Documentation for GreenHopper 4.3.x . Documentation for other versions of JIRA Agile is available too.
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GreenHopper 'contexts' help streamline the view of your project by filtering and highlighting issues based on preset criteria. You can hide and/or highlight certain issues via a saved JIRA filter or custom criteria.

Contexts are available in the Planning Board, Task Board and Chart Board. A different context can be used on each board.

On this page:

Using a Context to Filter/Highlight Issues

To select a context to filter/highlight issues,

  1. Log into JIRA.
  2. Click the 'Agile' menu in the top navigation bar and select 'Planning Board' from the dropdown that displays. The 'Planning Board' will display.
  3. Select your project from the project dropdown in the top left of the planning board (next to 'PLANNING BOARD'), if it is not already selected. The 'Planning Board' will refresh with information for your project.
  4. Select your desired context from the 'Context' dropdown (next to the project dropdown). The Planning Board will refresh and the cards displayed will be filtered according to the selected context.

GreenHopper comes with 2 built-in contexts:

  1. 'On the fly' context — A non-deletable context that will allow all logged-in users to build new contexts (See the 'Creating a New Context' section below). Any changes that a user makes to this context will only persist for the current session and will not be saved.
  2. 'Default' context — A non-deletable context that only the project administrators can edit and that is shared to all users and anonymous users (if your project is public). It is very important to note that editing this context will affect all users that use that context.

Using the Context Toolbar to modify your Context

You can change the sorting and the filters and highlighting of the selected context via the context toolbar. If you are a project administrator you may share your context with other users via the context toolbar, as well as remove contexts.

To view the context toolbar board for your project (if not already enabled),

  1. Log into JIRA.
  2. Click the 'Agile' menu in the top navigation bar and select 'Planning Board' from the dropdown that displays. The 'Planning Board' will display.
  3. Select your project from the project dropdown in the top left of the planning board (next to 'PLANNING BOARD'), if it is not already selected. The 'Planning Board' will refresh with information for your project.
  4. Select your desired context from the 'Context' dropdown (next to the project dropdown). The Planning Board will refresh and the cards displayed will be filtered according to the selected context.
  5. Click the 'Tools' menu, then click 'Context'. The 'Context' toolbar will display under the GreenHopper navigation bar with the name of the currently selected context in green (e.g. 'On the fly').
    • 'Assigned to me' — Check this checkbox to filter the cards for issues assigned to you only.
    • 'Filters' — Check this checkbox to toggle on the filters in your context. Click the 'Edit' link to edit the filters for the context.
    • 'Sort by' — Select a field in this dropdown to sort your issues by. Click the arrow next to dropdown to switch between ascending and descending.
    • 'Highlights' — Check this checkbox to toggle on the highlighting in your context. Click the 'Edit' link to edit the highlighting for the context.
    • 'Share' — Check this checkbox to share the context with other users. User will then be able to select this context from their context dropdowns. Please note, you must be a project administrator to share a context.
    • 'Delete' — Click this button to delete the context. You must be the creator of the context to delete it. Please note, once you have deleted a context there is no way to restore it. You will need to recreate it manually.

Creating a New Context

To create a new context,

  1. Log into JIRA.
  2. Click the 'Agile' menu in the top navigation bar and select 'Planning Board' from the dropdown that displays. The 'Planning Board' will display.
  3. Select your project from the project dropdown in the top left of the planning board (next to 'PLANNING BOARD'), if it is not already selected. The 'Planning Board' will refresh with information for your project.
  4. Select your desired context from the 'Context' dropdown (next to the project dropdown). The Planning Board will refresh and the cards displayed will be filtered according to the selected context.
  5. Click the 'Tools' menu, then click 'Context'. The 'Context' toolbar will display under the GreenHopper navigation bar with the name of the currently selected context in green (e.g. 'On the fly').
  6. Click the 'New' link next to the context dropdown. The 'Add Context' screen will display.

    Fill out the 'Add Context' screen as follows:
    • 'Context name' — Enter a name for your new context.
    • 'Sort by' — Select a field to sort your issues by in your new context.
    • 'Assigned to me' — Check this checkbox to filter cards for issues assigned to you only.
    • 'Filter(s)' — Select one or more existing JIRA filters to use to filter your issues. Select 'None' if you only want to use the custom filter settings specified on this page.
      (warning) Note: If you select a filter which you do not have permission to view in JIRA, the context will not use the filter.
    • Select the fields to filter on, in the custom filter section. If an existing JIRA filter has been selected, these fields will be filtered on in addition to the selected JIRA filter:
      • Statuses — multi selection
      • Issue Type(s) — multi selection
      • Issue Priorities — multi selection
      • Assignee(s) — single selection
      • Component(s) — multi selection
    • 'Highlights(s)' — the highlight section works identically to the filter(s) described in the previous step.
  7. Click 'Save and apply' to save your changes.