Validate Rich Text Field content on status transition without third-party apps

[Asier Vadillo]

Hello Atlassian Community,

I’m trying to implement a validation in Jira Cloud and I would like to know if this is possible without using third-party apps.

Goal

When an issue transitions from one status to another:

• If Field 1 has value Y or Z

• Then check whether Field 2 (a Rich Text Field) contains:

  • links

  • mentions

  • multimedia 

Ideally, this validation should:

• Cancel the transition

• Notify the user, similar to how workflow validators behave in Jira

Constraints & Current Idea

Since I’m aware of the limitations of native Jira workflow validators in Cloud, my idea was to use Jira Automation instead:

Trigger:

• Issue transitioned from status X to status Z and Field 1 has value Y or Z

Rule logic:

• If the Rich Text Field contains links, mentions, or multimedia

• Then automatically transition the issue back to status X

I have this Jira Expression that should work, but I do not know which Automation node will let me use it

let cf = JSON.stringify(issue.customfield_10171);

cf && ( cf.match('"type":"media"')

|| cf.match('"type":"mention"')

|| cf.match('"type":"inlineCard"')

|| cf.match('"type":"link"') ) == null

Question

Is there any way to achieve this kind of validation:

• Natively in Jira Cloud

• Blocking the transition (or reliably reverting it)

• Without using third-party apps?

Any guidance, limitations to be aware of, or alternative approaches would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Asier Vadillo 

I don't think that Jira Expressions can be used directly in Automation operations.

However, you can use a IF-ELSE block to add multiple conditions with the "At least one condition matches" option.

The Work Items Field Condition did not enable me to look at the non-rendered markup of the field. But I was able to set a Variable to my rich text field, and the variable then contained the non-rendered markup. I could then use the variable in Smart Value conditions. Here is an example.

There may be a more efficient way to do this comparison with RegEx expressions or other text evaluation tools.

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-smart-values-text-fields/#match--

Are Field 1 and Field 2 on the transition screens, or are they set before the transition is selected?

If they are set before the transition is selected, and if you want to incorporate this with a Validator in the workflow you could:

- Create a custom field that will be cleared when the transition should not be allowed and set to some value when the transition should be allowed. Set the field configuration to give the field some default value - by default the transition should be allowed.

- Use an automation similar to this that is triggered by changes to Field1 and Field2

- Execute logic in the rule to determine if the state of those fields is such that the transition should not be allowed.

- If it is, have the automation clear that other custom field as a way to note the transition is not allowed.

- Add a Field Required Validator to the workflow to check that other custom field.