How can we improve Automation for you?

[#1]

Hi everyone!

I'm Srini, and I am a product manager with the Atlassian Automation team. We’d love to hear your feedback on Automation, address any issues you are facing and understand how we can improve Automation for you. If you’d like to chat, please feel free to schedule a call on my calendar. 

https://calendly.com/schakravarthy-1/automation-feedback

Look forward to hearing from you.

Srini

[Kalin U]

Hello, @Srini Chakravarthy , and thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on the automation functionality in Jira and Confluence.

Here are my two pieces:

1. The secured (hidden) headers in "Send Web Request" action don't always work as expected. I've described the issue as a comment to JSWCLOUD-22729.
2. Rule builders should be able to set delays for rule and action runs: JSDCLOUD-7983. This request has accumulated over 450 votes and many of the use cases described reflect my pain points too.

In addition, Code Barrel used to publish blog posts at https://blog.codebarrel.io with tips, tricks and tutorials on using Automation for Jira. Please either don't unpublish their blog posts or start with a new series of posts on Automation. It's a functionality of Jira and Confluence on its own, with many hidden and complex use cases that everyone can benefit from.

[Dave Mathijs]

Hi @Srini Chakravarthy ,

A feature I've requested several times it to have Project category as scope in the rule details.

Currently, options are:

• Single project
• All projects
• Multiple projects
• Project type

We have a use case where we have 100+ projects belonging to the same project category and would like to scope the automation rule to. Currently, this can only be done by selecting "Multiple projects". Whenever a new project is created from a template and added to that category, we need to manually add the project to the scope of the rule.

[Kelly Arrey]

It would be very helpful to split the automation page into two panes which scroll independently:

• The left pane (triggers, conditions, and actions) should scroll independently so that you could scroll up and down to the trigger/condition/action you're interested in, and see the details of that trigger/condition/action in the right pane. Currently when you scroll down to the lower triggers/conditions/actions, the details scroll up out of view.  This causes a lot of wasted time scrolling back and forth. Thanks!

Edit: I made this comment on 2022-11-28. Atlassian announced that this was implemented on 2023-02-13. Bravo!

[Dave Mathijs]

@Kelly Arrey THAT! +1

[Sara Tucker]

It would be great to have a move function added as an action (be able to move a service desk ticket with a form to a software project with automation) instead of having to use clone. 

[Sara Tucker]

Allow the actor to be "Jira Automation" on the Create Confluence page action

[Bill Sheboy]

Greetings!

I am curious...why are there two independent threads on this exact same question, from two different Atlassian automation product managers, posted within a week of each other?  Here is the other one: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/What-would-make-Automation-better-for-you/ba-p/2196258  That would seem to dilute rather than focus the conversation and request to the community.  Perhaps I am missing some difference in the asks.

For specific ideas to improve...perhaps first review all of the open defects and suggestions submitted for automation rules (in the public Jira automation and old Code Barrel backlogs) to decide their disposition before checking for more input.  Thank you!

Kind regards,
Bill

[Maciej Dudziak [Deviniti]]

As a vendor of an app I would love to have possibility to write our own Actions, in similar way as it was possible in old JSM Automation (there was a module, now legacy, that we could use). Apps would benefit greatly from whole Automation, triggers, conditions, etc. The only thing is missing is our own actions

[Kalin U]

@Maciej Dudziak [Deviniti] , I have wondered the same and this would be a game changer: being able to fire app-specific actions!

[Rudy Holtkamp]

If you use the 'edit issue' action and you select labels you have the option to add/remove values. This would be great to have this for components as well (in fact for all multi-select custom fields).

Now we have to get all components create JSON, remove one component then post the JSON back. This is not only very cumbersome, it also fails if multiple triggers fire the automation rule for the same issue. 

[Chris Rogers]

Being able to chain together automation rules (when done running this rule, run this other rule) intuitively within Automation would be helpful.  You can work around this with a custom field value change and then a trigger waiting for it but it feels clunky.

[Viktorija Berne]

Allow "Jira Automation" to be the Actor in the Confluence Automations. ATM only the creator can be the Actor.

To ensure that the rule continues to run when and if the Actor disabled.

[Pillai, Aarthi]

When any jira automation fails, could we also display the reason for its failure in the comment session?

sometimes users are not sure why automation failed and they don't have admin access to the project to check the audit log

[Ricky Conn]

Hi @Srini Chakravarthy

I was wondering if there are currently plans to include the secured (hidden) headers in "Send Web Request" action to the Data Center version of Automation? We are currently trying to roll this plug in out to a handful of users but we are hesitant to do so because anyone trying to use the send web request action would have their rest API token exposed to others, which is a big security concern for us.

I started a different thread but was pointed here by  @Bill Sheboy. Let me know if there's a better thread that I should post on.

Original Post:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/When-will-the-hide-header-option-be-available-for-Jira/qaq-p/2339337#U2339459

[Tony Langlet]

Enable/Disable Automation Atoms 

Something that I've encountered which I was surprised wasn't part of the Automation is the possibility to disable/pause a part of the Automation flow.

Sometimes when testing automations I would like to turn off certain tasks to verify the workflow before deploying and being able to create the workflow but just disable parts of it would be a really good feature.

Live/Interactive testing

Being able to test the workflow from within the automation without having to change the trigger to manual trigger and go out to a specific project and run a manual trigger on the issue. 

Conditions inside a If condition

Being able to apply a condition within an IF condition, currently there is a workaround to create a condition outside and drag and drop it into the IF condition but you can't apply the condition inside of a If condition by default. 

Sometimes I want to do a lookup or a webrequest and if the result is bad I don't want to continue but I might not want to run complete sequence before the If statement. 

[Joel Barger]

Hi @Srini Chakravarthy 

... Looking for an update on this...

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/AUTO-605

I'm not the only fellow here begging for this to be implemented. The only work around listed isn't exactly a work around and requires us to move a spring managed project. Our backlog is extending further and further. Dragging the issue upwards to the board is becoming a pain literally. My carpal tunnel is killing me!

[Nigel Domaingue]

Hello,

If this article is still open for comments and suggestions, I think that a good idea would be an automation action which resets all Action checkboxes on a page.  Thus, is a page exists to document a repeatable task, the operator can easily reset the form the next time they need to execute the procedure.

Regards,

Nigel