How can I add text to a work item - tfs

We have a few bugs and change requests which have a complicated iteration path. This results in people coming over the team to ask 'Where do we raise items' a lot.
As you can't set a default value for the iteration path in TFS 2010 we think the best solution would be to add a string of text under the field which we can manually update every 7 weeks with the correct area to raise items in.
However TFS doesn't seem to allow just a line of text on its work items as a control. Is there a way to add a line of display text i.e. Not a field you edit, but just to inform those writing the items?
Please note that it needs to be visible at all times, using the tooltip 'help text' field on a control is not enough in this case.

You can use the LabelControl for this purpose.
You can not have a default in the work item for the iteration path, but what you can do is making use or the template url in web access or the work item templates in the power tools to create a work item that is prepopulated with values.

What about a custom field with a display control in read-only? You can give a default value to the field and the "read-only" control prevent other to change it.

Related

DateTime of sprint backlog task status change to "Done"

Is there a field in TFS or any way to get the datetime value on which a sprint backlog task was changed to done?
I spotted an AuthorizedDate field but I'm not sure if it's out of the box or not.
Suggestions will be appreciated.
It is possible to get TFS to do this for you if your template isn't already set up to do so.
Start the TFS Process editor (Install TFS power tools if needed), connect to TFS and edit the WIT Task.
Create a new field called (For Example) CompletedDate with a suitable reference name (For example: StackOverFlow.Questions.TaskCompletedDate).
Set it to be of type DateTime.
Next go to the workflow tab and do the following for each of the transitions to the done state:
Right Click, select open details
Select the fields tab, click new.
Enter the reference name of the field you create above (StackOverFlow.Questions.TaskCompletedDate).
Select the Rules Tab and click new.
Select SERVERDEFAULT from the list of rules
On the dialog that appears, set the from field to clock.
Click OK, OK, OK to get back to the workflow.
Save the Work Item Definition.
See:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms194981.aspx
When your work item is set to done the closed date and closed by fields are set automatically.
These fields are part of all of the default templates.
Some of the older 2012 & 2013 templates did not include this for tasks and you would have to adds it', however you should use the out of the box provided fields and not create new ones. If you are reporting in this it's a nightmare if each work item type had its own way of doing things. Use the System.ClosedDate and System.ClosedBy field. You can copy the setup from the PBI or Bug work items..

TFS 2013 - Description HTML Field Can't Be Required

Fellow TFS users and/or junkies,
We are using TFS 2013. When I add required for Description HTML (Microsoft.VSTS.Common.DescriptionHTML), the default value still shows up as "As a I want so that ", THUS it doesn't require the user to fill anything in and it doesn't show up yellow. Sure, I could change the field, but we already have many things linked to Description HTML and can't risk changing the fields (reports and such are already setup). How would I change this so either:
A. It is empty and will show up required OR
B. It requires the user to change the value
Things I tried:
Setting the value to empty. Won't allow me to have both empty AND required.
Setting Default Value to empty. Won't allow me to that either.
Setting Prohibited Values to the default text it has. Not allowed for the field.
Applying a WhenNotChanged rule for the field and setting it to required. It already has a value so it doesn't matter if it's required or not.
I've just looked into a similar tfs machine.
It's just a defined "Default" rule but not in the "Fields" tab but in workflow tab.
In my case, it was in the initial transition rule.
To be specific:
Like you can guess, using Power Tools;
open the work item
go to the "Workflow" tab.
In the designer, double click the (most possibly) first transition element to view its settings
In the window opened, go to the "Fields" tab
If you see "Description" field there, double click it
Remove the "Default" rule
Now, you don't have a default text. You can set it "Required" and it'll be ok.
Close all, go to Fields tab of work item and set a required rule in a way as you expected initially.

run SPD workflow on changes to any field EXCEPT one?

