The Items Table

The Items Table is DevStride's spreadsheet-style data grid for managing your work. It behaves like an Excel-like grid: you can move between cells with the keyboard, edit values inline, expand items to see their children, and rearrange columns to suit how you work.

This article focuses on the table itself. To filter the list down to the items you want to see, refer to Filters in the Items Section.

Opening the Items Table

Go to the Items section from the sidebar menu. The list opens as a data grid, with each work item on its own row and each field in its own column.

The view toolbar (filter bar) above the grid gives you the Filters and Options controls used throughout DevStride, plus the hierarchy and column controls described below. Sorting and ranking are done from the individual column headers (see Sorting and ranking).

Navigating and editing the grid

The Items Table is designed for fast, keyboard-driven work, much like a spreadsheet:

• Move between cells with the arrow keys.
• Start editing a focused cell by pressing Enter.
• Exit editing with Escape.

Every field type uses the same consistent inline-edit pattern, so editing a date, a priority, an assignee, or a custom field all work the same way. When a title is too long to fit its column, hover over the cell to see the full text.

The grid keeps your focus position as you work, so you can return to where you left off rather than starting over at the top of the list.

Display options

Open the Options panel in the filter bar to control how the grid is displayed. The available toggles include:

• Hide Subtasks — collapse subtask rows out of the list.
• Line Wrap — wrap long text within a cell instead of truncating it.
• Show Hierarchy — display items in their parent/child structure (see Working with hierarchy below).

Applied options also appear as pills in the filter bar so you can see at a glance what is active.

Once you've shaped a list with the filters and columns you want, an Admin can publish it as a read-only public link to share outside DevStride — see Published Lists.

Managing columns

Use the Table columns control in the toolbar to choose which fields appear as columns. You can resize any column by dragging its edge, and DevStride remembers your column widths between sessions. Hold Shift while dragging a column edge to resize multiple columns at once or reset a width.

Working with hierarchy

Turning on hierarchy displays your items in their nested parent/child structure rather than as a flat list. You can enable it from the Show Hierarchy toggle in the Options panel, or from the dedicated hierarchy controls in the filter bar.

The hierarchy controls are a connected button group:

1. A hierarchy on/off toggle (the tree icon, which turns green when hierarchy is active). Its tooltip reads Show hierarchy or Hide hierarchy.
2. A Show Duplicates mode selector, available when hierarchy is on.
3. Four expand/collapse level buttons, available when hierarchy is on and there are items that can be expanded.

When hierarchy is on, each parent row shows a chevron you can click to expand or collapse it. Color-coded bars along the left edge indicate how deep an item sits in the hierarchy, and the chevron's tooltip shows the child count (for example, Expand (4 items) or Collapse (4 items)). When you expand a parent, its children load on demand, so you may briefly see a loading spinner over the chevron while they arrive.

Expanding and collapsing levels

The four level buttons let you open or close the tree by one level at a time rather than item by item:

• Collapse row one level (-) — collapse the focused row's deepest expanded level.
• Collapse all one level (Shift + -) — collapse every expanded item by one level.
• Expand all one level (Shift + +) — expand every expandable item by one level.
• Expand row one level (+) — expand the focused row by one more level.

This makes it easy to drill the whole list to a specific depth instead of expanding parents individually.

Filtering within the hierarchy

When a filter is active, children that don't match it appear dimmed so you can still see them in context. To remove non-matching children from view entirely, turn on Show Matching Children Only in the Options panel.

Handling duplicates

An item can appear under more than one parent. The Show Duplicates selector controls how those items are displayed. In the Options panel the choices are:

• As Children Only
• As Primary Rows Only
• As Both

By default, duplicated items show as children only. The inline hierarchy toolbar offers the same modes with longer labels (Show Duplicates as Child Rows Only, Show Duplicates as Primary Row Only, and Show Duplicates in Both Locations).

DevStride remembers which parents you have expanded, so the table reopens the way you left it.

Sorting and ranking

You can apply two different kinds of order to your list, and it helps to understand the difference:

• Sort applies a temporary order for only you. It does not change anyone else's view, and you can clear it at any time.
• Rank applies a permanent order for every user. It stamps the current order as the saved rank that all users see.

To choose an order, open the Sort & Rank chooser from the sort/rank control on a column. The chooser lets you:

1. Use the Order toggle to pick Sort or Rank. The two options carry these tooltips: "Sort applies a temporary order for only you." and "Rank applies a permanent order for every user."
2. Choose the field to order By (title, priority, lane, assignee, dates, custom fields, and more).
3. Choose a Direction of Ascending or Descending.
4. Click Apply Sort or Apply Rank (the button label changes to match the toggle).

When you apply a rank, DevStride reorders all the items in scope and saves that order for everyone. You'll see a confirmation toast such as Rank applied to 12 items.

A few requirements and limits apply to ranking:

• You need update permission for the items and an active organization subscription.
• Only items you have permission to update are included in the rank.
• Clear any filters first. If filters are applied, the Rank option is disabled with the message Clear filters before reranking.
• There is a hard limit of 5,000 items per rank. Above that, the Rank option is disabled with the message Too many items — rerank limit is 5000.
• Wait for the list to finish loading before ranking.

Selecting and bulk-editing items

Select one or more rows using the checkbox at the start of each row. When you have items selected, a bulk-edit menu appears so you can update a field across all of the selected items at once.

Restricted boards in the Board column

If a work item is assigned to a board you don't have permission to view, the Board (Cycle/Board) column shows a lock icon and the text Restricted instead of the board's name. Hovering over the cell shows the tooltip "You don't have permission to view this board."

The item is still planned on a board — you simply don't have access to that specific board. This is a display-only state; you can't edit the board from a restricted cell. Board access is controlled by per-board permissions; to learn more, see Board & Folder Permissions.