Set Up a Hierarchical Resource Picker

A flat dropdown cannot serve hundreds of resources, and it cannot tell two of them apart when the same short name appears under several branches. The hierarchical picker browses the structure one level at a time and always shows the full path of what you picked. For the model behind it, see Resource Breakdown Structure. The picker is available since version 26.9.0.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that:

A Polarion project holds your resource work items, each linked to its parent by the project’s parent link role. Resources at the top of the structure have no parent
You have administrator rights on the project whose Gantt you are configuring, so you can set configuration properties
Team Assignments are configured and a Resource Field is in use — see Set Up Team Assignments Gantt

Name the Hierarchy Project

In Administration > Configuration Properties of the project holding the Gantt, set:

nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.projectId=ResourceBreakdown

This single property turns the picker on. Until it names a project, the resource field keeps its usual control and nothing changes.

Not the Team Management ProjectThe hierarchy project is deliberately separate from the project you are configuring and from the project holding your teams. A deployment can keep its resource breakdown and its teams in different places.

Narrow the Hierarchy, if the Project Holds Other Work

If the project carries more than the resource structure, restrict which work items take part with a Lucene query:

nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.query=type:resource

Work items outside the query are neither shown as nodes nor reachable by search.

Decide Which Nodes Can Be Selected

Most structures mix containers with real resources: you browse through a department, you assign to a team. Mark the ones that can be assigned to with a boolean custom field on the resource work item and name it:

nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.pickableField=assignable

Nodes whose field is true can be selected; every other node can only be opened to show the level below.Leave the property unset and every node can be selected.

Confirm Which Field Renders the Picker

The picker replaces exactly one field: the one already resolved as the team assignment resource field. Every other field keeps its usual control.That field is the Resource Field widget parameter where a widget is in play, then the project default nextedy.gantt.workitems.default.resource_field, then nextedy.gantt.teamAssignmentResourceField. The first of the three naming a custom field wins — assignee and categories are not custom fields, so a value of either is passed over and the next candidate is tried.

Use the Picker

Open a Team Assignment in the Gantt lightbox and click the resource field. The drop-down opens on the top level of the structure.

The Team Assignment lightbox with the resource picker expanded, showing the path above the list and the level below it

Control	What it does
A leaf row’s label	Selects that node, when the node is selectable
A row that has children	Clicking the row opens it and lists its children — going deeper is the common intent on a branch
Select on a branch row	Picks the branch itself, which a whole department legitimately is. Shown only where the branch is selectable, so one click never has to mean two things
Show the level below	The drill glyph at the end of a branch row
The path above the list	Steps back to any level you came through. Its first crumb is All
Search the resource hierarchy	Searches the whole structure instead of browsing it
Clear the selection	Empties the field

Type at least two characters to search. Search matches a node’s title, its work item ID, and the fields holding a user — the built-in Assignee always, plus anything named in nextedy.gantt.resourceIdentity.userIdField; several words must all match, and each is matched as a prefix. nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.searchLimit caps how many results come back, by default 50 — narrow the search rather than raise the cap.Every result and the picked value are shown with their full path, with / between the levels.

Search results in the resource picker, each row carrying the node name followed by its full path

Where the Path Shows Up

Once a resource is picked, the Gantt labels the two places differently, because sibling names repeat across branches:

The bar and the resource row carry the node’s own name.
The picker itself, showing the value already chosen, carries the full path — which is what tells two same-named nodes apart while you are choosing between them.

Tuning a Large Structure

Property	Type	Default	What it controls
`nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.searchLimit`	Integer	`50`	Maximum search results. Raising it makes every search slower; narrowing the search term is usually the better answer.
`nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.maxDepth`	Integer	`20`	How far a path is walked upward when the breadcrumb for a node is built. Raise it only if your structure is genuinely deeper than this; a larger value costs a step per level.
`nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.hasChildrenProbeLimit`	Integer	`1000`	The level size above which the Gantt stops checking which rows have children and offers every row as openable. Lowering it — or setting `0` to switch the check off entirely — makes a wide level open faster, at the cost of opening a row that turns out to be empty.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
The field still shows the old dropdown	`nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.projectId` is unset, or the field is not the effective resource field	Set the property, and check the Resource Field parameter names the field you are looking at
`Nothing on this level can be selected - open one of the rows below.`	Every node on this level is a container	Open one of the rows to reach selectable resources
`Nothing on this level can be selected or opened. Go back with the path above.`	The level is a dead end — nothing here can be selected and nothing has children	Step back with the path above and try another branch
`Nothing here.`	The level has no children, or the query excludes them	Check `nextedy.gantt.resourceHierarchy.query` covers the work items you expect
`Nothing here.` on the top level, though the structure exists	The link role joining the nodes is not flagged as a parent role, so Polarion indexes no parent back-reference and no node looks like a root	Flag the role as a parent role in the hierarchy project’s `workitem-link-role-enum.xml`
`Failed to load this level.` or `Search failed.`	The hierarchy project could not be read	Confirm the project ID is correct and that you can read that project in Polarion
Search finds nothing by a person’s login	No field of that node holds the user. The built-in Assignee is always searched, alongside anything named in `userIdField`	Fill the node’s Assignee, or name the field that holds the user — see Map Resources to Polarion Users

Verification

You should now see:

The resource field in the Team Assignment lightbox opening as a drill-down list rather than a flat dropdown
A path above the list, starting at All, that steps back through the levels you opened
The picked resource shown with its full path in the picker, and with its own name on the bar and in the resource row

FAQ

Set Up a Hierarchical Resource Picker

Prerequisites

Where the Path Shows Up

Tuning a Large Structure

Troubleshooting

Verification

See Also

​Prerequisites

​Where the Path Shows Up

​Tuning a Large Structure

​Troubleshooting

​Verification

​See Also

Prerequisites

Where the Path Shows Up

Tuning a Large Structure

Troubleshooting

Verification

See Also