Using variables in functions in smart values in JIRA for automation purpose

[Julien Robert]

Hello,

I'm looking to use jira automation rules in an advanced way using variables in smart value functions.

I saw that a ticket covered this topic some time ago but even though it is marked as resolved I am having trouble applying the syntax.
Here is the ticket : https://codebarrel.atlassian.net/browse/AUT-168

I want to do the same, e.g. :

{{issue.summary.replace("blah", "{{issue.fields.reporter.displayName}}")}}

Is there a way to use variables in smart value functions?

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Julien Robert 

Yes, that works.  If you remove the quotation marks and extra curly braces that would work.  For example:

{{issue.summary.replace("blah", issue.reporter.displayName)}}

Best regards,

Bill

[Julien Robert]

Hi @Bill Sheboy 

Thanks a lot for your answer.

I tried to combine your solution with a variable added by "Create variable" 

But I failed to use this variable in the replace method. This didn't return anything using the variable whereas it did return something when I directly used values ​​like fieldChange.fromString and fieldChange.toString (the trigger of my action is a change of a field)

Instead of using a custom variable, I used a way to concat "[" and "]" with another topic (https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Smart-value-with-concatenate-string-in-string-replace-replaceAll/qaq-p/1363587)

Here is my final code that do what I want to do :

{
"fields": {
"summary": "{{issue.summary.replace(fieldChange.fromString.left(0).concat("[").concat(fieldChange.fromString).concat("]"), fieldChange.toString.left(0).concat("[").concat(fieldChange.toString).concat("]"))}}"
}
}

There is probably some way to make it prettier but I stop my search here! 

Thanks again !

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi, and I am glad you got that to work!

Regarding Create Variables, they definitely need some investigation and improvements to be a more useful tool for automation rules.  Currently, I have only found them useful to build JSON strings for complex edits and to remove things from lists (e.g. Components).

Best regards,

Bill

[Julien Robert]

Thank you

Best regards

Julien

[Boris Zozoulia]

I have discovered a similar issue, where I am unable to use earlier created variables as function arguments in smart values, and the workaround is to use issue entity properties instead:
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Management/Re-Pass-in-function-parameters-by-reference-in-smart-val/qaq-p/1806987/comment-id/87452#M87452

---

For some issue, which has at least 6 comments, automation goes as follows...

Create smart variable:
Variable name: commentNumber
Variable value: 5

Set entity property for issue:
property name: prop_commentNumber
property value (JSON):

{"val": {{commentNumber}} }

Log action:

{{issue.comments.get(issue.properties.prop_commentNumber.val)}}

 
Is it the best approach at this moment, and there is a bug in accessing list elements via smart variable values?

[Martin Cleaver]

Hey Boris,

Did you figure this out?

Thanks

[Yatish Madhav]

Hi

I am trying to get something similar too. Anyone got this working. I am filtering a list of email address (about 3 or 4) and want to filter out only example.com emails and the string example.com is in a variable domain - I would like to do something like:

{{field.split(", ").match("([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+@{{domain}})")}}

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Yatish Madhav 

I just retested this to answer another question: the match() function still cannot accept variables for a regular expression for Jira Cloud. 

And...if you are using Server/Data Center I also doubt this would work as those versions do not have Create Variable with which to make the regular expression dynamic.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Yatish Madhav]

Thanks for the response @Bill Sheboy  - that is a pity. We are on Jira Cloud.

I wonder if anyone else has got this working or found a workaround apart from hardcoding the domain (or anything else) instead of using the variable.

[Bill Sheboy]

After a bit more research, I found a work-around I created a year ago for this problem, bypassing the need to use the match() function:

• Create variable with your list of clients. Note the trailing comma to separate all company/client pairs.
  • name: varClientIdList
  • smart value:

 CompanyName1|CL1,CompanyName2|CL2,CompanyName3|CL3,

• Create another variable for your reporter domain
  • name: varReporterEmailDomain
  • smart value:

 {{issue.reporter.emailAddress.substringAfter("@").substringBefore(".")}}

• Get the client id using text functions to bracket the domain value, storing it in a variable
  • name: varClientId
  • smart value: 

{{varClientIdList.substringAfter(varReporterEmailDomain.concat("|")).substringBefore(",")}}

• Use an advanced compare condition to confirm {{varClientId}} has a value before using it.

[Guido Menardi]

We couldn't use variables inside .match(), then we just use .replace() before and after the use of .match() because replace accepts variables as input.

i.e.:

Using the field description = "a@a.com,b@b.com,2@a.com,c@c.com"

Automation:

1. Create variable domains = {{#description.split(",")}}{{split("@").get(1)}}{{^last}},{{/}}{{/}}
2. For each {{domains.split(",").trim().distinct}} as domain
3. Create variableA = {{description.replace(domain,"temporal_domain")}}
4. Create variableB = {{#variableA.split(",").match("(.*temporal_domain)")}}{{.}}{{^last}},{{/}}{{/}}
5. Create variableC = {{variableB.replace("temporal_domain",domain)}}

Results:

1. domains = [a.com, b.com, a.com, c.com]
2. domain:
   1. domain(1) = a.com
   2. domain(2) = b.com
   3. domain(3) = c.com
3. variableA:
   1. variableA(1) = "a@temporal_domain,b@b.com,2@temporal_domain,c@c.com"
   2. variableA(2) = "a@a.com,b@temporal_domain,2@a.com,c@c.com"
   3. variableA(3) = "a@a.com,b@b.com,2@a.com,c@temporal_domain"
4. variableB:
   1. variableB(1) = "a@temporal_domain,2@temporal_domain"
   2. variableB(2) = "b@temporal_domain"
   3. variableB(3) = "c@temporal_domain"
5. variableC:
   1. variableC(1) = "a@a.com,2@a.com"
   2. variableC(2) = "b@b.com"
   3. variableC(3) = "c@c.com"

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Guido Menardi 

I believe created variables can be used inside the match() function.  The trick is to leave off the outer quotation marks and to let the function assume them around the variable representing the regular expression.

Kind regards,
Bill