Icons in the Explorer Tree Appear Differently for Different Item Types

Carmen Santos
Carmen Santos
  • Updated

Published Date: May 26, 2026
Validated: Yes
Audience: Everyone
Products and Versions Covered: 

  • Jama Connect® All Versions
    • Cloud/CVC
    • Self-hosted

Summary

In Jama Connect®, the Explorer Tree is designed to prioritize hierarchical navigation and provide clear context around parent/child relationships within a project structure.

Users may notice that child or sub-items in the Explorer Tree do not always display the same item-type icon shown when opening the item or viewing it in List View. This is expected behavior by design and helps preserve consistent contextual navigation within the hierarchy.

This article explains how icon behavior works in the Explorer Tree and outlines recommended views and configuration options for clearer item-type visibility when needed.

Symptoms

  • Child/sub-items in the Explorer Tree may display a shared set icon rather than individual item-type icons.
  • The icon shown in the left-side hierarchy may differ from the icon displayed when the item is opened or viewed in List View.
  • Users navigating dense project structures may want additional visual distinction between item types.

Resolution

The Explorer Tree in Jama Connect® is designed primarily as a hierarchical navigation experience that organizes project content into components, sets, folders, and items. Because the hierarchy itself already provides context about how items relate to their parent set, the Explorer Tree emphasizes structural navigation over detailed item-type visualization.

In contrast, flat views such as List View are optimized to visually distinguish item types in mixed content. For this reason, Jama Connect® recommends using List View when users need clearer item-type identification, especially in projects containing large numbers of items or multiple item types.

For larger or visually dense project trees, users can also configure the Explorer Tree to show folders only and interact with items primarily through List View or Document View. This can help reduce visual clutter and improve overall usability and navigation performance.

To configure this setting per user:

  1. In the Explorer Tree, select the gear icon to open Explorer Settings.
  2. Under My Settings, enable “Show only folders / hide items.”
  3. Select Apply.

(Organization and project administrators can also configure default Explorer Tree Settings for users.)

If additional icon differentiation or configurability in the Explorer Tree would be beneficial for your workflow, enhancement requests can be submitted through Jama Software® Community Ideation for Product team review and community feedback.

Additional Resources

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