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Automation to update Parent Epic from Child work items

Rich Allen

Hi all,

I know there are an array of different solutions to this question but I can't get a working version, wondering if there are Smart Value deprecations taking place.

Scenario

When an Epic child work item has a Start or Due Date entered or updated, the automation updates the parent Epic with the earliest Start date and/or latest Due date from amongst the child work items, which may exists across multiple Sprints.

WHEN Due Date field update

IF Parent Exists

--> Branch - FOR Parent IF Parent is Epic

THEN Edit Work Item - Set Due Date using Smart Value

Current Outcome

When I test my trigger it flows and identifies the Epic correctly, I have verified this by adding labels using the 'Additional Fields' section.

Current Problem

The Smart Values I'm using are not finding the Start Date and Due Date to do the update.

I have tried existing solutions below, but with no success

Due Date = {{issue.children.sprint.endDate.max.jiraDate}}

Due Date - {{issue.children.sprint.last.endDate.jiraDate}}

Due Date - {{lookupissues.dueDate.max.jiraDate}}

Due Date - {{lookupissues.sprint.max.endDate.jiraDate}}

Due Date - {{lookupissues.sprint.endDate.jiraDate}}

What concerns me is that neither of these sets of properties exist in the Smart Values Automation reference.

Automation smart values - issues | Cloud automation Cloud | Atlassian Support

Thanks in advance, look forward to putting this issue in the rear view :-)

Rich

Accepted answers

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Rich Allen

As you note, this is a commonly asked question and the solution approach depends upon what version of Jira you are using: Cloud, Server, or Data Center.

For Jira Cloud, use the Lookup Work Items / Issues action with JQL to gather the child items, and then use the min and max list functions to get the dates needed.

For Server or Data Center, the lookup does not support those fields yet. A workaround is to use the REST API to gather the child items and then use the list functions on the web response. That approach is described here:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-articles/How-Can-I-Sum-Up-Multiple-Issues-into-a-Parent-Number-Field/ba-p/2882712#M16701

Kind regards,
Bill

All comments

Alexander Hohmann

Have you tried with "issue.duedate" instead?

Alexander Hohmann

I just found this set of examples in an older post:

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/App-Central-articles/Jira-Automation-rules-for-due-dates-5-examples/ba-p/2408969

Rich Allen

Thanks Alexander, a useful link for sure.
My scenario isn't solely setting dates, I have already implemented similar.

I need to look through ALL child items of an Epic when one of them has a Due Date updated, and pull out the latest Due Date, whether that is the child item being updated or not and update the parent Epic Due Date

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Rich Allen

As you note, this is a commonly asked question and the solution approach depends upon what version of Jira you are using: Cloud, Server, or Data Center.

For Jira Cloud, use the Lookup Work Items / Issues action with JQL to gather the child items, and then use the min and max list functions to get the dates needed.

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-articles/How-Can-I-Sum-Up-Multiple-Issues-into-a-Parent-Number-Field/ba-p/2882712#M16701

Kind regards,
Bill

Rich Allen

HI @Bill Sheboy ,

Thanks for the response, I think that is the challenge, lots of information but no actual working solution available.

My concern when I review the automation smart values pages through the link in my original post, it doesn't show supported properties for either issue.children or lookupissues.

Hoping there is a solution out there using even just one of the Smart values properties referenced 🤞

Cheers,
Rich

Bill Sheboy

As a reminder: the Atlassian Community is a place for people with similar interests to learn and collaborate with another. It is not a free labor pool to provide turnkey solutions upon demand. A team's Jira Site Admin can help provide such solutions.

Thus it helps to show rule and audit log images of what you have tried to provide context for the community to offer suggestions.

Back to my earlier question: what version of Jira are you using?

If you are using Jira Cloud, one simple rule would be:

trigger: field updated for Due Date
condition: issue type is one of Story, Task, Bug, etc. (for your types needed)
condition: parent is not empty
action: lookup issues, with JQL of parent = {{triggerIssue.parent.key}}
branch: to the parent
- action: edit the Due Date, setting it to {{lookupIssues.duedate.max}}

However if you are using Jira Server or Data Center, neither the Due Date nor Start Date are in the lookup issues results. And so the REST API approach must be used, as described in that linked post.

Finally, you only describe one of the possible cases needed to update the parent's fields. The other ones will require additional rules, including at least:

when a child issue's Due Date field changes, update the Parent
when a child issue is created with a parent, update the Parent
when a child issue with a parent is deleted, update the previous Parent
when a child issue is removed from the Parent, update the previous Parent
when a child issue moves to a new Parent, update both the new and previous Parents
when a child issue changes its work item type to alter the parent / child relationship, update the previous parent
when Atlassian has an outage and rules do not trigger for field changes...use a scheduled trigger rule to iterate over the needed Epics to refresh their field
...

Rich Allen

Thanks again for taking the time to respond, completely agree with your comment. My intent with the post is not looking for turnkey or 'free labor', but a very specific question around supported properties associated with Smart Values for Cloud Automation in the link; which ones people generally use, have issues with etc.

I have most of the other automation in place, the sticking point was pulling the min Start and max Due dates (or the Sprint min and max dates) from an array of Child work items.

I'll revisit the pages already reviewed and re-implement from ground up, hopefully just something missed first time around.

Much appreciated

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