GitKraken is a multiplatform graphical interface for Git developed by Axosoft. GitKraken Boards is a kanban-style board for tracking tasks and issues across a project. GitKraken includes Git GUI and Boards. It is a great tool for agile teams to plan, track, and deliver projects effectively. GitKraken Boards can be accessed directly from the GitKraken Git GUI, mobile apps, a browser, Atom, or VS Code.
GitKraken allows you to sync GitHub issues that make you view real-time data on boards. You can see who did what and when on your board. To identify actionable insights and make better decisions in your business, GitKraken Boards data needs to be visualized. You can now connect your GitKraken Boards with Bold BI to monitor your team’s work and the progress of projects over time.
Bold BI is business intelligence dashboards and analytics software for creating, managing, and sharing interactive business dashboards with end users anywhere in the world. In this blog post, we are going to explore how to extract GitKraken Boards data, connect to a Bold BI data source, and visualize it in a dashboard in Bold BI.
GitKraken Boards dashboard
Here is the complete dashboard created by connecting with GitKraken Boards data. Let’s discuss the dashboard and see how to track the project through key metrics with the captured GitKraken Boards data.
This dashboard focuses on tracking your teams’ performance and project progress from the Boards through the following metrics to give you a clear view of your team’s performance:
- Total tasks
- Tasks by status
- Summary by milestones
- Tasks count by project
- Tasks by type
- Assigned and completed task over date
- Tasks details
Let’s see how we achieved this dashboard in Bold BI with GitKraken Boards data. To do this, you have to do the following:
- Extract GitKraken Boards data through an API.
- Create a data source with Bold BI for the extracted data.
- Connect the created data source and create a dashboard in Bold BI.
How to extract GitKraken Boards data
Using GitKraken Boards API, developers can analyze and retrieve boards and cards in the GitKraken platform for tasks, projects, conversations, and more. The base URL format for the GitKraken Boards Web API is:
https://gloapi.gitkraken.com/v1/glo/<API_EndPoint>
Refer to the following table to connect Boards data and create a data source with appropriate APIs.
| End Points | Used For |
| GET https://gloapi.gitkraken.com/v1/glo/boards | Gets a list of boards |
| GET https://gloapi.gitkraken.com/v1/glo/boards/{board_id}/cards | Gets a list of cards for a board |
These basic endpoints of cards retrieve only the fields name, board_id, and column_id. Append the parameter “?fields= “field name” to the end of your endpoint URL to fetch specific fields that you want. Use the following URL to fetch all cards records within a specific project with all fields.
https://gloapi.gitkraken.com/v1/glo/boards/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/cards?fields=archived_date&fields=assignees&fields=attachment_count&fields=board_id&fields=column_id&fields=comment_count&fields=completed_task_count&fields=created_by&fields=created_date&fields=due_date &fields=description&fields=labels&fields=name&fields=total_task_count&fields=updated_date&fields=milestone
Create a data source with Bold BI for the GitKraken Boards data. You can try out the Gitkraken Boards API for your boards in the GitKraken Boards API documentation page. Once you have finalized the API, you can proceed to connect with Bold BI by creating a data source.
Bold BI allows you to connect GitKraken Boards data through a Web API data source. You will need to create an access token before connecting to GitKraken Boards data. Refer to this support documentation to generate Personal Access Tokens (PATs). To create a GitKraken Boards data source, follow these steps:
- We are going to create a Web API data source to connect with GitKraken Boards. To do this, click the Data Sources button in the configuration panel to add a new data connection.
- Click CREATE NEW.
- Choose the Web connection from list of data connectors in the connection panel under the Rest.
Data Connection Listing Panel
- As a result, the web data connection window will be displayed in the panel. Specify a unique name for GitKraken Boards data source and provide description (optional).
- Provide a GitKraken Boards Web API endpoint in the URL textbox. Leave the default value GET for the Web API under the Method
- Add an authentication key and value under the Header(s) Set “Authentication” in Key and “Bearer <AccessToken>” in the value of Header.
