Planet SCM

One of the new features we've added to TSWA for the SP1 release is the ability to create URLs that are effectively work item templates by virtue of the fact that they have the values for the work items embedded in the URL itself.

Since constructing these URLs manually is really painful, we have an icon on the work item editor when you are creating a new work item that creates the URL and places it in the Windows clipboard.

Bring up the new work item form, fill in whatever values you want to get automatically set each time you use the URL, and then click the "globe with chain link" icon below the Save button.

Then you’ll get a pop-up message like this letting you know the template URL is now in the clipboard.

When you paste the contents of the clipboard, you'll get a link like this.

http://myserver:8090/UI/Pages/WorkItems/WorkItemEdit.aspx?pname=Orcas&wit=Orcas%20Bug&[System.Title]=Bug%20Bash%3A&[System.AreaPath]=Orcas%5CBuild%5CTeam%20Build&[System.IterationPath]=Orcas%5CRosario%5CBeta&[Microsoft.VSTS.Dogfood.IssueType]=Code%20Defect&[Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Severity]=2&[Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Priority]=2&[Microsoft.VSTS.Common.OpenBuild]=21022.08&[Microsoft.VSTS.Dogfood.OpenedBranch]=Orcas%20RTM&[Microsoft.VSTS.Dogfood.HowFound]=Dogfooding&[Microsoft.VSTS.Dogfood.Source]=Development&[Microsoft.VSTS.Dogfood.ProductUnit]=TFS&[Microsoft.VSTS.Dogfood.TeamLevel1]=Team%20Build&[Microsoft.VSTS.Dogfood.Blocking]=Not%20Blocking

That link will create a new Orcas Bug work item in the Orcas team project that I can use to quickly file a bug on the TFS Build feature.

• Title starts with "Bug Bash:"
• Area Path is "Orcas\Build\Team Build"
• Iteration Path is "Orcas\Rosario\Beta"
• Issue Type is "Code Defect"
• Severity is "2"
• Priority is "2"
• Build is "21022.08"
• Branch is "Orcas RTM"
• How Found is "Dogfooding"
• Source is "Development"
• Product Unit is "TFS"
• Team Level 1 is "Team Build"
• Blocking is "Not Blocking"

With all of that filled in automatically, all I need to do after clicking the link is fill in the Description and Repro Steps.  That's a lot faster!

Previous tip: TSWA tip: Copy a bug to quickly file a new bug in an area related to the original

Ed Blankenship asked a question recently regarding having multiple languages supported by the same TSWA instance. Hakan provided the answer, and both of them blogged it.

• Hakan Eskici : Serving all languages of TSWA from a single server
• Ed Squared - Multiple Localized Team System Web Access Sites

Please note that this is not a supported configuration (i.e., that means we didn't test it, it could cause problems with uninstalling, etc.).

Like Team Explorer, Team System Web Access does not support work item templates yet (though you can get a power tool work item template add-in for Team Explorer 2005 -- look for power tools for TFS 2008 in December).  However, you can use the "Create Copy of Work Item" feature to copy a work item that's similar to the one you want to file.  Then you only need to change the information that's different for the new bug and save it.

To do this, click the triangle beside the work item you want to copy and choose "Create Copy of Work Item" from the popup menu.  This particular feature is not available from the Tools menu on the tool bar, unlike "Add Related Work Item" which shows up in both places.

Clicking on "Create Copy of Work Item" will present you with a list of team projects.  The list of work item types are shown in the next menu when you click on a team project.

Once you choose the work item type, the new work item will open in a new window with all of the fields filled in from the original work item (if you choose a different work item type than the original, only fields that appear in the original will be filled in for the new work item).  Change the fields that need to be different and save the work item to finish creating the new one.

Previous tip: TSWA tip: Send an email with a work item or query results

Let's say you're going through your bugs and want to ask someone a question about one of them.  You can use Team System Web Access to send that person an email containing all of the work item's information and a link to it.

To email a work item, open the work item in TSWA.  Go to the Tools menu shown below and choose Send as Email.

You'll get a new window where you can enter the person's full email address and type a message.  The message body contains a link to the work item in Team System Web Access and all of the work item's fields and contents.

You can also email query results.  As with the work item above, go to the Tools menu and choose Send as Email.

You'll then get a similar email window that contains the results of the query and a link so that the email recipient can run the same query.

Enjoy!

Have you ever wanted a quick way to find the bugs containing some word?  Team System Web Access comes to your rescue.

In the upper left corner underneath the team project selector, there is a search box.  Type in a word and hit Enter.  If you want to search for a phrase rather than a single word, simply enclose it in quotation marks (e.g., "team build" or "team foundation server").  Without the quotation marks, you'll be searching for all work items having all of those words (e.g., entering "team build" without quotation marks finds all work items containing both the word "team" and the word "build" rather than just the phrase "team build").

Here I'm searching for all work items containing the word "tfsbuild" that are in the Orcas team project.  This will find tfsbuild, tfsbuild.exe, tfsbuild.proj, etc.

Here are the results.  In this case I've found 65 bugs.  Had there been any reports containing that word in the title or description, each would have been listed as well (e.g., we have 17 reports in Orcas containing the word "feature").

In case you are thinking that it's only searching the titles, I've highlighted two work items below that don't have the term "tfsbuild" in the title but do contain it in another field (Repro Steps or History, in this case).

Enjoy!

[Update 11/9/07]  I've corrected the difference between searching for a phrase in quotation marks and a set of words in a work item.