I have a custom list. Each item in the list has 39 fields/columns that need to be filled out and a 40th field that gets filled out by a separate workflow.
I have another workflow that I need to trigger if any of the fields change EXCEPT for one.
Why? Because that field has a custom ID# in it and that field gets populated AFTER the form is submitted. Therefore, there will ALWAYS be a change in the list item. Thus, I need a workflow to trigger when any fields change EXCEPT the one w/ the custom ID#.
Any ideas? Thank you.
No one has been able to answer this but I figured it out myself.
I'm including the answer here in case anyone else ever comes across this and finds it helpful:
Create a new field that you will hide from the your SP list and from NewForm.aspx, EditForm.aspx, and DispForm.aspx.
Using jQuery, populate that hidden field as such: $(":input[Title='fieldName']").val("1");
The using an SPD workflow, check to see if that field = 1. If so, run the workflow. AND at the end of that workflow set the field to 0 - that's important.

Rename work item type fails

In TFS2010/TFSPowerTools2010/Process Explorer I am creating a custom process template. I define a new work item type (WIT) called "Enhancement" copied from the CMMI "Change Request" WIT.
Then I want to rename the friendly field name of the work item type "System.Title" (called "Title") to "Summary".
When I upload my custom process template to the TFS server and create a team project, and then create a new Enhancement, the info in the required field text still shows :
"TF20012: Field "Title" cannot be empty.
Why ?
(I want to see "TF20012: Field "Summary" cannot be empty.)
What you can do is create a new field and make it required. Call it Summary, etc. Change the Title label and textbox from the stock values and point it to your new field. Do not remove the System.Title field from the field list.
In the work flow, use the Summary value to populate the System.Title field, which is not on the form. Then if they try to save without a Summary, they will get the correct error and System.Title will have a valid value for reporting.
Be sure you account for the System.Title field everywhere it is referenced in the work flow.
You aren't able to rename a system field like System.Title. It's used by other work item types across the team project collection and the server instance. It also has to be filled in by the default rules. You can rename the "label" that gets shown to the end user by going to the layout tab of the work item type editor (in the TFS Power Tools) and find the control and change it's label attribute but leave the field the same.
In Visual Studio I was looking at a WinForm and saving the form I got this error:
Microsoft Visual Studio Save failed.
TF20012: Field 'Title' cannot be empty.
OK
Since its a TF error I closed all the Work Items (even unsaved ones...) and then saving the Winform worked.
I am not sure how VS thought the Work Item was the active code window I saw looking at.

Delphi Search Edit Component

I need a delphi component for Delphi 2007 win32 that have features like Google search text box.
** While User writing search key it should fill/refresh the list with values, and user can select one of them.
**User can go up and down list and can select one of them.
**List should contain codes and text pair, so user can select text and I can get code for database operations.
(Google can highlight the search text in List but I think it is not possible with Delphi 2007, so it is not expected.)
I tried Dev Express TcxMRUEdit, however it doesn't meet my needs
Since you have DevExpress, why don't you try the cxLookupComboBox in lsEditMode and with ImmediateDropDown = True?
Check out woll2woll components. The TLookupcombobox has done this since Delphi 3 (or earlier). This is not spam, I just use the library.
http://www.woll2woll.com/
I also had the same problem and unfortunately didn't find a suitable component. I was also inspired from google.
So it turned out to be easier for me to "simulate a component" by using an editbox and a grid placed under it. As the user types something in the editbox the query refreshes and the proper resulst are shown in the grid. I have many columns in the grid, the query results try to match all the fields (so if I type 'po', the query will return all records where any field is like 'po%'). I also added a delay of 500ms after the user types to avoid to run too many unnecessary queries (another aproach could be to kill the thread as the user strikes a new key, if the query is run in a thread).
In this way I obtained the required functionality, even if without higlighting the search text, anyway my users are delighted by this.
In every place I am using this "component" I am attaching a query at runtime so it can be used in many different forms.
I somehow was also inspired by the skype UI: when you display the lsit of contacts you can type something and the contacts will be filtered accordingly (skype uses an editbox + grid/listbox).

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