Help with automation rule using advanced issue edit JSON

[Josh Cabrera]

I inherited automation rules from someone no longer at the company, and I only know the basics of JSON.

The rules are a mess and errors are logged 50% of the time, so I'm trying to clean them up.

My biggest problem at the moment is that I don't understand a particular component of the rules.

If I understand correctly, the previous component is looking up objects and retrieving the "ItApproverUserNames" attribute/field value, which is an array of users.

Looking at the block below, which is using the Edit issue fields action with the advanced or additional fields option - can anyone help me understand what "first" is doing after "ItApproverUserNames"?

Is it simply making sure it fetches the values from the first array item? If so, isn't that unnecessary - i.e., shouldn't it default to that if not specified?

{
"fields": {
"IT Approval": {{lookupObjects.ItApproverUserNames.first.asJsonObjectArray("id")}}
}
}

[Kai Becker · Accepted solution]

Hi @Josh Cabrera 

welcome to the community and thanks for your question.

To better understand your problem and the rule, could you please post a screenshot of the rule and the attributes of the object?

[Josh Cabrera]

Thank you, Kai.

I ended up rewriting the rule entirely and resolved my issue.

The issue was very poor logical flow of the components and had nothing to do with the JSON that I was concerned about.

Appreciate your help!