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.
Related
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..
I ran into some issues with TFS 2013 when I noticed some work items fields with the
<Required>
tag are highlighted when empty (shows up as yellow) but some are not highlighted. I don't seem to be able to find the reason as to why this is, the only difference I saw between the fields were that the types are different. Some are "string' and some are "HTML".
Is this because TFS can not highlight fields with data type "HTML"?
If someone can help me clarify this it'll be greatly appreciated.
I believe this is by design but the reason for such behavior is not the field type but control type you use to display it on work item form.
I've just checked on my local TFS instance that when I make System.Description field (which is HTML) read-only and then add FieldControl to display it on the form (instead of HtmlFieldControl) I get the same behavior as with System.Title (which is of type String). Now System.Description field control is highlighted when it's empty.
Here's the control I used to check it:
<Control FieldName="System.Description" Type="FieldControl" ControlFontSize="large" />
I believe your assumption to be correct, the type of field will affect TFS's ability to highlight the field when required.
Your users should get an error message if they try to save WI with an empty Required field regardless of field type though.
I added a custom field (Test Prime) in TFS. Since I wanted a drop down of valid TFS users, I copied the setup of the Assigned To control (String, Dimension, ALLOWEXISTINGVALUE, VALIDUSER, and SYNCNAMECHANGES). I want to be able to set up an alert triggered when:
Test Prime Changes to [Me] or Test Prime Changes from [Me]
but "[Me]" or "#Me" does not seem to grab the current user. It's under the drop down menu of Assigned To so I don't see why I can't get access to this variable. Is it because this is for a non-core field and [Me] is only available for core fields? If yes, is there a workaround because I haven't been able to find any.
set the syncnamechanges="true" in the custom field definition. If the workitem template cannot be uploaded, use the witadmin tool to update the syncnamechanges attribute.
in the alert rule, use ##MyDisplayName## placeholder instead of [Me] or #Me.
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.
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.