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How to get the previous value of "Parent Link" key?

Mohammad Gharehyazie

Hello All,

I am trying to write an automation rule that is supposed to go like this:
When: A task's "Parent Link" has been edited.

What: Do something to the previous parent and the current parent.

To perform an action on the current parent, I just create a branch with JQL query set to:

key = {{issue."parent link"}}

Side note: I cannot use a regular parent attribute as I am using a custom issue hierarchy, but that is not the issue. The above mentioned code works.

To perform an action on the previouse parent, I have to create another branch. Currently the query looks like this:

key = {{changelog.Parent Link.fromstring}}

The problem is with the formatting of the return value. For example, if a task has the key "SE-2" and it's summary is "test task", I expect (or want) to have "SE-2" from the right-hand side of that expression (the changelog part) but it returns "SE-2 test task". It concatenates the description to the end of the key. How can I only get the key part? Or how can I compare it to the combination of key and summary at the left-hand side?

Accepted answers

Boldizsár Vermes

@Mohammad Gharehyazie, have you tried {{fieldChange.fromString}} instead of changelog?

If it does the same, then, and I know, it's a hack, but use {{changelog.Parent Link.fromString.substringBefore(" ")}} to get the key only of the previous parent.

All comments

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Mohammad Gharehyazie -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

The change log for a specify field returns that field, and so the syntax you are using may be creating some other string.

Perhaps try: {{#changelog.Parent Link}}{{from}}{{/}}

Kind regards,
Bill

Erin Quick-Laughlin

@Mohammad Gharehyazie what happens if you capitalize the 's' in fromstring to fromString?

This is working for us...

Screenshot 2023-10-18 140911.png

Mohammad Gharehyazie

Thank you for your reply, but it did not work. It returned empty (or something that could not properly be parsed as a string). I am basing my findings on the error report of the audit log.

Mohammad Gharehyazie

Thank you for your reply, but it did not make any difference. It still returned (Key + Summary). I am basing my findings on the error report of the audit log.

Boldizsár Vermes

@Mohammad Gharehyazie, have you tried {{fieldChange.fromString}} instead of changelog?

If it does the same, then, and I know, it's a hack, but use {{changelog.Parent Link.fromString.substringBefore(" ")}} to get the key only of the previous parent.

Erin Quick-Laughlin

What is in the changelog when you log it via the rule?

Mohammad Gharehyazie

I do not know how to answer that.

All I know is when I used my expression below, when the key was "SE-3" and the summary was "First story", I expect "SE-3" as the result but it evaluates as "SE-3 First story" and thus throws an error.

{changelog.Parent Link.fromstring}}

Apparently the word "first" is a reserved keyword, but that is not the important thing here.

I would be more than happy to try whatever commands you ask me of, but you have to guide me through. How do I get the changelog?

Mohammad Gharehyazie

Thank you. The hack worked like a charm. I am so grateful.

BTW, fieldChange did not make any difference, same value returned. I believe the issue is caused because the "Parent Link" is displayed in Jira as a concatenation of Key + Summary, thus the fieldchange would still have both of them in the string.

Michele Imperiali_bjqxjz

I'm adding my experience to this thread since I was able to make it work.
I've just implemented this rule in order to update iteratively the parent original estimate when a child is moved (so I have to access both new and old parents).
Looking at the changelog, when an issue is moved from one parent to the other I have the following data:

{IssueParentAssociation=[ChangeItemBean{fieldId='null', field='IssueParentAssociation', fieldType='null', from='14241', fromString='TSBPL-222', to='13520', toString='TSBPL-113'}]}

So to access the id of the old parent I simply created a variable "oldParentVar" with the code below:

{{changelog.IssueParentAssociation.fromString}}

I then use the value of this variable to access the parent via this JQL code:

key={{oldParentVar|"null"}}

TS_wwta1f

Hi Michele, which version of Jira are you using?

I’m trying to do the same thing, using Jira Cloud, & I don’t get any results (tried various ways).

When I examine the changelog JSON via the API, I do see the below, shortened to the relevant portions:

{
 “changelog”: {
  “histories”: [ 
   {
    “items”: [
     {
      “field”: “IssueParentAssociation”,
      “fromString”: “ABCD-1234”

My rule is structured to be manually triggered from an issue & then act on each child:

- when manually triggered

- for each child

- create variable {{previousParentKey}}

- log: value {{previousParentKey}}

For the smart value for the variable, I’ve tried:

- {{changelog.IssueParentAssociation.fromString}}
- {{issue.changelog.IssueParentAssociation.fromString}}
- {{issue.parent.fromString}}
- {{changelog.parent.fromString}}
- {{issue.changelog.parent.fromString}}
- {{issue.IssueParentAssociation.fromString}}

All of the above with using Parent instead of parent, or issueParentAssociation instead of IssueParentAssociation. Also instead of doing it on the children of a given issue, doing on the issue itself.

none of them work

TS_wwta1f

This doesn’t work for me on Jira Cloud

Michele Imperiali_bjqxjz

Hi, I'm also using JIRA Cloud.

Looking at your changelog, it looks like you have to access the value like this:

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