- Set the time interval for Refresh Settings so that the dashboard can refresh itself. This will trigger the REST API request periodically and keep the data in sync with our dashboard.
- Let the Data Format be JSON since the Boards and Cards API endpoints return results in JSON format. Leave the default value None for Authentication and Paging Type.
GitKraken Boards Data Source–Web API
- Click Preview & Connect. The preview window opens, listing the data results as seen in the following image.
Raw Data Window
- Choose the desired columns and click Connect. Drag and drop the table and save the data source. Finally, the created data sources will be added in the DATA SOURCES.
- Click the edit icon near the GitKraken Board – Cards Data Source item in the DATA SOURCES panel.
Editing the data source
- Now, the editing view of the data source opens. We can add more columns in the by creating an expression column in the data source designer. Select the Expression icon in the toolbar of the table design view to open the Expression designer.
Creating an expression - Create an expression column in the GitKraken Board – Cards Data Source to calculate fields, as shown in the following table.
| Expression Name | Expression |
| Column Name | IF([column_id]=’5eb4df2cbda0ec00133af207′,’Open’, IF([column_id]=’5eb4dfcb4435d10014b89d8b’,’Validated’, IF([column_id]=’5eb4dfd36cb04e00112bf59d’,’In Progress’, IF([column_id]=’5eb4dff64435d10014b89d8c’,’Review/Testing’,’Closed’)))) |
| Milestone Name | IF([id (milestone)]=’5eb8d4a56cb04e00112c57ea’,’Q3′, IF([id (milestone)]=’5eb8d96a4435d10014b8ffc6′,’Q2′, IF([id (milestone)]=’5eb8d9824435d10014b8ffc7’,’Q1’,’Q4’))) |
| Completion Percentage | SUM([completed_task_count])/SUM([total_task_count]) * 100 |
| Task Name | SUBSTR([text],6,LEN([text])) |
- Finally, save the data source. Now, the data source is ready to be configured with the widgets in the dashboard.
How to create Bold BI Dashboard for GitKraken Boards
Let’s see how to create a dashboard to visualize the GitKraken Boards data using Bold BI. Check out our tutorial video to learn how to create a dashboard from scratch before connecting GitKraken Boards data with Bold BI. We have configured the required widgets to the dashboard with corresponding data, as described in the following table:
| Widget Title | Configuration |
| Select Product | Type: Combo Box Value: name (labels) |
| Total Tasks | Type: KPI Card Actual Value: completed_task_count Target Value: total_task_count |
| Tasks by Status | Type: Doughnut Chart Value(s): total_task_count Column(s): Column Name |
| Summary by Milestones | Type: Grid Column: name(labels), Milestone Name, Total_task_count, Completed_task_count, Completion Percentage |
| Tasks Count by Product | Type: Column chart Value(s): total_task_count Column(s): name(labels) |
| Tasks by Type | Type: Bar chart Value(s): total_task_count, Completed_task_count Column(s): name |
| Assigned and Completed Tasks by Date | Type: Area chart Value(s): total_task_count, Completed_task_count Column(s): due_date |
| Tasks Details | Type: Grid Column: Task Name, Name, name(labels), Column Name |
We have also created a dashboard for Axosoft’s Agile Project Management using the Web API with the same steps that we followed for the GitKraken Boards dashboard. The following screenshot is the agile project management dashboard from Axosoft.
This dashboard is focusing on monitoring team performance through the following metrics:
- Total worked hours
- Planned vs completed work items by project
- Incomplete work items by priority
- Work items by status
- Work items by type
- Planned and actual worked time by date
- Active items by project and priority
Conclusion
We hope this blog helps you connect to GitKraken Boards data and visualize important information from your board by connecting with Bold BI dashboards. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section. You can also contact us by submitting your questions through the Bold BI website or, if you already have an account, you can log in and submit them there.
