Adding new "tab" to a bug work item in TFS 2017 - tfs

I am trying to add a new "tab" to bug item in TFS 2017. Looking at the "tabs" you see things like "Steps to Reproduce", System, etc.
I have found information on changing work item types but nothing about adding a new "tab" across the top where you see Steps to Repro, System, Test Cases, Tasks. The change I want to make may not be possible? Or it is possible I don't know the correct verbiage to use when asking google. The think I want to change may not be a tab control at all it maybe something else different.
Thanks
***************** Updated questions after posting *****************************
After playing around with Process Editor -> WIT -> Open WIT from server -> Bug
as suggested by Andy Li-MSFT I don't see a lot of control on the formatting on the tab. I was planning to add fields in a grid like pattern like a table as shown below. I am able to get the values in the drop down list for field1 and add the fields. However I have a couple follow up questions if you have time.
Setting either the control or column for the control to read-only the column will not render when adding a new bug. I have a little more control if I set AllowedValues and Frozen for the column however the value can still be changed. Is there a better way to set read-only?
There is not much control on the layout. I am OK adding a lot of fields but would like them to be displayed in a table like structure. Is there a way to control the look of the fields on the form?
Is there a way to add the fields in a grid? This would be ideal so I only have one header for each column.
The last-updated-by and last-updated-date. Is it possible to track on a row level who made a change? If not I would be OK just adding a last updated by and last updated date to the new tab. Row level updates would be nice.
<pre>
Field 1 Field 2 (Read-only) Field 3 Last Updated By Last updated Date
Status (completed, empty, N/A) "Some text here which describes something to do" "Optional comments" tfs user name date/time
Status (completed, empty, N/A) "Some text here which describes something to do" "Optional comments" tfs user name date/time
</pre>

You need to modify the WIT definition file (Bug work item type in your scenario).
You can try below ways to do that:
Export the WIT definition file with witadmin commands, add a new tab under <TabGroup> and add a new control for it, then save and import the file. See Import, export, and manage work item types for details.
e.g:
<Tab Label="Tab0501">
<Control FieldName="System.ChangedDate" Type="DateTimeControl" Label="Test0501:" LabelPosition="Left" />
</Tab>
You can also use the TFS Power Tools to export/import WIT definition files or directly modify the files from server:
Visual Studio 2015 : Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
2015 Power Tools
Visual Studio 2017 : TFS Process Template Editor
Reference below screenshot to do that.
Another way is writing an extension to Extend the work item form, you can reference my answer in another thread to do that.

Related

Can we change the default description about the field that appears on hovering the field in vso?

i have 2 questions.
can we remove the default description(field name and type) of a field that appears on hovering the field ? After adding the description to the field, on hovering it some default text is displayed along with the description added.
can we add hyperlink in the desctiption of the field ?
If you are using VSTS (VSO), the answers for both questions are NO since you can only list WIT definitions but can’t change and import into VSTS.
If you are using TFS, the answers are yes for both. You can use witadmin to change a WIT.
With witadmin, you can modify XML definition files to support the
On-premises XML process model. For Hosted XML and Inheritance process
models, you can only use witadmin commands to list information.

Why can't I remove my Allowed Values rule from a custom field in a Work Item Template?

We have two customized Work Item Templates (Bug and Product Backlog Item (PBI)) that both contain a custom field (Change Request Number). In both templates we had added a custom ALLOWEDVALUES rule for that field, where we referenced some globallist.
Now we want to remove that restriction - we want it to be freely editable. So I removed the rule from both templates, imported them, and created both a Bug and Product Backlog Item. I then noticed the Bug working as expected (showing a simple textbox), while the PBI still showed the dropdown list containing the globallist values for that field.
I'm sure I imported the templates correctly, as changing stuff like textlabels does get reflected. What might going on here, and how can I fix the PBI templates as well?
Just tried creating a custom field with ALLOWEDVALUES rule in PBI with TFS PowerTools, then removed the rule. The PBI work item worked as expected.
Removing a rule from a field is an easy operation, I'd like to suggest you install TFS PowerTools to double check the PBI. Also, if the issue only exists in VS, try to clean the cache folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Team Foundation\x.0\Cacheto see whether it is helpful.
By the way, my test environment is TFS2015.3 + VS2015.3.
Apparently you can put rules on states and transitions as well. In this case there was the same Allowed Values rule applied on the "New" state in de PBI template. Removing that one solved my problem.

TFS 2010: Change 'Work Item' type from 'Product Backlog Item' to 'Task' - how to?

