Inactive user issue when building an automation

[Michelle Rose]

I'm building an automation that's working as expected except I'm trying to add a part where the reporter of the new epic is the person who triggered the automation. I know I got the smart value part right because the right person's name shows up in the audit log each time, but the error "inactive user" still shows up (and the reporter's name is Anonymous in the new epic). The admins have looked at our permission settings and we know that's not the problem - has anyone else run into this?

[Kai Becker]

Hi @Michelle Rose 

thanks for your question. First think I would check is:

• does your user that is the role actor have the permission to assign issues?
• does your user have the permission to get assigned?

Could you please post a screenshot of your rule and the assignment part?

[Michelle Rose]

I just checked the project permissions and yes to both of your questions. However when I looked at the reporters section I saw this:

Could this be the issue?

@Kai Becker 

[Michelle Rose]

Here is the part in the automation:

[Michelle Rose]

@Kai Becker Well I just tried adding every permission imaginable to the "modify reporter permission" and I'm getting the same "inactive user" error message.

[Michelle Rose]

@Kai Becker Are you able to help me troubleshoot more or can someone else help?

[Majken Longlade]

A bit late, but I think the problem is the .displayName in your smart value, just use {{initiator}} and it will get the user ID, which is what it needs.

[Monica Brazelton]

@Majken Longlade Thank you for your suggestion, it worked for me!

I was using {{initiator.displayName}} and running into the same error. The audit log for the automation rule showed it running successfully, but the initiator's user name wasn't showing up in the field. I changed it to just {{initiator}} and it worked, now the initiator's user name appears in the field I wanted.

Thank you again, much appreciated!

[Majken Longlade]

Glad to hear! For anyone else who comes along, what's going on is that while user picker fields show you the username, the selection is based off the user ID. When you manually fill in a user picker it lets you search by username, but when you make a selection from the list it's setting the user ID as the actual input into the field. So when using Automation rules or APIs with user picker fields, you have to give it the user ID. 

Generally when you're copying from one field to the same type of field, you don't want to add any parameters to the smart value. That's only useful if you're trying to eg take the email address from a user picker field, and put it in an email field.

[Monica Brazelton]

Ah, thanks @Majken Longlade that makes a lot of sense. I really appreciate the context!