jira - Subscription as mailing list

[Gavin]

Hi,

I wanted do the following:

• I actually want to use jira filter as a mailing list
  • if an issue is submitted and it meets the criteria
  • send a notification to the subscribers of the new submission
• do not send the subscriber the same update

Q: Is there a way to only send an email notification when a new items that meets that criteria?

[Paul O]

If you want to use Jira 'filters' and 'subscriptions' then the simplest solution is to create a filter to capture the issues which meet the criteria and append a time condition to the query. e.g. If the criteria is   component = widgets and you want to send notifications hourly you would have a query like

project = ABC and component = widgets and created >= -1h

This will only return submitted issues within the last hour. 

Then create a subscription for this issue and use the advanced option for scheduling to set up a cron schedule to match the time criteria in your filter (in the example above that would be hourly).  Add a group as recipients and uncheck the option to send a mail no no issues match the filter. 

Note that you'll need 'Manage Group Filter Subscriptions' permissions to set this up.

In the above example, an email will be sent out if any new issues meet the notification criteria every hour.

[Gavin]

Thanks for the reply.  Is 'filters' and 'subscriptions' the best way to allow a user to get notifications?

Can I get the user to add themselves to the subscription?  If so what's the easiest approach for them? Since I want to make it as simple as a mailing list where they put their email and they get an email of new updates but using the jira issues.

[Paul O]

There are various options depending on your specific use-case. Are the notifications for issues across various projects or a single project? When you say for an issue 'submitted' do you mean 'created'? Or is submitted a workflow status? Can you give a bit more information.

The approach I outlined above would allow users to add a subscription to the filter for their own notification see:  https://confluence.atlassian.com/jira064/receiving-search-results-via-email-720416706.html for details on this approach.

[Gavin]

@Paul O thanks for the reply.  Let me see if I can help clarify.

This is for a single specific project. Yes created. If an issue is created and it meets this filter criteria then it sends an email notification. 

I'm essentially trying to replicate an mailing list subscription model.  When a new issue is created that meets the filter criteria the subscriber gets an email instantly.

Hope that helps.

[Paul O]

Thanks @Gavin 

The solution I proposed is a compromise and doesn't meet all your requirements, but I'm not sure there's a way to achieve everything you need without looking for a plug in app. Maybe others have better ideas.

The filter subscription has the advantage of letting users self subscribe. It also means any conditions you can express in JQL can be used to set your criteria.

The downside is that it isn't event based, but schedule based, so won't provide instant emails. 

[Paul O]

The alternative to filter subscriptions is to leverage issue watchers and Jira Automation if that's available to you.

The watch feature is designed to allow user self-subscription to notifications on a single issue, but it's possible to take the list of watchers and then use it in another context. 

1. Create a  "Subscribe to new issues here" issue in your project. This issue exists only for the purposes of signing up for your email. By hitting the 'watch' option on the issue, users sign up.  (Beware - any other changes to this issue could also trigger notifications so you may want to add restrictions to prevent this)

2. Create an automation which fires every time an issue is created in the project and add your filter conditions as JQL condition. Use a branch specify your "Subscribe to new issues here" issue key (acme-2 in the screenshot below) and add the watchers of that issue to your smart variable. Finally, send your email for the newly created issue to the watchers of your "Subscribe to new issues here" issue.

This is a bit convoluted but it does meet all your requirements.