> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://learn.nextedy.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Set Up a Basic Gantt Chart
> This tutorial guides you through creating a Work Items Nextedy GANTT chart from scratch in your Polarion project.
export const LastReviewed = ({date}) => {
if (!date) return null;
const formatted = new Date(`${date}T00:00:00Z`).toLocaleDateString("en-US", {
year: "numeric",
month: "long",
day: "numeric",
timeZone: "UTC"
});
return
Last reviewed on {formatted}
;
};
## What You Will Achieve
After completing this tutorial, you will have:
* A Polarion Info Page with a Work Items Gantt widget
* Filtered work items displayed as task bars on the Gantt chart
* Parent-child hierarchy showing grouped work items
* Dependency roles configured for linking tasks
## Prerequisites
* [Gantt installed](/gantt/getting-started/installation) on your Polarion server
* A Polarion project with existing work items (or use the E-Library template)
* Edit permissions on the project's Documents & Pages
If you are evaluating Gantt, consider starting with the [demo project](/gantt/getting-started/demo-project) first. It provides a pre-configured Gantt chart you can explore immediately.
This tutorial follows a project created from the **E-Library** template, so you can repeat each step and reach the same result. Start by creating a new project and selecting the E-Library template from the template list.
1. Open your Polarion project
2. Navigate to **Documents & Pages**
3. Select a space (for example, **Default Space**)
4. Click **Expand Tools** in the upper toolbar
5. Click the **Gear** button and select **Create New**
6. Choose **Info or LiveReport Page**
7. Enter a title (for example, "Project Nextedy Gantt") and click **Create**
You should see an empty page with the widget picker available on the right side.
In the widget picker on the right side of the page:
1. Expand the **Work Items** category
2. Select **Gantt (Work Items)**
3. The widget loads onto your page, displaying all work items in the project
Polarion shows two Gantt widgets: **Gantt (Work Items)** under the Work Items category displays individual work items. **Gantt (Plans)** under the Plans category displays Polarion Plans. For this tutorial, use the Work Items variant.
By default, the Gantt loads all work items in the project. To show specific types:
1. Open the widget parameters (click the **Edit** button on the page, then the widget gear icon)
2. In the **Query** section, click the **+** button to add a filter
3. Select **Type** from the filter options
4. Choose the work item types you want to display (for example, **Epic** and **Release**)
5. Click **Apply**
You should see only the selected work item types displayed as task bars on the Gantt chart.
To use the Gantt chart in full-page mode:
1. In the widget parameters, scroll to the **Advanced** section
2. Set **Maximize Gantt View** to **Yes**
3. Click **Apply**
The Gantt chart now fills the entire page area, giving you maximum working space.
The hierarchy of items on the Gantt chart is derived from work item link roles.
1. In the widget parameters, find **Parent Role**
2. Click **Select** and add the relevant link role (for example, `has_parent`) from the left list to the right
3. Set **Load Children** to `1` to display one level of child items
4. Click **Apply**
With **Load Children** set to `1` but no parent role configured yet, the chart does not change -- the hierarchy is driven by the parent role.
Select the parent role that links the items (for example, `has_parent`, which goes from Epic to User Story) and move it from the left list to the right.
You should see child work items nested beneath their parents in the Gantt chart. Setting **Load Children** back to `0` hides the hierarchy again.
If you need deeper hierarchy (for example, Epic > User Story > Task), increase **Load Children** to `2` and add additional parent roles (for example, `implements`).
| Load Children | Result |
| ------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| `0` | Only top-level items, no hierarchy |
| `1` | One level of children (e.g., Epic > User Story) |
| `2` | Two levels (e.g., Epic > User Story > Task) |
Dependency links are derived from work item link roles, just like parent-child relationships.
1. In the widget parameters, find **Dependency Role**
2. Click **Select** and add the dependency link role (for example, `depends_on`)
3. Click **Apply**
You should see dependency arrows drawn between linked work items on the Gantt chart. The first selected dependency role is used when creating new dependency links by dragging between task bars.
You can also control how items are created by setting the **Parent Mode** and representation mode per type -- for example, allowing an Epic to have a parent only of the same Epic type, while a User Story (representation mode **Item**) can have an Epic as its parent.
Before saving, note that the start date fields are Gantt settings rather than work item fields. Until you schedule the tasks, every item starts on **Today**.
Click the **Save** button on the Polarion page toolbar to persist your widget configuration.
Widget parameter changes require saving the page in Edit mode. If you navigate away without saving, your configuration changes are lost.
With the configuration saved, you can make the Gantt look organized by scheduling the tasks. Click the **Edit** button to start.
At this point every item is still unscheduled, which you can confirm by hovering over each one.
As you drag scheduled tasks into the past, the parent bar moves with them because it has a derived schedule that always spans all of its children.
By default each task is scheduled for 10 days. Use the small white dots on either side of a task bar to drag it longer or shorter.
Change the duration of the first task to 5 days by dragging the white dots, repeat for the remaining tasks, then save.
To order the tasks from the nearest start date to the latest, open **Nextedy Gantt Widget Parameters > Sort by** and change it from **ID** to **gantt\_start**, then apply and save.
Increasing **Load Children** from `1` to `2` loads the Tasks again, revealing a red-dotted background on some of them.
The red-dotted background marks unscheduled tasks with dependency links; hovering shows a "Dependency constraint violation" message where a link runs from the end of one task to the start of others.
Schedule the tasks so the first one ends before the dependent tasks start, which resolves the violations and keeps your team aware of task dependencies.
## Key Widget Parameters Summary
| Parameter | Purpose | Example Value |
| ----------------------- | ------------------------------- | ----------------- |
| **Query / Type** | Filter which work items appear | `Epic`, `Release` |
| **Parent Role** | Define parent-child hierarchy | `has_parent` |
| **Load Children** | Depth of child loading | `1` or `2` |
| **Dependency Role** | Define dependency relationships | `depends_on` |
| **Maximize Gantt View** | Full-page display | `Yes` |
## Next Steps
* [Set Up a Plans Gantt Chart](/gantt/getting-started/setup-plans-gantt) -- display Polarion Plans as top-level Gantt items
* [Create Your First Dependency Link](/gantt/getting-started/first-dependency) -- learn to create dependencies interactively
* [View Resource Allocation](/gantt/getting-started/first-resource-view) -- enable the resource view to track team workload
* [Explore the Demo Project](/gantt/getting-started/demo-project) -- see a fully configured example