Approve/deny buttons are missing in the Approval Needed emailed notifications

[Laura Castro]

When the work item is created (via the portal), the automation properly sets the Approver Group. The emailed notification for the approval is sent.

However, the email doesn’t have the Approve/Deny buttons.

If I remove the Approvals Group after the request is created, then re-add either the same group or a different one, the notification does seem to work properly, it just doesn't work upon creation.

Customer Notification settings:

• Approval Required - Enabled
• Security settings - Approvers can use without being signed in
• (I also tried Approvers must be signed in, no difference)

Workflow settings:

• The initial status has Approval enabled and the approver source is set to Approver Groups

Automation rule:

• If Request Type = Remote Server Access
• Then edit work item field: Approver Groups = IT Management

Other notes:

• If an approver looks at the request in either the portal or the work item view, the approve/deny buttons are there, as expected.
• Email notification
  • The email address that sends the notification upon creation has the alias Automation for Jira, but the actual automation rule doesn't include sending an email. 
  • The alias in the email sent if I remove then re-add the Approver Group on an existing ticket is the Portal name. 
  • Both emails are the Approval Needed email, I can tell by the body text. It's just whether or not the buttons are there.
• I tried changing the automation to use a different group for the Approver Group, no difference. 
• It used to work. It's not a frequently used form, and it's currently the only one that requires approval, but throughout testing and the first couple submissions, it worked. Last time was early February. I have no idea what could have affected it.

When I searched for similar situations, most of what I found was about the notification not arriving at all (usually because of workflow settings or customer notification settings). I saw some with the notification security setting set to no buttons, one where the people in the approver group didn't have the customer role (in my situation, initially one of the three people in the group had the customer role, but everyone got the same email, same after I added the customer role to the other two). Or it was from long enough ago that it wasn't really applicable anymore.

[Ajay _view26_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Laura Castro 

This could be a timing issue between your automation and the workflow!

JSM fires the "Approval Required" email (with the Approve/Deny buttons) exactly once — the moment the ticket first enters the approval status. Your automation sets the Approver Group just after the ticket is created, but by then the ticket has already entered that status, so the notification goes out before the group is actually attached. No group = no buttons. That's also why manually removing and re-adding the group works — it triggers a fresh notification after the field is already set

A few ways to fix it - 

1. Add an intermediate workflow status
This is the most reliable fix. Add a short "staging" status before your approval status. Have your automation set the Approver Group while the ticket sits there, then auto-transition to the approval status. By the time it arrives, the group is already set and the email fires correctly with the buttons

2. Move the automation trigger to issue creation
If your request type is always the same (which it sounds like it is for Remote Server Access), you could set the Approver Group at the point of ticket creation instead. The group gets populated before the workflow even moves, so the email should include the buttons first time, every time

[Laura Castro]

The automation currently is at ticket creation (sorry, just realized my screenshot didn't show that).

Would doing a staging status still work? Something like:

Add a status to the workflow that the work item goes into upon creation, with a transition to the Waiting for Approval status.

Automation runs when work item is created. 

• WHEN one of several request types is created
• IF request type equals Remote Server Access
• THEN edit Approver Groups field
• THEN transition to Waiting for Approval status (which is still the one that requires approval)

[Laura Castro]

I just tried, and that worked!

Thank you!

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Laura Castro 

As mentioned by  the approvers field has to be set before entering the status, so the field already has a value or this is set on the transition to the approval required status in the workflow.