If a Story's End date is after the End date of the Epic defined in field "Epic link" - reported

[Carola Tietz]

Hi Community, 

I have already tried to come up with a solution through the different community questions and found one very similar but I keep failing at one point. I have attached a screenshot of the current automation. 

The following problem accours:

inconsistency of planned Story End date versus End date in parent Epic shall be reported to be able to fix it. 

If a Story's End date is after the End date of the Epic defined in field "Epic link" then this shall be reported. In the request from my co-workers was have a list shown. I decided an Email should be send might be better. As can be seen in the example. I created a SmartValue  and to be checked later within the Epic End Date. So the system is able to check those two dates with each other. I've tried "due date", I also have tried different spellings. Nothing has worked. 

As you can see on the last picture, from the audit log, it seems to be a success but it never sends out an Email. The provided issues are examples from myself to test this. 

It seems not to compare the smart value with the end date in the epic. Please know, that this is my first time with smart values and I'm new to the project at this company. So I'm not sure what level or stage of Project this is. I only  know so far that we arent't allowed to change workflows. templates, screens, fields. 

I'm used to be able to change all of that. But this project is very restricted. So my only options seems to be automations.

Thanks to anyone who is able to help me solve this. 

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Carola Tietz -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Is the End Date a custom field you have added?

Out of the box, Jira uses the Start Date and Due Date fields for what I believe you are trying to manage.  Once we have confirmed that, we can improve your rule a bit...such as:

• trigger: the field (yet to be confirmed) has changed
• condition: check the issue type
• advanced compare condition: to check if the story's date is after the epic's date
• action: send the email

In the meantime...

Smart values for rules are name, spacing, and case-sensitive.  And the often do not match the displayed name for a field on the screen page.  I suspect if you are using a custom field named End Date that the smart value is different.  You can identify the smart value for a field using this how-to article:

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/find-the-smart-value-for-a-field/

Kind regards,
Bill

[Carola Tietz]

Hi @Bill Sheboy 

Thank you. yeah I actually tried the dev option on the website to use an Audit Log (like someone suggested. Can be seen here in the picture.

It shows later in the audit the correct changed End date! SO my next move would be to change Variable of the smart value which I circled in the extract. But that would mean I also have to change the advanced comparing of those two variables. In this pic:

If you have additional info let me know. I'll try the new findings from you and Seifallah (down below) and I hope to get it right soon.

Greetings 

Carola

[Bill Sheboy]

That is comparing the field to itself (assuming that the enddate and customfield_14803 are the same field).

What you originally asked was a check on: is the story's End Date > story's parent's End Date.

Please try this using the isAfter function, again assuming that custom field id is correct and it is a date or date/time field:

{{issue.customfield_14803.isAfter(issue.parent.customfield_14803)}}

[Carola Tietz]

Yes you are right with your assumption in the first paragraph. It's the same custom field. 

Hmm, I thought that is the same as in the story End date > than the Parent End date. Which is now the same custom field. That I didn't know in beginning. So I'll try your proposal & come back to you.

Greetings

Carola

[Carola Tietz]

Alright, sadly it still does not send out an email. I think it always stops at the last part. 

As you can see I changed the comparing condition. And even made sure that we can see both end dates in the Log file (12.12.2023 Story &  05.11.02023 Epic)

But somehow it still did not send an Email. If you have an idea feel free to share it, but I would also understand if not. Because I have no idea what's wrong anymore.

Thank you for your help.

Greetings Carola 

[Carola Tietz]

I changed it one more time to this:

and it works! I now just need to make sure the email is now send to the correct person. But I'm sure I'll get that on my own. 

THANKS to EVERYONE who got me there. It was a journey. :-)

Greetings 

Carola

[Bill Sheboy]

Well done!

And fascinating...It appears the "equals" condition in an advanced compare condition cannot detect that true in the Second Value means Boolean true...And that is why the isAfter() did not work.  It must only be a text value for the Second Value!

The work-around I just learned is adding a dummy expression for a true (or false) result for that Second Value.  For example: {{now.equals(now)}}

[Carola Tietz]

I did had to write a final update on the post. Now it works perfectly and I even were able to make the email look pretty with a link & stuff. You can have a look if you like, but it's a long answer. :-D

Thanks again. Have a blessed day. 

Cheers

Carola

[Carola Tietz · Accepted solution]

I do have to correct my final Answer.

It did sent out an email but weirdly did it in any of those cases. I had another look at it with a colleague and I will show how the exact solution looks like in case so. needs to create something similar. The problem is the system can not understand the comparison of the customer field ( you can see them in the extracts) as in parent and child what I did earlier. But by creating two Smart values for each particular field, it works.

Trigger : End date change of a Spike or Story. 

Optional: Audit Log of Story EndDate {{issue.customfield_14803}} to be able to check in the Log if it is using the correct data

Creating Smart Value: This will be needed by the comparison later

Now change to the Epic element  and repeat.

Optional: Audit Log of Epic EndDate {{issue.customfield_14803}} to be able to check in the Log if it is using the correct data

Creating Smart Value: This will be needed by the comparison later

Compare: Now compare those two smart values with each other as in:

Final: Trigger Email sent out with example: 

If you are interested in the result, it's this here:

That's it. I'm sorry that it is that long but everything works. I did test in every direction for what is been asked and it looks good.

Thank you guys for time and effort. Maybe this will help someone at someday.

Cheers

Carola 

[Seifallah Bellassoued · Accepted solution]

Hi @Carola Tietz

Welcome to the community!

In the condition under the branch you can use the comparison below. No need to define a variable.

{{issue.enddate.isBefore(triggerIssue.enddate)}}

Best Regards,

Seif,

[Seifallah Bellassoued]

I forget to mention that you should edit the enddate by the follwing smart value

{{triggerIssue.enddate}}

[Carola Tietz]

Hello @Seifallah Bellassoued 

I tried your Epic Advanced compare condition as can be seen in the pic but I still didn't received an Email with the Out of range Boundary. I might have the Smart value not correctly. 

You can see the issue #5801 is a story which I changed to some day late November. The parent issue Epic #5721 is the correct related issue which enddate is beginning of November. So here is the current smart value for your solution example. 

We are getting closer and I'll go through the other solutions from everyone now. If I made a mistake with the smart value let me now. 

Info: I believe it has to do with the {{issue.customfield_14803}} which I used as an audit log, mentioned by someone else. It shows the correct end date which I changed. Maybe I need to include issue.customfield_14803 this somehow into the equation. 

Thanks in advance.

Carola

[Bert van Dijk _TMC_nl_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Carola Tietz ,

Thank you for all the screenshots and description. It helps a lot. However, I don't have a fixed answer.

Would it be possible to add an action called "Log action"? With this, you can add the smart value to the audit log. It could help you with debugging. Could you please confirm the smart value has a value? You also can log the end date of the epic.

[Carola Tietz]

I was hoping I did the Smart Value by creating this:

I'm not sure if the values given were correct and that I've actually created a smart value by that.

I tried it now with the original values from the example on a different question here and my values. So please don't get confused with the changed values. Here is the audit Log:

And just for good measures, my test if the Audit Log is correct. 

[Carola Tietz]

This problem is now finalized, solved and thanks to everyone who got me there! 

First experience with this community is very good and I'm glad I reached out. 

Kind regards

Carola