Themed Login and Sign-up Page

One of our most requested features since we released RefinedTheme for Jira Service Desk is to have the theme apply to the login page and we are pleased to inform you it's here!

When a user comes to the login or sign up page for your Jira Service Desk, the user will see the theme that is applied to your global site. This means that if you are not running RefinedTheme as the global theme, theses pages will look like default JSD, but when you have RefinedTheme applied globally, it will show a beautifully themed page.

New and Improved Search Experience

We received a number of requests asking for improvement to the search UI and the way search results display. We took this feedback on board and now introduce a completely new way of working with searches.

UI improvements

We've made the search results much clearer to read, and much easier to navigate.

The first thing you will notice is the search results from the search module displayed in a pop-up box rather than a list. This makes it a lot easier for users to get an overview.

The search results will display in a single column layout or a two column layout depending on the type of hits matching your search term.

Extended search results

The search will show results sourced from Recommended Links, Knowledge Base articles, Request Types and Navigation (items in your site structure).

Search context

This applies to site search, category search, service desk search. When you type a search entry into the Search Highlight module, the search results will be contextual to where you are. This means that if you are on a site you will search the contents of that site, if you are on a category you will search the contents of that category. You can change the context to search globally by clicking the x indicating the context.

Previews and Drafts for Layouts

If you're a user of our other server product Refined for Confluence you've probably been enjoying previews and drafts for your site and category homes. Perhaps you've even been waiting for this feature to hit RefinedTheme for Jira Service Desk. Well, the wait is now over! With this version 2.1 we introduce Previews and Drafts for Layouts. Any changes that are made in the Edit mode of a site home, category home, or service desk portal will be saved as a draft. Using the preview button you can see exactly how your changes will look in the context of the theme.

You will also be able to see who made changes last to the draft.

Learn more here: Working with Drafts & Previews

Import and Export of Layouts

While we're on the subject of layouts for your homes and portals, we have another new feature for you; Import and export of layouts.

With this feature you can export a layout that you are particularly happy with, and import it to a different JSD portal or home, or even a portal on a different instance. This is another one of our top requests. Using this feature you will be able to export/import for instance between a test or staging instance to your production instance instead of having to manually set everything up again.

Learn more about this feature here: Export and Import of Layouts

Announcement Banners

Announcement banners have been one of the most voted for feature requests for RefinedTheme for Jira Service Desk. With so much demand for this feature did our best to ensure we deliver a super useful feature. You can now try it for yourself.

Add announcements by clicking Announcements in the Admin menu (settings cog). The banner will display at the top of the customer facing pages you decide. You can choose exactly which page of your support site you want to publish the announcement on by selecting it from the drop down menu in announcements settings dialogue. An announcement that is added to a higher level (site or category) will be visible on any page that is inside that site or category. The banner won't display on the service desk portals that don't have a theme applied.

In the same Announcements settings dialogue you can decide if you want the announcement "Published" and/or "Closable". You can also copy announcements and delete them from this dialogue.

You can choose from three different types of announcements:

• Info (blue)
• Warning (yellow/orange)
• Alert (red)

If you want a custom color for your banner, add custom CSS in the theme configuration.

Learn more here: Announcement Banners

Layout Options for Requests Including Show Assignee

In this version we give you some more flexibility in how your data is shown to customers. For the request layout, we've added these options:

• Show assignee on request.
• Description on top of activity or the activity on top of the description.

Please note that these settings apply globally for all your Service Desk projects.

Learn more about request layout settings here: Request Layout.

Status Colors on Requests

Another helpful feature we're adding is displaying the color of the request status category. Status colors will follow the colors scheme in Jira, and it is possible to override the colors by targeting the CSS classes.

The color of the status is visible in requests, My Requests Module, and request view.

Image Bank

Working with images in themes and modules have up until now meant uploading images to the element you want to use it on. We are super pleased to introduce an image bank. This is a place where you can upload images intended to be used by all portals and themes. We're hoping this will mean (at least) two things:

• If you have a design department they can get you the images they want you to use, and these images are available in portals and themes.
• You will not have to upload an image to all the places you want to use it.

Images to the Image Bank are uploaded in Theme Configuration > Images.

Improvements to Knowledge Base

Up until version 2.1, you've been able to see articles in Confluence in a popup showing the article and an optional link to the page in Confluence. In this version we introduce a pagetree of your KB articles displayed when shown as a popup. This is especially relevant to those on a setup with the same users in Confluence and Jira Service Desk.

This will allow users to browse the space using the page tree on the left hand side, staying in context of Jira Service Desk.

Tutorial: Browsing Confluence from Jira Service Desk Article Popup

Updates: Custom settings for Search Highlight? You'll get popup after this release

Fo any of you that are running the custom setting for the Search Highlight you'll get a changed setting from "Open in new window" to "popup", and this is simply because we believe that with this new setting, browsing Confluence from JSD will be a nice experience. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Global Search

We added a global search that you can access in the top right corner of any page on your support site (site, category, customer portal, request view).

You can apply custom settings to connect the global search to a knowledge base. Learn how to set this up here: Knowledge Base Settings.

Admin Functions Available Through Site, Category or Portal Menu

In the spirit of reducing your clicks we've improved the admin navigation so that you can access admin functions via the site home, category home and/or service desk portal.