What's a "Manual Trigger" in Automation for JIRA and how do I invoke it?

[andreas]

How do I use the "Manual Trigger" in Automation for JIRA?

[andreas · Accepted solution]

Most rules get triggered automatically, however sometimes it may be useful for a user to trigger a rule for a specific issue manually. That's what the Manual trigger is for. It can be configured so that only members of certain groups will see it. Once configured it will show up on the view issue page:

[DEMO-3] This needs log files! - Code Barrel JIRA 2016-09-20 10-36-20.png

If a user hits "Run" the rule will be executed with the issue being viewed as the input (DEMO-3 in this case). 

For a list of all other triggers see our list of rule components.

[John Kata]

In our instance, 'Manual Triggers' only show up under the 'More' menu when viewing an issue.  There is not an 'Automations' section on the right hand side under 'Dates' as demonstrated in the screenshot.  Was this changed?

[andreas]

Hi John,

Ah yes, sorry I should have mentioned that. This is a difference between our Cloud and Server offerings (mainly because the available plugin points differ).

Cloud

You get the 'Automations' issue panel on the right to execute Manual triggers

Server

Manual triggers show up in the 'More' menu where all the other issue operations are listed (link, attach, assign etc).

Cheers,
  Andreas

[John Kata]

Hi Andreas,

Great, thanks!  Would it be possible to request the 'Automations' panel for the Server version, as well?

[andreas]

Hi John,

Just out of curiousity - why do you want to see manual triggers in an 'Automations' panel in server instead of as part of the issue operations (where users are used to look for issue operations already)?

The only reason we added the panel in cloud is, because the add-on APIs there didn't allow as to add to the issue operations dropdown.

Just trying to understand your use-case a bit better as to why you'd like to see the panel in Server as well.

Cheers,

  Andreas

[John Kata]

Hi Andreas,

Thanks for the fast reply!  I think it provides more visibility into what automations are available in a given project than the 'More' option.  This is definitely not a high-priority request, but something that would be nice to see sometime in the future.

Thanks for your consideration and quick responses, as always!

[Nir Brown]

Hi Andreas, 

wanted to ask if is it possible to limit the presentation of the button according to a specific status of the issue?

regards,

Nir

[andreas]

Hi Nir,

No not currently.  I've raised https://codebarrel.atlassian.net/browse/AUT-645 to track this.

Right now you can only prevent a rule from running with a condition if it's in the wrong status, however the button would still show up in the UI.

Cheers,
  Andreas

[Florian Neumann]

Hi everybody,

we would like to create a rule, that is like a template for a new job (a issue in a specific project, with specific issues and subtask).
When the rule was created, it is not entirely obvious to the user where the new issue can be created, beacause he must click on an existing issue to create an new issue based on a template.

Can you understand my problem?

Do you see a possibility to visualize the "manual trigger buttons" in the issue panel?

Cheery,
Florian

[Sarath]

@andreas is there a bulk operation for manual trigger? For example, if I've few selected tickets by a JQL, I would like to trigger the manual trigger rule for all the tickets at once instead of going to each ticket and selecting under "more" tab. 

Currently, I'm selecting the trigger "Scheduled" and executing my JQL tickets by setting time using cron expression. But I'm trying to potential duplicated with automation rules by not giving option to my users to adjust cron expressions or if they schedule something and forget to disable the rule.