Display cut-off Swimlane Wording in Visual Task Boards

Adam Johnson2 · ‎05-23-2023

Good Afternoon,
I am working to try and solve 2 asks from users regarding VTB's

1. Our teams use the Agile Development > Agile Board > Task Board to show tasks associated to stories. This shows all tasks for a sprint with Stories as the Swim lanes. The problem is that the Swim lanes cutoff the data when it is longer than approximately 25 characters. I don't see a way to update this through properties or anything like that so am wondering where this could be updated. Screenshot below showing how this cuts off. I would assume that this is probably a value when the page renders that drives how much shows, but haven't been able to find this.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

2. Does anyone know if there is a way to set the swimlanes so that it would connect directly to the record. This would be a time saver where if a team member had questions about the story they would select the swim lane and this would open the record. Currently they can go to the list tab and select the link to easily access the record and we are looking to an easy way to select the task number and then access the record, but selecting the swim name would be even easier.

jMarshal · ‎05-23-2023

I'm willing to bet that you'll need to put this in as a feature request.

Otherwise, I think you'll need to write a custom application/module that replicates VTB functionality, but isn't a VTB...this is what will allow you to bust open the code which is used by the VTB, which choses to use the preview function -- and then use a different preview function (like the one which has "the little blue i", that you click on -- instead of hovering-over like a tool tip).

Your other option would be to find the code which is being called by the oob vtb module, for that preview feature and customize that (I'm not sure you will be able to, it might be RO by policy)...but I would caution against this method (even if you can find where to do this), as I'm willing to be that functionality is called anywhere in the platform, that this hover-over-preview feature is used (like tool tips on forms, etc.)...so you might end up seeing a huge black box with no text to go with it in other places on the platform...which would be very poor UX design, imo.

Adam Johnson2 · ‎05-30-2023

Thanks for the information jMarshal.

You are correct that this needs to be an enhancement request submitted to ServiceNow as there is not the ability to change the swimlane length on Visual Task Boards.

Creating a custom application does seem like the bet option if we would want to move forward, but we will assess that.

arenaalsa03 · ‎05-30-2023

If you're experiencing issues with swimlane wording being cut off in visual task boards, there are a few steps you can take to address the problem:

Adjust swimlane width: Expand the width of the swimlanes in your visual task board to accommodate the full wording. Most task management tools allow you to resize swimlanes by dragging the edges or using customization options. Increasing the width should prevent the text from being cut off.
Reduce font size: If expanding the swimlanes is not feasible or doesn't fully resolve the issue, consider reducing the font size of the swimlane wording. This can create more space for the text within the existing width.
Use abbreviations or shorter labels: If the swimlane wording is still being cut off even with adjusted width and font size, you may need to consider using abbreviations or shorter labels for the swimlanes. This can help convey the necessary information within the available space.