How to Automatically Send Email to Non-Jira Users: Jira Form Automation Guide

July 11, 2025 Blog
Jira form automation workflow showing auto-attached form, email trigger, and reporting

Jira form automation workflow showing auto-attached form, email trigger, and reporting

When external stakeholders submit forms but don’t have Jira accounts, keeping them informed requires manual coordination. Here’s how to automate professional communication using Smart Forms and Jira Automation.

Table of Contents:

  1. Jira Form Automation for External Users
  2. Setting Up Smart Forms Email Collection
  3. Creating Jira Automation Rules for Form Submissions
  4. Advanced Form Automation Patterns

The Problem: External Users, Silent Workflows

Your team uses Jira automation for everything. Issue created → email sent. Status changed → stakeholder notified. It works perfectly… until someone without a Jira account submits a form.

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What happens with external form submissions:

  • Employee reports bug through form → No confirmation email
  • Customer submits feedback → Never knows if anyone saw it
  • Vendor completes assessment → Gets no follow-up

The issue isn’t that Jira automation can’t send emails to external users. The issue is that their email addresses aren’t accessible to your automation rules.

Why Standard Jira Forms Workflow Breaks Down

Email Addresses Get Lost in Translation

  • Comment storage: “Email: [email protected]” buried in issue comments
  • Missing collection: Form doesn’t systematically capture contact info
  • Wrong format: Email field wasn’t validated and now wrong so Jira Automation can’t access it

Common Jira Form Automation Workarounds Are Painful

  • Manual copying: Copy emails from comments, send individual messages
  • External tools: Zapier, Power Automate add complexity and cost
  • Custom development: Expensive, time-consuming, hard to maintain

Setting Up Smart Forms Email Collection for Jira Automation

Smart Forms for Jira solves this by ensuring external emails are properly collected and mapped to Jira fields that automation rules can use.

How Smart Forms Email Automation Works

1. Systematic Email Collection

  • Dedicated email field with validation in your form
  • Automatic mapping to Jira custom field (e.g., “External Contact Email”)
  • Ensures Jira automation has accessible email address
Regex validation for email field in Jira Forms

2. Standard Jira Automation Integration

  • Use mapped custom field in automation rules
  • Send emails to {{issue.customfield_external_email}}
  • No external tools or complex integrations needed

3. Form URL Auto-Generation

  • Every Smart Form attached to an issue gets shareable links
  • Access this URLs in Automation rules through: {{issue.properties.”saasjet.forms.formsSharedUrls”}}
  • Send follow-up forms automatically via Jira automation
Form URL for Jira Form Automation Integration

Quick Jira Form Automation Setup Guide

Step 1: Create Custom Field

Field Name: "External Contact Email"
Field Type: Single Line Text
Add to relevant issue screens

Step 2: Configure Smart Form with form elements to field Mapping 

Form Elements:
- Issue Title → Summary
- Description → Description  
- Email Address → External Contact Email (with validation)
- Priority → Priority
Create new issue from Jira form with fields to issue mapping

Step 3: Create Jira Automation Rule 

Rule: "External User Confirmation"
Trigger: Issue created
Condition: External Contact Email is not empty
Action: Send email to {{issue.customfield_external_email}}
Jira form automation rules, send email to after form submission

Form Link Sharing for Follow-ups

Why Use Automated Form Sharing in Jira?

Jira forms workflow automation helps teams:

  • Send customer feedback forms automatically when support tickets are resolved
  • Share handoff checklists with teammates when tasks reach “Ready for QA”
  • Trigger vendor assessment forms to external partners without requiring Jira access
  • Request additional context via forms before reopening closed issues

This is where auto-shared form URLs shine – and Smart Forms makes it ridiculously simple.

Access any form attached to an issue for automated form distribution:

Access form URLs in automation:

All forms on issue: {{issue.properties."saasjet.forms.formsSharedUrls"}}

Specific form by name:
{{#issue.properties."saasjet.forms.formsSharedUrls"}}
{{#if(equals(formName, "Follow-up Survey"))}}{{url}}{{/}}
{{/}}

Specific form by ID:
{{#issue.properties."saasjet.forms.formsSharedUrls"}}
{{#if(formId.equals("survey-123"))}}{{url}}{{/}}
{{/}}

Example – Send follow-up form automatically:

Trigger: Issue needs more information
Action: Send email to {{issue.customfield_external_email}}
Body: "Please provide additional details: {{follow_up_form_Smart-Value-url}}"

Multi-Stage Jira Form Automation

Complex automation workflow example:

Stage 1: Initial Form Submission
  → Trigger: Issue created via form
  → Action: Send confirmation email
  
Stage 2: Assignment Notification  
  → Trigger: Issue assigned
  → Action: Send "work started" email
  
Stage 3: Status Updates
  → Trigger: Status transitions
  → Action: Send progress updates
  
Stage 4: Completion Notice
  → Trigger: Issue resolved
  → Action: Send completion email + satisfaction survey

Stop losing valuable external feedback due to communication gaps. Smart Forms transforms external submissions from a coordination headache into professional, automated workflows.

Ready to eliminate manual email coordination? Try Smart Forms for Jira and see automated external communication in action.