Simple Search – Dynamic Jira Reports Dashboards for Everyone

Dashboards were where data went to die… let’s bring them back to life!

Have you ever read a job listing advertise a company as static, never changing, and set-in-stone? Even if these descriptions are clichéd half-truths, at least we know that everyone is striving to work for an agile and dynamic business!

So why do most companies, neglect the data they base business decisions on as static, and never-changing?

Jira dashboards have always been an oddity. They provide insights into the vast amounts of data buried deep inside Jira, but make it as difficult as possible to actually create useful reports.

Spreading your data across 10, 20 maybe even 100 different dashboards means you might as well be printing out Excel Spreadsheets and building a paper fort around your desk. This would be about as useful but a lot more fun!

Jira Dashboard of forgotten tasks and issues

Real-world scenario

You want to view the progress of multiple projects and multiple teams.

So in Jira, you create a dashboard that looks something like this for Team Alpha:

Weekly Jira Dashboard Report for Scrum Team

Then you copy that dashboard and create a whole new set of filters for Team Delta:

Copy Filters for Jira Dashboard Reports between teams

Then you copy that dashboard and create a whole new set of filters for Team Tango… you see where this is going. And what if you want to make a change or add a new gadget to one of those dashboards? You’re going to need to hire a lot of interns for all that manual clicking or you’ll waste your entire life.

There must be a better way.

Slow Jira Problems with Manual Work

Let’s create a new dashboard and use the Custom Charts Simple Search gadget to dynamically change the data displayed.

Dynamic Jira Dashboards

With the Simple Search gadget, you can build a customizable interactive searcher directly on a dashboard.

Custom Jira Reports Filter Simple Search

View the JQL query used in the search with the “Show JQL” button.

Share Jira JQL queries between users and dashboards

Use the actions menu to reset the search back to defaults as well as see the Simple Search Unique ID used to connect to Custom Charts.

Jira Dashboard Macro Settings

Clicking the “Search” button on the Simple Search gadget updates all linked charts with the new results.

Search Jira Dashboards across projects

Each Custom Chart can use a different Simple Search gadget, allowing you to build completely customized dashboards.

Simple Search Jira Dashboard gadget customisation

In the Simple Search editor, you can set the default values for the main search fields.

Default values for searching Jira Projects

To connect a Simple Search gadget to a Custom Chart select “Simple Search Gadget” from search dropdown selector and choose the Unique ID from the list.

Save Jira Filters for Teams

And that’s all you need to do!

Custom Charts Simple Search gadget is currently available on Jira Cloud and will be being released on Jira Server & Data Center and Confluence Cloud, Server & Data Center.

Install Custom Charts for Jira from the Atlassian Marketplace and make your Jira reports dynamic, for everyone, today, and see why it’s the fastest-growing Atlassian Cloud App of 2021.

Morgan is a Seattle born and raised lover of rain and software, particularly software that isn’t a pain in the bum (like some Atlassian tools can be). This is why she’s a Custom Charts for Jira superfan and jumped at the chance to contribute to the solution herself. She specializes in Agile, Scaled Agile, and ITIL in the Atlassian app space, loves a cross-country road trip, and is on a mission to find the cutest coffee shop in every town she visits.