Teams WIT Tools : FAQ

FAQ #8: Is there a way to clear a field when another field changes?

sbhatia — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 07:00:09 GMT

Another question posed recently on an internal alias.

The answer from Naren Datha:

</WHEN>

FAQ #7: Can I combine a list of valid TFS users and a fixed list to present as an option for an "Assigned To" field?

sbhatia — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:55:41 GMT

This question came in on an internal alias.

The answer from Naren Datha:

</ALLOWEDVALUES>

FAQ #6: How do I change the frequency that the reporting warehouse updates?

sbhatia — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:34:26 GMT

This tip comes from Markus Hain:

The default update frequency is 3600 seconds (1 hour), below are the steps to change the time.

1. Log on to the application tier of Team Foundation Server.

2. Start Internet Explorer.

3. In the Internet Explorer Address box, type http://localhost:8080/Warehouse/v1.0/warehousecontroller.asmx.

4. On the ControllerService page, click ChangeSetting.

5. In the settingID box, type RunIntervalSeconds.

6. In the newValue box, type the new number of seconds, and then click Invoke.

This opens a confirmation web page which indicates that the RunIntervalSeconds setting was changed.

FAQ #5: How do I destroy work items or work item types?

sbhatia — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:39:10 GMT

In order to destroy work items or work item types, you'll need TFS 2008 and you'll need the TFS 2008 Power Tools.

There are two commands:

DestroyWI: You can use this to destroy one or more work items.

DestroyWITD: You can use this to destroy an entire work item type -- this means, you are destroying every work item of that type and the type itself.

Please note: Destroy means that you are permanently removing all trace of this work item/work item type from the operational store. The work item data will still remain in the reporting warehouse.

FAQ #4: How do you change to format of a date on a work item?

sbhatia — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:29:25 GMT

Recently, we were asked: A customer wants to format the dates in the Work Item to the format of DDMMMYYY (e.g. 05Feb2008) instead of the standard MMDDYYYY (e.g. 02032008)

This answer comes from Aliaksei Baturytski on our team:

You can change the way date/time fields appear on the form by using DateTimeControl control type in the form definition XML with the following attributes:

Type: DateTimeControl

Format: Long/Short/Time/Custom (members of DateTimePickerFormat enumeration)

CustomFormat: custom format for the date field.

By setting format to “Custom” and specifying your format you can achieve what you want. However, please be aware that customization has effect only on the work item form; you cannot change appearance of the date/time fields in the results list of a query.

FAQ #3: How do I find the location of the OLAP cube?

sbhatia — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:49:00 GMT

I've heard this one a couple of times and asked it myself a couple of times. When I use Excel to do an analysis of the project data, I need to connect to the OLAP cube (Data->From Other Sources->From Analysis Services). I get a dialog that asks the address of the database server. Here's a tip on how to find the address (this comes from Doug Mortensen on our team):

Note: If you don't see the video below, try a refresh of the page. It should turn up then.

Thanks,

-Siddharth

FAQ #2: How do I enforce a rule on Area Path or Iteration Path?

sbhatia — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:13:00 GMT

I saw a question on this recently and thought it would be good to contribute to the FAQ that Gregg started:

Incidentally, this solution is from Gregg too :-)

<FIELD name="Iteration Path - Validation" refname="MyFields.IterationPathValidation" type="String">
   <HELPTEXT>Hidden field used to validate Iteration Path</HELPTEXT>
   <WHEN field="System.IterationId" value="XX">
    <COPY from="value" value="Restricted" />
   </WHEN>
   <PROHIBITEDVALUES not = "[project]\Project Administrators">
    <LISTITEM value="Restricted"/>
   </PROHIBITEDVALUES>
</FIELD>

Where XX is the Iteration ID of the root level node. Change Iteration to Area for Area Path field. So if you want to prevent users specifying just root node as AreaPath or IterationPath, put the project name (root) there and users will get an error message that "Iteration Path - Validation has invalid value.

Note: This will work for Area Path as well.

-Siddharth

FAQ #1: How do you display a field twice on the same WIT form?

Gregg Boer — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:14:00 GMT

Many times I get asked questions, either via forums, in person, email, whatever. Sometimes, I answer the question several times. What I'm going to start doing is posting FAQ entries on this blog as I encounter these questions. Hopefully, you'll find them useful.

One question I get is, how do you display a field more than once on the same form? The scenario I've heard described is that the form has multiple tabs, and they'd like to show the same field on multiple tabs. If you just specify the field name, WIT gives you an error.

Here's the work around:

In the form section of the WIT you see lots of <Control> elements. An optional attribute of a <Control> element is Name – which in effect allows the WIT author to give each physical control a unique control name. If it doesn’t exist then TFS will assign a default control name. However if the same field is on the form multiple times, that default causes an error. You can workaround the error by explicitly naming the control and giving each instance of the control a unique name. (See underlined portion in XML below)

<Control Name="DateStart2ndInstance" Type="FieldControl" FieldName="Microsoft.DeveloperDivision.Features.DateStart" Label="Date: Start" LabelPosition="Left" />