How to automate issue description update in multiple spaces

[Rob Peters]

Hello Community,

I am looking for a solution for the following situation:

We create for each customer project a own Jira space. This is an empty space with the right setting/schemes using Jira Automation (REST API). The empty space is then filled with a default project structure (a set of 60+ work items in a specific hierarchy) using Templating.app. At the moment we have 20 customer space, but this will soon grown towards +200 space. Each of them is created based on the default project structure. 

What i want to achieve is that a admin is able to centrally update the description of a specific work item in all +200 spaces (all these +200 space will have that specific work items). I already discovered that bulk edit doesn't work on the work item description. I prefer to solve it in Jira automation without using any third party apps. 

In short I want to deploy an updated description text to all spaces, to all work items which mean the criteria.  

Thanks. 

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Rob Peters 

Here are some things to consider in your desired solution.

To have a single rule that affects multiple Spaces your rule will have to be created by a Jira admin. And the Actor of the rule will need to have sufficient permissions in the affected Spaces to edit the Description in all affected items.

If you want the rule to be run on-demand it will either have to be a Scheduled rule that only a Jira admin would be able to access to run on-demand, or it would have to be a manually triggered rule that could be triggered from a work item.

What is the criteria for selecting the items to be updated in the +200 spaces? Will this change from one run to the next? If so, the person executing the rule will need to be able to edit the rule, or the rule would need to be manually triggered with a prompt to ask the user to provide the JQL to select the work items to modify.

There are limitations on how many items can be processed in a rule. Refer to 

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/automation-service-limits/

If the items are selected by a JQL in a Scheduled trigger than up to 999 items can be processed in a single run. If you anticipate needing to update more than that many items you would need to factor in a way to track which items were already updated so that they would be skipped in the next run of the rule.

If the rule is triggered manually then the items would need to be retrieved by a Lookup Work Items action, and that is limited to retrieving no more than 100.

Which type of admin are you referring to when you say you want "a admin" to be able to do this? Are you talking about a Jira admin or a Space admin?

What type of update will need to be made?

1. Does the Description currently contain text that is formatted in any way, contain images, links, etc. or is it just plain text?
2. Will the "update" be an entire replacement of the existing text? Or are you wanting to present the existing text to the user to have them modify it, then apply that to the targeting items?

[Trudy Claspill]

I may have an incorrect statement in my original reply. 

Where I said a manually triggered rule would have to use a Lookup Work Items action to lookup the issues (via JQL) to modify, that may not be the only method available.

It might be possible to use a branch: For Each > Related items > JQL

The JQL for selecting the issues to be changed would be supplied.

I think with that method you could get up to 999 items.

[Alex Ortiz]

@Rob Peters 

Try doing this wild, but crazy workaround that should work for you.

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/Bulk-Change-Description-Field/qaq-p/897762

[Trudy Claspill]

The one from Vincent, nested within Mohamed Riza's response thread?

That is an intriguing workaround.

If the +200 projects share a workflow scheme it could be manageable. If they do not, then the change would need to be incorporated into the existing Spaces' workflows and into whatever is being used to create the new Spaces.

[Alex Ortiz]

There were a few options in there, but Vincents was the one I tried and confirmed worked.