I need to migrate Work Items from one TFS server to another TFS server. I tried migrating them using the TFSMigration tool available in CodePlex.
The problem I am encountering is the schema for the work item on the source TFS is different from the schema of the work item type on destination. I don't want the destination TFS server schema for the work item to be modified. The change in schema is one new column only, but still don't want to take that change.
In one blog it was said that we can do that using Excel but not much details were available. I am not sure we can even use Excel to migrate the entire history related to Excel.
Have a look at the TFS Integration Tools on VS gallery. This supports custom field mappings as part of a migration, documentation here (direct download).
I did this a while back and, not finding an appropriate tool, resorted to copying the title and description etc across manually, as we only had a few active work items at the time, so it only took about an hour.
however, if I need to do it again, I'll use the TFS API to read fields of interest and write them to the new database. that way any schema differences don't matter, and the process is automated but under your control. Search for studying work items with the TFS API for details - it's really very easy.
Of course with both of these approaches (and all the migration tools AFAIK) you will only get a snapshot of the data - all history will be lost (or at best you can query using AsOf to get historical data, but all the entries you make will be timestamped at the moment you write them, not with the historical time that the event originally occurred.)
You can use the Excel editor to edit the source query All Items "Open Query in Microsoft Excel". Then open the destination query All Items "Open Query in Microsoft Excel". Copy and paste the contents from one excel window to the other. Certain fields like attachments will not transfer.
Related
I use excel for reporting from TFS, but one day after publishing, the structure of epics and features was destroyed and now all user stories belong to an incorrect feature, resulting in a mess. I think the problem was that I ordered the list before I publish it.
I have tried to publish all again from a correct excel file backup, but this did not work the parents are not corrected.
Any help will be very appreciated
There is no easy way to fix this. When a tree structure is sorted in Excel, all work items will be re-linked to their new parent based on their indentation.
To undo, you have a few options:
Restore the Team Foundation Server Project Collection from backup. This will revert EVERYTHING (sources, builds, tests, work items etc) to the point in time of the backup.
Restore the Team Foundation Server from backup to a new instance. Extract the original parent/child tree structure in Excel, push the correct structure to the production TFS server.
With the original Excel file, you could try copying the data from it into the current (messed up) excel file and publish that again.
Use a PowerShell or C# based automation to iterate through each work item's history (revision), find the revision that was created at the time you made the update and relink the item to the correct parent based on the historical data. See:
https://oshamrai.wordpress.com/2018/09/11/vsts-rest-api-2-get-work-items/
https://oshamrai.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/azure-devops-services-rest-api-7-add-and-edit-work-item-links/
You can use the Team Foundation Server Client Object Model to access the Work Item data stores.
With newly released Webi there's no way to manipulate reports with VBA like it was in DESKI era.
I'd like to know if there's a way for me to click a button with parameters in Excel sheet and get a report from the server?
I've been thinking of using the RESTful Web-services but it seems that there is a performance problem.
I also considered using a JAVA app in the middle using the SDK but it's not really satisfying as I add one layer.
Do you know if there's an other way to download a Webi report from and to Excel?
For this type of requirement, you'd normally use the OpenDocument feature. There is one thing that it won't do however, at least not for Webi documents, and that is deliver the output in Excel format (HTML and PDF are the two possible formats for Webi). In all fairness, the export to Excel option is only about two or three clicks away, but I can understand that this wouldn't be an ideal solution.
Another option is the Java SDK, which I would not recommend, as the ReBEAN SDK (the part of the Java SDK you need to interface with Webi documents) is deprecated and replaced by the REST SDK.
The REST SDK would be the way to go if the OpenDocument feature is not sufficient. Keep in mind that this would involve quite a few steps, each time sending a command to the WACS server and then decoding the answer. The steps would be:
Authenticate and get a logon token
Refresh the document (if necessary pass prompt values)
Export the document to Excel
Close the document
The REST interface is only supported on the WACS server, which should run on your BI4 server (unless you have a customised landscape). If it's slow, I would suggest looking into the root cause of this performance issue, instead of discarding the SDK altogether.
If you're going to use the REST interface, I would recommend opting for JSON to communicate through REST instead of XML. It's easier to read and parse.
A last option, which I wouldn't recommend, is LiveOffice. This is a separate product which allows you to embed contents from Webi documents into Office documents (most notably Excel). LiveOffice has always had its share of problems and has not received much love from SAP regarding much needed updates.
One final thought: the report will never appear in the same sheet, at least not without an additional amount of coding. Whatever SDK you end up choosing, you will always end up with an Excel file. If you want to show the results in the Excel file you started from, you'll need to code the steps to open the generated file, grab the contents and then copy those to your worksheet.
We have an application to track work orders (hundreds of thousands) built on an Oracle database. Data entry is cumbersome and report features non-existent. IT is inflexible. We do not get support from that end. Accordingly, users have created Excel "tools" to run queries and make sense of data using ADO or ODBC connections.
What we also need is a way to record comments on specific work order (WO) records and have those comments travel with those records somehow. There are multiple users using their own spreadsheets, all querying the same database.
I'm envisioning a junction-table approach, perhaps using Access, where some VBA could take a users comment from the row in the worksheet, capture the WO number, user id, date, and comment text and store it in an Access table. Those fields could then be retrieved by some more code. This would allow any user to see all comments by any other user related to a specific WO.
I'd greatly appreciate feedback ... on the practicality, preferable constructive, but brutally honest is ok too.
Much thanks,
Kevin
Apart from this being a horrible mess you could:
use SQL Server instead of access - you can get a free copy that will probably cater for your needs. Access will also work, but it is bodge. SQL server is more professional!
