Automation

This chapter provides information on how to use Automation and Issue Templates together.

Combining Jira Automation and Issue Template for Jira requires using Automation’s Create Issue action and a custom issue.templates.automation property. You can delegate the job of creating the issue with Automation and apply a template right after the issue has been created with Issue Templates for Jira.

See Atlassian documentation to learn how to Create an issue with Automation.

Steps

1. Configure the action to create an issue with all the required fields for the particular issue type you want to use.
2. Expand More options, paste the function below and change TEMPLATE-1 to your template key:

{
    "properties": [{
        "key": "issue.templates.automation",
        "value": {
            "applyTemplate": "TEMPLATE-1"
        }
    }]
}

3. Click Rule Details.
4. Change the Actor from Jira Automation to an actual user, with all required permissions.

5. Make sure you have enabled Allow marketplace apps to apply templates in Global Configuration - Advanced.

Result

This function instructs Issue Templates for Jira to applyTemplate with the issue key equal to TEMPLATE-1.

There are numerous triggers that you can use with the Create issue action and apply the template property. You can see some examples in the videos below.

How to schedule creation of issues from templates using Jira Automation?

One of available options to create an issue from a template is to use Automation’s Scheduled trigger with Create issue action. Applying a template to a newly created issue is possible only if you change Create issue action’s properties, as shown in the example below:

{
    "properties": [{
        "key": "issue.templates.automation",
        "value": {
            "applyTemplate": "TEMPLATE-1"
        }
    }]
}

TEMPLATE-1 is a template key.

How to trigger creating issues from template from external tool?

The following example presents required steps in Jira Automation and an external tool (Postman in this case) to create issues from a template.

Jira Automation steps

1. Create a template in Template Repository. Use {{ }} to set variables.
   Note

   By default, variables use [ ]. Read more about variables.
2. Navigate to Project settings > Automation.
3. Click Create rule.
4. In New trigger, select Incoming webhook.
5. In Execute this automation rule with select No issue from the webhook.
6. Click Save.
7. In Add component, click New action > Create issue.
8. Select:

• Project
• Issue type
• Choose fields to set (for example: Epic Name).

9. Type the Summary and complete fields selected in Choose fields to set….
10. Expand the More list, and in Additional fields type the following formula:

{
    "properties": [{
        "key": "issue.templates.automation", 
        "value": { 
            "applyTemplate": "{{webhookData.templateKey}}",
            "variables" : "{{webhookData.variables}}"
        }
    }]
}

11. Complete the Rule details and click Save.
12. Turn on the rule.
13. Copy the URL from Incoming webhook rule.

Postman steps

1. Click New and select Request.
2. Type in data.
3. Click Save to Automation.
4. Select the POST command from the list and enter copied Webhook URL.
5. In the Body section, paste the following formula, where the TemplateKey is the key of your Jira Template and Variables are taken from the Postman:

{ 
  "templateKey": "PMT-602",  
  "variables": "{\"externalSystemName\":\"Postman\",\"externalSystemDescription\":\"Great tool to test REST API, cheers!\"}"  
}

6. Click Send.
7. Refresh your Jira Project page.

Result

The issue has been created.

How to pass variables from external system to Automation?

You can pass variables from the webhook using smart values - inside {{ }}. Use a webhookData object, which has access to the body of the webhook. Dot can be used to extract nested properties, however, the last element has to be a string or a number.

See the two following examples:

• Names of variables are constant

Webhook body:

{
	"templateKey": "PMT-602",
	"variables": {
		"externalSystemName":"Postman",
		"externalSystemDescription":"Great tool to test REST API, cheers!"
	}
}

Additional fields in Automation:

{
    "properties": [{
        "key": "issue.templates.automation",
        "value": {
            "applyTemplate": "{{webhookData.templateKey}}",  
            "variables" : {
              "externalSystemName": "{{webhookData.variables.externalSystemName}}",
              "externalSystemDescription": "{{webhookData.variables.externalSystemDescription}}" 
            }
        }
    }]
}

• Names of variables can differ

Remember that all variables inside {{ }} need to be basic, for example, a string or a number. You can’t pass an object, therefore it will pass stringified JSON. Issue Templates for Jira will decode such a string.

{
    "properties": [{
        "key": "issue.templates.automation", 
        "value": { 
            "applyTemplate": "{{webhookData.templateKey}}",
            "variables" : "{{webhookData.variables}}"
        }
    }]
}

Additional fields in Automation:

{
    "templateKey": "PMT-602",
    "variables": "{\"externalSystemName\":\"Postman\",\"externalSystemDescription\":\"Great tool to test REST API, cheers!\"}"
}

If you’re interested in Advanced field editing in Automation, read the official Atlassian documentation.

How to apply a template to an existing issue from Jira Automation by calling the Issue Templates REST API/WebTrigger?

Enable Apply Template and generate WebTrigger

1. Go to Apps → Issue Templates for Jira → Configuration.
2. In the Advanced section: enable Apply template.
3. Go to the API Tokens tab.
4. Click Generate WebTrigger URL – this will give you a URL similar to: https://your-instance.atlassian.net/.../webhook/xyz...
5. Generate a token for the selected user and copy it (it won’t be fully visible again later).

Create Jira Automation rule with “Send web request”

1. Create a new Automation rule with any trigger you need, for example: Work item updated, Work item created, Work item transitioned.
2. Add the action Send web request.
3. Configure the action:

• Method - GET
• Web request URL: use the WebTrigger URL and append query parameters, e.g.: https://your-instance.atlassian.net/.../webhook/xyz?issueId={{issue.id}}&templateId=ABC-123

• Authorization/Headers - the exact authorization scheme depends on how the WebTrigger is defined in Issue Templates. Typically, you use the token generated in the API Tokens section and pass it in a header (for example Authorization: Bearer or another scheme).

Result

Once this is configured, every time the Automation rule is executed, it will call the WebTrigger, which in turn will apply the selected template to the existing issue.