Bulk change sub-tasks to their parent ticket's issue types

[Luyang Zhang]

As an org admin, I want to bulk change 1000+ subtasks to their parent ticket's issue types. Those 1000+ sub-tasks are located in 20+ projects, and I will merge them into one huge project.

The biggest issue is that there are three different sub-task issue types ("Sub-task", "Feature Sub-task", and "Bug Sub-task"), and they are mapping with two parent issue types ("Bug Task" and "Feature Task"). The mapping looks like this:

1. "Sub-task" -> "Feature Task"
2. "Sub-task" -> "Bug Task"
3. "Feature Sub-task" -> "Feature Task"
4. "Bug Sub-task" -> "Bug Task"

So, I want to directly to transfer all those sub-tasks to their parent issue type, regardless of their sub-task issue types.

Many thanks!

[Jordan Dowdy]

Hey Luyang, 

If I understand correctly, you want to convert each of the sub-task work types to their mapped parent work type and combine them all in a single project.

This can be done in the following way:

for the mapping 3. and 4. above, you simply need to return these sub-tasks via JQL

• ex. type = "Feature Sub-task" 

Then do a bulk edit, change the work type and move to the new project. This should be doable in one bulk move per work type (Feature Sub-task, and Bug Sub-task)

The mapping for 1. and 2. will be a bit more complicated. 

I would suggest configuring an automation rule with a scheduled trigger and a query to narrow the scope as much as possible. Here you would want to identify the parent work items and if possible within the scope of projects that the sub-tasks reside in. 

Then configure the rule to iterate through the sub-tasks for each of the parent items and set a label to differentiate the work type you want to move them to (ie Bug Task).

You should then be able to repeat the same steps as in 3. and 4. to do a bulk move and work type change. If needed, you can even remove the label at the time of move. 

Be mindful that the JQL query in the automation rule against the parent work items should return 1000 items or less or the rule will throttle. A few automation runs, and 4 bulk moves should finish this out for you. Let me know if you need any further clarification. Hopefully this helps solve your problem!

[Trudy Claspill]

for the mapping 3. and 4. above, you simply need to return these sub-tasks via JQL

• ex. type = "Feature Sub-task" 

Then do a bulk edit, change the work type and move to the new project. This should be doable in one bulk move per work type (Feature Sub-task, and Bug Sub-task)

Good suggestion!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Luyang Zhang 

The short answer is that you should look at using the REST API for this. The Bulk Move endpoint is what you would use for the conversion.

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/api-group-issue-bulk-operations/#api-rest-api-3-bulk-issues-move-post

You would use other API endpoints to (potentially) get the list of subtasks, get an individual subtask, and get the parent of the subtask so that you could determine the parent's type.

Automation Rules do not support a "Convert Sub-task" action.

Likewise there are limits on the number of issues an Automation Rule can process in one run as specified here.

You could potentially make partial use of Automation Rules to help you get the subtasks, and determine their parent's type, and then use the Send Web Request action to call the Bulk Move API endpoint. You still run into the processing limits, though.