Issue Watcher Automatic Assignment Method

Paul Boyer April 29, 2022

I am running Jira Server 8.13.7 and have run into a roadblock trying to determine how a watcher is being added to an issue. I've checked both the Automations and Project Automations tabs, as well as the project's Workflow. I haven't been able to determine where a user is being added to the issue's Watchers. Then assignment of the watcher only happens when the issue transitions from Unassigned to being assigned to a user. Then the Watcher is assigned as well as mentioned in a comment on the ticket. Any suggestions what mechanism might be causing this action?

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Craig Nodwell
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April 29, 2022

Hi @Paul Boyer 
Just making certain:
There's no automation?
There's no post function on the transition?
Do you have scriptrunner?  Maybe there's an event listener....?

Paul Boyer April 29, 2022

@Craig Nodwell Correct, no automation, no post functions. I do have ScriptRunner on the instance, but I didn't see anything in the event listener. 

Craig Nodwell
Community Leader
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April 29, 2022

Now you have me stumped.
This only happens on issue assignment during a transition?  Does it happen on edit or the Assign action? 
No automation. -> This would make sense due to the action happening with both the add to watchers and mention in comments.
No post function -> This would also make sense to some degree but wouldn't trigger the action outside of a transition.
No Listener in Scriptrunner -> This would make the most sense due to the two actions of add specific watcher and write the mention of that name into the comments.
Do you have any other add-ons that might trigger a script based off of a custom event, or edit issue event?

Paul Boyer May 2, 2022

As noted in my other reply, ScriptRunner was actually the culprit. I overlooked the custom event listener on the first pass. Thanks again for the help! 

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Craig Nodwell
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May 2, 2022

WooHoo you had me going a bit buggy on this one :) 

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Filipi Lima
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
April 29, 2022

Hi, folks. @Paul Boyer , on the history does it show who's being listed as the writer of the comment with the mention?

I'm with Craig on the stumpedness. I would focus on figuring out how the comment is being made.

I did work on a case recently where no one could figure out what was taking a certain action and in the end it was caused by JSM Legacy Automation, on this screen:

image.png

If you do have Automation for Jira plugin (which is different than the above), make sure you check both Global and Project specific rules.

Paul Boyer May 2, 2022

@Filipi Lima I have checked in both the JSM Legacy Automation and Automation for Jira plugin settings, but do not see anything relates to the assignment of the watcher to my test issue. 

In the issue history, all I can see is that the "FMO" user is adding a comment. This "FMO" user is the subsequently set as a watcher on the issue. However, even the history doesn't provide any insight as to how that is happening.

2022-05-02 08_24_19-[FMO-7208] Testing FMO Service Desk Notifications - Work - Microsoft​ Edge.png

Filipi Lima
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
May 2, 2022

Hi, Paul,

So one thing is for sure - the FMO user is not a standard user Jira has nor this is standard behavior when an issue has been assigned.

I would try to understand the following:

  • Who/what is the FMO user? Check user management, see the e-mail/groups.
  • Is it happening to all projects/issue types.
  • Is it consistent - always happens.
  • Does it always happen right after creation?

That should help understand the scope and think of what is behind it.

If you're having issues going through it, I suggest opening a ticket with Support to help check logs and other sources of automation.

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Craig Nodwell
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May 2, 2022

Agreed I'd go to the logs and root out cause based on the comment write of the username.

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Craig Nodwell
Community Leader
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May 2, 2022

Is it happening on creation? or on assignment?
If it's on assignment that's an issue update event and different then the issue create event.  Having that information might help with the log search

Paul Boyer May 2, 2022

The automatic addition of the watcher happens when the issue transitions from being unassigned to being assigned to a service desk user. The FMO user is a dummy service account used to direct email to a shared Office365 mailbox.

After a lot of searching, I finally discovered that there is a Custom Listener in the ScriptRunner plugin that has been designed to handle the issue assignment event for this project. 

Thank you all for your suggestions! I appreciate the help.

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