GForge How-To: Navigating GForge

Hello and welcome to our first article in a new series called “GForge How-Tos” where we share short, compact tips on getting the most out of GForge. Whether you are using GForge in our Cloud or on-premises we are confident you will find new ideas for getting the most out of GForge.

This week we want to cover how you get around in GForge using either the Mega-menu or by using the Project menu.

Mega-menu

The GForge Mega-menu is the primary way for navigating everything GForge has to offer. The mega-menu is context sensitive which means users will only see projects and features you have access to. Additionally the mega-menu will also give project and site administrators access to their specialized administrative features.

For the impatient, here’s a quick video we did on navigating your projects in GForge.

Project Menu

Once inside a project, you will have access to the GForge Project Menu which is a subset of the mega-menu that allows you to quickly access different features within the current project. Don’t worry, the mega-menu is always there in case you need to navigate away from the current project.

Now, whether you are using the mega-menu or the project menu, there are some icons you should become familiar with since doing so means you will be able to quickly switch between the features within your project:

As you can see, we’ve given you a couple of ways to quickly access all the great features GForge has to offer. If you have questions or feedback on how we can improve navigation drop us a note. Also, stay tuned because next week our second How-To installment will take a deeper dive into the features available within the mega-menu.

	This icon is for your Project Homepage. Choose this option to view your project homepage which, by default, includes the name, description and team of your project along with some additional summary information.
	This icon links you to your source code. If you’re not in Git, it will say CVS or SVN, depending on your specific version control system. This page provides information about accessing your repository , integrating into your commits, and general info about your repository.
	The Standup allows you to browse team members and see exactly what they’re up to, according to their To-Do list. Each person can drag-and-drop between what they want to do and what they’re doing, and everyone else can view this. Finally, you can see what each person has committed and changed lately.
	Sprints are a very useful tool for your team to create and follow through on their plans. Each team member commits to complete certain tickets within a set time, and GForge keeps track of it all.
	Releases is where you can manage and publish all of your project’s releases. There is a list of all releases and you can see basic information about each release and package.
	Your project’s Builds page allows you to keep track of your CICD pipeline in Jenkins.
	The Wiki is great for publishing anything you want your customers or team members to know. All wiki pages are fully versioned and can be locked or monitored by users.
	In Docs, you can view a list of documents for each folder in the project. You can also open and download any unlocked document in the project, create new folders within the project, upload new files (as independent files, whole folders or even ZIP files), download whole folders, and monitor the project documents.
	On your Discussions page, you can participate in all the forums and chat rooms attached to your project.
	This is a Tracker page. Of course, you may have multiple trackers; they will all have this icon in the Project Menu. You can hover over the icon to see the name of each tracker. The tracker page is the central location of all tickets in a tracker. You can view, add, and delete tickets within the tracker, as well as edit tickets you have access to
	Assuming you have proper access, Tracker Admin page allows you to quickly administer trackers. This is where you can add, delete or change existing trackers including the defining of custom fields and workflows.
	My Reports gives you the ability to see all your projects from a distance. Here you can create and share reports about the tickets in the projects you have access to.
	This symbol is for the Teams page, which is available for project admins. There, you can view and filter a list of all team members, manage requests to join the project, and invite new team members to your project.
	This is the Project Admin page, where you can administer all aspects of your project.