Can I check if a certain sub-task exists yet using Automation for JIRA?

[Andreas Knecht]

I want to write an Automation rule that only adds sub-tasks if that sub-task doesn't exist yet on an issue.  Is this possible with Automation for JIRA?

[Andreas Knecht · Accepted solution]

Once again the compare condition (see all our rule components) can help here with smart-values:

Project automation - Code Barrel JIRA 2016-09-21 10-16-13.png

So this rule uses the compare condition to create a string out of all existing subtask summaries. If no subtasks exist yet, then it will simply be the empty string. However otherwise it will concatenate all existing subtask summaries separated by a space character.  We then check using a regular expression if this string contains the subtask summary of the new subtask we want to create yet ("my awesome subtask") in this case.

Only if the existing subtask summaries don't match this string yet (i.e. it doesn't exist), will the rule continue and create our 1 sub-task with the summary "my awesome subtask".

The extra space inside this smart-value completion is important (it separates the subtask summaries by a space if there's multiple subtasks):

{{#issue.fields.subtasks}}{{fields.summary}} {{/issue.fields.subtasks}}

Project automation - Code Barrel JIRA 2016-09-21 10-16-13.png ‏202 KB

[Andreas Knecht]

You can also compare other sub-task attributes, by using something other than fields.summary in the example above. For example: fields.priority.name