Cloning Comments Between Boards

[Danielle Allen]

I have created an automation to clone tickets between boards.

I also need to clone the comments and followed these instructions: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/how-to-copy-comments-from-the-original-issue-to-the-cloned-issue-1236601599.html

However, this appears only to work when the ticket is being cloned to the same board. I need to clone to a new board.

I tried building a Global Automation following the same logic, and it won't trigger.

Is there a way to clone comments from One Board to a Second Board?

[Luka Hummel - codefortynine]

Hi @Danielle Allen

If you are willing to use a third-party app, you could try our Deep Clone for Jira. Deep Clone can clone all comments of your issues in one go. You can also have Deep Clone triggered via a Jira Automation if you prefer.

Using Deep Clone will also circumvent any potential issues regarding your automation execution limits.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Danielle Allen 

First, let's align on some terminology...

• Jira stores issues in projects
• A Jira board is a view of issues in a project, based on a JQL filter
• And each project can have zero to many boards

And so when an issue is cloned, it is added to a project (either the same project or a different one).  It is not cloned to a "board"; instead it appears on any boards where it matches the filter.

Are you trying to clone an issue from one project into another project?  (And then to clone the comments from the original issue to the cloned one also.)  If so, the rule you note will need to be global, or multi-project in scope.

If you have already tried that and the rule is not triggering as you describe, please post images of your complete automation rule, including the details from the top of the rule, and of the audit log details showing the rule execution.  Those may provide context to explain what you are observing.

And please take note: the automation rule packaging / execution limits are changing, and so a rule like you describe could quickly use up your allocation for a Jira Standard License level.  Please look here to learn more about that change: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/Introducing-our-new-packaging-model-for-Jira-Cloud-Automation/ba-p/2446099

Kind regards,
Bill

[Danielle Allen]

Hello,

Thanks so much for your response.

This is exactly what I am trying to do - 

"Are you trying to clone an issue from one project into another project?  (And then to clone the comments from the original issue to the cloned one also.)  If so, the rule you note will need to be global, or multi-project in scope."

I have been reviewing the changes to automation rules, I believe that I will have about a dozen of these per month which I think should keep us under our limits, however when I look at the Audit file for the automation, it shows a lot of No Action Performed - is it counting those items towards my limit? If so, this likely won't work.

Here is a photo of the automation - 

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks for that information and the rule image.

First to answer your question about "counting", I would refer to that article for guidance.  As of today, that article says the following actions do not count: writes to the audit log, create variable, and create lookup table.  Everything else counts...

Which is a problem for a rule like yours: when using the Issue Created trigger it is a good idea to immediately follow that with the Re-fetch Issue action.  This reduces the chance of a race-track error / timing problem.  And that Re-fetch Issue action will count. 

I suspect that is why your rule is showing "No Actions Performed"...The issue data is not available as quickly as the trigger starting the rule.  Perhaps try adding the action to see if that solves the problem, and then consider the impact on rule execution counts.

And an FYI: when the comments are copied, they will not necessarily be added in the same order as they were originally posted from the source issue.  Automation rule branches (on more than one thing) process asynchronously and in-parallel.  Effectively they could be in a random order.  The only work-around for that is to instead use a marketplace app for cloning as it will clone comments one-by-one, waiting before adding the next one.