Is it possible to restrict the ability to reorder items via drag-and-drop when viewing the Product Backlog in TFS2012? We want only certain groups to have the ability to reorder PBIs using the drag-and-drop functionality in Team Web Access.
You should be able to edit the backlog xml file and make it the backlog priority field readonly for particular groups of users.
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsprocess/thread/86635b29-be54-4c26-b918-0244f9d502c1/
That probably wont stop you dragging them around, but it will likely error and not save if they do.
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I have two separate branches created for a project with two users - each user only has access to their branch.
I have created the project backlog items, however each user when logged into Visual Studio Online can see the backlog items - which is ok. However once one user completes an item in their branch, I don't want that item to affect the other user's ability to continue working on that item.
I want to test how each developer creates a new UI on their respective branches. Essentially the work is the same, but the way they implement would be different.
For example, an item may be "Update website front page".
Essentially I want them both to do the same thing but on their own branch. Can we separate backlog items by branch?
Sounds like you have some crazy Hunger Games development scenario going on and as Daniel said, better to develop in one branch and merge to the other.
However, if you want to restrict Work Items across Teams or TFS Groups then you can restrict the Area Path. So, either set up a team for each developer or simply create an Area Path for each branch and set security on it.
Have a look at Customize area and iteration paths and the section on "Set permissions to restrict access to work items"
I need to know if any API are available to automate the backlog order. Since its cumbersome to drag and drop when PBI is very large.
The rest api's for this are currently not available however you can update the "Backlog Priority" field from your application of choice. I have, in the past, used excel to bulk move items around when the backlog I large. If you have Team Explorer installed you can use the Team tab on Excel to connect to your backlog query and reorder to your hearts content.
In 2013.4 Microsoft have updated the backlog to allow a right-click "move to top" and "move to position x" to remove the need for what you are trying to do.
I am setting up a tfs 2013 environnement,
In a Scrum team project, we would like a few users to be able to create backlog items and tasks, but we would like that other users to only be able to change the task their are assigned. Or at least we would like that these users can modify existing tasks, while not being able to create new one, or move them to other sprints
at this time, with the security parameters i have found, i can only either allow a user to do everything (create and move a backlog items from a sprint to another, modify it, delete it...), or nothing (if you can't create or move, you also can't modify an existing one...)
any clue how i could proceed ?
We have custom work item types and we prevent users from creating certain work items by editing the WIT's xml and including this in the transition between nothing and the "New" state. [global]\TeamSystem-TaskCreation is a TFS security group with a limited set of members.
<TRANSITION from="" to="New" for="[global]\TeamSystem-TaskCreation">
There is no real way to do this I'm afraid. TFS does not have many fined grained access controls, the impression I get is that it is designed to empower people and not restrict them.
You should be able to ask people not to change tasks, if that is your way, and use the Work Item History and/or Alerting functionality to know when they have done something you don't want them to. For example, and task changes not by approved people sends and e-mail to the leads.
We're using team system to control our developement (product backlog items, sprint backlog items etc). It's a pretty nice tool but we wanted to allow other users to be able add bugs and new feature suggestions WITHOUT letting them mess with the actual development bits.
I can set these guys up so they add the work items they need but I can't see a way to block access to the bits I don't want them to edit/view. Has anyone else seen this? Has anyone found a solution?
Are you using TFS 2010? If so, you can simply add them to the Work Item View Only Users group. This will grant them access to create new work items and to view/edit any work items they've created (but not others). Check out this link for instructions.
In TFS whats the easiest way of linking a backlog item to a large number of other backlog items, without doing them one at a time?
I do not have access to the underlying database so am unable to write a query to do it.
I put together a GUI tool that helps do this.
It is called WI Assistant.
It can be found here: http://wiassistant.codeplex.com/
I'd stay away from the SQL Query. Instead, I'd either use the API or Web Services. Here's an example API call to retrieve and edit a work item:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb130323.aspx
You could modify that to add the links. Would be much safer, easier, and much more supported than going directly to the database.
Depends on your definition of easy, but you could write a SQL Update linking the backlog item(s) to the correct backlog items.
(If there is no field in the backlog item to connect it to another backlog item, you would have to extend backlog item and the views showing them yourself)