First identify or create an M-Files view that contains all M-Files objects that you want displayed as Kanban cards. If you do not have such a view, proceed to the section Creating views for Kanban boards.
Next, navigate to that view, open the M-Files task area and press the Show Kanbanoo button in the View and Modify section.
You may have to first fold out the task area by pressing the handle to the left of the M-Files Desktop window. If you cannot see the Show Kanbanoo button, please check the troubleshooting section.
The M-Files listing view will now switch to the Kanbanoo user interface.
Kanbanoo will inspect all objects in your view and create one Kanban board for each workflow that is present plus one "Assignments" board if your view contains M-Files assignments.
Only M-Files assignments and objects with a workflow will be displayed as cards on Kanban boards.
Kanbanoo will remember for each view whether it is in default M-Files mode or in Kanbanoo mode on a per-user basis and across sessions.
To return to the default M-Files view, press the Hide Kanbanoo button in the M-Files task area or simply navigate to another view.
More than one Kanban board
If the view contains objects with different workflows Kanbanoo will create a separate Kanban board for each workflow plus one for assignments, should there be any. Starting with Kanbanoo version 1.17 each board will be displayed in a dedicated tab and you can switch between boards by clicking on the respective tab.
For performance reasons, we recommend to limit the number of objects in a view - it may be better to create a separate M-Files view for each workflow.
It may make sense to create dedicated views for Kanban boards based on existing views. To do this you have two options:
Copy the view and rename it to "... - Kanban" or similar. This give users the choice either enter the default view or the Kanban view.
Create a "Kanban" view inside the M-Files view. This is similar to using the task area Show Kanbanoo button, but it doesn't require to have the task area open.
Creating a Kanban view as copy
Right-click the view you want to copy.
Select Make Copy... - M-Files will create a copy of the view immediately.
Rename the view to to "<old name> Kanban" or similar.
Navigate to the newly created view and press Show Kanbanoo in the task area.
Creating a Kanban view inside another view
Right-click in an empty area of the M-Files listing view.
Select New View... from the context menu.
Name the view "Kanban board" or similar, select "Common to all users" if needed. Make sure to have no filters defined and "Show documents and other objects" is selected.
Navigate to the newly created view and press Show Kanbanoo in the task area.
Creating a view from scratch
In Kanbanoo Kanban boards are based on (existing) M-Files workflows. Therefore creating a Kanban board begins with deciding which workflow to display or creating a suitable new workflow. If you want to use an existing workflow, skip ahead to section Creating a view using an existing workflow
Creating a new workflow for Kanbanoo
In some cases it may be necessary to create an entirely new workflow for Kanbanoo. Since new M-Files workflows cannot be created in the M-Files client, you will have to approach your M-Files Administorator to create the workflow for you. Before you do that, prepare as follows:
First, think about what columns your Kanban board should have. A typical Kanban board has at least three columns:
A "backlog" column for new (incoming) work
At least one "doing" column for work that is actively in progress.
A "done" column for finished work.
Sometimes you may need a column for exceptions, e.g. cancelled, rejected or discarded work.
If the process is complex and involves handing work over to colleagues we suggest the following best practise: For each additional step that is done by someone else, plan a column that sits between the steps and one column for the actual "doing" part of the next step. The intermediate column acts as the "done" column for the first step and the "backlog" column for the next step. It is a work buffer that allows the next person to better allocate their work.
Consider the following example for a process that involves creating an artifact and then handing it over to a Q&A team for quality assurance before it is considered done:
Backlog
Create thing
Ready for Q&A (this is the buffer column between creating and Q&A)
Check quality
Done
When creating an M-Files workflow you also have to define what transitions between states (i.e. columns) should be allowed.
Naturally, you want transitions from one column to the next, i.e. the forward direction.
If you have a "discarded" column you should allow transitions to that state from appropriate other states.
It is often reasonable to allow transitions in the backwards direction: if the "Check quality" step surfaces a problem, you want to allow transitions back to the "Backlog" to allow remediation or maybe to the "discard" column, whatever is appropriate.
Finally, each M-Files workflow has a name and that name will be displayed in the Kanban board header.
Once you have all the columns (workflow states) and column transitions (workflow state transitions) you can approach your M-Files administrator with a request to create the workflow for you.
After the workflow is created you can create a view as described in the next section (you may have to restart your M-Files client for it to register the newly created workflow).
Creating a view using an existing workflow
If a suitable workflow has already been set up in M-Files you can create a corresponding view as follows (see also the M-Files User Guide Creating a View):
In M-Files Desktop client, navigate to the place where you want to create the view.
Click the Create button and select View - the Define View dialog is opened.
After entering a suitable name, check Common to all users unless you want the view to be a personal (i.e. invisble to others).
Press Define Filter to open the corresponding dialog.
In the Status tab, check the box next to Deleted and make sure the drop-down is set to No (this excludes deleted objects from the view).
Select the Properties tab.
Press Add Condition and press the drop-down arrow in the newly generated Choose property line.
Select Workflow (any property).
In the Value column, select the appropriate workflow.
Optional: you may want to add more conditions to further restrict the objects that will be displayed in the view.
Press OK to close the Define Filter dialog and again OK to close the Define View dialog.
You should now see your newly created view. Enter the new view and confirm that it contains the intended objects. You may want to add a Workflow column to confirm the objects do have a workflow set (right-click the Name column header, select Insert Column and the select Workflow from the submenu).
Now open the M-Files task area and press Show Kanbanoo. Kanbanoo should start up and display a Kanban board.
Tips
Try to limit you views to one workflow by creating a spearate M-Files view for each workflow - fewer objects per view results in better performance.
To quickly access your Kanban board(s) pin their view using the M-Files Pin function (right-click the view and select Pin).
