Grid view
Viewing cards in a grid
Mingle's grid view lets you view cards as they might appear as real cards on a wall or whiteboard. You can drag and drop cards to update their status, or assign cards to a developer, or close an issue - in fact however your team chooses to work.
To view cards in a grid, select the cards you want to work with by using the filters and then click the Grid link.
A great way to use the Grid view is with a projector. This helps your team collaborate on project kickoffs, iteration planning, project priorities, backlog items and when assigning tasks to team members. This is similar to using a whiteboard or card wall to move cards around. You can even use a Nintendo Wii to drag cards around your 'card wall'!
How to view cards in a grid
- Sign in to Mingle and open the project for which to view cards in a grid (if you're not currently working in the project).
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Click the All tab.
You can also click any other tab that displays cards.
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Filter the card list to isolate the cards you want to work with. In the image above, the list has been filtered to show only cards of type story, which are open.
If you have existing similar tabs or favorites set up, you can select one of these as a starting point and then change the filters.
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Click the Grid link. Mingle displays all cards on the page in a grid format.
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Select a card property from the Group by menu to organize the Grid view.
Mingle updates the grid view according to the card property you select (in the example above by Priority). Notice that Mingle creates a new column for each card property value represented within the selected cards.
You can click the Add / remove lanes link to add columns for card property values not currently shared by any displayed cards.
If you choose the 'Select All' check box, all presented values will be selected so you can easily add multiple lanes at the same time. If you prefer not to include certain lanes, uncheck the individual lane values. If you wish to remove all lanes, you can simply uncheck the 'Select All' check box.
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If you want to view further distinctions between the displayed cards, select a card property from the Color by and Sort by menus.
Please note that the 'Color and sort by' menu has been separated into two drop down lists beginning with the Mingle 2.3 release: Sort by and Color by. Now you can select different properties for each menu which allows you to have additional information of displayed cards.
If you have already applied color to card property values, Mingle colors each card in the grid view according to the card property you selected (in the example above, by Release). There is a Color legend explaining each color in the bottom-right of the page, and Mingle displays the cards by color in the same order as in the Color legend (which is set up under Project admin tab, Card properties link).
If you haven't yet assigned colors to card property values, you can click on a square next to a value to select a color. Click an existing color if you want to change it.
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If you want to add or remove columns (swim lanes), click the Add / remove lanes link and select or deselect lanes accordingly.
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Click on a card to view more information about the card.
If you want to
- open this card for editing, click the Open link.
- move this popup description to another location on your screen, click the hand icon and drag the popup to a more convenient location.
- close this card description, click the Close link.
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To update the group-by property on a card, simply click and drag a card to another lane.
If you have selected options for Sort by and Color by, Mingle organizes the new card location according to its current property value.
On all of above cases, we assumed the ranking mode is turned off.
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From the Grid view, you can also
- create a favorite card view (and turn this into a tab) if you or your team members will be working regularly with the cards displayed.
- reset the card views to their state before you started editing
- view these cards in a list (e.g. for bulk card updates)
- create links to this page (with the currently selected cards).
- specify an aggregate value to display in the heading of each lane.
What can you do on the Grid view?
View cards
You can see the brief information about any cards via pop up in the grid view. Simply click on any mini cards to prompt the pop up. If you want to go to the card to see more information, you can click on the 'Open' link on the pop up, or click on the card number on the mini cards.
Update cards
There are a number of ways you can update cards within the Grid view
- by clicking on a card and clicking the Open link. This lets you edit all details for a card including properties, description and tags.
- by dragging cards to other lanes. This lets you update the card property that is represented within the grouped lanes.
If the cards are grouped by a transition only property and transitions have been created for that property, dragging and dropping cards in the grid view will trigger automated transitions.
Create favorites and tabs
If you've found a card Grid view that your team will use regularly, e.g. for allocating new user stories to an iteration, you can save this view by clicking the Favorites link on the right. You can then turn this into a tab.
Group cards by card properties
When you first open a card Grid view, Mingle displays all cards on the page without any order. Depending on what you want to do with the cards, you can group them according to a selected card property. This creates vertical swim lanes (columns) for each of the card property values shared by the cards displayed. For example, you can group cards by Owner if your team wants to determine who will work on a card.
Color cards by card properties
Mingle lets you further refine the Grid view by coloring cards according to a property value. If you have already assigned colors to card property values, Mingle displays colors for cards immediately and shows a Color legend in the bottom-right of the page to explain the colors. You can update these colors directly by clicking on the square next to the property value.
Mingle displays the cards by color in the same order as in the Color legend. Setup the order from Project admin tab, Card properties link.
Show lane headings
You can modify your lane headings via two lane heading dropdowns; select an aggregation and then a numeric property you want to apply the aggregation to.
Available aggregations
- SUM - add all cards' selected numeric property values in each lane. If that property has a value of (not set), then it's considered as 0.
- AVERAGE - divide the sum of all cards' selected numeric property by the number of cards in each lane. If that property has a value of (not set) then that card is not counted as total number of cards. For example, if 1 of 3 cards has (not set) value the sum will be divided by 2, not 3.
- MINIMUM - returns the minimum value of the selected property amongst all cards in each lane.
- MAXIMUM - returns the maximum value of the selected property amongst all cards in each lane.
- COUNT - returns the number of cards in each lane. No property selection will be offered.
This feature is useful for planning, as you can show the sum of the estimates in the lane headings. Click here to see the tips and tricks for this feature.
Add or remove lanes
Within the Grid view, you can hide existing swim lanes, or show lanes for property values not currently shared between any of the displayed cards. Click the Add / remove lanes link to update the lanes that display. This is useful when you want to update a card's property value by clicking and dragging onto a lane that doesn't currently display.
Link to this page
Each card view has a link called Link to this page. This is identical to the browser address (URL), but gives you a quick way to create links to the current card view. You can use these links to send to people via email or instant messaging (IM), or to place on a website, blog or Mingle wiki page. In Windows, right-click on this link to bring up options for copying or sending.
