Blocks (linked issue) Automation

Jaime Laird

Hi Community! Hoping you can help me solve my blocking automation troubles. Thanks in advance!

I would like to perform actions based on Three Events:

Event One: Link Created - Issue B blocks Issue A

• Actions:
  1. Issue A status transitioned to "Blocked"
  2. Comment added to Issue A "This issue has been linked as blocked by Issue B. This issue has been automatically transitioned to "Blocked" status.
• My attempt:
  
• Issues with my attempt:
  
  • The comment is pulling Issue A, when the intent is Issue B
    

Event Two: Linked Removed - Issue B blocks Issue A

• Actions:
  1. Issue A status transitioned to "Ready to Start"
  2. Comment added to Issue A "This issue was previously 'blocked' by Issue B, but this link has been removed. This issue has automatically transitioned to "Ready to Start" status.
  3. Note: this automation should also test first that the Issue A is not blocked by any another incomplete Issues first. If it Issue A is blocked by other incomplete issues, Issue A status should remain "Blocked" with no comment
• My Attempt
  
• Issues with my attempt:
  
  • The comment is pulling Issue A, when the intent is Issue B
  • I am unsure how to solve for the check if blocked by other issues requirement

Event Three: Issue B blocks Issue A, Issue B now complete

• Actions:
  • Issue A status transitioned to "Ready to Start"
  • Comment added to Issue A "This issue was previously 'blocked' by Issue B, but that work is now complete. This issue has automatically transitioned to "Ready to Start" status.
  • Note: this automation should also test first that the Issue A is not blocked by any another incomplete Issues first. If it Issue A is blocked by other incomplete issues, Issue A status should remain "Blocked" with no comment
• My attempt:
  
• Issues with my attempt:
  • How should I structure the comment to dynamically pull in Issue B?
  • I am unsure how to solve for the check if blocked by other issues requirement

 

Trudy P Claspill

Hello @Jaime Laird 

Regarding Event one:

Closely review the information that is available in the Issue Linked trigger to understand which issue of the pair is considered the "source" and which is considered the "destination".

 

Issue linked

Rule executes when an issue is linked to another issue. {{issue}} will always refer to the source issue, so if ISSUE-A is blocked by ISSUE-B, this rule will execute on ISSUE-B. To access ISSUE-A, use {{destinationIssue}}, and to access the link type, use {{linkType}} (e.g. {{linkType}}

Also look at the Audit Log for the rule execution. It will tell you which issue is the "source" and which is the "destination".

In my case I created a link between TTS-51 and TTS-49 such that TTS-51 is blocked by TTS-49.

The rule considers the issue on the right side of "is blocked by" to be the source issue, regardless of which issue you are actually in when you create the link.

 

Event Two and Three:

The above also addresses why your comment is not ending up in the expected issue.

 

So let's first make sure you have a clear understanding of the "source" and "destination" issue concepts related to linked issues, and get your rules structured correctly for that. Then we can talk about the extra conditions to check for other blocking issue relationships.