{"id":56529,"date":"2013-02-15T07:53:50","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T15:53:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/?p=56529"},"modified":"2019-05-06T07:54:47","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T15:54:47","slug":"multivaluelist-control-in-tfs-work-item-tracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/multivaluelist-control-in-tfs-work-item-tracking\/","title":{"rendered":"Multivaluelist control in TFS Work Item Tracking"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the top asks from people in the field is to have the ability to have a dropdown in which you can select multiple values. Few people know that there is already a solution out on CodePlex, although it has its limitation. But it might be just good enough for what you are looking for.<\/p>\n

Since the data is stored in the format “[value1];[value2]”, and the data is backed by a field that stores only 255 characters, you can quickly run into a character limit when have long values in the dropdown and\/or select a lot of options. And because of this storage only limited query and reporting capabilities are available.<\/p>\n

To enable the solution, you need to follow these three steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Update your work item type definitions using witadmin<\/a> or the process template editor<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. Install the control for TFS Web Access<\/li>\n
  3. Install the control on all clients that run VS<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In the blog post I will add a field called OS to list the different platforms a bug applies to.<\/p>\n

    Update your work items<\/h3>\n

    Export the work item type “Bug” with the command<\/p>\n

    \n

    witadmin exportwitd \/collection:http:\/\/<your server>:8080\/tfs\/defaultcollection \/p:<your team project> \/n:Bug \/f:<your path>\\Bug.xml<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Open the exported Bug.xml file in notepad.<\/p>\n

    Locate the <FIELDS> section and add the field OS:<\/p>\n

    \n

    <FIELD name=”Platform” refname=”Microsoft.OS” type=”String”>
      <HELPTEXT>Platform bug was found on<\/HELPTEXT>
      <SUGGESTEDVALUES expanditems=”true”>
        <LISTITEM value=”[Vista]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[Win7]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[Win8]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[All OS’s]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[XP]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[Win2K3]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[Win2K8]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[Win2K8 R2]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[WP8]” \/>
        <LISTITEM value=”[Win8Svr]” \/>
      <\/SUGGESTEDVALUES>
    <\/FIELD><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    In the FORM section locate the control where the new field should be placed beneath. In this example, I want to place the control below the Iteration Path, so I search for <Control FieldName=”System.IterationPath”. Now paste the following text:<\/p>\n

    \n

    <Control FieldName=”Microsoft.OS” Type=”FieldControl” PreferredType=”MultiValueControl” Label=”OS” LabelPosition=”Left” \/><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    It tells the system to use the MultiValueControl when it is available, but if a client does not have the control installed, it will fallback to the default FieldControl, which is the textbox.<\/p>\n

    Save the file and upload it to your server with the command<\/p>\n

    \n

    witadmin importwitd \/collection:http:\/\/<your server>:8080\/tfs\/defaultcollection \/p:<your team project> \/f:<your path>\\Bug.xml<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Install control on Web Access<\/h3>\n

    For the next step, you need to download the custom WIT controls from codeplex: http:\/\/witcustomcontrols.codeplex.com<\/a>. Extract the downloaded zip, which should contain two files.<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Go to the Extentions page in Web Access, which you find with the url: <a href="http:\/\/:8080\/tfs\/_admin\/_extensions”>:8080\/tfs\/_admin\/_extensions”>:8080\/tfs\/_admin\/_extensions”>http:\/\/<yourserver>:8080\/tfs\/_admin\/_extensions<\/a> (or go to the Administration section, click on Control panel in the top navigation and choose the Extension hub).<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Click Install and locate the file WitCustomControls.MultiValueControl.zip.<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    And click Enable.<\/p>\n

    Navigate to the Home page and create a new bug, and you will see the control:<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Install control for Visual Studio<\/h3>\n

    If a user has not installed the control on his machine (s)he will get the default dropdown, because we have used the PreferredType attribute<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    If you however run the msi that comes with the downloaded file from CodePlex, you will see the correct control in VS too.<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    When you have selected multiple options with the dropdown, users that have not installed the control are still able to modify the data<\/p>\n

    \"image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Final words<\/h3>\n

    Although it has its limitations, it might be just good enough for you. If you are using our service (http:\/\/tfs.visualstudio.com<\/a>) or don’t want to deal with the customization or the limitations, a good alternative good be to use the Tags that we have announced: http:\/\/blogs.msdn.com\/b\/bharry\/archive\/2013\/01\/30\/announcing-visual-studio-2012-update-2-vs2012-2.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of the top asks from people in the field is to have the ability to have a dropdown in which you can select multiple values. Few people know that there is already a solution out on CodePlex, although it has its limitation. But it might be just good enough for what you are looking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":45953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devops"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

    One of the top asks from people in the field is to have the ability to have a dropdown in which you can select multiple values. Few people know that there is already a solution out on CodePlex, although it has its limitation. But it might be just good enough for what you are looking […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}