Entra ID PIM - Automation

Question

Hello

We would like to be able to create a task within a project when someone in Entra ID using PIM requests access to a group.

I've got this setup to work currently as follows:

1. Incoming Mail Server linked to mailbox used for receiving requests
2. Mail handler linked to Mail Server, set to "create a new issue or add a comment to a existing issue.
3. Automation rule that runs when a issue is created that includes PIM: activate in the summary that edit's the issue and cleans up the description so it looks more "user friendly".

The issue we're having and my question is once the PIM request is approved it's also generating separate issues within Jira, is it possible to merge these issues into comments on the original issue so it's all in one place?.

The other issues include PIM: approved within the summary.

Bill Sheboy · Answer

First, for the CONTAINS ~ operator with JQL, you may want to use the exact phrase syntax for matches: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/jql-operators/#CONTAINS----

For example:

summary ~ "\"PIM: Review\""

For the uniqueness checking, do you mean the Reporter of the issue will be distinct each time, or something else?  If it is the Reporter, those could be checked with the JQL to check for duplicates.

James Pollard · Answer

Hello Bill

Thanks for the message, so I'd like to achieve the following:

When a new issue is created with "PIM: The request" in the summary, lookup to see if there are other issues containing "PIM: Review" in the summary.

Then add the description from "PIM: The request" to the issue "PIM: Review" as a comment, link the issue - "PIM: The request" to "PIM: Review" and set it to done.

Currently for the lookup, I just have summary ~ "PIM: Review", in each case the issue will be unique as it will contain the User who Requested the access and to what group. How can I lookup issues with that unique options and achieve the above?.

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @James Pollard -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

There are several ways to solve this...depending upon if the information in the email has some unique identifier to join the first request and the later approval.

Following the theme of your current approach, your existing automation rule could use the unique identifier to find the original Jira issue, update it with a comment (or other change), and then close the new Jira issue with a helpful resolution, such as "duplicate".  (I recommend closing rather than deleting the new issue to help manage any problems.)

Another approach would be to check if your "calling application" that is sending emails could instead trigger a webhook.  A rule could use the Incoming Webhook trigger, and include logic to decide if a new issue should be created or an update made to an existing issue.

Kind regards,
Bill