Automation: Creating subtasks based on components

[Maciej Smogorzewski]

Hi, 

Is there an option to prepare automation that allows me to create subtasks dependent on components (or other custom fields)?


Problem: 

I need to be able to prepare in the same time 2-6 clones of the same task/subtask based on a variable which allows me to assignee task to a direct team 

Example:

1. User creates a task 1
2. User chooses two components: Blue and Red. 
2. Automatically there should be created two sub-tasks (one for each component) 
3. Subtask 1 with component Blue
4. Subtask 2 with component Red
5. Title/Description are copied from a task 1

If I add more components there will be more sub-tasks automatically created. 


I would really appreciate Your help or ideas how I can set up sth like this. 

Best, 
M. 

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Maciej,

I would create an automation rule based on Issue Created trigger.

Then create a series of If / else block condition where it looks something like:

Use Issue Fields condition for the IF

If component = Blue

Then new action for Clone Issue with issue type of Sub-task

It would look like this:

[Bill Sheboy]

HI @Maciej Smogorzewski 

Adding on to what @John Funk suggests... At this time, there is no concept of dynamic looping in automation for Jira.  That means that when you create a new component value, you would need to modify your rule to handle the new value.

Best regards,

Bill

[Maciej Smogorzewski]

@Bill Sheboy 

Ok, thanks a lot for information. Unfortunatley I will over 30 projects where I must have this flow. Tough case :) 

[Maciej Smogorzewski]

@John Funk 

Thanks a lot! 

[John Funk]

You are welcome 😊

[Maciej Smogorzewski]

@John Funk 

It works pretty well, so thanks again a lot - the only change I had to make was to switch "equals to contains". 

But now I'm facing another problem. Sub-tasks cannot be linked with epics, so
So when I clone a task (which has an epic) and then Jira converts it into a sub-task I'm receiving an error.  

Of course there is no problem with automation when I use it for tasks without an epic or when I made clones as tasks. 

Do You have any idea what I can force jira to ignore "epic" during creating sub-tasks? 

Best, 
Maciej 

[Bill Sheboy]

When you clone an issue in an automation rule, you may optionally set some of the fields.  Have you tried to clear the epic link as part of that action?

[Maciej Smogorzewski]

@Bill Sheboy 

Yes, there are two options.

#1 To set Epic from a direct issue. I thought I could try to copy Epic from a task where Epic Link is Empty, but there is no option like this. 

#2 There is also an option to use JSON. I tried it and it didn't work. BUT I'm sure if my command is correct. 

I tried sth like this (I added only the part with epic, the rest of it was already there)

{
"update": {
"labels": [
{
"add": "cloned"
}
],
"issuelinks": [
{
"add": {
"type": {
"name": "Cloners"
},
"fields": {
"Epic link": null
}

Regards, 
Maciej

[Maciej Smogorzewski]

@Bill Sheboy  @John Funk 

Thank You again for Your help. 

I realized that my sub-tasks had the same screen scheme as tasks (where was Epic Link).
I associated sub-tasks with the different scheme without epic link and now it works perfectly.

Regards, 

Maciej 

[Arto Kovalainen]

There is more simpler way to do this by using smart values. This creates subtask for each component chosen in the main task. In hour case 2 subtasks, Red and Blue

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Arto Kovalainen 

Thanks, and...Advanced branches, as you are showing, were added after this question was originally posted. 

As more features are added to automation rules I expect many questions' solutions / work-arounds will be superseded by newer approaches.

Kind regards,
Bill