transition cloned subtasks jira automation

Question

Hi Atlassian Community,

I have a parent ticket: A in issuetype A and the following sub-tasks A1-sub, A2-sub, A3-sub

All sub-tasks have a status of Open

I used automation rule to clone parent ticket A from issue type A to new parent B in issue type B along with subtasks: A1-sub, A2-sub, A3-sub --> these now become B1-sub, B2, sub, B3-sub (new sub-task clones)

For the new sub-tasks clones in parent B, I would like to transition from "Open" status to "Closed"

The workflow transition going from "Open" to "Close" is valid but the status is not updated and the new subtask clones remain in "Open" status.

I raised a support ticket to Atlassian and it sounds like it is not possible to take actions on the sub-task/s of the cloned parent issue from a rule that is being executed on the original parent issue. This is because they are not directly related.

Instead to create a second automation rule to handle the transitioning of the newly created sub-tasks to the closed status. The limitation  appears to be  with cloned subtasks specifically since they are not directly related to the original parent issue. Within the scope of the automation rule, that is being executed on the original partent issue, Jira is not able to "access" these newly created sub-tasks.

I tried using "create variable" but I'm not familar how this works.

I was able to build a second rule to achieve this but looking to see if it can all be done in one single rule.

Please advise if using "create variable" is possible and examples would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

M

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Mary Mark

Reviewing what you posted, I have questions and comments...

What problem are you trying to solve by cloning issues and then immediately closing them?  Knowing that may help the community to offer alternatives.  Thanks!

Regarding your rule structure, branches which could be on more than one thing are executed in parallel and asynchronously, with no guarantee of when the branch will complete, up until the last step of the rule.  For your rule, this means:

* the first branch to clone the issues will definitely not complete before your later branch to attempt to transition the issues processes
* and, the value of "all created issues" used in the branch will not mean what you think it means; instead it will be at a moment in time and not likely contain all of the created issues

Assuming you still want to transition the issues immediately after cloning them, I can think of two possible solution approaches:

* Add something unique to each issue (e.g., a label), and use a separate scheduled trigger rule to detect open issues with that indicator and transition them.  This approach has the advantage that even if there is a Jira site problem causing rule execution problems, the rule can "catch up" later to transition the issues.
* Immediately after the issue is cloned, call the REST API function to transition the issue using the Send Web Request action.  This approach seems like a bad idea to me, as it would make the rule very slow, and so more likely to halt processing for a variety of reasons.

Kind regards,
Bill

Mary Mark · Answer

Hi @Trudy P Claspill

Please see details

Automation Query

project = DCS AND issuetype in ("Third Party - Contracting") AND "Category/Sub-Category" in cascadeOption("Contracting Third Party - Change", "MGA transfer (MGAMC/SGMC)") AND State = "Transfer ready" AND updated >= -1d AND updated <= 1d

Using this ticket as example: TEST A meets the criteria of the filter

The automation rule will check to ensure that there are no existing clones. IF there are any clones existing then there will be no actions performed on ticket.

The clone parent ticket will be created in the same project and issue type will be: Remun – Block of Business Transfers

By running the rule, the ticket got updated:

DCS-15941 is the new cloned parent

Source issue type is cloned to target issue type properly and category/sub-category is updated properly. Everything seem to clone over successfully along with sub-tasks. The only thing is that the new cloned sub-tasks should transitioned to “Closed” status

Here is the new sub-task clone in the issue view screen. Everything is correct however the status should show as “Closed”

As you can see here, if I go under the status: “Closed” is an available transition BUT why didn’t it go to “Closed”

For the subtasks, if written this way:

Then the original sub-tasks are transitioned:

BUT I do not want this. I want the new sub-tasks clones to be transitioned to “Closed” but it is not.

Basically I am trying to figure out how to handle the new subtasks clones to transition to the status “Closed” once this is executed

I tried using another branch rule and using the following:

BUT That didn’t work.

I’m wondering if it can be done? Or does it need another separate automation rule?

Here is the entire rule where I'm trying to use the "Create variable" but I'm having trouble.

Please kindly advise.

Thanks!

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Mary Mark

To provide assistance with an automation rule, we are going to need to actually see the rule you want to modify. Please provide screen images showing the rule.