Is it possible to move (not clone) an issue automatically either with a rule or postfunction?

[Rob Horan]

I am trying to help a team that wants to automatically move tickets under certain conditions.  Right now they use a rule that clones and closes the ticket, but this is not ideal.  The ideal would be to move the ticket with all of its comments, history, etc and not be a completely new ticket.  (Assume a ticket ABC-123 moves to a new project and is now XYZ-456 - it is still the same and can still be referenced with the ABC-123 key)

Automation rules don't support this.  Do any apps support this with scripted or workflow options?  (like a transition that starts and ends at the same status and uses a post function)

Cloning only copies over a snapshot of the issue at that moment - the history and comments are all lost, and users now need to use a new ticket.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Rob Horan 

There is a REST API endpoint for bulk move, which could be used with the Send Web Request action to make the move (rather than use a clone): https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/api-group-issue-bulk-operations/#api-rest-api-3-bulk-issues-move-post

The user-dialog version of move goes step by step to solve field / issue type challenges by asking questions, and that capability does not exist with the REST API endpoint.  Please review the limitations in the documentation to learn more.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Rob Horan]

Hi Bill,

Thanks but this isn't what I'm looking for.

Right now the team is using an automation that detects a field value change and clones the ticket in a new project and closes the original, per this document:

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/move-an-issue-to-another-project-using-automation/

The goal is to move the ticket to the right place on field change automatically.  My thought on workflow transition was to put the field in a transition screen.

[Bill Sheboy]

Sorry, I am not understanding the scenario.  I thought you wanted to do this:

GIVEN an issue in project ABC
WHEN the issue's MY_FIELD changes to 12345
THEN move the issue to project XYZ

That would make it the same issue, in a new project, and preserve the issue key referencing you described to John.

[Rob Horan]

Oh sorry, I read this as using the API to make a bulk move.  My apologies!  I should have read closer.

[Bill Sheboy]

That endpoint is to perform a bulk move as there is no "move one issue" endpoint (as far as I know).  Thus, just pass one issue key to move it.

[John Funk]

Hi Rob,

No, what you are wanting to do is not possible. You cannot do a Move using automation, and you can't do a move to a different project and keep the same number. If you do a Move to a different issue type in the same project, it will keep the number. But not if you change projects. 

[Rob Horan]

Hi John,

I wrote too quickly and edited for clarity.  By keeping the same number what I mean is if you assume a ticket with key ABC-123 moves to a new project and is now XYZ-456 you can still be reference it with the ABC-123 key.  Ultimately its the same ticket with a new key.

[John Funk]

Oh - sure you can do that. If you search for ABC-123, it will re-direct you to XYZ-456. 

[Rob Horan]

Right - its the automatic move that's the need.

[John Funk]

Yeah, I don't that will happen anytime soon. Your alternative is to use the same workflow for the issue types. You can adjust the workflow to be a single workflow that will work with multiple statuses and multiple issue types, but still be very distinct in the flow for each issue type by using Conditions. 

[Rob Horan]

Thanks.  I was trying to help another team, and this is just not going to be a viable solution.  Its ok, manual move will work for now.

The base requirement is the tickets need to be moved into different projects when a certain value is changed and it needs to be the same ticket - close and clone is not working.