Sending external comments over email through automation

[Erik George]

Hello,

I have an automation rule created in Jira that sends comments to reporters (one sending the most recent one, and another that sends all the comments on the issue). However, I recently noticed that this includes internal comments as well. Is there a way to make it so only non-internal comments are sent? 

Thank you!

[Stefan Salzl · Accepted solution]

Hi @Erik George ,

I‘m sorry but can‘t follow your description. Isn‘t that the main functionality of jira seevice management that the reporter is notified via email about a new comment and furthermore the main functionality of internal comments that they are not sent to the customer and only shared between agents?

There shouldn‘t be an automation rule needed for that. This sounds like something that is configured in the notification settings.

Or did I get something wrong? If so could you please further specify your use case more detailled?

Best
Stefan

[Erik George]

The default email notifications to reporters is turned off for us and instead we have custom automation rules in place that send the reporter both the latest status and comment whenever there is a status change, as well as giving the reporter the ability to request full details of the ticket (via email rather than the portal) that provides more information as well as the entire comment history.

My problem is that this also sends internal comments to the reporter. I think there's a smart value for comments.internal - but is there anything that is the opposite, and just selects external/non-internal comments?

[Stefan Salzl]

May I ask why the standard notification is turned off? It gives exatly the information you would like to have (status and comment via email, excluding internal comments).
imho I would rethink the idea of turning off native functionality and try to implement exactly the same thing with automation. 

furthermore:
what does "full details of ticket" exactly mean? What kind of information does the user get? 

Anyways:
How do you collect the data (comments) that should be returned to the user? Could you show your automation rule/how far you´ve gotten and where you got stuck?

Best
Stefaen

[Erik George]

That's a good question that I don't exactly have the answer to. I was given control of the project about 80% into it's development, with all of the notifications being based around automation rules. Resolutions, status updates, ticket creation, etc. - so that's just what I went with.

For the full details, the rule displays the ticket creation date, current status of the ticket, the last time it was updated, and every comment on the ticket. 

For comments, I just use {{#issue.comments}} (as well as author & date), but it also collects internal comments. 

Thanks!

[Stefan Salzl]

Hi @Erik George 

you can use if condition within smart value so you could check if a comment is internal or not and only include the information if it´s not. see following link:

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-smart-values-conditional-logic/

tested in my environment with following line:

{{#issue.comments}} {{#if(not(internal))}} test: {{body}} & {{author.displayName}} {{/}} {{/}}

There was 1 internal comment which was excluded in the result.

Best
Stefan

[Erik George]

That worked - thanks a ton! 

[Stefan Salzl]

AWESOME!!! Happy to know you got that working 💪🏼