Automation : how to display checkboxes in the description ?

[Aline Veyradier]

Hello,

I've created an automation rule in which subtasks are created from a task, each with a preset description. 

I'd like to replace the bullet points with checkboxes.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks in advance

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Aline Veyradier 

Short answer: the built-in features of Jira automation rule actions do not support most of the macros for fields such as Description.  There are complicated workarounds using the REST API endpoints.  Another option is using a marketplace app for checkbox handling as some of those can be set / updating using automation rules and the custom fields.

Atlassian recently added the Action Items macro, which looks like checkboxes.  But they have not added the ability to set those with automation yet.  Please see this article and read through the comments to learn how to add Action Items using the REST API from a rule:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-articles/Introducing-Action-items-in-Jira/ba-p/2876018

Atlassian also recently announced they are sunsetting the default / plain text renderer, and so all text fields will have the wiki style renderer, including macros and markup.  Several people have asked if this means Atlassian will enhance automation rule actions to include such features, but their team has not posted updates on this yet.  Please read and watch this article to see progress:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-articles/We-re-removing-the-default-text-renderer-in-Jira/ba-p/3025886

I am hopeful those changes are coming as recently Atlassian started added rich text formatting for Confluence page content to automation rule actions:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Automation-articles/We-ve-enabled-rich-text-editing-in-the-Publish-new-page-in/ba-p/3041023

Kind regards,
Bill

[Ana Livia Rocha Silva]

Hi @Aline Veyradier!

Sadly, checkbox are not supported in automation, but you can add it manually. You can see more information discussed here and here.

Kind regards,

Ana