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Jira automation - Is it possible to create nested lists?

Brandon Fish

I'm not sure that my summary is descriptive enough, so here is my use case.

Issues are created in the project via an external form. Part of that form allows submitters to select a department and one or more countries. When multiple countries are selected, they are separated by a carriage return "\n".

The created task is then assigned based on the selected department and subtasks created for each selected country. Here's what my automation (triggered on issue create) does:

Scrapes the description for the department
Looks up the department in a lookuptable and returns a userID
Assigns the issue to the ID
Scrapes the description for the countries {{countryList}}
For each country: {{countryList.split("\n")}}
1. Lookup the country in a lookup table for a userID
2. If the userID is the assignee of the task, then add the country as a label
3. If the userID does not match the assignee of the task, create a subtask

Note, steps 5-2 and 5-3 are two separate For each: Smart value loops.

So basically, if a user is assigned to a tasks department and one or more countries, they will only be assigned the original task and no subtasks will be generated. Users that aren't assigned to the department will get a subtask for each selected country for which they are responsible.

That all works great, but here is what I need to figure out:

Is it possible to create just one sub-task for each unique sub-task assignee instead of multiple?

For example, user1 is assigned to countries Spain, France and Italy. user 2 is assigned to UK, Canada. A task is created that isn't assigned to either one of them. Two subtasks should be created, The first one assigned to user 1 with the labels "Spain", "France" and "Italy", the second subtask assigned to user2 with the labels "UK" and "Canada". As of right now, my automation creates a subtask for each.

I can't think of a reliable method to do this because of the limited options inside the For each loop.

Screenshot 2024-04-15 191144.png Screenshot 2024-04-15 191114.png

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Bill Sheboy

Hi @Brandon Fish

For your step 5.2 if the userID is the assignee of the task, then add the country as a label, to which issue are you adding the label:

the trigger issue
something else

If it is to the trigger issue, I suspect you could collapse the logic to one branch, always updating the trigger issue with either no change or use conditional logic in a JSON edit for the label.

If I have misunderstood your scenario, please let me know. Thanks!

Kind regards,
Bill

Brandon Fish

Hi Bill,

In 5.2 I'm adding a label to the trigger issue instead of creating a subtask. That part is already working. The tough part is creating the subtasks so that there is a unique assignee for each subtasks with the associated labels.

I actually have a solution in mind but it will be a bit of a hassle to get it tested and working, but basically, I'll convert the <new line> separated countries found in the description to a comma-separated list

countryList = country1,country2,country3,country4

Then do a series of replacements, one for each country that iterates the list and pre-pends the assignee to each country or consolidates the country list under an existing user in the string eventually ending up with something like

countryList = user1|country1|country3,user2|country2,user3|country4

Then my For each loop will have all the information it needs (user and countries) to create the subtasks.

I have a start already using if() but still working through it. I just noticed that "|" is doing something strange, at least in the logs, so I may have to select an alternate secondary delimiter.

Bill Sheboy

Thanks for that information, and...I'll admit I spent a long time trying to get your scenario to work yesterday before I deleted my long-ish post to ask that question instead :^)

I also decided a delimited variable would be better than the table for the country-to-user mapping and the branch should iterate at the user level, not the country level from the trigger issue.

That being noted, some tips to help you are:

For variables, always add a prefix such as var to avoid the possibility of matching a field in an issue / object. For example, use varCountryList instead of countryList
When parsing a field like Description into a list of values, like countries, explicitly provide the delimiter rather than allowing the rule to implicitly do so. For example, assuming all of your countries are listed after the word "Countries", this forces the delimiter to a single comma:
- {{issue.description.substringAfter("Countries:").split("\n").join(",")}}
Nested branching obviously does not work, or this scenario would be easy
Once inside of an iterator (e.g., your countryList) no other data is visible to filter / select
But, there is a workaround with dynamic regular expression matching and inline iteration
- create a variable with the regular expression, built from the things to find, perhaps named varRegEx
- split your country list from the Description, and use match(), such as
  - {{varListOfCountriesFromDescription.split(",").match(varRegEx)}}
- add additional text functions to parse out the user
- create the subtask with the needed labels

Good luck!

Brandon Fish

Thanks @Bill Sheboy Sounds like we are arriving at roughly the same conclusion.

Can you flesh out an example of dynamic regular expression matching and inline iteration? I'm intrigued.

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