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Help with automation permissions on free product plan

Thermal Developer

Hey all, I'm trying to see if I can use the free Jira Cloud product to help me with one-time tasks as well as recurring tasks. I've set up a project where I'm the only user, and I'm an org admin. I'm trying to set up an automation rule that fires when an issue is moved to "Done" and has the "monthly" label assigned. In that scenario, I expect to clone the issue, copying over the title, assignee, description, and labels, as well as set a new due date for one month from "today".

The error I see in the audit log every time I run the rule is this:

Actor does not have permission to view one or more work items, or the work item was deleted (please check permissions and work item security levels):

I've tried changing the Rule Actor to my own user, and have used the Permission Helper to confirm my user has the permissions to create issues. I couldn't find a permission for "view work items" in that helper, and it seems like that's what the error is referring to so I'm a little confused. I looked around at older forum posts and saw the suggestions to add "atlassian-addons-project-access" to the issue security scheme. I've done that, but have seen no change in behavior of the rule. I'm assuming this is because I'm not able to apply that security scheme based on the limitations of the free product plan, as detailed in the permissions definition . I should also mention that executing the trigger for my rule (moving the issue to "Done") does not delete the item (second part of the error message). This leaves me confused on what to try next.

Am I overlooking something simple in my configurations? Or is the free Jira Cloud product simply unable to handle automations of this style?

Accepted answers

Thermal Developer

As I described in my last reply to Bill , the biggest unknown I was left with in the demonstrated configuration was the JSON block dealing with labels and work item links. I'm still not sure what was actually wrong with that setup, but I resolved my issue a different way:

I moved the condition out into a separate step in the automation rather than having it applied directly to the "When". I can't imagine this is very impactful, but I'll mention it nonetheless. What ultimately seemed to fix my problems was I changed from cloning the work item to creating a new work item from scratch:

The `today()` function seems to work perfectly fine, and I'm able to copy all necessary information into the replacement item without any issues. I was also able to reset the rule actor back to the default, being "Automation for Jira". The JSON block looks entirely different for this style of automation, and I didn't feel the need to touch it at all

And it also has the look of placeholder values. All the more strange. Either way, refraining from cloning a work item automatically after it's been closed and instead creating a duplicate copy has fixed all my issues. Thank you to everyone for their suggestions and alternatives!

All comments

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Thermal Developer -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

For a question like this, context is important for the community to help. Please post the following:

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

Until we see those...

Are you setting / copying those fields when you clone the work item or after the clone action? This is relevant when the work item is in another project (than the rule scope), thus preventing access to the item.

Kind regards,
Bill

Thermal Developer

Hey @Bill Sheboy thanks for the welcome!

I've edited the description to include the screenshots you asked for, as well as specified this is a team-managed project. As you can see there, my expectation is for the demonstrated configuration to clone a work item after it's been marked as completed. Though as I think more about that right now, perhaps the whole "can't view issues permission thing" is a red herring? Is the problem that I'm trying to clone completed items and Jira simply doesn't allow that? Is there a different way I could set up this automation to trigger right before the item is actually marked as completed instead? Or hopefully those screenshots will shed light on where my permissions issue actually lies.

Thanks again for the kick in the pants on how to fill out the details on my question to try and drum up some help!

Clara Belin-Brosseau_Elevatic

Hi @Thermal Developer

As an alternative to Automation that can be really complex to implement sometimes, I can suggest trying our app Elements Copy & Sync to clone issues with the data that you need (title, assignee, description, and labels, due date...).

It is fully compatible with Automation so you can trigger the cloning action when an issue is moved to "Done" and has the "monthly" label assigned.

The app is for free during 30 days (and it stays free under 10 users), so don't hesitate to give it a try!

Bill Sheboy

Thanks for those rule images, @Thermal Developer

Some errors in the audit log do not always indicate the root cause(s) of the problem, and I see a few things to adjustment to help your rule:

Unless specifically necessary, I recommend leaving the Actor as the default of the Automation for Jira user. Please change that back before re-testing.
In the Clone Work Item action...
- For the Due Date field, you use the today() function, but that does not exist. Instead, please use {{now}} with your plusMonths() function added and formatted as a jiraDate:
  - {{now.plusMonths(1).jiraDate}}
- You have selected the Labels field from the dropdown list and tried to use it in a JSON expression. Only one of those may be used at a time. As you appear to want to copy the values from the trigger one, you may clear out the entire JSON block so it is not used
- Also in the JSON block, you appear to be trying to clear the Work Item Links. To do that for the clone, do not select the field from the dropdown or included it in the JSON.

Please try those changes and then re-test your rule.

Cristiano Alves -Appfire-

Edited for answering on the question not the reply*

Cristiano Alves -Appfire-

Hello @Thermal Developer ,

I'm Cristiano from Appfire Team here,

If you're interested, the app from our team, Power Scripts, would easily help you set this up from the templates within the app, like the screenshot below:

You are able to either set this up as a trigger on an status transition, or an schedule.

Feel free to contact our support team for help to set this up.

Regards,

Thermal Developer

Bill Sheboy

Thanks for posting your updated / working rule, @Thermal Developer

Some comments on the things you noted:

Using the create rather than clone action may have resolved this if there was a "glitch" in the action due to repeated edits corrupting the stored rule data. That happens sometimes with rules, and can be tested by disabling a troublesome rule and recreating it from scratch.
Regarding use of the new feature to add conditions directly to a trigger, that still has problems when the trigger has racetrack timing errors (e.g., Work Item Created). And, Atlassian has not solved the problem of correctly logging why a rule did not trigger with this new feature. As there is no usage limit impact to having the conditions test separately, I recommend not using this new feature yet.
Although using {{today()}} rather than {{now}} appears to work for your rule, that is undocumented behavior, and it is quite unlikely that {{now}} is going away. I caution against using undocumented features in rules as they are subject to change with no notice.
And yes, that JSON you see in the "Additional fields" is boilerplate to help people get started, showing what is expected. The field is only used when one actually changes the content.

I hope you have a great weekend!

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