Modifying TFS Bug states for a specify collection

Posted on: 2014-09-17

If you want to modify workflow state in TFS for a specific collection you must use a command line tool name witadmin. This tool is located in the bin folder of Visual Studio.

 %programfiles(x86)%\\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\\Common7\\IDE 

Here is an example for a collection name TEST. The first command named listwith give you the list of wit type.

 witadmin listwitd /collection:http://yourtfsserver:8080/tfs/yourpath /p:TEST 

This is interesting because if you want to modify the state for the Bug than you have the confirmation with witadmin and listwitd that you will have all type that we can edit, like Bug.

If you want to modify the state you need to export the definition into a XML file. You can apply your modification and then import it into TFS. It is a good practice to keep a version not altered before modifying the wit. In the case the importation goes wrong, you will be able to get it back to its previous state.

 //Get the definition for BUG witadmin exportwitd /collection:http://yourtfsserver:8080/tfs/yourpath /p:TEST /n:BUG /f:"C:\\Code\\FileName.xml" //After your changes, you import back witadmin importwitd /collection:http://yourtfsserver:8080/tfs/yourpath /p:TEST /f:"C:\\Code\\FileName.xml" 

The file that you get from TFS allow you to specify states and transition between them. In the example above, we specify with the switch /n the type of TFS item we want to edit. The list of possible values come from listwitd. It is interesting to note that if you have already used some state that those one will continue to exist in TFS until it goes back to a state defined.

 <WORKFLOW> <STATES> <STATE value="Done"> <FIELDS> <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Scheduling.Effort"> <READONLY /> </FIELD> </FIELDS> </STATE> <STATE value="New (1/4)" /> <STATE value="Resolved (2/4)" /> <STATE value="Deployed (3/4)" /> <STATE value="Closed (4/4)" /> </STATES> <TRANSITIONS> <TRANSITION from="" to="New (1/4)"> <REASONS> <DEFAULTREASON value="Nouveau bug" /> </REASONS> <FIELDS> <FIELD refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.BacklogPriority"> <DEFAULT from="value" value="1000" /> </FIELD> </FIELDS> </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="New (1/4)" to="Resolved (2/4)"> <REASONS> <DEFAULTREASON value="Solve" /> </REASONS> </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="Resolved (2/4)" to="Deployed (3/4)"> <REASONS> <DEFAULTREASON value="Need to be tested" /> </REASONS> </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="Deployed (3/4)" to="Closed (4/4)"> <REASONS> <DEFAULTREASON value="Fixed" /> </REASONS> </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="Deployed (3/4)" to="New (1/4)"> <REASONS> <DEFAULTREASON value="Bug still present" /> </REASONS> </TRANSITION> <TRANSITION from="New (1/4)" to="Closed (4/4)"> <REASONS> <DEFAULTREASON value="Not a real bug" /> </REASONS> </TRANSITION> </TRANSITIONS> </WORKFLOW> 

This is is. After importing your modification into TFS your change will be reflected right after the command line is done.