How can an issue created in a Jira Service Project have its fields copied to Jira Software Project?

[Rhys Beaudry]

We are using a portal to have customers fill out a form; their answers in the form will be used to delegate their request (issue type = bug) to the appropriate service team (each of which has their own Jira Software project).

We want fields in the portal form to be displayed in the issue that is created in the Jira Software project. Atlassian support (https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/jira-service-management-and-software-can-share-custom-fields/) would suggest this is possible, but I cannot find instructions on how to do it. 

As near as I can figure, Screens can only be configured within Service Management Projects, and cannot be associated with Software Projects. Additionally, you cannot simply create an identical custom issue field in Jira Software/Service and use automation to copy the field. That being said, if Jira created the field (i.e. "Summary" or "Reporter"), then there is no problem. 

Is there a way to copy (NOT Link) an issue from Jira Service Management to Jira Software? And is there a way to copy over attachments and answers to radio-button questions (used in if/then logic questions in the portal form)?

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Rhys - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

I do this exact same thing - I have a single help desk portal in JSM that then creates an issue in one of 6 different projects. It's all done using automation. 

You said "you cannot simply create an identical custom issue field in Jira Software/Service and use automation to copy the field." That's not true - you can share the same fields in your JSM project with the JSW projects. 

The trick is that you have to have some information in the form where you are gathering information to know which project to create the new issue in. But easily doable. 

[Rhys Beaudry]

Hi John, 

That's great to hear, how do I do it? Right now I'm running all of my automation to a temporary software project (Automation Test Project, ATP) and will deal with the triggers/rules later.

What I need is to get the automation to copy the field over - in the screenshots above you can see how the field values in the software project (bottom) show up as "none" despite the fields having values in the service project (top). 

Below is a screenshot of the automation, note, it is a "Bug" type issue, I've just renamed it to "project" as that is the language our teams use. 

[John Funk]

What type of project is ATP? Company-managed? Is this a custom field that is shared with both projects?  Does the context for the custom field include the projects and issue types? 

[Rhys Beaudry]

- ATP is Team managed. 

- Most of the fields are custom fields, and they have been independently created in each project, as custom fields created in Service Management do not show up in Software Management. 

- Contexts are set as default, which states "This field will be available on issues of any type in all projects"

[John Funk]

Ah, that would be why. Team-managed projects are completely self contained. So that field is not actually the same field but a different field using the same name. So the context for the JSM project does not apply at all to Team-managed projects. 

You might try a couple of things. Change the name of the Team-managed project custom field so that it is not exactly the same. 

Then add the Team-managed project to the rule on the Rule Details page. It will make it a multi project rule now. 

Save that and publish the rule. Then refresh the page. 

Now come back into the rule and see if the custom field from the Team-managed project shows up. 

[Rhys Beaudry]

Hmm, that gets me half-way. If I create the custom field in the software project, it does show up in the automation portion of the service management project. However, the custom field does not show up on the menu where you build your form/portal, nor does it show up under the "Make existing fields available" link on the sidebar.

Any idea's on how to make the field available in the form/portal?

[John Funk]

No, you leave the custom field as you have it in the JSM project. And your automation you populate the team managed custom field with the value from the JSM custom field.

[Rhys Beaudry]

Oh! That fails as well, I tried that previously; "Unknown fields set during create, they may be unavailable for the project/type. Check your custom field configuration. Fields ignored - ..."

I think the problem there is that you cannot specify a path in Jira to copy the field value to, unless there is a way around this?

[John Funk]

Can you share the latest rule and the actual audit log also? 

[John Funk]

Also, make sure the new field is on the screen. 

[Rhys Beaudry]

Screen shots below; the automation has been simplified so I'm just running a single test field at a time. The short text Primary Contact Email transfers over using the strategy you suggested above (incidentally, you've been involved with this sort of challenge before - https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-22472).

However, I have not figured out how to transfer over radio-button or multi-check box fields (Project Tasks in the screen shot) from Service to Software Management. Additionally, the "Project Description" field still fails, despite there being only one field with the name, and the audit log reporting "Found multiple fields with the same name and type"

[John Funk]

Well, rats. I guess it's good there is a little progress. I would ultimately suggest you move away from Team-managed projects - this just being one of the reasons. 

Anyway, you might try clicking on the More Options link and using code like in the link above:

{
"fields": {
"customfield_12345": {
"value": "A value"
}
}
}

Try changing the customfield part out with just the name of the field, but I suspect you might still get the same error. 

[Rhys Beaudry]

The verdict is that only short text fields, dropdown selectors, dates and attachments can be copied from Service Management to Software Management. I'm not sure why short text fields work but long/paragraph/complex text fields do not, but this is trivial as there is no character limit on a short text field. 

One additional piece of information I learned is that if your drop down fields aren't completely identical in Service and Software, the field does not copy over and the automation audit log does not record an error. 

Thanks for all the help, John!

[John Funk]

Very interesting - have not heard that you can't copy paragraph type fields over. Do you mind telling me who told you that? I suppose you could then have an automation that copies the short text field to a paragraph field within the JSW project that fires when the short text field in the JSW project gets update. 

Also, yes, the values in the drop down fields must be the same if you are just copying over. 

[Rhys Beaudry]

Re paragraphs, just trial and error troubleshooting for why certain fields were not transferring over. The description field in Software and Service Management are defaulted as paragraph, they would not transfer, nor would custom paragraph fields. 

[John Funk]

Oh, I forgot, these are Team-managed, correct? 

[Rhys Beaudry]

That's correct. 

[John Funk]

Okay, I guess that's why. 

[julius schulze]

Hey everyone, I hope I can still find help here. I've run into a similar issue and just want to make sure I'm not confused. When a customer raises a question in our portal, the helpdesk shows it in a dedicated window (highlighted blue), and below are the regular fields for additional information from the agent (documentation, description).

My automation now, as I understand it, wants to copy the empty fields that are shown "below" the customer's report.

How can I fix this?

The reason for my automation is that when a customer reports an issue, an agent takes a look, and when it's a bug, the reported issue should be copied to the active software project.

What is it that I'm not seeing?

[John Funk]

Hi @julius schulze  - first a note that it is always better to create a new question instead of tacking on your question to an existing thread. That way more people will see the question and can help. 

No, for your question above, I think you need to change the fields to copy from the Trigger issue instead of the Current issue. Just click on the words Current issue which will cause a popup and then change Current issue to Trigger issue. Then update the rule and try it again.