Diagnose and resolve problems where clicking to expand or collapse a swimlane produces unexpected behavior — including expanding the wrong swimlane, no response, or inconsistent results across browsers.
Before investigating browser issues, confirm that swimlane collapsibility is enabled in the widget configuration.
Open the Polarion page containing your Nextedy PLANNINGBOARD widget in edit mode.
Open the Widget Parameters panel.
Navigate to the Swimlanes (Rows) section.
Confirm that collapsibleSwimlanes is set to true (the default).
The property default is true. If it has been explicitly set to false, swimlanes will render as permanently expanded with no toggle control.
Widget parameter values are whitespace-sensitive. A value of true (with a leading space) will not be treated the same as true. Always verify there are no leading or trailing spaces when editing parameters directly.
A confirmed browser-specific bug causes clicking to expand a swimlane to expand a different swimlane instead — typically the last swimlane in the list. This behavior is intermittent and has been reproduced in Chrome. Microsoft Edge does not exhibit this issue.
The most reliable resolution is to switch from Chrome to Microsoft Edge for Planningboard sessions where swimlane expand/collapse interaction is required.
Open Microsoft Edge.
Navigate to the same Polarion page.
Verify that swimlane expand/collapse now responds to the correct swimlane.
Clicking a swimlane header in Chrome may expand a different swimlane — usually the last one in the list — rather than the one you clicked. This is a known rendering issue in Chrome. No fix has been shipped for this issue. Use Microsoft Edge as the recommended browser for Planningboard if you rely on swimlane expand/collapse.
If you have made planning changes in Chrome before encountering the issue, use the Refresh button (#btnRefresh) to reload the current board state from the server before switching to Edge. This ensures your changes are persisted and visible in Edge.
Swimlane expansion is only meaningful when a swimlane assignment type is active. If the board uses assignmentMode = none, all items appear in a flat list with no swimlanes to expand or collapse.
Widget Parameters → Swimlanes (Rows) → Assignment Type
Confirm the Assignment Type is set to one of the supported modes:
Users (Assignee) — one swimlane per assignee in the project
Parent Item — one swimlane per parent work item
Enumeration Field — one swimlane per field value
Project — one swimlane per sub-project
SAFe assignment types — for SAFe environments
If the assignment type is No Swimlanes, the board intentionally renders without rows — there is nothing to expand or collapse. See No Swimlanes Mode if this mode is intentional.
If swimlanes appear to be missing — rather than collapsed — the showEmptySwimlanes parameter may be hiding them.The property default is false, meaning swimlanes with no matching work items are not shown. If a swimlane you expect to see is absent, either:
No work items are currently assigned to that swimlane’s criterion (e.g. no items assigned to that user or enum value), or
The swimlane assignment criterion does not match any items given the current work-item query.
To confirm: temporarily set showEmptySwimlanes = true in the widget parameters. All swimlanes — including empty ones — will then appear on the board. If previously hidden swimlanes now show up empty, adjust your work-item query or swimlane assignment configuration rather than keeping showEmptySwimlanes = true in production.
A collapsed swimlane shows a thin header bar. A completely absent swimlane — due to showEmptySwimlanes = false — leaves no visible trace. If you expect a swimlane and see nothing, check showEmptySwimlanes first before investigating the browser issue.
Enumeration Field Swimlanes: Validation Error After Save
If you configured swimlanes using an Enumeration Field assignment type and see the error field does not exist or is not of type enumeration after saving:
Global enumeration custom fields (defined at the global level rather than at the project level) appear to have limited or unsupported status for Planningboard swimlanes. A global enum field may validate during initial configuration but fail after saving. If you encounter this error, use a project-level enumeration custom field instead. Contact Nextedy support if a global field is required for your workflow.
Steps to resolve:
Open Widget Parameters → Swimlanes (Rows).
Note the Field ID value in the Enumeration Field configuration.
In Polarion Administration, confirm the field is defined at the project level (not global).
If the field is global, create an equivalent project-level enumeration field and reconfigure the widget parameter to reference that field ID.
Swimlane expansion not working as expected | v collapsibleSwimlanes = false? +-----------+-----------+ Yes No | | Set to true | v Wrong swimlane expands (last one)? +-----------+-----------+ Yes No | | Switch to Edge Swimlane missing entirely? (Chrome bug) +-----------+-----------+ Yes No | | showEmptySwimlanes = false? Refresh board, Set to true to check check query | Check assignment mode — is it 'none' / No Swimlanes?
After applying a fix, confirm the behavior is resolved:
Reload the Planningboard page.
Click a swimlane header that is currently expanded.
Confirm that specific swimlane collapses — not another.
Click the same header again.
Confirm it expands back.
You should now see each swimlane header toggle only its own row, with the correct swimlane expanding or collapsing on each click. If you are on Edge and the behavior is correct, the Chrome issue is confirmed; consider making Edge the standard browser for Planningboard users in your team.
