How to Automatically Transition a Linked Issue During a Workflow Transition

Create a JIRA project to use with this recipe

In this step, you are going to create a project you will use when creating a standard Story for an Epic. To do this, log on to your JIRA instance as a JIRA Administrator and do the following:

1. From the Projects menu, choose Create Project.
2. In the Select Project Type screen, select Simple Issue Tracking and click Next.
3. The second screen shows the Issue Types that will be used (Task and Sub-task). Click Select.
4. The third screen prompts you to supply a Name and Key for your new JIRA project.
   1. Use Recipe Update On Transition as the Name.
   2. Use RUOT as the Key.
   3. Click Submit to create the project, with you set as its Project Lead.
5. If you click Create and choose Recipe Update On Transition as the Project and Task as the Issue Type, you will see a Create Issue screen like the one shown to the right. Only 3 fields (Project, Issue Type, and Summary) are required, as indicated by the red asterisk next to their field labels. There are 2 optional fields: Priority and Description.

In the next step, you'll create 2 sample issues, so leave the Create Issue screen open.

Create 2 sample issues

In this step, you will create 2 sample issues that will be used to test the workflow transition you'll be adding in a later step.

1. On the Create Issue screen, fill in the fields as shown in the first table on the right and then click Create. Take note of the issue key that was created.
2. Click Create again. Then, flll in the fields as shown in the second table on the right and click Create. Take note of the issue key that was created.
3. Go to the first issue you created. and do the following:
   1. From the More menu, choose Link.
   2. Fill in the fields as shown in the screenshot to the right. (Your issue keys might be different, but you should be viewing the first issue while creating a "blocks" link from it to the second issue.)
   3. Click Link to save this link. You should now see the link showing in the "Issue Links" section of the View Issue screen.

Fields for creating the second issue:

Link screen, to link the first issue to the second issue:

Create a draft workflow

In this step, you will edit the workflow used by the Recipe Update On Transition project so you can begin the process of adding the Update Transition post function that will create a comment on the linked issue.

1. From the Cog menu ( ) , choose Projects.
2. Click the Recipe Update On Transition link to display the Project Summary page which shows how the project is configured.
3. In the Workflows section of the page, click the pencil icon () next to the RUOT: Simple Issue Tracking Workflow link to edit that workflow.
4. Click the button so that the workflow is shown in Text mode rather than Diagram mode.
5. There are 2 transitions named "Done": one is in the To Do step and the other is in the In Progress step. In the next step, you will be adding a new post function to both of these transitions,

Add a post function on the Done transitions

In this step, you will add a post function on the two Done transitions.

From the RUOT: Simple Issue Tracking Workflow screen, do the following steps twice, once for the Done transition under the To Do step and again for the Done transition under the In Progress step:

1. Click the Post Functions tab to display the post functions. Your screen should look like the first screenshot shown to the right.
2. Click the Add post function link to display the Add Post Function To Transition screen.
3. Select Update issues and then click Add. The Add Parameters To Function screen will be displayed.
4. Set the parameters as shown to the right:
   1. Issues to Update 
   2. JQL Query
   3. Comment
5. Click Add to save your changes to the parameters and add the Update Issues post function.

Add Post Function To Transition screen:

Post Function parameters:

Configure the post function, part 1

In this step, you will configure the post function you just added to the Create transition so that a standard Story will be created each type a user creates an Epic.

From the Add Parameters To Function screen, do the following:

1. Set the parameters as shown to the right.
   1. Condition 1 indicates that the post function should only be executed when the issue being created has an Issue Type = Epic.
   2. Condition 2indicates that the post function should only be executed when the JQL Query (set in another parameter) returns no results. This is a safety precaution to prevent duplicate issues being inadvertently created. %jql_result_count% is a substitution variable

   3. Summary defines the value to be set as the Summary of the new Story being created.

      Note
      The value specified in this parameter must match the string being checked in the JQL Query parameter.

   4. Description defines the value to be set as the Description of the new Story being created.
   5. Issue Type indicates that the new issue being created will have an Issue Type of Story.
   6. Set custom field indicates that the new Story being created should have an Epic Link back to the original issue (the Epic). Note that the field name (Epic Link, in this case) is case sensitive.
   7. JQL Query looks for any issue linked to the same Epic with a Summary whose value matches the Summary parameter. This query should return 0 records if the Story has not yet been created, and is used to prevent duplicate Stories from being created for the same Epic.
2. Click Add to save your changes to the parameters and add the Create Issue post function.
3. Select Create issue and then click Add. The Add Parameters To Function screen will be displayed. You will be returned to the Transition: Create screen.
4. Your screen should now look like the screenshot shown to the right.

Configure the post function, part 2

In this step, you will move the new Create Issue post function so it is executed after the Epic issue is created and then you will publish the workflow so you can test it.

From the Transition: Create screen, do the following:

1. Repeatedly click the Down Arrow icon (Image Modified) next to the Create Issue post function until the post function is below the "Creates the issue originally" post function. This ensure the Epic is created before the Create Issue post function is executed.
2. Your screen should now look like the screenshot shown to the right.
3. Publish your draft workflow by clicking the Publish Draft button at the top of the screen. The Publish Draft Workflow screen will appear.
4. When prompted whether to save a backup copy, click Yes and then click Publish.

Test the post function

In this step, you will verify the post function is working as intended.

1. Click the Create button to create a new issue. The Create Issue screen will appear.
2. Fill in the fields as shown on the right and click Create. A popup window similar to the one shown on the right will appear to confirm the issue was created.
3. Click the link in that popup to open the Epic you just created.
4. You should see a screen similar to the first screenshot shown on the right, with the "Issues in Epic" section showing the standard Story that was automatically created.
5. Click the link to the new Story and you should see a screen similar to the last screenshot shown on the right. This new Story shows an Epic Link to the Epic that was manually created.

That's it! By adding a post function to create this standard Story automatically, you can be assured that every Epic will have such a story and your team will spend less time creating issues!

Confirmation popup window:

Epic that was created manually:

Story that was created automatically: