I basically wanted to add a new requirement WIT to my on premise TFS2013, make that WIT show up in the Backlog Items and on the Board and finally, add a user defined field from the new WIT to the Quick Add panel for Backlog Items. The problem I have encountered occured in that last step.
I have added the new WIT to my on premise TFS2013 by:
- exporting the default Product Backlog WIT definition (using the TFS Power Tools integrated with VS2013);
- renaming the WIT in the exported XML file to "BAC";
- adding the following FIELD definition:
<FIELDname="BAC Type"refname="DGC.BacType"type="String"reportable="dimension"><HELPTEXT>Select the appropriate Type</HELPTEXT><ALLOWEDVALUESexpanditems="true"><GLOBALLISTname="Component Type"/></ALLOWEDVALUES></FIELD>- adding a definition for the DGC.BacType field to the FORM section:
<ControlFieldName="DGC.BacType"Type="FieldControl"Label="BAC Type"LabelPosition="Left"/>- adding the values for the "Component Type" to the Global List (exported the GL, added the new list with values and imported the GL again);
- importing the new WIT into TFS.
So far everything works as expected. I can make a new WI based on the new WIT and get the list of values presented for the "BAC Type" field.
Then I added my new WIT "BAC" to the Backlog Items en Board, by:
- exporting the categories.xml from TFS;
- adding my new WIT "BAC" to the RequirementsCategory:
<CATEGORYrefname="Microsoft.RequirementCategory"name="Requirement Category"><DEFAULTWORKITEMTYPEname="Product Backlog Item"/><WORKITEMTYPEname="Bug"/><WORKITEMTYPEname="BAC"/></CATEGORY>- importing the modified categories.xml back into TFS again.
Again all worked as expected. I can now add new instances of the "BAC" WIT through the TFS web access screen, using the Quick Add panel and see them displayed on the Board where I can add Work Items to implement the requirement (basically identical behaviour as with the standard Product Backlog Item WIT).
Then I wanted to add the "BAC Type" field to the Quick Add panel for Backlog Items, so that when you create a new instance of the "BAC" WIT, you can immediately select the correct type.
Based on the Microsoft MSDN documentation I have:
- exported the procesconfiguration.xml from TFS;
- added the DGC.BacType reference to the AddPanel section:
<RequirementBacklogcategory="Microsoft.RequirementCategory"parent="Microsoft.FeatureCategory"pluralName="Backlog items"singularName="Backlog item"><AddPanel><Fields><Fieldrefname="System.Title"/><Fieldrefname="DGC.BacType"/></Fields></AddPanel>But when I try to import the modified procesconfiguration.xml file, I get the error: object reference not set to an instance of an object
I have already investigated the following:
- adding the DGC.BacType reference to other AddPanel sections in the procesconfiguration.xml file: on import it generates errors that the FIELD definition does not exist in any available WIT. I therefor think the reference is in the right section, but something
else goes wrong;
- replace the DGC.BacType reference in the AddPanel section with the System.State reference. Then the State field is displayed in the Quick Add panel as expected.
All the above makes me ask:
- did I miss anything in the configuration?
- can user defined fields not be used in the Quick Add panel for Backlog Items (the MSDN documentation on the topic states that they can however).