The Timeline view is one of the available Roadmap views in Craft.io. It allows you to visually define and track the dependencies between items. You can access the Timeline view by navigating to Strategy > Roadmap. Then, click on the “View type” dropdown and select the “Timeline Roadmap.” The view will show all items that have a start date and an end date.

You may also add a new Timeline view by clicking on the “New view” button at the bottom of the menu (below Personal Views) and selecting “Timeline view” from the menu.

To add a new item to your Timeline View, simply double-click anywhere you would like to add the item then you’ll be able to either add an existing item or create a new one.

Enjoy the freedom to zoom in or out of the view by simply navigating to the calendar icon drop-down on the right side and choosing the desired period: weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-yearly, or yearly.

A dependency describes the relationship between two items that must be executed in a specific order. Identifying and managing them is essential to staying on track for product managers.

Items displayed on the Timeline view will show any dependencies they have with lines that connect them to other items. You can also set and edit dependencies directly from the Timeline view. To create a new dependency between two items, simply draw a line between their connectors and then click on the line itself to define the type of dependency (an item can either be blocked by or can block another item, or alternatively, items can be related to each other).

For example, if item X is blocked by item Y, then item Y must be completed first.

A conflict where the blocking task start date is later than the blocked task start date will be displayed as a dotted red line, as you can see in the screenshot below:

However, if we move Item Y to an earlier date so that it will be completed before item X, then the line showing the dependency will change to a regular red line - see screenshot below.

The relationship between items can also be set and managed at the item level. You simply click on the item, navigate to the dependencies tab in the properties panel, click on the + button, and then click on one of your existing items from the dropdown menu. You can then set the relationship type: Related, Blocked By, or Blocks.

The Timeline view is a great way to visualize your work and align your teams, make sure you hit your deadlines, and see how it all fits together. With Craft.io’s Timeline view settings, you are able to achieve all that, and much more.

Visualizing the dependencies is very valuable, but sometimes it can deviate people’s attention and display information that is sensitive or simply not relevant to them.

You are now able to hide dependencies from the Timeline view by switching off a toggle. This way you can share your view with external users without having to go into the everyday details-

We added a visual component of time indicators to help you understand where your items stand in comparison to your deadlines. You can select between the following time indicators:

Timeline is a visual view, hence color is a crucial part of helping you visualize and share your plan. You can now color code your items, so you can easily convey your message.

By default, items are colored by teams. Select “Color by:” and define what component would determine the difference between items:

Product, Importance, status, release, etc.

If a color was already set for a given component or value, that color would automatically paint all other items that share the same characteristics. For example, the color red was defined for the Importance component=High, hence all items with similar importance will be painted red.
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You can override a color by clicking on an item and changing its color. the new color will apply to all items under that importance (color by group)

If an item does not have a color, it will be gray by default. you can override its color by assigning a new one to the item and as a result, paint the ‘color by’ group item it’s associated with.

Colors will only apply to the specific timeline view

Sharing your roadmap with external/internal users? We added a Color legend to communicate and describe what the colors represent. Color legend will be collapsed vertically on the top right of the view, users can expand the legend to see a description of the colors in use.

Hovering over a color in the legend will allow craft.io users to easily change the color of all items in that group.

In order to map the Dates from Jira, go to Settings->Integrations->Options->select “Field & type Mapping” and then map the “Dates” field to either “Target start - Target end” or “Start date - Due date”. Once you start syncing the dates for your items from Jira, they will show up on the timeline, so your timeline roadmap will always be up-to-date and in sync with your dev team.

By mapping the item's dates with Azure DevOps, you can maintain one source of truth for item dates and effectively utilize Crfat.io's Timeline view.

In order to successfully map the dates, go to Settings->Integrations->Options->select “Field & type Mapping”. Start date and End date fields are found in the mapping screen under 'Primary Fields'. You can map them individually to the relevant fields in ADO.
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