In a recent post, I talked about wanting a TFS group called ParaPlan_Stud that contained Kyle and myself that we could assign tasks to and view in our "My Work Items". Much thanks goes to Mickey Gousset, who wrote a book that you need to get, for helping me with this.
Here is how we did it:
Created Project Group call ParaPlan_Stud and added Kyle and myself to it.
Edited Task.xml
To access the Task, I had to edit the xml file that defines the task. Using the VS 2005 command prompt, I entered:
witexport /f "C:\Users\thibbard\Desktop\Task.xml" /t <server_name> /p <project_name> /n task
In the exported xml file, I changed the following fields:
<FIELD name="Assigned To" refname="System.AssignedTo" type="String" reportable="dimension">
<SUGGESTEDVALUES>
<LISTITEM value="[Project]\Project Administrators" />
</SUGGESTEDVALUES>
</FIELD>
<TRANSITION from="" to="Active">
<FIELDS>
<FIELD refname="System.AssignedTo">
<ALLOWEDVALUES>
<LISTITEM value="[Project]\ParaPlan_Stud" />
</ALLOWEDVALUES>
<REQUIRED />
</FIELD>
</FIELDS>
</TRANSITION>
<TRANSITION from="Active" to="Closed">
<FIELDS>
<FIELD refname="System.AssignedTo">
<ALLOWEDVALUES>
<LISTITEM value="[Project]\ParaPlan_Stud" />
</ALLOWEDVALUES>
<REQUIRED />
</FIELD>
</FIELDS>
</TRANSITION>
Then to get my new Task.xml file back into TFS, I entered the following into the command prompt
cd c:\users\thibbard\desktop
witimport /f Task.xml /t <server_name> /p <project_name>
After restarting Visual Studio, I was now able to assign tasks to ParaPlan_Stud.
View tasks assigned to ParaPlan_Stud
I now needed to be able to see the tasks assigend to ParaPlan_Stud as well as the one assigned to me in "My Work Items".
1) Right click "My Work Items"
2) Select "View Query"
3) Added a new clause with the following values in their respective fields - "Or" "Assigned To" "=" "ParaPlan_Stud"
4) Close and save
Be notified when tasks are assigned to ParaPlan_Stud
We have an email address (developers@engraph.com) that will go to Kyle and myself. We wanted this email address to be alerted when ParaPlan_Stud got a new task. On the server, I opened a command propmt and browsed to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\TF Setup.
I then entered the following into the command line:
bissubscribe /eventType WorkItemChangedEvent /address developers@engraph.com /server <server_name> /deliveryType EmailHtml /filter "\"PortfolioProject\"='<project_name>' AND (\"CoreFields/StringFields/Field[ReferenceName='System.AssignedTo']/OldValue \" = \"ParaPlan_Stud\" OR \"CoreFields/StringFields/Field[ReferenceName='System.AssignedTo']/NewValue\" = \"ParaPlan_Stud\") AND \"CoreFields/StringFields/Field[ReferenceName='System.AuthorizedAs']/NewValue\" <> \"ParaPlan_Stud\""
Now when a new task is assigned to ParaPlan_Stud, Kyle and I both get emails and we can see the task in "My Work Items" and we can both manage the task. Also, when we get our new developer, we can simply add him to the ParaPlan_Stud group and add his email to our distribution list.
Fun stuff!