How to check (and reject) tickets which have not had a field updated since creation.

[GC]

Hey guys help from the community on this is much appreciated! 

Here is the scenario:

I have a project with some custom fields that need to be updated by the time the tickets they are in are closed. 

These fields are free-text, created with a default value within the configuration scheme which we use as a template for the kind of information we expect to see in the field.

I want a way to reject tickets that are transitioned into 'done' if these fields haven't been updated with actual information (ie the template is cleared and new info entered)

I can see that in the workflow transition validators, I can choose to set a validator to reject the transition if the field is left blank or if the field isn't updated on transition but neither of these apply to my situation as the field update could happen before the transition which I still want to allow. 

I tried to set up an automation but I'm not able to find a field condition that would check for a field update after creation, and I'm not sure how to express this in a JQL.

Does anyone have any clue as to how I could express this in a JQL or a different solution that doesn't require something like ScriptRunner or any other 3rd party app?

Thank you! 🙏🏼

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Hi @GC , here is an approach to consider...

create an automation rule that will trigger on that field being updated. You would have an action that would add a label, which would indicate the field was updated. Now add a condition (or Validator) in the workflow that checks that the label exists.

[GC]

Hi Jack,

Thanks for the prompt response that's really helpful! 

I have tried this and it works as expected - I've had to do some extra configuration on the rule as I need more than 1 of those fields to have been updated to be able to mark a ticket as 'done' BUT...

The issue I now have is this:

I've had to use a workflow condition to achieve the second part of the solution but what the condition does is actually remove the status from visibility if that label hasn't been applied to the ticket.

Whilst this is ok, I can see how it will just send people into a panic because the status 'done' doesn't appear on the dropdown as opposed to using a workflow validator which would instead give an error message to explain why the ticket can't be closed. 

Trouble is, the workflow validator doesn't have an option that checks that a certain label has been applied (not that I can see anyways) so I cannot use this. 

Any more ideas? 😅

[Jack Brickey]

Yes, that is one of the downsides of a condition for sure. So I generally favor of Validator where I can add an explanation or error message of what is needed. So I think in your case, adding a Validator for each field that needs to be updated would be the preferred approach. Of course, that means more labels in the suggested solution. The other option is to create a multi select field that is updated via automation to select the appropriate values once each field is indeed updated. Granted, this is not an ideal solution, but just a solution. The other option is to consider an add-on  Again, that’s not always ideal either, unless you can benefit from the add-on in other ways. 

[GC]

Thanks for the further response Jack. 

I'm not able to use Validators as there isn't a validator to check for an update if the update isn't done on transition - a lot of these field updates happen before the transition so alas, cannot use them in this case. 

I have gone ahead and set up a combination of automation rules and Conditions which still leaves us with the status disappearing from the drop down but its better than nothing. 

Thanks for your input. 

Gaby