I am running Azure DevOps 2019 RC1 with an Inheritance Collection and a new Agile project.
I have a requirement that when a user creates a work item (task/issue), they must automatically be added as a follower of this work item. How can I achieve this? I have look in the rules for the work item under process customisation but it doesn't appear to be possible this way.
We are using the tickets to track issues. Whoever discovers the issue raises the ticket. The basic requirement is that anyone who raises a ticket should be automatically notified of its progress, even though they are not responsible for the development or testing.
Currently the work around is telling the user that when they create an issue they must click the Follow button, but it is easy for them to forget and then lose their updates. It seems like a very simple customisation so maybe I'm missing the obvious.
Thanks
I think you can't auto follow things currently, but you can add notification setting that will send automatically emails when work item is updated. To do this, go to Project Settings > Notifications page and create new subscription. Select "Work/A work item is changed" and put "Members of ... team by role" in Deliver to selection. Set roles to "Created by" and untick the "Skip initiator".
Your problem would be addressed precisely with the feature requested in the official Azure DevOps' feedback platform here:
479189 - Automatically follow work items I interact with
(That page also mentions workarounds, including per-team one answered here, and a per-person alternative. See this comment. The shortcoming of both is that they don't allow to you to unsubscribe for selected tickets.)
[Disclaimer: I'm not sure if this kind of question is accepted here as it is about a piece of software deployed already. Rest assured I didn't drop any confidential information. Also do tell me if I violated any rules in SO by posting this so I can take it down immediately]
I have a working Learning Management System web application and I recently received a bug report about a button not showing. After investigating, I have proved that the user was not using the web app as intended. When taking an exam, he was opening multiple tabs to exploit the feature that informs him whether the answer was correct or not. He then will use this information to eliminate the wrong answers and submit all the right answers in another tab/window.
I'm using Rails 4.2. Is there a way to prevent multi-tab browsing? I'm thinking like if a user is signed in and he attempted to open a new tab of the webapp, he should see something like "Please use one tab" and all the features/hyperlinks/buttons are disabled.
Here's a screenshot of how I proved he was using multiple tabs. Notice that there are multiple logs of the same attempt # because the current implementation allows saving a study session and resuming later (this is the part that's exploited). The opening of multiple tabs searches for the most recent attempt session and continues from there. This is also the reason why most of the sessions don't have a duration value -- the user only finishes a study session for one tab (by clicking a button that ends the study session). The system cannot compute for the duration because the other sessions don't have an end timestamp.
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This is what a single-tab user looks like:
This is more of an application misuse issue more than a bug.
You should add protection not only from multi tab, but for multi browsers aw well, so it can't be purely FrontEnd check.
One of the solutions could be using ActionCable to check if a user has an active connection already and then act accordingly.
Another, for example, generate a GUID in JS and pass it with every answer. If its different from previous answer, it means user opened a new window.
But of course the solution would depend on your current architecture, without knowing how do you currently organise client-server communication it's hard to give exact and optimal solution.
I found an answer here. I just placed this js in the application view to prevent any extra instance of the website.
Thanks for everyone who pitched in.
I have been given a requirement to allow our sales team to view all of the issues that we are in the process of investigating/fixing that their customers are experiencing.
We've added a custom column that contains a list of all of our customers so that we can filter by customer.
We are going to add viewer accounts for everyone on our sales team.
On every issue we were going to add the relevant sales guy as a viewer. That way the sales guy will get an email whenever a customer's issue is resolved, moved to feedback, etc.
Here is the question:
We want the sales guy to be able to log into Mantis and on his "View Issues" page have a filter already setup that displays all of the issues he is monitoring, and only his issues (to avoid confusion). Is that possible?
We don't really care if he can see all of the resolved issues, unassigned issues, recently modified, etc on the "my view" page. This isn't really a security thing, it is a usability thing. I want to be able to send a link to the sales guy and tell him to bookmark it and it will contain a continually updating list of the issues that pertain to him.
This may be a workable solution, but it is still a little clunky.
If I send out a URL like this:
<SERVER ADDRESS>/print_all_bug_page.php?filter=<XX>
Where the XX is the corresponds to the value of "myself" on the monitored by box. For me it is 52, not sure if that will change as I play with the columns.
Therefore the link right now is:
<SERVER ADDRESS>print_all_bug_page.php?filter=52
What's clunky is: If the user clicks any of the column headings on this page for sorting the query string isn't included in the new URL and all of the issues are then displayed again.
I'm looking to reproduce the Jira watch functionality in TFS 2013. In Jira, you can click a link to watch an item and thereafter you will be notified when anything on that item changes.
I know on TFS you can:
be emailed if anyone changes a bug you are assigned to
manually email a bug to anyone at any time
Create a custom report and pin it to your home page to notify yourself of things (like this maybe?)
I can imagine creating a new field that will accept multiple users and creating a custom email notification to notify everyone in that list if the work item changes. But that seem like a whole lot of work and I'm not sure were to start if that is the way do do this.
What's the easiest way to get functionality like watching a work item? If it's easy and similar to the Jira functionality that is better for me than exactly the same and hard to do.
