Customizing What is Displayed in the Work Item Picker

The work item picker is a very useful tool in Tempo Timesheets and Tempo Capacity Planner that helps you find Jira work items for both logging and planning time. Work Items 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 spaces to this picker.

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

Choosing What’s Displayed for the Three Tabs

By default, the Recent, Assigned, and Favorite work item lists are available for quick access on the three tabs at the top of the work item picker, but you can customize which lists are displayed here to show the work items that are most relevant to you. You can display only three tabs in the work item 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 work item picker is used. For example, if you configure the tabs from the Work Items side panel, you'll see these changes in the Log Time form.

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

• Recent - work items that you have recently viewed. This is using a Jira work item history function.

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

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

• Internal Work Items - work items that are configured as Internal in your Tempo instance, such as for vacation and sickness.

• Watched - work items you have marked in Jira as Watching.

To select which work item lists are displayed on the 3 tabs:

1. Open the Configure work item picker panel:

   - In the Work Items side panel, click the Settings icon.

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

2. Under WORK ITEM 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 work item picker.

3. If a Jira filter for which you have permissions is not showing in the Work Item 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 work item picker panel.

Marking Work Items as Your Favorite

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

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

  

  
  

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

  

Adding Jira Spaces and Jira (JQL) Filters to the Work Item Picker

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

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

To add spaces and filters to the Work Item picker:

1. Go to My Work or Planning. 

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

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

   

4. The space/filter is displayed at the top of the work item list. If you don't want the space/filter to be tabbed in the Work Item picker, drag it down in the list to be lower than the top 3 lists.

5. To remove a space/filter from the Work Item picker, click the X for the relevant space/filter.

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