The main purpose here is to utilize the Linux Cron facility to Transition Issues, rather than using the almost useless JIRA builtin services, or buying an expensixe cron/scheduling plugin for JIRA

The solution is pretty flexible for all issue types, by making the "--step "Initiate" a parameter instead of hardcoded, all issuetypes can be transitioned.

 

Prerequsites

Linux User

All scripts and the crontab stuff assumes that there is a "jira" user with access to /opt/jira-cron/

iq processor

jq command-line JSON processor must be available to the scripts

https://stedolan.github.io/jq/Workflow


My IssueType is called "Repeatable Task" and has a very small workflow:

Upon the Transition of Initiate (id 61), the Post Function:

  • Creates a copy of the Issue as a subtask
  • Sets the the issue back to Status "Frozen"

A custom Field for crontab values

The Issuetype has a custom field called "Cron Scheduling" (Text Field (single line)), as this will hold the schedules for the Issue:

In the script, the field has the JIRA identifier customfield_12821 - You must change this to fit Your field.

Location

I have my stuff in /opt/jira-cron

user@myserver:/opt/jira-cron$ ls -l
total 152
-rw-rw-rw- 1 jira root 121906 2014-04-02 13:39 jiraMakeCrontab.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   1454 2014-04-02 13:44 jiraMakeCrontab.sh
-rw-rw-rw- 1 jira root  18132 2014-04-05 05:00 jiraTransitionIssue.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    909 2014-02-17 11:51 jiraTransitionIssue.sh
user@myserver:/opt/jira-cron$

 

The usefull Scripts

Make the crontab script 

The scripts makes and enables a crontab for the "jira" user. It search for issues that satisfies:

Issuetype=Repeatable Task

Status=Frozen

Cron Scheduling has a value

jiraMakeCrontab.sh
#!/bin/bash

rm /tmp/crontab > /dev/null 2>&1

cd /opt/jira-cron/

IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
TODAY=`date +%Y-%m-%d.%H:%M:%S`

TransitionScript="/opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.sh"
JIRAFilter="issuetype%20%3D%20%22Repeatable%20Task%22%20AND%20status%20in%20%28Frozen%29%20%20and%20%22Cron%20Scheduling%22%20IS%20NOT%20NULL&maxResults=999"
JIRAUSER=""
JIRAPASS=""

#echo https://jira.server.dk/rest/api/2/search?jql=$JIRAFilter

CURLOPT_HEADER=0
export CURLOPT_HEADER
curl -D -k -u $JIRAUSER:$JIRAPASS -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://jira.server.dk/rest/api/2/search?jql=$JIRAFilter > /tmp/issuelist.json

IssueTotal=`cat /tmp/issuelist.json | ./jq-linux64 '.total'`
echo "$TODAY Total: $IssueTotal" >> /opt/jira-cron/jiraMakeCrontab.log

Count=0
for IssueId in `cat /tmp/issuelist.json | ./jq-linux64 '.issues[] .id'`
do

  Count=$(($Count + 1))

  IssueId=`echo $IssueId | sed "s/\"//g"`
  curl -D -k -u $JIRAUSER:$JIRAPASS -X GET -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://jira.server.dk/rest/api/2/issue/$IssueId > /tmp/issue.json

  IssueKey=`cat /tmp/issue.json | ./jq-linux64 '.key'| sed "s/\"//g"`
  #IssueStatus=`cat /tmp/issue.json | ./jq-linux64 '.fields.status.name'i | sed "s/\"//g"`
  cat /tmp/issue.json | ./jq-linux64 '.fields.customfield_12821' | sed "s/\"//g" | sed "s/\\\r//g" | sed "s/\\\n/;/g" | sed "s/\\\t/ /g" > /tmp/cronfield.json

  for CronEntry in `cat /tmp/cronfield.json | tr ";" "\n"`
  do

    echo "$CronEntry $TransitionScript $IssueKey > /dev/null 2>&1" >> /tmp/crontab
    echo "$TODAY Added ($Count): $cronEntry $TransitionScript $IssueKey to /tmp/crontab" >> /opt/jira-cron/jiraMakeCrontab.log

  done

  echo "" >> /tmp/crontab

done

#Replace JIRA Users crontab
if [ ! -f /tmp/crontab ]
then
 
  echo "" > /tmp/crontab
 
fi
 
crontab /tmp/crontab

The final line, making the JIRA crontab, can be extended with an error handler.

 

After running the script; - the /var/spool/cron/crontabs/jira (on Ubuntu LTS) should look like this:

#Crontabs for SUPPORT-513
* * 1 * * /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.sh SUPPORT-513 >> /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.log 2>&1

#Crontabs for HOMEPAGE-3846
0 5 2 * * /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.sh HOMEPAGE-3846 >> /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.log 2>&1

#Crontabs for HOMEPAGE-2933
0 0 1 * * /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.sh HOMEPAGE-2933 >> /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.log 2>&1

#Crontabs for PROJECTTOOLS-2467
0 5 5 * * /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.sh PROJECTTOOLS-2467 >> /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.log 2>&1

 

 

Make the Transition Script

Make sure the "jira" user has executeable acess to this. The TRANSITIONJSON defines the Initiate Transition (id 61)

jiraTransitionIssue.sh
#!/bin/bash

IFS=$(echo -en "\n\b")
TRANSITIONJSON='{"transition": {"id": "61"}}'
JIRAUSER=""
JIRAPASS=""
CURLOPT_HEADER=0
export CURLOPT_HEADER

cd /tmp

IssueKey=$1

if [ $IssueKey != '' ]
then

  curl -D header.txt -u $JIRAUSER:$JIRAPASS -X POST --data $TRANSITIONJSON -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://jira.server.dk/rest/api/2/issue/$IssueKey/transitions
  rm header.txt

else

	echo "No IssueKey as parameter"

fi

 

The Master Cron

To make the JIRA users crontab on a regular basis, I use /etc/crontab on Ubuntu:

0 20 * * * jira /opt/jira-cron/jiraMakeCrontab.sh 

 

Troubleshooting

Make sure the crontab is functioning, look in /var/log/syslog for tings like:

Cron reloading the new crontab for JIRA user:

Apr  5 13:28:50 myserver crontab[12857]: (jira) REPLACE (jira)
Apr  5 13:29:01 myserver cron[4946]: (jira) RELOAD (crontabs/jira)

Transitions via jira users cron entries:

Apr  5 05:00:01 myserver: CRON[1563]: (jira) CMD (/opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.sh HOMEPAGE-2467 >> /opt/jira-cron/jiraTransitionIssue.log 2>&1)

 

FIELD and STATE variables in the script files

Remember to change the variables to Your setup