How do I use automation to populate a custom field?

[Keith Tasker]

Hello - I'm struggling with creating an automation rule to populate a custom field. The custom field is called "Developer" and it's intended to be populated with the Developer that moves the issue from To-Do to In Progress. Here's what I would like the rule to do:

When issue is transitioned from To-Do to In-Progress, populate the Developer field (custom field set up as a User Picker (single user)) with the user that the issue is currently assigned to.

I've attached a screenshot of the rule for reference. I've tried this and various other values suggested by Chat GPT and I cannot get it to work. I'd appreciate any advice anyone might have. Thank you!

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Keith Tasker 

First, ChatGPT is not a good source for help with automation rules (in my opinion). Always look for documentation or content provided by a real person to validate solutions suggested by it.

The More Options feature is used to set fields using JSON code. For any given field you use either JSON code here, or you select the field from the Choose fields to set option. You don't try to set any one field by both selecting it and using JSON code.

In this case you have mentioned two potentially different intentions.

1. Set the Developer field to the person who changed the issue status.

2. Set the Developer field to the Assignee.

These may not be the same person. Which do you really want to use?

If you want to set the Developer field to match the Assignee field, do so with an Edit Issue action as follows.

After having clickedon Choose fields to set and selecting Developer, click the three dots to the right of the field and select COPY.

That will prefill the field with some text similar to this.

Click directly on that text and a pop-up will display.

Pull down the Field to copy value from list and select Assignee.

Close the pop-up.

Delete the text you entered down in the More options section.

Save your changes.

If you want to set the field to the person that transitioned the issue, that will require using the JSON code instead. Let us know if that is the route you want to go.

You may benefit from the free, on-demand training available from the Atlassian University concerning Automation Rules. Here's a search to help you find some courses.

https://university.atlassian.com/student/catalog/list?search=jira+automation

And here's a link to the documentation:

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-cloud-automation/

[Keith Tasker]

Wow!! I wish I'd posted my question here a couple of hours earlier. Thank you so much for pointing me to the solution that worked!

[Payal _appbox_ai_]

I may have responded too quickly, and this answer might not be relevant to your situation. Requesting the moderator to delete it.

[Keith Tasker]

Thank you. Actually, I'm not trying to assign the issue, rather I'm trying to populate my custom field (Developer) with the user that the issue is already assigned to.

[Keith Tasker]

I see your additional detailed response and am reviewing that now.