Linking Issues

[Leigh Wolf]

Hi,

We run JIRA Service desk for our school's helpdesk. We log warranty jobs to our supplier, and they email us back with updates that create a new issue in JIRA. I am wondering how I can automate it in a way where the new update comes in. It would find the job number in the summary and the serial number of the product in the description and then link the job update with the original job and then close the update ticket.

Does this make sense?

Thanls

[Khalid Tariq]

Dear @Leigh Wolf 

This should be possible with JQL using "Lookup Issues" component in the automation. Here is the link to automation:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/expand-jira/automation 

Regards,

Khalid

[Nirmani Kalakheti]

@Khalid Tariq that is a dead Link with 404.

404

Sorry, the page you're looking for cannot be found

[Khalid Tariq]

@Nirmani Kalakheti 

There is a space at the end:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/expand-jira/automation

If the above does not work, try clicking here.

[Leigh Wolf]

Hi @Khalid Tariq 

Yes, I understand that I think. But how do I get the newly created ticket to see the same serial number or job number when there is multiple jobs, So the Job number is always W000000 so six numbers? Is there a way to have it look for the W and same number when it's always different?

Thanks

[Dave Liao]

@Leigh Wolf - regular expressions (RegEx) will help your automation rules identify matching (partial, or pattern matches) strings or numbers for you:

https://blog.codebarrel.io/better-string-functions-in-smart-values-for-automation-for-jira-4bf9d3380a9e

[Josana de Hesselle]

Do you log the job through JSD, or via email? 

Do they respond into JSD? Why is their email creating a new issue?

I work with multiple vendors with their own incompatible ITSMs and haven't found a perfect solution yet (largely due to time constraints), so I'm following this with interest.

Here's my process: I create a JSD issue (ticket), and then copy the relevant data to an email to the vendor, along with the jira reference. When they respond, it has my ticket number in their case subject line, as well as their case number, which I copy into my JSD subject line, as well as into a custom field that triggers some automation. From there I can forward to JSD myself to keep the ticket up to date. its far from perfect, but it certainly works much better if I have my reference number on the issue first, rather than letting them create the issue

[Rudy Holtkamp]

Hi  @Leigh Wolf  &  @Josana de Hesselle ,

There are multiple ways to do this. If you have multiple vendors, you can give them all a unique email address and make aliases for them that default to the email address of the JSD project. If a vendor mails to that email address the alias will end up in the participants and you can easily use that to have different rules for different vendors. (I wrote a blog about it here.)

I will leave the above up to you if you use it or not.

----

For the automation rule you can do the following:

Create an automation rule and trigger it on 'Issue created'

Add a check if there is a reference number in the description

If not the rule should not execute further.

If there is a match you want to capture it in a variable

Now you have to have a main ticket in which you have a field that has the reference in it (in Khalid's case 'job number', in Josana's case the 'case number'). So we need to search for that ticket. Use a branch component and query on your reference field with the variable you just created:

Finally you want to link it with the link issue component

That should do it.

Good luck,

Rudy

[Dave Liao]

Love this idea!

[Rabbit]

This would be my suggestion too. Very good idea.

[Christian Schlaefcke]

But this would only be possible in Jira Cloud, right? For server/dc (if you have it) the Automation Plugin for Jira has to be installed/payed), I guess.

[Rudy Holtkamp]

Yes you need to have the Automation plugin. But the automation rule should work on Cloud/Server & Data Center.

[Leigh Wolf]

Hi @Rudy Holtkamp 

I did exactly what you wrote but it doesn't find anything at all. What am I doing wrong lol.

[Rudy Holtkamp]

Ok @Leigh Wolf ,

I'm not flawless and maybe there is a type somewhere.

You should take a look at the audit log of your rule. Which can be found just under 'Rule details'

It is also a good practice to decorate your rule with the 'Log action' component in which you can set debug logging.

Set one just after the condition, and one after you created the variable. Let it output the variable, so you know that it is the correct value.

It might be that the regular expression is not correct, but you can test it here: https://regex101.com/r/BpdYbf/1

I hope this helps.

[Christian Schlaefcke]

Hi @Leigh Wolf ,

maybe some of the Email-Handling-Plugins might be worth a look:

• Jira Email This Issue Plugin
• Jira Enterprise Message Handler Plugin

Both plugins provide message filtering and routing features. Specific content of the mails could also be extracted (with regex) to custom fields.

For automation tasks I like the Script Runner Plugin the most - but it would require some scripting experiences.

Best, Christian

[Amir Katz (Outseer)]

We use JEMH for similar tasks - intercepting incoming mails and perform Jira actions based on the mail's contents.

Please note that you will need to set up a dedicated mail address with its own mailbox from which JEMH will read.