Not able to edit Epic Target Start using lookupIssues in JDC

[Shannon DeVico]

When trying to use the lookupIssues function to update my Epic with earliest Target start of the child tickets I am getting an (Unparseable date: "" (customfield_XXXX) error.

I followed all the instructions in the previous threads to use the lookup action and everything is successful except for the edit Epic part.

I tried using log action to see if it was a format issue with data stored in Target start but it always returns nothing for that field.

Are we not able to pull the custom fields using lookupIssues for Jira Data Center? Does it only work in cloud?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Shannon DeVico -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

For a question like this, please post an image of your complete automation rule, images of any relevant actions / conditions / branches, an image of the audit log details showing the rule execution, and explain what is not working as expected.  Those will provide context for the community to offer ideas.  Thanks!

Until we see those...

When the Lookup Issues action was first added for Jira Cloud, it only supported about a dozen fields.  Later, all of the rest of them were added.  Looking at this suggestion, that does seem to be the case for Data Center and Server versions also: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JIRAAUTOSERVER-877

A possible work-around for this is to use the Send Web Request action to call the Jira REST API issue search with JQL.  The results may have more fields, and as this will produce a list of issues, the same min / max functions should be available.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Shannon DeVico]

@Bill Sheboy Thank you for the reply. I will try to see if the workaround is available for me. I am adding the screenshots as requested just to make sure there isn't something I am missing. Also, I have tried every format from your suggestions in previous threads about this topic - Using "Target start", "custom field", jiraDate, toDate, format, etc - and still get the same error.

[Bill Sheboy]

There are definitely some stray / extra curly brackets in that JSON.  Perhaps remove those.

Next, smart values are name, spacing, and case-sensitive.  And, smart values for a field in automation rules do not always match the displayed name on the Jira issue views.  To confirm if a field is supported by rules, and what the smart value (and custom field id) are, please use this how-to article:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation/find-the-smart-value-for-a-field-993924665.html

This will tell you if the field is available, but not necessarily if Lookup Issues supports it.  You can test that by writing the field from the lookup result to the audit log to determine if it is present or null.

One more thing...if the field is supported and present in lookup issues, the format to set a date field for JSON editing is "yyyy-MM-dd" and so remember to convert to that (after the min function) with jiraDate.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation/advanced-field-editing-using-json-993924663.html