Jira Automation to send Slack message - how to use Slack member ID?

[Khira Niemeier]

I have set up an animation that is supposed to send messages to a specific user when a Ticket changes it's status to done.

So it already works with a webhook, but I can't send it to the specific user directly.

First I thought it might be, because we are not using the right app integration, so that the override webhook is not working. (As it sais und Channel or user, if you fill this field it should override the Webhook, which is neccesary.)

But now I am kind of insecure about this, as I am currently just trying to post it as a slack message in a channel (which already works with the webhook).
And I tried to ping a person by using their member ID (on Slack) this way:

@U069HML****

Without the starts of course. But it didn't print the message as a ping but only wrote "

@U069HML****" without pinging.

So my question is: 

Did I make a mistake in the way I put the member ID in? In that case it might also explain why the override function didn't work.

If someone found out how to ping people in Chat messages send via Jira Automation, please let me know. :) 

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Khira Niemeier 

To mention the specific user in Slack from the automation rule, please use this syntax, substituting in their ID value:

<@userSlackID>

Also, are you always mentioning the same person / user, or is that dynamic based on data in the issue fields?

Kind regards,
Bill

[Khira Niemeier]

Hey @Bill Sheboy ,
thank you, now it works! :) 

In our case it is the same person for all of the tickets, but I guess if it were more than one, I would do it with an else if request depending on the Assignee. ;) 

Kind regards and really thanks for the quick answer!
Khira

[Bill Sheboy]

I am glad to learn it works, and...if it is another user such as the Assignee:

1. do you plan to hardcode the Slack ID values using if / else conditions, or
2. do you have the Slack ID values all stored with the users, such as with entity properties, or
3. something else?

[Khira Niemeier]

That's a very good question - I think I would hardcode them first to make it work faster, but if it was for many persons, storing the Slack member IDs with the users would be a very nice way to solve it I guess. Also because the automation would get very long if you try to hardcode it for the whole team. :D 

But I wouldn't have a clue how to store them with entity properties - how does that work? :) 

[Bill Sheboy]

To bulk-add the Slack user ID values to the Jira users (as entity properties), you may use this article from an Atlassian team member.  It requires some technical / developer skills to get it to work and diagnose problems.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-articles/Mention-someone-directly-in-Slack-via-Jira-Automation/ba-p/1528605

When you have fewer Slack user ID values to add, another option is using a separate automation rule to one-time (or periodically) refresh them.  I answered another question that describes that rule in detail, and how to use the entity properties in mentions.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Iterate-through-JQL-result-of-issues-extract-certain-fields-and/qaq-p/2915932#M1081211