Customising templates with visual builder

Owned by Anand Inamdar
Last updated: Feb 26, 2024 by Annu
6 min read

Introduction

Templates can be customized with the help of the following elements -

 

 

  1. Static text - This is the text that is rendered as it is in the final release notes document generated by ARN

  2. Output variables - These are some of the important data points regarding different Jira entities such as Project, Version, User & so on. These are replaced with actual values at the time of final release notes document generation

  3. Custom variables - Read Manage custom variablesUNDEFINED

  4. JQL sections - These are the configurable sections that determine which Jira issues are pulled into the final release document, what attributes (default as well as custom) for those issues are included & how the result should be laid out. This is the gist of ARN’s template visual builder

  5. Stats & charts - These are almost similar to the JQL sections, the only difference being they end up showing a number of instead of actual Jira issues

Output variables

In order to make the templates generic, output variables are used. The majority of these output variables are available across all template types, however, there are a few that will be specific to a given template type.

Relevant information is highlighted at the appropriate places below -

List of supported output variables

Users
userName
userEmail

Project
projectName
projectld
projectKey

Version
version Name
versionDesc
release Date
versionld
versionURL
startDate

Sprint
sprintName
sprintId
sprintGoal
sprintStartdate
sprintEnddate
sprintCompletedate
sprintState

Date & Time
timestamp
currentDate
currentDatetime

Confluence
confluence URL

releasePageURL (only available in Release page notification and LinkedIn announcement template type)

Above variables are available in below template types & fields -

  • Email

    • Email subject

    • Email body

  • PDF

    • Content

  • MS Word

    • Word content

  • Confluence

    • Page title

    • Page content

  • JSON

    • Content

  • HTML

    • Content

  • Markdown

    • Content

  • JSM announcement

    • Announcement subject

    • Announcement message

  • Linkedin announcement

    • Announcement subject

    • Announcement message

    • URL title and description

  • MS Word

    • File name

    • MS Word content

  • MS PowerPoint

    • File name

    • JQL sections

JQL section

JQL section is the core of ARN release notes templates. Each JQL section represents a group of issues in Jira. Within the JQL section, you can provide additional configurations for each of the results.

We tweak Jira’s JQL a bit in ARN, so that it supports input variables such as [versionId], [versionName], [projectId], [sprintId], [sprintName]. You can always increase the number of input variables by simply appending 1, 2 & so on to their names.

e.g. if you need to create a template that generates release notes from 3 versions, simply use the following input variables in the JQL - [versionId], [versionId1], [versionId2]. In this case, the template can accept 3 different versions as inputs.

Read more about the possibilities of JQL here.

There are a few variants of the JQL section. All of those are explained below. Variant 1 is the most common one.

This variant of JQL section creator/editor is available in -

  • Email

    • Email body

  • PDF

    • PDF content

  • Confluence

    • Page content

  • HTML

    • Content

  • Markdown

    • Content

Introduction

JQL determines what issues from Jira to include in the release notes. Note that by using variables in the JQL, we have tweaked it a little bit to suit ARN’s use case.

On the Add/Edit JQL pop up, click on Fields tab, it shows issue fields selector that dictates what information is shown in the release notes for the selected issues. You can choose default as well as custom fields from the dropdown.

Field customization

Furthermore, each issue field that you’ve chosen to be part of release notes can be further customized. Click on the already added field (or the gear icon beside it) & which will reveal the additional settings available for the field. e.g. clicking on the issue key reveals the following.

Grouping

JQL section can return results grouped by any available field. You can add up to two fields in the Group by configuration. When two Group by fields are added, issues returned by JQL will be grouped by the second Group by field within each group created by the first Group by field.

This group by field can be further configured by clicking on the left-hand Group by selection.

Grouping by Cascade Field

A field type Select List (Cascade) stores two values for an issue parent field and child field.
If you add this custom field as Group by field, by default Parent field will be considered as Group by field.
You can also use the child field as a second-level group by field. Just go to customize field option and check the option Use child field as second level 'Group by' field.
Note, when you check this option, you cannot add second group by field. Also, if another group by field is already added then you cannot use the child field as a group by field.

Customizing layout with Group by field

There are two approaches to customizing Group by fields.

New ‘Group by’ WYSIWYG editor

New templates will see a new flexible way to customize Group by fields and their layout. This editor can be accessed by clicking on customize option in Group by section. Just like a sequential layout editor, you can include field variables & apply customizations.

For older templates

Apply custom CSS styling to the label & value of Group by field. In this approach the group by field layout is hardcoded and cannot be modified.

 

Introduction

 

JQL determines what issues from Jira to include in the release notes.

Issue fields selector dictates what information is shown in the release notes for the selected issues. You can choose default as well as custom fields from the dropdown.

Field customisation

JSON is a view-less, structured format & thus the customisation options are limited. One can modify the JSON structure, labels & ARN will echo the changes.

Grouping

Grouping is not possible within this variant of the JQL sections.

JSD announcements is essentially an HTML text along with a title. To cater to this specific behaviour, ARN provides simple visual builder for JSD announcement type of templates.

Both, announcement subject & message fields, allow for variables to be added to them.

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