I would avoid doing data entry in excel. You could build a front end (possibly in Access with SQL Server backend) that allows data entry. You could add pretty simple code to all your workbooks, which will probably reference code that will be in an excel addin. The addin has code to simply open an access database, open a form and find the WO that the user was viewing in excel.
2a. Or you could use an excel addin with a data entry form, to do data entry, but beware managing the locking, refreshing and update of displayed data.
Creating excel addins is easy, (re-)distributing them is easy, access (or whatever front end you use) is designed to do record management (ie lock and update or lock and cancel or just view) etc.... Plus you want to avoid addinghte same or similar code to all your workbooks.
Each users workbook would have very simple code. Just to tell the addin what WO you want to operate on.
Do you have sharepoint? If so Access 2013 can deliver forms as webpages - very easily, so you might not even have to manage a front end access file.
Happier now?
For those that may stumble on this post, what we ended up doing was use VBA to store comments in a separate SQL database. Users double click the cell with the WO number to get an input form prompting for comments with options to add new, append or remove existing. Entries are passed to the SQL db and also to columns in the worksheet so users can see all the entries. Time stamp/Network ID provides when/who provided comment. Existing comments are fetched when users re-open file. Works great.
I'm using Visual Studio Team Services (previously Team Foundation Service, not Team Foundation Server) and I need to migrate a team project process template from Agile to Scrum.
Doe anyone know how to do it?
There are a couple of different ways to go about this, depending on what you want at the end. Most importantly, there is no way to change the process template from one to the other inside a Team Project, so you'll have to create a new Team Project with the Scrum Template to migrate to.
If you want history & attachments:
Then you need to use the TFS Integration Platform. You'll create a xml mapping to flow the work items and source code from one project to the other. There are quite a few issues with going this direction including, history is compressed, the tool is notoriously finicky, shared steps (and other things) don't migrate and more. This is definitely not the recommended option, but sometimes you don't have a choice. Here's where to get the tool: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/eb77e739-c98c-4e36-9ead-fa115b27fefe
If don't need history, or can keep the other Team Project around: For this method, moving the code is easy (it's even easier if you've got a Git project, and you'll get history. Use the git-tf functionality to move your source to Git). Just check out from one repository, switch your workspace mapping and check in to the new repository.
To move your work items, use work item queries and export them to Excel. Then copy/paste into a second Excel spreadsheet and upload them to the new Project. This is by far the easiest method. Here's a detailed explanation:
1) From Agile template project: for each work item type that you want to move, create a work item query to pull all the ones you want and export them all to Excel (for example a query to pull all requirements and another for tasks)
2) From the Scrum template project: create a work item query for each work item type that you want to import and export it to Excel. It's going to be blank, but you're going to use this Excel spreadsheet to upload in a minute.
3) Copy/past from one Excel spreadsheet to the other, being careful to NOT copy column headers. A neat trick is to copy the History column from the old project into the Comments field in the new project.
4) Publish the results. Viola, you're migrated.
I have a system with an Excel spreadsheet template file which is used for invoicing. I would like the user to be able to click a button on an Xpage, which will then open the spreadsheet and enter the latest invoicing data in Excel. I don't mind if Excel is either the application on their machine or on the server, but my preference would be the application locally on their machine.
I've looked into Xagents, as I feel this is probably the answer. I know they can be used to create Excel but I have not been able to locate any mention of opening an Excel file, and entering data into specific cells.
Is this possible?
EDIT: you can use Apache POI for editing and creating Microsoft Office documents. This is a java project which gives you a handle to office documents and this can be used using java.
A good starting point can be the blog of Christian Guedemann from webgate:
http://guedebyte.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/documents-and-spreadsheets-with-xpages-building-the-kernel-part-ii/
(end of edit)
The only way I KNOW and tried to write data from Notes to Excel is exporting the data to an HTML page and setting the Content Type accordingly (e. g. as described here (there are a lot more resources available for taht):
http://www.dominoguru.com/pages/developer2010_xpagexlsexport.html
I am not sure if this is of help but it seems that this project can help you:
http://www.openntf.org/internal/home.nsf/project.xsp?action=openDocument&name=ZK%20Spreadsheet%20for%20XPages
As far as I can see this project can load Excel files from XPages - and then it should also be possible to edit the files.
Besides that the only solution I can think of is a Notes Agent that is called from the XPage. This agent can then run in background and do all the excel stuff. After running, the XPage can show a link to the Excel file. Actually this is the solution I would consider to implement - but maybe others step in with better answers here.
You don't want to introduce a dependency on Excel in your application -- wouldn't work with an iPad front-end. Rather have a look at the ZK Spreadsheet, it will fulfill your needs.
However if you have to have Excel, then you need a roundtrip solution: load the Excel from an URL (probably generated by an XAgent (?) and save it back. The saving back part is the tricky one. Normal HTTP doesn't allow that. What you need there is a webDAV capable server. Watch out for a project on OpenNTF soon (just clearing IBM legal) that provides webDAV.
However the ZK Spreadsheet looks much better for your needs.
I have a sample database at the following URL --> http://www.nnsu.com/nnsusite.nsf/%24%24OpenDominoDocument.xsp?documentId=B65507CB2DE15B3286257986005F061D&action=openDocument
Download the APCC.nsf. This will allow you to create/read a new EXCEL spreadsheet and then stream the resulting file to the requesting browser. There is not need to have EXCEL or office installed on the Server.
THe examples create a new workbook, but you can also store a "template" on the server or in a notes document and use it as a starting point and then save it to a document or stream it to the requesting browser.
With Apache POI you can read/write to a spreadsheet using data from the notes document the process is initiated from.