are you sure you are not able to SET value? On Cloud, out on the three dots there's a choice to either SET or COPY value. Copy does what you described, but Set gives a text field to add text to, and adding the smart value(s) I posted previously: {{issue.subtasks.startDate.min}} / {{issue.subtasks.endDate.max}} should grab that information you want (the startDate.min will look at all the parent's subtasks and copy the start date from the one with the oldest date, and the endDate.max will take the endDate most in the future.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @SSU 

When you note parent and child issues, which types of issues are involved?

• If they are issues and subtasks, please see the suggestion from @Tobias H 
• If instead they are Epics and their child issues (e.g., Story), the REST API must be used to gather the child issues and then branch to update the parent. 
  • The reason for this complexity is the automation Lookup Issues action does not support most of the issue fields yet
  • Please see this other post describing the technique to sub such fields, although you will want to just use min and max for your date fields: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/How-to-sum-story-custom-filed-values-to-an-epic/qaq-p/2787209#M1043853

Kind regards,
Bill

[SSU]

Hi @Bill We have our customized parent issues. Under a parent issue, I have child issues which are story, task, and bug. Whenever I create issues under a parent issue, the parent issue should automatically take the start or end date based on the first or second child issue.For this do we have any automation rules in Jira DC?

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks for that information, and as I described the REST API would be needed to access those fields and update the parent issue.  Please see the linked post for details.

When you only need to report on such issues, and not edit another issue, the bulk-handling feature of branches and scheduled triggers may be used: https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation102/run-a-rule-against-issues-in-bulk-1473877768.html

[Dick]

Hi @SSU 

Yes you can. With the trigger issue being the story (I assume this is what you call the child of the epic to be updated), you can refer to its parent (using epic link, or depending on your version of Jira, the parent link). Then you can lookup the array of issues that are the children of said epic and find the max date in that lot. You then correct the epic with that date. 

Kind regards,

Dick