Automation Issue: Why can't I link newly created issue to trigger issue despite no error?

[Greg Mihailides]

Hello all, 

Looking for help with an automation we are trying to run. Details are below. 

Summary: We have multiple projects running and the purpose of the automation is to connect them when work required is cross-functional by avoiding manual creation of new issues in other projects. 
The goal:  When we add a specific stakeholder in the 'additional assignee(s)' field in the origin epic, it should create a new epic in a different project with all of the same information pulling through since the fields all match and then the two epics should be linked together. 
The Issue: the rule shows as successful when the identified stakeholder is added to the additional assignee(s) field and the new epic in the other project is successfully created, but the two are not linked together. It appears the hold up is in the "And: Link to" section of the automation. It is set to: 'is caused by' 'trigger issue'. We've tested using the other option: 'most recently created issue' and that works just fine but would open up room for error within our processes. It needs to be trigger issue to work properly. When the rule is run, the new epic is created perfectly but there is no link between them. 

Any thoughts or guidance would be much appreciated, thank you!

Note: the screenshots provided show the test is using my name for each of the tasks since I wanted to limit the number of notifications team members were getting. I did test this with other team members within the other project and can confirm the issue isn't that I'm using myself or staying within the original project for each of the actions/assignments. 

Screenshots added below, more can be provided. 

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Greg Mihailides 

First, you describe wanting to create the new issue in a different project, but the rule action shows creating in the same project.  Is that an error?

If you did want to create the issue in a different project...What is the scope of your rule: project, global, or multiple-project?

All three scopes can create (or clone) issues into other projects.  However project-scope rules cannot view or update issues in other projects: only global or multiple-project rules can do that.

To correct that, your rule's  will need to be modified by your Jira Site Admin.

Finally, the way your rule is structured, the link action is running against the trigger issue...and then it tries to link to the trigger issue (i.e., the same one).  Instead, change the linking to the "most recently created issue".

Kind regards,
Bill

[Greg Mihailides]

Thanks, Bill! I ran tests with the different project which resulted the same way, so had moved testing to the original project to keep from clogging up their boards with all my test cases. Will keep the scoping in mind, but for what I have access to I can see and manage what I need to since I have admin access across projects. 

Re: linking, I had avoided using 'most recently created issue' because I thought it would create possibility for the wrong issue to get linked as we have a form integrated to our project that gets a high volume of submissions which are turned into epics. My understanding, which may be incorrect given your response, was that the new issue may then link to whichever issue is newest which could be something unrelated to the issue we want to connect with (the trigger issue). 

Through testing, it appears that using 'most recently created issue' solves our problem, so I appreciate that validation and your assistance! 

[Carla Ann Rowland]

I use automation in Data center and since some cloud functionality is push to us i noticed this glitch.  You can creat the tickets but the link wouldn't be created as it used to i had to put the link at end of create rule but that was hit n miss. So i had to make a link rule that could be called by other rules. It sounds illogical but it worked.   

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Carla Ann Rowland 

My understanding is the REST API functions support adding one link at the same time as issue create, but my testing showed that not to be the case with automation rules: issues must be created and links added afterwards.

It may be possible to add the links in the same rule...depending upon your rule structure and to which issues links are added.  If you post an image of your complete rule and explain the linking the community may be able to suggest a single rule solution.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Carla Ann Rowland]

@Bill Sheboy Let me create my cloud projects and I will get back to you but I read your original post on my phone so I could not see your screen shots.  I will see if I can link two epics together--- only by linked reference. In my experience you do not link epics together but you are using cloud. Sooo stay tuned and I will try to recreate in cloud (using free version) what I did at work in data center.

[Carla Ann Rowland]

@Greg Mihailides @Bill Sheboy  I created a rule that clones the ticket if it is assigned to when created.

the snapshots overlap a little. It works and both trigger and new ticket are epics.

[Bill Sheboy]

One adjustment you may want to consider:

The issue created trigger can fire so quickly that some of the issue data may not yet be available to the rule...potentially leading to the condition not working as you expect.  The work-around for this is to always add the Re-fetch Issue action immediately after the Issue Created trigger when it is used.  That will slow the rule a bit, reloading the issue data before proceeding.

[Uday Kiran Bhaviri]

Could be a bug in automation, but also try the smart value or the current issue key in the link issues.

[Greg Mihailides]

Thanks for weighing in. It doesn't seem to allow me to add in smart value or issue key in the link issues. Only option is the drop down of trigger issue or most recently created issue despite the explanation below the dropdown.