Automation: Is it possible to update the Description field via advanced field editing?
Asked by Connor Skiro:

When issue A is linked to issue B, I want to grab a custom field from issue A and add it to issue B's description.

I've read and re-read the [advanced field editing](https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/advanced-field-editing-json/) documentation but receive an error when following their format. ![Screen Shot 2021-04-14 at 11.26.48 AM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/138636iCD5F8069B1C9D9EB/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2021-04-14 at 11.26.48 AM.png")

Upon further inspection, I've also found this [defect](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JIRAAUTOSERVER-190?error=login_required&error_description=Login+required&state=4c60f2a2-f722-48b8-9fa2-c490e8dfd6f3) in the Automation for Jira backlog which may be why I can't automate appending a string to the description field.   

Has anyone found a workaround for this?


Answers:
author: Bill Sheboy
body: Hi [@Connor Skiro](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1300047)

I am unclear how the error you linked to relates to your use case to update the Version's description. Would you please clarify that part?

From what I know, and at this time, there is no action in automation to update an existing Version's description. What you could do is make a web request call to the REST API to edit the version. Here are some references if you want to try that approach:

<https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/automation-actions/#Automationactions-Sendoutgoingwebrequest>

<https://docs.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/api/REST/1000.824.0/#api/2/version-updateVersion>

<https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Automation-for-Jira-Send-web-request-using-Jira-REST-API/ba-p/1443828>

Best regards,

Bill

comments: author: Connor Skiro
body: Bill,

Thank you for taking the time to reply! I should have been more clear in my description. I have created an issue type called 'Release', so rule would be:

When two issues are linked -\> Grab Issue A's custom field text and append it to Issue B's description.

I just updated the description to be more clear.


author: Bill Sheboy
body: Thanks, Connor! That helps quite a bit.

When you want to add to an existing field like Description, just add the contents to the end. For the Edit action, you would put this in the new value to add the contents of myCustomField after the existing Description. You shouldn't need advanced edit features with JSON to do this.

```
{{issue.description}}
{{issue.myCustomField}}
```

If this doesn't work, please consider posting an image of your complete rule. That will provide some context for the community to comment. Thanks!


author: Connor Skiro
body: Bill,

Thanks for the suggestion, that worked! I just need to add an \`else\` case where if an issue type is linked to the Release issue type, it will do the same logic.

![Screen Shot 2021-04-14 at 1.01.41 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/138651i55DA4427957C2296/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screen Shot 2021-04-14 at 1.01.41 PM.png")

You've helped me once again, and I greatly appreciate it!

Best,

Connor