Open multiple work items in TFS 2013 Team Web Access - tfs

In TFS 2010 Team Web Access I could open multiple work items and compare them. In TFS 2013 Team Web Access this doesn't appear to be supported. Each time you open a work item it displays in a modal window which makes it impossible to open another work item.
What's the best way to open multiple work items for comparison? Clearly the new TWA was not intended to be used this way.

The easy way is to solve this with the Browser. You can have multiple windows and just copy the URL to a new window. That way you can also use multi-monitor as well.

Related

Linking Work Items from TFS to Visual Studo

I'm trying to add work items from TFS to Visual Studio in the below hierarchy as they are in TFS. Anyone know how to do it?
- EPIC
- Feature
- Requirement
The My Work panel in Visual Studio does not support any hierarchy view. It is a small and simple section with the brief work items description. Just try to imagine a query result with 10 child levels in that window ))
You have to use the Work Items panel and the Queries section.
Unfortunately, this is not available at present.
If you use the new work item tracking with Visual Studio 2017 and above, you may have noticed that work items now open in a browser window by default.
To ensure compatibility with the new process customization capabilities, new controls and the new Work item form options, just you keep Visual Studio open work items in the browser.
So we encourage users to track work items in web portal. Work items in Visual Studio is used to do some simply track. There is no structure to how the work items are listed. Your requirement could not be achieved now. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Is it possible to customize TFS to provide user friendly forms for registering bugs?

I need to let users register bugs similar to how it is done in Bug tracking systems.
I'd like to create user friendly form with a layout which will guide user. Standard Create New Workitem interface is too overloaded for users.
Today we manually look through inbox and register bugs in TFS ourselves. This is really a pain. Users often do not mark the message in subject as a bug. You need to read it to understand user has a problem. Sometimes you need to ask them about the criticality level and what the deadlines for fixing it are.
It is easy to miss important message and this process distracts from main activity.
(Based on you having Visual Studio and having already connected to TFS in there)
In Visual Studio, via the menu, choose Tools > Process Editor > Work Item Types > Open WIT from server
EDIT: You will need to install the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015 Power Tools Extension in Visual Studio to gain access to that menu option above
You will then be presented with a popup box. At this point you will need to navigate to the Project Collection you wish to make changes in. Once selected you will then be presented with a list of forms you can edit. e.g. Task, Bug, Code Review etc.
If you select Task you will then be taken to a form where you will have 3 tabs. Fields, Layout and workflow. From here you have a certain level of customisation available.
I found a couple of articles (below) around customising templates. One is for TFS 2015, the other is for TFS 2013.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2015/12/10/adding-a-custom-field-to-a-work-item.aspx (TFS 2015)
https://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/visual-studio/customizing-team-foundation-server-2013/ (TFS 2013)
NOTE: Menu option Open WIT from server will make changes directly on the server. There are other option where you can make changes locally, then import those changes in. The above is just a way to get you to the screen to customise the forms so that you can take a look around.

Having two TFS Servers

I'd like to know if there is some way to make a checkin on a TFS server associated to a Work Item that's on another.
Currently some of our developers use a TFS that's hosted offshore containing the source code and we need to install another TFS locally to use Work Items as a project management tool and for the rest of our developers.
Beeing able to associate the two (work items + checkins) would be nice but I presume it's not possible.
Thanks
Apparently it's not possible: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsgeneral/thread/d3ddf813-dc13-48a2-808e-7887ddc4d9b1

Paste screenshot into TFS 2010 Web access for bugs

Is there anyway to automatically paste screenshots into TFS 2010 Web access for bugs? I don't want to have to save the screenshots into files and then add them as an attachment. This takes a while to do this. I just want to quickly add them to the bug.
I don't think you can.
See this similar (possibly not identical) question on MSDN forums:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsgeneral/thread/fe8b80c9-8fbd-4d6c-bc65-80d75dd3409b/
In response to:
Now, when adding the task into TFS 2010 , I can use the cupboard to “copy/Paste” from OneNote to TFS. But then the image is stored as a link to my local machine and not stored in TFS server.
The answer was (repeatedly stated):
As I said in my previous reply, we should to add the images as attachment into Work Items. Open Work Item in VS, click Attachments tab, then click Add to browse your images, the images will store in TFS Server.
Or, DIY and write an application
TFS exposes an API that you could use to create your own tool, rather than using their web access. See this question for how to implement that particular piece (adding attachments):
Upload a file using TFS Client APIs
In Visual Studio 2010 you can go to the Attachments Tab and paste your screenshot using CTRL-V.
An attachment called 'screenshot.png' will automatically be created.

Team foundation Server and Work Item

I'm looking for a way to add work items into tfs from the project portal that it creates. Basically we want our helpdesk to be to raise workitems inside of tfs, so we can then track the build etc that there fixed in.
Can anyone shed any light on this?
Microsoft released the Visual Studio Team System Web Access 2008 Power Tool.
Base download
Service pack 1
Team System Web Access SP1 lets you do all the things you can do in Visual Studio in your browser. You can view, create, and edit work items, associate work items with each other and with changesetsand view source, diffs, changeset contents, and branches.
SP1 also includes what was once called TFS Work Item Web Access. Work Item Web Access lets users without TFS licenses submit and view work items through the browser.
With a little SharePoint magic you should be able to frame Team System Web Access within your existing team sites.

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