Frontpane documentation

Frontpane adds read-only fields, linked work and a searchable, exportable request list to the Jira Service Management customer portal. Nothing on the portal mentions Frontpane: customers see your help desk's information only.

Install and first setup (5 minutes)

1. Install Frontpane from the Atlassian Marketplace (a Jira admin).
2. Open Jira settings > Apps > Frontpane. The Portals tab lists every service project.
3. Click Set up on a portal.
4. Under Fields on the request page, click Add rule, leave Request types empty (all types) and pick fields, for example Priority, Due date, Time to resolution and Time Spent. Give each a label for customers if you like ("Target date", "Time worked").
5. Click Save, enter a request key under Preview and check what customers would see.
6. Open that request on the portal: the Details panel shows on the right.

Project admins can do the same for their own project under Project settings > Frontpane.

Fields on the request page

• Each rule has request types (empty means every type not covered by another rule) and a list of fields. When a rule names the request type of a request, only rules naming it apply; otherwise the catch-all rules apply. A field shows once; the first label wins.
• Hide when empty (on by default) leaves a field out when it has no value; turn it off to show "None".
• What customers see: names for people, options, priorities, versions and components; dates in their own time zone; SLA targets as "On track, due Oct 5, 2:23 PM", "Paused", "Met" or "Overdue"; time worked as hours and minutes; Assets objects by their label; approvals as "Manager approval: approved"; rich text as plain text; multi-level cascading fields (including Pathpick) as their full path.
• Fields that can hold internal information can't be chosen: comments, work logs, attachments, issue links (use Linked work instead), security level and sentiment. Choose your own custom fields with care: Frontpane can't know what an agent types into them.
• Customers can't edit anything through Frontpane.

Linked work

• Turn on Show linked work on the portal, list the projects whose work customers may see (for example a status or release project), and optionally pick link types.
• Links into any other project are invisible to customers: no item, no count.
• Show keys and Show status control what each line shows. When the linked item is a request the customer can open themselves, it links to its portal page.
• The panel appears below the request's activity.

Request list and export

• Request list tab (Jira admins): turn the list on or off, allow or block CSV export, choose how many requests one list reads (50 to 1,000, newest first) and add up to 12 columns from any field (the same blocked fields apply).
• Customers find it on the portal's Requests page ("Search, more columns and export") and in their profile menu ("Search and export requests").
• Search: words go to JSM's own search; a key (HELP-1042) or a bare number (1042 or #1042) is matched against request keys. Filters: status, raised by me, shared with me, my organizations, help desk and created date.
• Each person can hide columns for themselves (Columns).
• Export CSV opens the CSV as text to copy into Excel or Google Sheets (portal apps can't download files). Cells that look like formulas are prefixed with ' so they can't run.
• The list contains exactly the requests JSM's own Requests page lists for that person.

Who sees what

Status page

Settings > Status shows when each portal panel last answered and its last error. Check settings now checks the subscription, every portal's rules (deleted fields, removed request types, link types and projects) and the request list columns.

Limits

• Read-only by design; it doesn't change JSM's create form or hide JSM's own fields.
• Requests created before Frontpane was installed work the same as new ones (nothing is stored).
• One list reads at most 1,000 requests; filters and search apply to those.
• No external content, images or links leave your site.