How to fail incoming Webhooks JQL search gracefully?

Question

Hi,

I have been writing some project automation and using incoming Webhooks from GitHub which is working great but I have one minor non fatal problem.

To find the issue number I use the JQL search feature (Issues provided by running the following JQL search) that extracts the issue from the webhookData.
However in many cases the data will not contain an issue number and I would like the automation to just ignore this instead of failing with an error.

When the JQL search returns an empty key I get the following error:

Incoming webhook trigger failed to run JQL search:"(key = "") AND (project in (xxxx))" - The issue key '' for field 'key' is invalid.

And the rule fails with Some Errors but I would rather just fail the rule gracefully as this is a known case.

Is there anyway to achieve this and make an empty JQL search in the Webhooks just stop running the rule?

Thanks for any assistance.

Artem Artemev · Answer

I had exactly that problem recently, and i'm ready to share what i've came up with.

1. Create a system task that is reachable from your automation context and make it as hidden as possible, so people won't see it and won't delete it. The ID of that task will be the default one

@DEV-84@@.*?([a-zA-Z]+-\d+)").first}}`

Here, DEV-84 is the ID of your system ticket that you've just created, replace it with your own system ticket ID. This rule is also able to detect a ticket ID from the branch name as well as from the PR title, the title has a priority.

3. As your first component after the webhook, create an IF condition with JQL rule `key != DEV-84`, which basically stop the execution if the ticket is is the "system" one.

4. Add all your other rules after it

That way, if the ticket is not found in PR or branch, the system one will be used instead. Any operation for the system ticket is gracefully ignored.

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Rich Tamblyn -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

I recommend posting a new question, with images of your complete rule and audit log details, and link back to this post.  Otherwise only the people who are following this thread will see it to offer suggestions.

Until then...that error is telling you that your Transition Issue component needs an issue to process, and so if your trigger is Incoming webhook, you will need to do something like branch on JQL from the webhook data prior to the transition, or get the data directly from the trigger (as shown above).  For an example of the branch technique:

* trigger: incoming webhook
* branch: on some JQL built using data from the webhook to get the issue* action: transition issue

Kind regards,
Bill

Rich Tamblyn · Answer

Hi, I'm experiencing the same issue with webhooks driven by GitHub events.

I tried to follow up on your suggestion Bill, unfortunately the tasks in my automation require the Issue to be set by the webhook trigger rather than an explicit 'Lookup' later on.

Cheers,

Rich