Use two smart values to create a single value inside of a loop

Nathan Broom

Summary

My goal is to convert a dynamic number of epoch values to a different format and use the result in the body of a web request.

It would seem that this is possible at first given that I can do this without issue outside of a loop. But within a loop, I receive this message: "The provided smart value was unable to be resolved to an object."

Any suggestions?

What works outside a loop

Log action:

{{epochDate.toDate("dd/MM/yyyy")
  .plusSeconds(ts).convertToTimeZone("America/Chicago")
  .format("MMM dd, yyyy hh:mm a z")}}

*line breaks for readability*

Here epochDate is a custom variable that equals 01/01/1970 and ts is a custom variable for testing purposes. The result of this action is Sep 01, 2022 09:28 AM CDT.

Loop that breaks

Log action:

{{#webResponse.body}}
   {{epochDate.toDate("dd/MM/yyyy")
   .plusSeconds(ts).convertToTimeZone("America/Chicago")
   .format("MMM dd, yyyy hh:mm a z")}}
{{/}}

*line breaks for readability*

Here epochDate is the same value as above and ts is the epoch time received from a web request. 

Web request action:

{
 "ticket": {
  "comment": {
  "html_body": 
    "<table>                        
    <tr>
    <th>Time Sent</th>
    <th>Status</th>
    <th>Subject</th>
    <th>Email</th>
    <th>Sender</th>
    </tr>{{#webResponse.body}}<tr>
    <td>{{epochDate.toDate(\"dd/MM/yyyy\").plusSeconds(ts).convertToTimeZone("America/Chicago").format("MMM dd, yyyy hh:mm a z")}}</td>
    <td>{{elasticsearch_index}}</td>
    <td>{{subject}}</td>
    <td>{{email}}</td>
    <td>{{sender}}</td>
    </tr>
{{/}}
    </table>",
 "public": false
 },
 "status": "new"
 }
}   

*line breaks for readability*

Here epochDate is the same value as above and ts is the epoch time received from a web request. 

All the other smart values that are iterated over are sent correctly, just the time that is causing problems. My guess is that the custom variable epochDate is somehow out of scope within a loop.

What I've tried

• Casting ts asNumber to ensure it wasn't converted to a string somehow
• Referencing ts by webResponse.body.ts
• Adding mustaches around both epochDate and ts with and without enclosing mustaches 
• Making a list of just converted times but then I have to iterate again

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Nathan Broom -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

I am assuming you are trying this in an automation for Jira (A4J) rule...and so your scoping observation is correct.

Branches in automation rules which have one-and-only-one value (e.g. Branch on Parent, Branch on Current Issue, etc.) get run in-line, and so any variables in scope at the top-level of the rule are visible because they are the same variable.

However branches which could evaluate to multiple issues (e.g. JQL, child issues, etc.)  are run asynchronously and in parallel.  Per the documentation, there is no guarantee the branch will complete before the next step in the rule...let alone the entire rest of the rule.  And so I hypothesize a created variable referenced from outside the branch likely evaluates to null.

Have you tried to move the variable creation inside of the branch/loop?

Kind regards,
Bill