Customizing what's in the issue picker

The issue picker is a very useful tool in Tempo Timesheets and Tempo Planner that helps you find Jira issues for both logging and planning time. Issues are grouped into lists that are organized by type from predefined JQL searches. You can customize which lists are displayed and add your own custom JQL filters or Jira projects to this picker.

Watch this video to see how to customize the issue picker to make logging and planning your time faster:

Choosing What’s Displayed for the Three Tabs

By default, the Recent, Assigned, and Favorite issue lists are available for quick access on the three tabs at the top of the issue picker, but you can customize which lists are displayed here to show the issues that are most relevant to you. You can display only three tabs in the issue picker at a time - all other lists are available from the … menu to the right of the tabs.

Tempo remembers the changes that you make here, so it's the same the next time you open up Tempo. The changes are also used everywhere the issue picker is used. For example, if you configure the tabs from the Issues side panel, you'll see these changes in the Log Time form.

These are the issue lists available by default, but you can add your own custom Jira project or filter lists (see below):

• Recent - issues that you have recently viewed. This is using a Jira issue history function.

• Assigned - issues assigned to you by yourself or others. There is a limit of 200 issues that are shown in this list. It only filters that are assigned to the Jira user who is logged in. To view assigned issues for others, you must create a JQL filter for the specified user and add it to the issue list.

• Favorite - all issues that you have marked as favorites (starred) and want to access frequently - see below. 

• Internal Issues - issues that are configured as Internal in your Tempo instance, such as for vacation and sickness.

• Watched - issues you have marked in Jira as Watching.

Since Tempo uses the Jira issue picker in the side panel, you can't filter out Closed issues. As a workaround, you can write a JQL filter for issues that are Assigned and Open (or not Closed) status, then add that JQL filter to the issue picker (see Adding Jira projects and Jira (JQL) filters to the issue picker below). This will prevent you from logging or planning time on Resolved/Closed Jira issues.

For example:

assignee in (currentUser()) AND resolution = Unresolved

To select which issue lists are displayed on the 3 tabs:

1. Open the Configure issue picker panel:

   - In the Issues side panel, click the Settings icon.

   - In the Log Time or Plan Time form, click …, and then Configure issue picker.

2. Under ISSUE LISTS, drag the handle beside a list name to a new position in the list. The top three lists are bold to show that they will be displayed on the three tabs in the issue picker.

3. If a Jira filter for which you have permissions is not showing in the Issue Lists, enter the name of the filter in Add Jira filter and then mark it as your favorite.

4. Click X in the top right to exit the Configure issue picker panel.

Check the Include Jira imported plans option to include imported Jira issues from Tempo Planner in the Issues list.

Marking Issues as Your Favorite

If you are working on many different issues at one time, it can be helpful to mark some of them as favorites, making them easier to access.

• To mark an issue as a favorite, click its star so it's filled. It joins the other favorite issues in the Favorite list, but is still available in its original issue list.

  

• To remove the issue from the Favorite list, click its star.

  

Adding Jira Projects and Jira (JQL) Filters to the Issue Picker

You can add Jira projects and Jira filters as custom issue lists in the issue picker. For example, if you've created some JQL filters, you can add them here.

These custom lists can be added only from the Issues side panel in either My Work or the Resource Planning view in Tempo Planner. However, these filters will be available to use in the issue picker of the Log Time and Plan Time forms.

To add projects and filters to the Issue picker:

1. Go to My Work or Planning. 

2. Open the Issues side panel on the right and click the Settings icon.

3. In the Configure issue picker panel, click in the Add Jira project field and select a Jira project, or click in the Add Jira filter field and select a JQL filter that you've already created.

   

4. The project/filter is displayed at the top of the issue list. If you don't want the project/filter to be tabbed in the Issue picker, drag it down in the list to be lower than the top 3 lists.

5. To remove a project/filter from the Issue picker, click the X for the relevant project/filter.

6. Click X at the top-right to exit Configure mode.

• When a filter is deleted in Jira, it must also be deleted in the Issues side panel.

• When a filter is renamed in Jira, you need to remove the filter from the Issue picker and add it again with the new name.