Jira Automation Help - Keeping Fields on Child Stories in Sync With Parent Epic

[Tobey Hallam]

Hello,

I am looking to set up automation, such that when I update a custom field on my Jira epic, that same custom field on the child stories also gets updated, so that they all stay in sync.

Example 1: When I set up a new epic, and then create children stores, if I set the "program increment" field (customfield_32672) on the epic to 2025 PI2, I want all the children to also have their "program increment" field updated to 2025 PI2.

Example 2: If I go in and later update the epic program increment to 2025 PI3, the child stories program increment fields also gets updated to 2025 PI3.

I've used these instructions https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/keeping-custom-field-values-in-sync-between-parent-and-child-issues-using-automation-for-jira/ minus the "if" condition step, as I want the program increment update to happen regardless of the child's field being blank or not. I am getting an error on the last branch step, edit issues, with an error of "Error while parsing additional fields. Not valid JSON."

 Any help or insight as to what I can do differently would be greatly appreciated!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Tobey Hallam 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

When setting a field to a variable or other smart value in an Edit Work Item action, you use either Choose field to set or More options, not both.

Remove the smart value from the More options area.

Add the smart value into the input field above where you selected the field you want to set; i.e.

The More options section is used when the Choose field to set feature doesn't support the field you want to set. and in that case you have to use proper JSON formatted data in the More options area. If you want to learn more about that, that is referred to as 

Advanced Field Editing using JSON 

[Tobey Hallam]

Hey Trudy,

I very much appreciate your help! I am new to Jira automation, so apologies if I am missing a step in your instructions, but I am not able to replicate the steps you outlined and get a successful outcome.

Starting fresh on the very last step I have (edit issue), when I use 'choose fields to set' and select my custom field (program increment) the workflow expects me to select a program increment value from a list. But I don't want to do that, I'd like the rule to be generic / smart enough to just take whatever value is on the epic and populate it down to all child stories.

If I try to paste the {{CustomProgramIncrement}} variable name into that 'choose fields' box, it gives me an add button, but if I do that, nothing happens after.

So I think I might need to use the 'more options' section but have no idea how to write the JSON / JQL to make it dance.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Tobey Hallam 

To ensure I give you accurate information for your situation, please answer two questions for me.

1. What type of field is Program Increment?

What type of project are you using? Get that information from the View All Projects page under the Projects menu. There is a Type column there that states the project type for each project listed.

[Tobey Hallam]

Hi @Trudy Claspill 

1) this is a custom field that has selectable pre-populated values (string). I am not able to add / create my own values in this field.

2) the project type is "company-managed software"

[Trudy Claspill]

Thank you for that additional information.

A simpler way to do this. You don't need to create a variable.

In the Edit action, after selecting the field from the Choose field list, click the ... button to the right of the field and select COPY

That will put some default text into the field saying "Copy field name from Current work item"

Click directly on that text. That will open a dialog.

In that dialog click on the Issue to copy value from option. Select Parent work item

Click the Close button.

That instructs Jira to copy the value for the specified field from the same field in the issue's parent.

No need to use smart values or variables.  

[Tobey Hallam]

Hey @Trudy Claspill 

This worked! Thank you so much for taking the time to help me, it's is very much appreciated.

You rock!