I want to change the type of a 'Work Item' in TFS 2010: I entered a Work Item to the Product Backlog (we're using a Scrum template), and then I entered several 'Child' tasks, but I entered them as 'Product Backlog Items'. I should have entered them as 'Tasks'. How can I change them to appear as Tasks - children of the original 'Work Item'.
A previous question: Change TFS Work Item Type
would suggest that this is not simple. Can anyone help?
#PortageMonkey's answer to the question you quote contains pretty much what you need.
As noted you cannot directly change the work item type however there
is a nice shortcut that may save you a lot of time for these
scenarios. It will automatically copy links to change sets, test cases
etc.
Right-click on your work item and select "Create Copy of Work Item"
The following dialog window will pop up where you can then change the work item type for the new item:
Result: A new work item is
created with the new type and the old one automatically added as a
link and a comment added to the history area stating the work item ID
it was copied from.
So, use this feature to copy them and convert them to tasks at the same time by choosing "task" in the copy dialog. Once the copy is done, flag the original item to "removed".
Changing a work item's type is now possible by right-clicking the work item in the web view and choosing Change Type:
Here's the link referenced in the screenshot above.

How to remove hours from Scrum 2.0 template

We are currently using Scrum 2.0 process template from microsoft in new TFS 2012, however we don't use hours as task estimates, we simply count tasks. This is easily archieved by setting each task value as 1 as default and set that field read only in task property form.
However original template uses hours as unit with tasks, so there are are mark "h" all around template. Is there way to get rid of this hour mark since it causes constant confusion? Especially in management.
You can configure how the remaining work is displayed, by modifying the format attribute in the following row in the commonconfiguration.xml file:
<TypeField refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.RemainingWork" type="RemainingWork" format="{0} h" />
By default this attribute is "{0} h", so you can simply set it to "{0}" to fit your needs.
You can download the commonconfiguration.xml file from the server, using the witadmin command:
witadmin exportcommonprocessconfig /collection:http:<your collection> /p:<your project> /f:<the file name>
After editing the file you must import it back into TFS using witadmin command:
witadmin importcommonprocessconfig ...the same parameters as above
Note: with the RC it looks like you must leave a space after the placeholder, like "{0} ", otherwise you will get a validation error, when importing the file. I haven't tried yet with the RTM to see if this has been fixed.
As far as I can tell, all of those h's are hardcoded straight into web access. So the only way to remove them would be to find them (I used Chrome's dev tools), isolate them, and then go into the Web Access pages located on your TFS Server (application tier) and manually remove them. This is because they aren't actually part of any template, so there isn't a way to remove them all at once. The path to the files will be something like
c:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 11.0\Application Tier\Web Services
Good luck, I've had a heck of a time trying to alter them.
You can use TFPT or the WITADMIN command line tool to remove the remaining effort field.
I would suggest however not to remove it, but rather to remove it from the form itself (so that it just doesn't show), and add a rule so that it defaults to 1 and is read-only. Furthermore, in the workflow, add a rule that changes the value to 0 when you reach done.
Since there's no actual meaning to the number itself, the units can be actual hours, ideal hours, story points or whatever you want them to mean. By making each task 1 or 0 (when done), you can make use of TFS' built in tools such as the burndown reports to track your progress. Each task done will reduce the remaining work, and you will be able to keep track of velocity by summing up the effort completed in each iteration (which is the same as counting).

How to add more items to Priority dropdown in TFS work item

I've created TFS project based on MSF for CMMI process template.
For any type of work item I can only select priority between 1 and 3 which is not enough precise for our process.
How can I widen this priority range, so that I have, for example, priorities 1-8 using process explorer UI?
Adding values to TFS Work Item dropdown the GUI way
Install TFS PowerTools
Open Visual Studio
Go to Tools>Process Editor>Work Item Types>Open WIT from Server
Open the WIT that you want to edit
The Work Item Type will have three tabs : Fields, Layout, and Workflow
If you want to edit the dropdown values of field:Priority go to tab Fields.
Double click Priority - a new window opens with 2 tabs: Field Definition and Rules
Under Rules tab you will find ALLOWEDVALUES.
Edit ALLOWEDVALUES to change values or add new ones to the dropdown.
You will need to edit the work item template. To do so, export a copy of the work item template using witexport. Next you will need to make changes to the allowable values, either in XML or by using the Work Item Template Editor included with Team Foundation Server Power Tools. Finally, reimport the updated workitem template using witimport.
Hope that helps.

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