Automation to create weekly tasks for all the year

[Matias Rodríguez Alonso]

Hello! 

I have weekly tasks. I've created an automation that each time I mark one as "Done", then the other is created (all within the same Epic). I'd like to add all the tasks for the rest of the year all at once.

I thought a Bulk Upload would do the Job, but since I am not an Admin, the Import option only let's me create Epics! (something to please change ASAP).

Let's say I want to block 2 hours each week for the rest of the year rather than having it only come up when I close the prior week task. 

I'm okay with a manual trigger Automation. + This happens to many colleagues, so it is something frequent and very useful

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Matias Rodríguez Alonso 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Bulk Upload doesn't inherently restrict the type of issues that can be created. That is a separate issue that could be explored to figure out why that is happening.

How can you tell by looking at an issue the week to which that issue applies? Are you using Due Date and Start Date, or setting some other field?

Do the tasks otherwise have the same data in the fields (Summary, Description, etc.)? Will there be at least one of these tasks in the Epic that could be used as a template for creating the others?

[Matias Rodríguez Alonso]

Hi!  @Trudy Claspill 

We are using the custom field "internal due date" to assign the week.

Then, the idea is to have one task and then the new ones be an exact copy (only changing the Internal Due Date). 

I would like to create many of this, but having the number of copies as a variable or until a certain date

[Trudy Claspill]

Jira automation does not currently support iterating/looping for a number of times nor does it support iterating/looping until a condition is met. In pseudo code that would be

For x = 1 to 100
  execute task
Next

OR

x = some value
Do
  some task
  increment x
Until x=a new value

There is a change request to add a feature like that. You can add your vote to it here:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/AUTO-108

However I did find this article that purports to offer a work around. I have not tried this myself.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Management-articles/How-to-create-dynamic-looping-in-Automation-for-Jira/ba-p/2293077

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Matias Rodríguez Alonso and @Trudy Claspill 

Another way to loop a specific number of times in a rule, without using REST API function callbacks, is to build a counter with a text string.  Please look here to learn about that method: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/Branching-over-smart-values-in-Jira-Automation/ba-p/1741935#M546

Kind regards,
Bill

[Trudy Claspill]

Thanks, @Bill Sheboy ! I've book marked that post so I'll have the reference next time this type of question comes up.