Mingle > Tips and Tricks

Two simple navigation tips for Mingle

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:48:30 +0000

Mingle Tip by Gareth Sutton

Two features that I often see users are not aware of, which can speed up navigation of Mingle:

- by searching for a card number with a # (e.g. #454), you will go straight to the card.

- by clicking on the card number on any card view page, you will also go straight to the card.

Little tips like this can make you just that little bit more productive with Mingle!

How to change the Mingle look and feel? (3 Comments)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 01:33:30 +0000

Mingle Tip by Suzie Prince

Checkout this post to change your Mingle look and feel.

Selecting values from THIS CARD (6 Comments)

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:03:15 +0000

Mingle Tip by Matt Quagliana

There are times when it would be handy to select values from THIS CARD. However, you can't simply execute {{value query: SELECT Iteration FROM THIS CARD}}

I've been thinking about this for a while and have arrived at a (somewhat roundabout) technique for querying values from the current card. The technique makes use of a property of type Card that points to itself. Here are the steps:

Create a property called "Card" of type Card.
For each card, set "Card" to itself. (See below).
Now you can write a MQL query that interrogates the current card. For example, on a Story card you might have:

This returns a link to the parent card.

So... how do you set the value of the "Card" property? The easiest way is to do it in bulk via Excel:

Export all relevant cards to Excel.
Delete all columns except Number and Card.
Copy the Number values into the Card column.
Use "Format Cells" to apply the format "#"0 to the Card column.
Import the Number and Card values back into Mingle. (This will update the existing cards.)

Of course, the one catch here is that you have to set the value of "Card" for any new cards created. (Or rig an API tool that will do this automatically for every new card.)

There are several applications for this, including

Write a query that returns THIS CARD's parent (see example above)
Write a query that displays hidden property values from the card.

Printing a Mingle card wall (using Firefox) (2 Comments)

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 02:31:45 +0000

Mingle Tip by Jen Marley

Download and install the Firefox plugin Abduction.
Open the Mingle card wall that you wish to print.
Right-click and select the option 'Save Page as Image...'
Use your mouse to select the portion of the card wall that you wish to print.
Click 'Enter' and save the image of your card wall as a .png file.
Print your image using a plotter or regular printer.

More Mingle Tips and Tricks available

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:13:51 +0000

Mingle Tip by Suzie Prince

Hi all

With our Mingle 3.0 release we have added even more "official" Mingle Tips and Tricks to our help. Check out our growing list of helpful hints. And of course, don't forget to share your own tips and tricks here on the community.

Thanks Suzie

Program Level/Multi-projects reporting of quality

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:51:15 +0000

Mingle Tip by limo

Tip Description

Here is an interesting project I have currently been. It's a big program, and the project is divided in several phases and as different projects. The management team would like to see a quality report and we'd like to report all open and close defectds for all projects in one chart.

Please see the attached screenshot to understand the result I created. It uses the 'project' inditifier on the stack-bar-chart.

However, The trick here is, since there is no project last from the very beginning till now, it is not feasible to show the x-axis from e.g Jan/09 to Feb/10. What I did to solve this problem is to go to the first project and created a fack defect with the 'Date Opened' value equals to Feb 01 2010. In the chart parameters, specify the default project as the first project. And then you got a chart reporting the whole life cycle!

Screenshot

Code Sample

{{
  stack-bar-chart
    conditions: 'Type' = 'Defect'
    labels: SELECT DISTINCT 'Date Reported' ORDER BY 'Date Reported'
    cumulative: false
    x-labels-start: 01 Jan 2009
    x-labels-end: 01 Feb 2010
    x-labels-step: 1
    chart-height: 500
    chart-width: 1450
    plot-height: 375
    plot-width: 1300
    project: project_one
    
    series:
    - label: 'DND'
      color: red
      type: bar
      data: SELECT 'Date Reported', COUNT(*) WHERE NOT 'Date Reported' = NULL
      combine: overlay-bottom
      project: project_two

