Background

When you want to present release notes within a PowerPoint presentation/attach such a presentation in the automated release notes email you can use this template. This documentation explains how to create the template and generate a release notes PwerPoint presentation.

Also, check https://amoeboids.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ARN/pages/304807972/Actions#Attachments to know how a release notes PowerPoint presentation cane be attached within a release notes email.

Create an MS PowerPoint template in ARN

Navigate to ARN screen >> Templates >> Click on Create button.

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You will be brought to the template creation page where Email will be selected by default. Select MS PowerPoint in Template type Field

The default template will be populated. Make any required changes & save them to create a new template.

Fields

• Template name

  • This is for internal reference & doesn’t show up in the actual release PPTs.

• Level

  • Local or Global - Determines whether this PowerPoint template is available to be used in other projects across Jira.

  • Powerpoint templates on the cross-project screen have this field disabled from editing & set to Cross-project by default.

• File name

  • This will generate the file with a given name and save it on your system. Variables are supported within the file name field.

• Configure JQL section

  • Click on the existing JQL section

  • Section tab

    • Add the JQL to fetch relevant Jira issues. You can use Variables or Custom Variables in the JQL.

    • Read https://amoeboids.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ARN/pages/120848385/Customising+templates+with+visual+builder#JQL-section

• You can edit/delete existing JQL sections or add more

• Fields tab

  • Read Ability to sort group-by fields for Fields tab

  • Make sure you are adding the Jira issue variables that are included in the PowerPoint presentation you are going to upload in this template.

  • Save release notes without Jira fields using issue properties

• Available variables tab

  • All the Jira issue variables and custom field variables that you have added from Field's tab are displayed in this tab. So it becomes easy to track what all variables you need to add to the slide that you want to upload in MS PowerPoint template editor.

• Select PowerPoint template

• You can choose the default themes (if that suits your requirementrequirements) or upload your own PowerPoint presentation with the theme of your choice.

• You can use the Download option to see what default themes would look like and the basic format of the template.

• Please refer to the below steps to create your own PowerPoint Presentatiopresentation.

Preparing PowerPoints slides

ARN has two sample light and dark-themed PPTs in MS PowerPoint editor. You can use them right away of download, edit, and upload the edited PPT again

When you are editing the sample files or creating your own PowerPoint presentation from scratch to be uploaded in ARN, there is a standard syntax for JQL and ARN variables you need to follow that will fetch issues (via JQL section) and variable values correctly.

In the below example, we shared screenshots of the main slides from a sample PPT that is available to download in MS PowerPoint template editor. Here is the full PPT file -

Let us see more details of some important and mandatory slides -

The first three slides can be designed as per your requirement with different styling or relevant content. You can put your titles, images, etc. However, make sure that when you are adding variables, you follow syntax properly. If there are any typo errors, it will not fetch any value against that variable and the text will appear as it is.

Input Slide - 1

Slide - 2

Slide - 3

Slide - 4

This is a very important and mandatory slide. Please read all the given points on the slide carefully. Most importantly this slide should not be removed from the presentation.

Slide 5 -

You can add different issue field variables here like, {key}, {summary}, {issueType}, {asignee}, {description}, etc. You just need to make sure that you are including all these variables in the JQL section in the MS PowerPoint template’s JQL section.

Slide 6 -

This is again a mandatory slide that is used at the end of JQL section.

Once the template is ready and relevant PPT is uploaded, Save, Preview, and download the release notes PPT!

Preview an MS PowerPoint template

Once Saved, Click on Preview. If you have used variables like [fixVersion], [versionId], [releaseDate], or any custom variables, select the appropriate values for those variables and custom variables. After that click on Preview, and it will download the PopwerPoint file on your system.

Edit/Delete MS PowerPoint template

Edit

An existing MS PowerPoint template can be edited by clicking on the template name link from the list. To identify MS PowerPoint templates you can check the Type column, also you can filter templates by type.

This will bring you to the template edit screen, which is the same as that of create - except, that data is pre-populated for the current template. Make any required changes, click on save and the template is updated.

Local-level templates can always be edited right away. However, whether a global template can be edited in the given project depends on where it was created. If it was created within the current project, then it can be edited otherwise it cannot be. To know more about template levels, read this - https://amoeboids.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ARN/pages/204013600/Templates#What-are-template-levels---local-%26-global%3F

Template that you can edit with pre-populated data that is editable and has Save option. Templates that are not editable will show relevant messaging at the top stating why you cannot edit the template.

Delete

An existing email template can be deleted by clicking on the delete icon from the list.

Local-level templates can always be deleted right away. But whether a global template can be deleted in the given project depends on where it was created. If it was created within the current project, then it can be deleted otherwise it cannot be.

Limitations

Below are some current limitations with MS PowerPoint template

• Currently, images, videos, or PDFs from Jira issue fields are not supported. If there is any such content it will be displayed as broken in the output file.

• If any wiki renderer type Jira issue fields contain any kind of inline formatting is not supported

• Macros contained in any wiki renderer type Jira issue fields are not supported.

• Any tables contained in issue fields are not supported.

• Custom variables are not yet supported.

• Parent field is not yet supported.

• [VersionURL], [confluenceURL], and [releasepageURL] are not supported yet.

Also, read

• Adding issues from different projects to release notes

• Generating release notes from multiple versions in a project

• Generating release notes from one or more sprints