How can I ensure an Automation rule only runs once for an issue?

[andreas]

I want to ensure we only run a particular rule one time against an issue. How can you do this with Automation for Jira?

[andreas · Accepted solution]

So there's a few different ways this can be done. A visible way would be to edit the issue and add a label, then check for the presence of this label with a JQL condition.

Another way that's invisible to users is to use entity properties. Your rule would look like this:

• Trigger: Any trigger
• Compare condition:
  • First value: {{issue.properties.ruleexecuted}}
  • Equals:
  • Empty (leave field blank
• Action: Do something like editing the issue
• Action: Set entity property 'ruleexecuted' = true

It looks like this in practice:

The actions in this rule will now only execute once for a given issue.  After that, the compare condition will fail since the issue property has a value.

[Sebastián Delmastro]

@andreas what happens when needed to run another rule once, but the {{issue.properties.ruleexecuted}} = true because it was edited by another rule.

The {{issue.properties.ruleexecuted}} is for every particular rule or for all rules? i.e. an issue can only have one value or it can have several values for every rule?

This is because i have this compare condition en Epics but is telling me on the audit log that the issuesdid not match the condition: i.e. is nos Empty.

Thanks!

[Jean Francois Gelinas]

Hummmm, all rules

[Jean Francois Gelinas]

That doesnt work since you cant execute another rule for that issue.

[Dalia El-Dib]

@andreas The first condition always fails. I assume because {{issue.properties.ruleexecuted}} is not even an existing issue entity. Did this work for you? Any clues why it will always fail for me

[Lennart Verkaik]

This works for me with 5 separate rules. I named the properties 'rule1executed', 'rule2executed', rule3executed', etc. I used this to generate child issues when the status is changed. 

[Joe Currivan]

@Lennart Verkaik  that's a fantastic find. I didn't realize Property smart values could have customized names like that!! 

I just tried using names that were friendly to me, and that works too. 

For example, I wanted an automation for a Design process and another automation for an Implementation process. So I made the Property smart value names "ruleexecuted-design" and "ruleexecuted-implement" and it works just fine.