Linked Transition Post Function

 

JSU for Jira Server/Data Center

This is the JSU for Jira Server/Data Center documentation. If you are using JSU on Jira Cloud, see our JSU Cloud documentation.

Description

The Linked Transition post function triggers a transition on a related issue. It can be very powerful in conjunction with the Create a Linked Issue post function to 'connect' the workflows of two issues.

You can also specify any number of fields that will be copied to the related issue.

The Transition Trigger Service also allows you to trigger a transition on some issues. Depending on your use case you might consider using this service.

Configuration

Example configuration of the Linked Transition post function.

Precondition

You have several options to define on which related issue the transition will be triggered.

Transition

When the post function is performed, it will trigger the transition with that particular ID (1 in the example configuration) on the linked issues. If one of the linked issues uses a different workflow but has a transition with the same ID, that transition will be triggered. The name of the transition does not matter; only the ID. If you want to trigger the transition on only one workflow, use the JQL scope and select the issues to transition with a query similar to issue in linkedIssues({issue.key}) and project = “PR Next Project”.

If the transition with that ID is not available on the linked issue (probably because it is in a different status), no action will be performed.

Keep this in mind and design your workflows accordingly to prevent them from becoming out of sync. You could use several 'Linked Transition' post functions in the same transition, each calling a different target transition, to match possible different statuses of the linked issue.

Also consider workflow conditions or validators that could prevent a transition from being performed.

Perform Linked Transition as User

If you don't specify anything here, the transition on the related will be performed under the same user, who triggered this post function on the origin issue. That user must have the necessary permissions on the related issue otherwise nothing will happen.

However, in some restrictive setups, the user might not be allowed to do so on the related issue. They may not even see the project of the related issue.

With 'Perform Linked Transition as User' you can specify a different user account that owns the necessary permissions. Usually, this user account is assumed to be only technical, with broad permissions, but not used to log into Jira for normal activity.

Resolution

If any transition screen contains the resolution field, that field becomes mandatory. Here you have a chance to set a value for the resolution to be able to perform that transition.

Resolution in the Post Function configuration

Resolution on the issues at the beginning when the transition is performed

What happens?

Resolution in the Post Function configuration

Resolution on the issues at the beginning when the transition is performed

What happens?

empty

any

The resolution on the issue won't be changed



None

any

The resolution will be set back to 'unresolved' (cleared).

Any value

unresolved

The resolution will be set to the defined value.

Any value

Any other value

The resolution won't be changed.

All other sibling issues must have one of the following statuses

This permits that only the final transitioned issue will trigger a linked transition.


Consider the following structure of linked issues:

Diagram showing a Test Case with four linked issues where two are not resolved.

A test case issue has several linked bugs. The bugs are linked as 'from test' to the test case.

Only when the last bug is fixed should the test case be set to the 'Ready for Re-Test' status.
To prevent this transition from being executed before the final bug is fixed, we configure two statuses:

All other issues linking to the target must have one of the following statuses: Resolved, Closed

If Bug 3 in the above diagram is resolved, nothing will happen, because Bug 4 still has a status other than Resolved or Closed. When Bug 4 is resolved, the transition on the test case is executed to set it to 'Ready for Re-Test'.

Copy fields

These fields are copied to the linked issue after the transition is performed. The conditions and validators of your linked transition will still use the old field values.

Supported field types

Position of the post function

You must position this post function after all other post functions in the same transition.

Example

See the Use Case Testing and Fixing Bugs for an example of how some of our customers use it.

Troubleshooting

If a linked transition does not get triggered, or it blocks your origin transition, there are a few things you can check:

  • Log files: There are cases when the linked transition is not performed silently, but you will find a message in the log files on the server. You might increase the logging level.

  • What happens when you manually click the linked transition?

  • Does this problem only happen to a particular user? Check that the user performing the origin transition has the necessary permissions for the linked transition.

  • Is there a transition screen for the linked transition? Is there any condition, validator, or post function on the linked transition? Could these prevent the transition from being performed in an automated way (with the 'Linked Transition' post function)?

  • Order of post functions of the origin transition: Is the 'Linked Transition' post function in the final position?

  • Try to set a particular Resolution in the linked transition, or with 'Resolution=empty' - does it then work?