Trying to create an automation that fills in a custom field date from when it was placed in status.

[Aiden Swartz]

I'm attempting to create an automation that fills in a "End Date" field that we've been using the date when the associated Issue's status transitions to a complete status. 

In this case, the date would be changed to 5/15/2023. I didn't utilize Resolution via the Workflow until fairly recently, and I'm there's a load of completed requests that don't have an end date that is easily accessible/changed and thats able to be utilized in stuff like eazyBI.

I'm sure there's way easier and obvious ways to go about this, but if anyone knows what I should do, that would be greatly appreciated.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Aiden Swartz -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

If I understand your question, you want to populate your "End Date" field when an issue completed, and you cannot use Resolved as issues did not set the Resolution until recently.

A work-around would be to use the {{issue.statuscategorychangedate}} as a source; this will be when the issue changed to a status with a "done" category.

To use this to set a date/time you will need to convert it from text, like this:

{{issue.statuscategorychangedate.toDate}}

Kind regards,
Bill

[Aiden Swartz]

Great, this works perfectly @Bill Sheboy  . One more question though... I don't see "statuscategorychangedate" anywhere when looking at lists of available smart value inputs, but I may just be looking in the wrong spot. Is there somewhere you have that put down? Or was that something you just remembered.

Either way, thank you so much!

[Bill Sheboy]

I am glad to learn that helped.

Regarding that field, I knew about it from writing JQL over the years.  And automation seems to use the same REST API features to access issues...so it made sense it was there. 

You can identify all the possible smart values available for a rule using the how-to article below.  Basically you find an example issue, call the REST API with a browser, and look for your field.  This also helps confirm you have the correct smart value for a field, as smart values are name, spacing, and case-sensitive.

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/find-the-smart-value-for-a-field/

I also recommend periodically just paging through the smart value documentation, as they may add stuff before it is announced.  :^)

[Aiden Swartz]

Thats great, thank you so much!