Journey to Atlassian Cloud. The end of Groovy and Scriptrunner

[jiraestro]

Should we continue investing in Groovy and ScriptRunner, given the availability of Atlassian Automation and Forge?

[Rodney Dsouza _Atlassian Certified Expert_]

I used ScriptRunner a lot many years ago.   When Jira Automation came out 4-5 years ago, I started using that and of course it was limited.   Today I do fairly complex things with Automation, and Atlassian will no doubt continue to add Features.  I don't actually use Forge for Production but it could certainly fill in the gaps that are needed for more complex needs.

I don't believe ScriptRunner supports Behaviors on JSM forms in Cloud.  What I used to do with ScriptRunner here in Data Center, I am able to do with advanced Forms (formerly "ProForma").

EDIT: I should add that the "smart values" feature is part of the solution, when using Automation.    "web request" calls, sometimes called webhooks, are part of the solution as well.

[Rick Westbrock]

ScriptRunner still has value as the logic can be much more complex than what Automation Rules offer. For example even though Automation supports two levels of If/Else nesting now you can go deeper using Groovy.

ScriptRunner Behaviours works on the UI which of course Automation does not so that's a huge added benefit. I haven't yet tried using Forge but I think it would be more complicated than building in Behaviours.

[Bret Jacobsen]

ScriptRunner for Jira and JSM Cloud is significantly less capable than the Data Center versions but it still has some decent capabilities.  As Atlassian improves the automation features to include better logic branching, the gap between the native functionality and ScriptRunner's gets smaller.

In my situation, the ScriptRunner limitation of no code repository to reuse the same script in different workflows, etc. is a very significant one.  We are actively exploring all of the scripting marketplace competitors because some do allow for code reuse and even version control of scripts.  It's very surprising that Adaptavist has not been able to overcome the same hurdles with their resources.

[Rodney Dsouza _Atlassian Certified Expert_]

@Bret Jacobsenwhat competitor products have you found to be similar-enough to ScriptRunner's capabilities?

[Bret Jacobsen]

@Rodney Dsouza _Atlassian Certified Expert_-

There are several ScriptRunner alternatives that we're just starting to evaluate:

• Power Scripts - Jira Workflow Automation
• Easy for Jira
• Custom Workflow Condition, Validator & Postfunctions
• Script Master for Jira

Some are not very mature yet but we've found that smaller companies/developers are often more nimble and open to ideas/suggestions/improvements than the larger "we know better than our customers" vendors.

[Rodney Dsouza _Atlassian Certified Expert_]

@jiraestroI evaluated the 4 products that @Bret Jacobsen mentioned and found that "Script Master for Jira" is really capable, similar in capability to Script Runner and much cheaper (it is free).  So, I am going with that.    You can see my brief review here.