How can I add an assignee to the watchers list automatically?

[Amber L Garcia]

When my users are assigned issues, they are not added to the watchers list automatically and therefore miss some of the dialog that goes on. How can I automatically have someone added to the watch list when they are assigned?

[tier-0 grump · Accepted solution]

Assignees should be automatically notified without having to be a watcher - maybe your notification scheme isn't set up properly?

[Amber L Garcia]

Made plenty of sense...looks like my scheme wasn't applied to all projects. Thank you!

[Rick Beecroft]

The "Answer" does not answer the question. How do I automatically add a new assignee to the watchers?

[Johannes Waldheim]

Again, it is not answering the question!!

If you assign the ticket as assignee to a third person. You will never get notified about the ticket after assigning.

[Aaron Hodge]

Seeing that Atlassian doesn't want to add the feature to Add Watchers with a Post Function, I created a workaround.  Our company uses the Cloud (onDemand) instance as well.

First, I created a field named "Watchers" which is a User Picker (multiple users).  Then, in my Workflows, I added the Post Function "Copy Value From Field to Field Function" to copy Assignee of each step to the Watchers Field in each step.

 Snip20151119_11.png

I tested this and it works perfectly.  Depending on your setup, you may have to edit Notifications and Permissions accordingly – e.g. I send updates to my Watchers with the Notification Scheme and I allow Watchers to Comment on the Issues but not Transition the Issues.

I hope this help finally answer this question. 

[Paresh Gandhi]

You can call below script on issue update event. Using this, all the privious assignees will get added to the watchers. I'm not sure if you are looking specifially for this.

import com.atlassian.jira.component.ComponentAccessor
import com.atlassian.jira.event.issue.AbstractIssueEventListener
import com.atlassian.jira.event.issue.IssueEvent
import com.atlassian.jira.issue.Issue
import org.apache.log4j.Logger
import com.atlassian.jira.ComponentManager
import static org.apache.log4j.Level.DEBUG

class AddReporterAsWatcher extends AbstractIssueEventListener {
    Logger log = Logger.getLogger(AddReporterAsWatcher.class)
    def watcherManager = ComponentAccessor.getWatcherManager()
    def userManager = ComponentAccessor.getUserManager()

    @Override
    void workflowEvent(IssueEvent event) {
        Issue issue = event.getIssue();
        log.setLevel(DEBUG)
        log.debug "Event: ${event.getEventTypeId()} fired for ${issue} and caught by TaskVersionListener"
        def assignee = issue.assigneeId
        def assigneeWatcher = userManager.getUserObject(assignee )
        watcherManager.startWatching(assigneeWatcher , issue.genericValue)
    }
}

[Amber Garcia]

We are an on-demand instance so I'm under the impression that I can't use this script - however, I'm sure it will be useful to hosted users.

[Sonesh]

Amber I too have the same issue as you do, wondering if you were able to resolve this by any means.

[Amber L Garcia]

If someone is assigned to a task, then they automatically get notified of activity, but these settings are controlled within the notification schemes that are setup. In short, as long as your notificaiton scheme is set to the default, then all assignees of a task should already be treated as watchers.

[Amir Hossein Fathi pour]

Hi every body,

that was my problem too, finally found a really simple way to do. Automation for jira can do it right the way!

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1215460/automation-for-jira?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

[Naman Mandli]

How did you achieve this using this add-on? I am not able to find any option to add assignee as watcher here. Please help.

[Tom Lister]

as far as I can see the Watchers function in Automation for Jira only allows you set specific users as watchers.

I would also like to copy values from issue fields to the watchers list. I want to manage our user notifications via the in-built Watchers field so our users can opt out on demand (or lack of!)

[Marcin Szymkowiak]

I know that is't pretty old topic but I want to just add that you can use smart values - that's how you can add assignee to watchers list.

[Bojana]

Hi @Marcin Szymkowiak ,

Can you please tell if this feature is available only with PRO version?

Thanks in advance! :)

[Marcin Szymkowiak]

@Bojana 

Yes, manage watchers actions is available only in Pro version of Automations for Jira.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation/getting-the-right-version-993924597.html

[Bojana]

Thanks a lot @Marcin Szymkowiak !

[Sonesh]

I too have the same issue as @Amber L Garcia, wondering if you were able to resolve this by any means.

[Amir Hossein Fathi pour]

Hi every body,

that was my problem too, finally found a really simple way to do. Automation for Jira can do it right the way!

[Naman Mandli]

How did you achieve this using this add-on? I am not able to find any option to add assignee as watcher here. Please help.