Use automation smart values for sub-task summary

[Pauline Hild]

Hi,

I've got a rule for creating subtasks automatically when creating a task that works very well but I want the name of the parent task be part of the summary of the subtask as well so that I can see to which parent task a subtask belongs to. 

I tried several smart values but none of them worked. 

This was the last one I tried: 

Does anybody know what I have to change within the smart values?

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Pauline Hild 

There are known timing issues with the Issue Created trigger such that all of the information may not be available when the rule fires.

To know if this is the cause of what you are seeing...A work-around is to add a Re-fetch action immediately after your trigger.  That will slow down the rule by reloading the issue data, and then it should be available for use.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Pauline Hild]

Hi @Bill Sheboy 

Thank you very much for your answer. I tried to add a Re-fetch action after the trigger but unfortunately it still doesn't work. Now I'm completely at a loss what else I could try. However, I'm very grateful for your help.

Kind regards,

Pauline 

[Bill Sheboy]

That is curious...just to confirm the conditions, would please post images of:

• your current rule that does not work as expected,
• the rule details section showing the settings, and
• the audit log details for the execution?

And, are you using Jira Cloud or Jira Server/Data Center version?

Thanks!

[Pauline Hild]

I'm using Jira Cloud. 

Note 1: The first screenshot doesn't show the hole rule but there are only more "Then: Create a new Sub-task" components so nothing different 

Note 2: I already tried to add the "Re-fetch" in several positions but none of them worked

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Pauline Hild 

Thanks for that information!  A few follow-up questions:

Is this rule in a specific project, or is it a global/multi-project scope rule?

Is this rule acting on a company-managed or team-managed project?

There appears to be an edit of the trigger issue (e.g. LAB-520) happening.  What is being changed?

You audit log apparently shows adding 5 subtasks.  What value is ending up in the Summary field for those issues created by the rule?

I do not understand why, but sometimes rules get "glitched" by the editor and do not work as expected.  Have you tried to recreate the rule from scratch to see what happens?

Thanks,
Bill

[Pauline Hild]

Hi Bill, 

I thought I first try to recreate the rule from scratch and I couldn't believe but suddenly it worked! Maybe I should have done this first... anyway, thank you very much for your efforts to help me and the final hint that brought the solution. 

Kind regards and thank you,

Pauline 

[Radek Dostál · Accepted solution]

Can you show us the whole automation rule setup so we can see how you have set it up? That way we can better know if the smart value here makes sense. Syntax-wise it seems fine so, curious what the rest of the setup is.

[Pauline Hild]

Yes, for sure. Here's a screenshot. 

[Radek Dostál]

Ah see, the trigger issue is the parent, "Then: Create a new issue" and "Then: Edit issue" - those are 2 separate actions, and it is trying to modify the trigger issue - not the subtask. So because the trigger issue cannot have a parent, the action does nothing.

Can you try to specify the summary in the 'Then: Create a new' action like so (I hope Cloud automation has it as well, I tried with on-premise so..):

((Note I changed it to '{{triggerIssue.summary}} Task'))

[Pauline Hild]

Okay, now I understand the problem. I changed it the way you did in my rule but it doesn't work yet. Is there anything wrong? 

[Radek Dostál]

Hmm, then I'm flabbergasted, looks the same and it worked for me.

Does Audit log says anything interesting?

[Pauline Hild]

No, not as far as I can see. What I'm wondering about is that after I changed the rule it says "Rule successfully updated" but there's still a loading sign that doesn't disappear. Maybe that's the reason it doesn't work?