Sure, you can setup email alerts based on many different criteria, including what you asked for.
You need to go to the Alerts section, and create a new custom alert, and you can put in the ID of whatever work item you want to "watch". By default it includes the clause AuthorizedAs <> [Me] which will make sure it doesn't email you for changes that you make, but you can remove that clause if you'd like.
I'm a bit confused whether or not I should make the links on my website that point externally target="_blank". Does this practice negatively affect the usability of your site (i.e. breaking the "back button trail")? Is it commonly found annoying by most users? Is it acceptable in some situations but not others?
I want to make an enjoyable user experience for all of my sites and would hate to do something that annoys my users. What is your experience/advice on the matter?
Most people will say to leave it out, all for very good reasons.
Most people will not tell you this: watch how different people browse using their computer. Sit down for an hour with an average user: a teacher, a piano player, a retired Vet, a stay-at-home mother, or a mechanic. Watch how people who are disabled browse.
You will discover that you should not:
Open new windows (it is highly confusing)
Have menus disappear immediately after leaving them (requires fine motor control)
Use excessive numbers of links on a page (also confusing)
Provide too many features and options
Use Flash animation
Be overly clever
You will discover that you should:
Be clear and concise
Be simple
Keep the user on the same page
Avoid frustrating the end user at any cost
Create an extremely responsive website
And much more.
I've read plenty of usability documentation suggesting that end users resent being forced to open a link in a new window. I tend to agree, if I want a new window I will right click and select whether I want the same window, new tab, or new window.
However, the marketing types believe that opening an external link in a new window will keep the end user on your site because they will eventually close the new window and wind up back on your site.
EDIT: Best information I've read on this subject is in Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" (website).
MHO: just link it. If I want to open the link in a new window, I can do it myself.
Leave the target attribute out and let your users decide if they want to open the link in a new window. If you want to warn the user that the link will take them away from your site, you can implement a page that makes it clear (US Government sites do this for instance).
I agree that as a user, I prefer to have the choice as to whether or not I open a link in a new window. Unfortunately, many users don't realize that they have that choice, and will lose your website when they click a link to an external site. I tend to err on the side of caution and make external links open in new windows, but it depends on your audience, really.
Here is a nice write up for not opening links in a new window/tab from Smashing Magazine. Essentially, it is better to give users control over link behavior than to decide for them.
Usability guru (?) Jakob Nielsen suggests not opening new browser windows (It's 10 years old though).
Quote:
Opening up new browser windows is like
a vacuum cleaner sales person who
starts a visit by emptying an ash tray
on the customer's carpet. Don't
pollute my screen with any more
windows, thanks (particularly since
current operating systems have
miserable window management). If I
want a new window, I will open it
myself!
Designers open new browser windows on
the theory that it keeps users on
their site. But even disregarding the
user-hostile message implied in taking
over the user's machine, the strategy
is self-defeating since it disables
the Back button which is the normal
way users return to previous sites.
Users often don't notice that a new
window has opened, especially if they
are using a small monitor where the
windows are maximized to fill up the
screen. So a user who tries to return
to the origin will be confused by a
grayed out Back button.
And, every rule has an exception: He suggests document like PDF or DOC that are opened in the browser should be opened in new windows, to avoid confusion.
It's worth mentioning that target isn't valid in XHTML anyway.
I think it depends on the situation. For a simple website with just a few links like about us, contact, services etc., I will not open new window. It is easy for the user to know which page they are at and which page they have just looked at. For a site that has a listing summary page which links to hundreds or even thousands individual listing page. I would prefer to open new window for each listing. It allows the users to compare service/price.... on each opened page. Plus the user doesn't have to click the "back" button to return to the summary page and wait for the same page to load again.
It depends, typically for links to additional content on your site, I would not use the _blank. Anytime I link to off-site content I use the _blank to keep a page open for my site. That way when the user is done on the external site they see my site again.
With modern browsers this usually opens a new tab. I expect this behavior, but usually I control click to get a new tab/window when I want to keep my place.
That being said, for a web application, I'd always leave the target attribute off so the user can decide to open a new window or not.
What people hate is opening links in a new window and not knowing that it's coming. For each external link, go ahead and use target="_blank", but add an icon that suggests you're opening a new window. Wikipedia's double square icon is a good example of this, so you can just grab that from them and capitalize on the literacy that users already have there.
What's great about a 'new window' icon is that users then have the option of opening in a new tab instead, which isn't so obtrusive. I'd also say that many of those vehemently arguing against your proposed approach are looking at it strictly from an aesthetic/usability standpoint, and not in terms of business requirements or the functionality of your own application.
If you think that you or your users stand to gain from keeping users on your site and opening external links in a new window, you get to make the final call on that. Just be respectful about it.
You need to consider what users are doing in your window, when deciding how links should behave. If I could potentially lose a lot of work by navigating to another page, then I might want links to open in new windows, or give me an option to cancel.
For example, if I'm composing a message in Gmail, most of the links show a confirmation dialog, so I don't accidentally lose my work. And the links on top, which go to other applications like Calendar, open in new windows. I think this is a good example to follow.