How to tag a JIRA user existing in a custom field in an automated Slack message

[Keith Tasker]

Hello!

I'm attempting to create an automation rule that does the following:

When an issue is transitioned to Accepted status, send a slack message to a specific slack channel stating that the issue is accepted and ready to be merged.

This first part is simple enough. However, there's an additional part of the rule I need help with, as follows:

Within the automated slack channel message, I want to tag the specific user who appears in a custom field called "Developer" in JIRA.

The rule is working (see screen caps), however the tag is not creating a functional highlighted tag, rather it's in plain text, which will not notify the specific user.

From my research so far, it seems that the problem is that the Slack integration wants to see the Slack User ID versus the display name. I've tried a few options in place of "displayName" including "accountID", "username", "userID", and "slackUserID" but apparently there is no mapping between the Custom Field (Developer) and the Slack User ID.

Am I spinning my wheels on something that's not possible or does someone perhaps have a clever workaround?

Thank you!

Keith

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Keith Tasker 

As you have found, and others have noted, the Slack ID is needed to mention someone from a Atlassian Automation rule.  (It is no longer possible to direct-message from such rules, even though the UX indicates that is possible.)

And so, the Slack ID values for each user must be stored somewhere in Jira, preferably with each user's information.  A common way to do that is in user entity properties where they can be accessed as smart values.

• When you have many users in Slack ID and Jira to connect, please try the article noted by @Robert DaSilva to bulk-load and update them
• When you have only a few users, or want to experiment with this approach first, you may use a second automation rule to add user entity properties using a Lookup Table and the Set Entity Property action, or the REST API endpoint.  To learn more about that approach, please see this post: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/Re-Re-Iterate-through-JQL-result-of-issues-extract-cer/qaq-p/2916834/comment-id/1081211#M1081211

Kind regards,
Bill

[Keith Tasker]

Thank you, Bill!

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Keith,

I am not aware of anyway to tag a specific user in Slack from Jira nor send a message to a user account - only a channel like you are doing. Unless there is something on the Slack side that can be done to parse out the string and use it somehow. 

[Keith Tasker]

Thank you, John!

[John Funk]

You are welcome!

[Robert DaSilva · Accepted solution]

Hi @Keith Tasker , I found an article that seems to outline a workaround.

The challenge is that Jira by default does not store the users's Slack User ID, which is required for @ mentions to function properly.

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Automation-articles/Mention-someone-directly-in-Slack-via-Jira-Automation/ba-p/1528605

That article outlines a Python script that updates Jira users with their Slack IDs, which you can then grab via properties.

Hope this helps!

Robert

[Keith Tasker]

Thank you, Robert!