Check if same field has already been entered before (Related Issues Condition)

Question

When we receive requests into JSM we record a custom field (let's say it's cf 12345 and asks "team id").

Ultimately we're gong to create an Epic for the team id and park a story under it and this part works fine.

But when we get a 2nd request for the same Team ID we don't want to create a new Epic, but just a Story under the existing Epic.

In automations I'm trying to get the syntax right for Related Issues Condition where I believe we need to set Related Issues to "JQL Issues" since we're querying for existence in the project scope.

I get "Related Issues JQL" field to enter and that's where I'm stuck because the condition field says "Are Present" which I took to mean 'is in existence'.

So I'm stumped so far (no good examples found) for how to specify the JQL and tried cf[12345].value but that is not 'good JQL' and not sure if I should switch to smart values (e.g., {{issue.team id}} as the form says Smart Values cannot be validated.

Marc Isikoff_o8qjap · Answer

Thanks I will contact Atlassian since they do offer a related condition and it has pretty wide scope of if that field value exists but it's relying on JQL to match JQL and no examples exist for this which is puzzling to say the least.

I cannot imagine no one else has had this issue as you wouldn't want to create duplicates of anything in your system (JSD or Jira project) but Atlassian's documentation is so pedestrian.

Joseph Chung Yin · Answer

@Marc Isikoff -

Unfortunately, the out of the box JQL functions for related issues or via automation related issues condition may not be possible.  The key will be to determine if an EPIC exists in your Jira project via JQL, so if the EPIC issue is not also tagged with the Team value, then it is hard to find the EPIC to conduct the check.

I agreed with you that the documentation on Related Issues condition is limited - https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/branch-automation-rules-to-perform-actions-on-related-issues/

Based on my additional analysis - One thing you can check is to see since the the links are created cross-projects, you will need to make your automation rule into global scope.  Here is is a reference for you - https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Marketplace-Apps-Integrations/Automation-for-Jira-related-issues-condition-does-not-work-with/qaq-p/724244

Last point - You may want to contact Atlassian Support (https://support.atlassian.com) for further idea/assistance.

Hope this helps.

Best, Joseph

Marc Isikoff_o8qjap · Answer

Joseph,

Thank you, but I like the idea of using JQL to check in JSM before pushing an Epic to another Jira project.

The documentation on related issues conditions is lacking when it comes to checking a field exists so I don't know what JQL to put in for that.