Embed Jira dashboards & gadgets in Confluence with Smart Links

[#1]

Hello!

I’m Laura Mehrkens, a Product Manager focused on integrations between Confluence Cloud and Jira Cloud. On behalf of my team, I’m thrilled to announce a highly-requested feature that's now available to all users! Drumroll, please... 🥁 Introducing Smart Links for Jira dashboards!

What does this mean for you? Well, let's break it down. 🤓

Imagine no longer having to jump through hoops to share project progress or capture screenshots of your data in Jira, only to discover that they quickly become obsolete. With Smart Links, you can effortlessly embed Jira dashboards and gadgets right within your Confluence pages. 🌟

Here's why this matters:

1. Streamlined Collaboration: Say goodbye to tedious workarounds! Now, you can conveniently access and showcase project updates and key metrics in one tool. With Smart Links, your embedded dashboards remain interactive, so you can drill down into charts and graphs for deeper analysis and understanding of project data directly within Confluence.

2. Enhanced Visibility: Many times, we hear from our community that they have to report on project insights to stakeholders who aren't familiar with Jira. Using this integration, you can embed dashboards and gadgets into Confluence and add the context you need without requiring your stakeholders to dive into the technical details of Jira. With Confluence, you'll be able to present information in an easily digestible format and track comments and feedback, all in one place.

3. Efficiency Boost: Time is precious, and we're all about maximizing it. By bringing Jira and Confluence closer together, we're helping you work smarter, not harder. No more wasted minutes sharing out reports and status updates. Embedding Jira dashboards and gadgets into Confluence pages is as simple as copy + paste - letting you focus on what's most important: driving your projects forward.

So, whether you're a seasoned Jira expert, a Confluence pro, or a bit of both, this integration is will make your workflow smoother and your collaboration more impactful.

Ready to dive in? Here's how to get started:

1. Pick your dashboard: Navigate to your Jira dashboard or create a new, custom dashboard. Choose the data you want to embed — you can embed the entire dashboard or an individual gadget. Simply click the copy button at the top right to copy the link.

2. Customize Your Pages: Navigate to your Confluence page and paste the link — it will automatically embed your dashboard or gadget.

3. Share and Collaborate: Spread the word! Share your Confluence page with your team and stakeholders. Collaboration has never been easier—or more effective.

We're committed to continuously improving your experience with our tools, and this integration is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more exciting updates on how Confluence and Jira are better together!

Have questions or feedback? We're all ears! Drop us a comment below, and let's keep the conversation going.

Happy integrating! 🚀

[Matt Reiner _K15t_]

@Laura Mehrkens, I’m so glad to see this finally happened! I’m really excited to see dashboards and widgets in Confluence!

So excited, I knew I had to sing it 😉 https://youtube.com/shorts/bKU21lxVecg?si=4o9hs2DaWx7tPgdT

[Laura Mehrkens]

@Matt Reiner _K15t_ We are excited, too - and this made our day! Thank you for the delightful content! 🎶🎶🎶

[Sebastian Hernan Buzzurro]

Fantastic!! But what about users who only have access to Confluence? Can they see the Confluence dashboard with data from JS or JSM? Or do they also need a JS or JSM license? 

[Celeste van Niekerk]

Thank you for the great tips @lauraMehrkens. Will you be expanding this dashboard with more standard reports as you have in the Jira Reports menu ie velocity chart, burn down etc?

[Pål Frogner Hansen]

Fine, but you have introduced Team, but your most of your charts (like pie chart) cannot be used with Team. Please fix that, so that companies that have more than one team can actually use the dashboards.

[Ryan Pluckrose]

Do you know if anything needs to be changed for this to work?

This only displays the link for me at the moment

[Morgan Watts]

@Ryan Pluckrose I have to click the "copy link" option sandwiched between the "star" and "add people" options in the top right of dashboards to embed them in a confluence page. 

If you only copy the URL from the browser, it'll only be a link on the confluence page itself.

[Ryan Pluckrose]

@Morgan Watts Thanks but this is what I'm doing, I've included a short video below of what I'm seeing.

https://take.ms/orASJ

[Laura Mehrkens]

@Sebastian Hernan Buzzurro In order to view the Jira dashboard on Confluence page, users need to have a Jira license. 

[Morgan Watts]

@Ryan Pluckrose if you click on the link in "edit" mode you should be presented with a lozenge that allows you to edit how the link is rendered. From this menu you can choose to make it a card, embeded dashboard, or even what the link text is. 

Hopefully this solves your problem!

[Ryan Pluckrose]

You smashed it, thank you @Morgan Watts 

I will go and use it everywhere now!

[Laura Mehrkens]

@Celeste van Niekerk Thanks for the feedback! Yes, we are exploring this. I can't share a timeline on this yet but we are always looking to better understand how our customers use reports and dashboards. Could you share a bit more about which reports you're most interested in and why? 

[Laura Mehrkens]

thanks @Morgan Watts for the tip! Glad this worked for you @Ryan Pluckrose

[Morgan Watts]

@Ryan Pluckrose Awesome sauce. Glad that fixed it for you. :D 

[Ryan Pluckrose]

Although I should probably mention that I had to choose one of the initial 3 options before the 4th would show up.

• click on the link
• only 3 options are available
• choose one of them
• click again
• the 4th option embed then appears

I tried a few times and kept having to do this but I presume this is just an early kink. Anyway, as long as I know how to do it.

[Morgan Watts]

@Laura Mehrkens For reports to be represented in a dashboard- I think having the control chart available would be really useful. My company uses a lot of kanban-style boards, and the control charts help stakeholders understand the impact of changes made on processes for throughput and cycle time. 

I've shown users how to run the reports in projects, but their feedback is consistently they'd prefer a dashboard with those reports so they can just click to a central hub and not worry about configuring the report each time.  

Furthermore, my personal opinion is that pie charts are the devil of data visualization. This view is heavily influenced by "Storytelling With Data" by Cole Knaflic. I highly recommend reading it to any data visualization enthusiasts in this thread. If I could turn all the pie chart gadgets into stacked bar charts, or bar charts, I'd be in heaven.  

[Vishnu]

I'm using Confluence data center and trying to link JIRA cloud gadgets. Still facing the same issue what Ryan Pluckrose mentioned earlier. After Edit it appears as link instead of gadget. 

[Laura Mehrkens]

Hi @Vishnu unfortunately Smart Links are only supported between the cloud versions of our products. We may add support for Confluence data center in the future but we don't have a timeline for this at the moment. If you are interested in this feature, I encourage you to vote for and watch this feature request https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-87786. 

[Kevin O'Shaughnessy]

Hi all,

Is there anyway to click through from the dashboard with the links to take you directly to an issue in JIRA???

Thanks

Kev