Attribute to Issue Field Effector

The Attribute to Issue Field Effector allows you to write the values from Structure attributes (formulas, structure-specific columns, Structure.Gantt attributes, etc.) to Jira issue fields. It can also copy values from one Jira field to another.

In the above example, we've added an Effector that will pull the aggregate value from the Structure-specific ∑ Story Points column and write it to each Epic's Story Points field. You can see exactly how we set it up in our Calculate Epic Story Points Based on Sub-issues article.

Adding an Attribute to Issue Field Effector to a Structure

To add an Attribute to Issue Field Effector to a structure, open the Automation menu and select Effectors.

Choose Attribute to issue field...

On the Effector setting screen:

• The name field is updated automatically as you select the Effector properties. If you prefer, you can also click the edit button to enter a custom name.
• Attribute: select the source attribute (with the values you want to write to Jira)
• Field: select the field you want the values written to
• Limit To: (optional) enter JQL to limit the Effector's scope (Ex. "Issuetype = epics" will limit changes to just epics)
• Select whether email notifications should be sent when the Effector writes values to Jira

When you're finished, click Save and Run to run the Effector immediately, or click Save to simply add the Effector to the structure but not run it yet. Since this will be your first time running an Effector, we suggest clicking Save. This way, you can run a pre-test before making any changes. 

Writing to Multi-Value Fields

If you select a destination Field that can accept multiple values, you will see an additional Action setting. You can choose:

• Set - the values in the issue field will be overwritten by the attribute value.
• Add - the value from the source Attribute will be added to the values in the destination Field.
• Remove - if the value in the source Attribute appears in the destination Field, it will be removed.

Currently, only single values can be written to the issue field. If the source Attribute contains multiple values or spaces (as with the Notes field), you will receive an error when you run the Effector.

Running the Effector

Once you've added the Effector to a structure, you need to run it for changes to take place. See Running an Effector

Review / Revert Changes

To review or revert changes made by an Effector, see Revert Effector Changes

Example Use Cases for the Attribute to Issue Field Effector

Some popular uses for this Effector include:

• Add story points for epics
• Update issue assignees based on parent issues
• Calculate the cost to complete issues and projects, and write those cost to a Jira field
• If the Structure.Gantt extension is installed, write Gantt attributes (such as the Gantt Start Date/Gantt Finish Date) to custom Jira fields (Start Date/Finish Date).