Automatically link tickets by a issue comment

[#1]

This workaround is meant to help JSM, JSW and JWM projects where it is necessary to link Issues mentioned in a comment.

At the moment, this functionality isn't available natively in Jira, we have a request feature created for this topic:

•  JRACLOUD-46065 - Link Issues mentioned a ticker id

Workaround steps:

• Automation rule:
  • First, it will be necessary to create an Advanced compare condition for the comment with the desired project Key, with this smart value: {{issue.comment.last.body.text}}
  • It will be necessary to create a variable, "test" for example with this smart value and regex validator: {{comment.body.match("([A-Z]{2,}-\d+).*")}}
     Note: I recommend not using a variable name with any word that could be related to some Jira property, as this will make automation not work (I found this out by doing several tests using the word "issue" until I used the word "test" which worked).
    
  • So the icing on the cake here is to add a Link issues action into the automation rule using the variable that we already create with this smart value: {{variable_name}}
  •  Extra tip: if you want to link tickets from different projects by a comment, just change the scope of the automation rule to Global(All projects for Multi projects):

Now the ticket mentioned in a comment will be automatically linked. The automation rule will work as in the screen recording below:

[Bhanu]

This looks like a great feature to have. It reduces an extra step to link the issue manually. Thank you for sharing this @Bruno Altenhofen

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hey @Bhanu

Thank you for your feedback! :D

[Charles Trilha]

Very nice article!

[Rick Toffoli]

Amazing! This feature will help a lot our Jira site.
Thank you for share @Bruno Altenhofen 

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hey @Rick Toffoli 

Thank you for your feedback! :D

[David Berclaz _Apwide_]

I just configured it for our Customer Portal, and I can confirm it works perfectly!
Thanks for the workaround @Bruno Altenhofen 💪

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hello @David Berclaz _Apwide_ 

Great! Thanks for your feedback! ;)

[Yatish Madhav]

Super! Thanks for this @Bruno Altenhofen  - I have extended the variable to this:

{{comment.body.match("([A-Z0-9]{2,15}-\d+).*")}}

To allow for numbers in the Project keys and we also have our Jira instances project keys limit set to 15.

Thanks for this. It works great!

Now to implement it across our 700+ projects if everyone is happy with this :D

Thank you

[Bruno Altenhofen]

Hey @Yatish Madhav 

Thank you for your feedback! :D

[Lauren Strom]

this works beautifully if you only mention one ticket! what if you're mentioning multiple tickets in one comment?

i.e. your comment is: "following up for feedback on FORM-1 and AFJ-1"  ? 

or 

i.e. your comment is: "following up for feedback on AFJ-1 and AFJ-2"  ? 

[Thenna]

thanks for the doc.

I can't believe this is not available native (jira server had this forever and it also removes the link when comment is deleted or updated)

[Mark]

@Lauren Strom this works fine in my case assuming XXX in my project prefix. This works for tickets mentioned after each other or on new lines. 

{{comment.body.match("(XXX-\d+)")}}

I have added 4 automation rules: ticket created, ticket updated, comment added, comment updated. 

Comment

1. Trigger: Comment Created or Updated
2. Not sure if necessary: but with regex: {{comment.body}} contains regular expression `XXX-\d+`
3. Create Variable: {{ticketNumber}} with smart Value `{{comment.body.match("(XXX-\d+)")}}`
4. Link Issue To: Relates to `{{ticketNumber}}` 

Issue 

1. Trigger: Issue Created or Updated
2. Not sure if necessary: but with regex: {{issue.description}} contains regular expression `XXX-\d+`
3. Create Variable: {{ticketNumber}} with smart Value `{{issue.description.match("(XXX-\d+)")}}`
4. Link Issue To: Relates to `{{ticketNumber}}` 

[Reena Prabhakar]

Thanks .This saves lot of time .

[Ross LeMere]

Hi @Bruno Altenhofen , I stumbled across this automation rule and love the idea, but I'm unable to find the step in the flow to add the variable created to the audit log. I don't see that as a step I can add. In turn, when I add the Link work items step, I only have Trigger work item and most recently created work item as options to choose from.

I know you created this rule back in 2022 so I'm sure updates have been made/changed, but any assistance here would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!