Add watchers from custom field using Automation

Question

Hi I am trying to add an automation for automatically adding a watcher for the Issue using a custom field 'Reviewer'. I tried multiple ways but the automation isn't adding the watcher. It feels perhaps the smart value is not able to access the displayName/accountId. Can someone please help with this?

I also tried using {{issue.customfield_fieldNo}} but that didn't work. Tried {{issue.fields.Reveiwer.displayName}} that also doesn't work. Am I correctly fetching the concerned value? On clicking the paint like symbol 
 for the customfield, I don't get suggestions like displayName/accountId (I don't know if it should but wanted to mention it anyways).

Thank you in advance!

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Thanks for the additional information, @Harshvardhan Vala

FYI for future automation questions, context is important to better help the community offer suggestions.  I recommend including these in your questions:

* what problem are you trying to solve; that is, "why do this?"
* what version of Jira are you using: Cloud, Server, or Data Center
* for Cloud, what type of project is this: company-managed, team-managed, JPD, etc.
* an image of your complete automation rule in a single image for continuity
* images of any relevant actions / conditions / branches
* an image of the audit log details showing the rule execution
* explain what is not working as expected and why you believe that to be the case

Harshvardhan Vala · Answer

Hey @Bill Sheboy ,

I did try many such combinations for the automation but none worked for me for a particular project on which I was testing the automation before making it live for the main project. The ones I mentioned were only two of those combinations. The actor also had the admin permissions for that project where it can manage watchers. However, on trying it for the main project it worked directly. Wasn't able to figure out why it didn't work for the dummy project, but since it worked for the main one I didn't split my hairs over it.

Best,
Harshvardhan

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Harshvardhan Vala -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

This was not a permissions or project settings problem, but instead the wrong smart value was used.

Most rule actions with users need the accountId attribute, not the displayName one, to select a user.  Thus, you could have used one of these expressions:

or

The second one works the same as the first one because smart values with multiple attributes (e.g., a user) have a default attribute which is used when you do not specify one.  For users, that is the accountId.  To avoid confusion for other people reading your rules in the future, or any changes in Atlassian's definition of the defaults, I recommend explicitly selecting the attribute needed.

Kind regards,
Bill