    - label: 'Runway'
      color: green
      type: bar
      data: SELECT 'Date Reported', COUNT(*) WHERE NOT 'Date Reported' = NULL
      combine: overlay-bottom
      project: project_three

    - label: 'The Worm'
      color: blue
      type: bar
      data: SELECT 'Date Reported', COUNT(*) WHERE NOT 'Date Reported' = NULL
      combine: overlay-bottom
      project: project_four

    - label: 'Wild turkey'
      color: yellow
      type: bar
      data: SELECT 'Date Reported', COUNT(*) WHERE NOT 'Date Reported' = NULL
      combine: overlay-bottom
      project: project_one

}}

Migrating Projects from Mingle 2.3 to Mingle 3.0 (1 Comment)

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:32:08 +0000

Mingle Tip by Matt Quagliana

For the most part, migrating a Mingle 2.3 project to Mingle 3.0 is simple and automatic. You can export the project from the Mingle 2.3 server and import it to a Mingle 3 server. Or you can upgrade your Mingle 2.3 server to Mingle 3 (after you back up per the instructions, of course.) Either way, Mingle will convert your Mingle 2.3 structure to Mingle 3.0 automatically.

I have discovered a few small exceptions that must be fixed by hand. They are:

(1) New Reserved words

Mingle 3 adds new reserved words/phrases, namely 'Created On', 'Modified On' and 'Project". Essentially, these are new built-in properties on every card. If your projects have any properties (including tree properties) that conflicts with one of these, that property name will be changed. If you have a property called 'Created On' it will be renamed 'Created On_1'.

Note that while the property name will change any MQL queries in your reports are not automatically changed to reflect the new name.

(2) Stricter behavior of some charting properties

The data-series chart has many properties, including x-labels-start and x-labels-end. In previous versions of Mingle it was possible to also use x-label-start and x-label-end. This behavior was not documented and should have caused an error. So if you used x-label-start/end you data series chart probably won't look correct in Mingle 3. Add an 's' to each property name and you should be good to go.

(3) The Mingle API

If you have developed any integrations that use Mingle's RESTful API you will have to make at least one small change for your code to work with Mingle 3.0. That change is documented here.

--Matt Quagliana | ThoughtWorks Studios

Read Mingle help documents offline (1 Comment)

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:00:55 +0000

Mingle Tip by limo

By default, Mingle packages with all the help icons linked to the studio website, which is great since if the documents has been updated, you can get the latest information. However, in case if your network is limited to access internet, you may have to read the documents locally.

Here is the way.

1. Get to the Mingle installation folder on your server, e.g. on my mac it is /Applications/Mingle_2_2/Contents/Resources/app/

2. Open the file at <mingle_root>/config/initializers/document.rb

3. Change the line of the parameter to the following, or any domain that your Mingle is using

ONLINE_HELP_DOC_DOMAIN = 'http://servername:8080'

How to escape from a card linking

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:02:30 +0000

Mingle Tip by Bonna Choi

If any texts are written in a form of 'project card keyword + integer' on a card/page in Mingle - e.g. card 1 or #1 - it automatically becomes a link to a card regardsless you want it or not - e.g. card 1 or #1.

If you ever want to escape from it, you can do so in Mingle 3.0. Try -

Then it will not be rendered as a link and will be shown as a normal text.

Using MQL to filter a list by comparing two property values

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:28:56 +0000

Mingle Tip by Andy Yates

Tip Description

I have two date properties on my story cards - 'Target Completion Date' - when I initially intended to get this work finished - and 'Estimated Completion Date' - when I currently think this might be complete.

I'd like to get a list of all of the cards where the 'Estimated Completion Date' is after the 'Target Completion Date'.

I can do this, using the MQL conditions in the Advanced Filter. Note that I need to use the PROPERTY keyword in front of the second property being compared.

Screenshot

Code Sample

TYPE = 'Story' AND 
'Estimated Completion Date' > PROPERTY 'Target Completion Date'