Extend the work item form

TFS 2018

Learn how to customize how the work item form gets presented to users via contributions that are made through an extension.

• Add a group to the main page
• Add a page (tab)
• Add an action to the context menu
• Add a custom control
• Listen for events on the form
• Configure contributions in work item form

See the UI example in the Azure DevOps Extension Samples on GitHub for the full source.

Add a group

To add a group to the main page, add a contribution to your extension manifest. The type of this contribution should be ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form-group and it should target the ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form contribution.

"contributions": [
   {  
       "id": "sample-work-item-form-group",
       "type": "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form-group",
       "description": "Custom work item form group",
       "targets": [
           "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form"
       ],
       "properties": {
           "name": "My Group",
           "uri": "workItemGroup.html",
           "height": 600
       }
   }
]

Properties

JavaScript sample

This example shows how to register an object that's called when events occur on the work item form that may impact your contributed group. Please see WorkItemFormGroup Sample for more examples.

import { IWorkItemFormService, WorkItemTrackingServiceIds } from "azure-devops-extension-api/WorkItemTracking";
import * as SDK from "azure-devops-extension-sdk";

// Get the WorkItemFormService.  This service allows you to get/set fields/links on the 'active' work item (the work item
// that currently is displayed in the UI).
async function getWorkItemFormService()
{
    const workItemFormService = await SDK.getService<IWorkItemFormService>(WorkItemTrackingServiceIds.WorkItemFormService);
    return workItemFormService;
}

// Register a listener for the work item group contribution after initializing the SDK.
SDK.register(SDK.getContributionId(), function () {
    return {
        // Called when the active work item is modified
        onFieldChanged: function(args) {
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onFieldChanged - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        },
        
        // Called when a new work item is being loaded in the UI
        onLoaded: function (args) {

            getWorkItemFormService().then(function(service) {            
                // Get the current values for a few of the common fields
                service.getFieldValues(["System.Id", "System.Title", "System.State", "System.CreatedDate"]).then(
                    function (value) {
                        $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onLoaded - " + JSON.stringify(value)));
                    });
            });
        },
        
        // Called when the active work item is being unloaded in the UI
        onUnloaded: function (args) {
            $(".events").empty();
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onUnloaded - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        },
        
        // Called after the work item has been saved
        onSaved: function (args) {
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onSaved - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        },
        
        // Called when the work item is reset to its unmodified state (undo)
        onReset: function (args) {
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onReset - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        },
        
        // Called when the work item has been refreshed from the server
        onRefreshed: function (args) {
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onRefreshed - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        }
    }
});

Events

Add a page

A new page is rendered as a tab on the work item form. New pages appear next to the Details tab.

To add a page to the work item form, add a contribution to your extension manifest. The type of this contribution should be ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form-page and it should target the ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form contribution.

"contributions": [
    {  
        "id": "sample-work-item-form-page",
        "type": "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form-page",
        "description": "Custom work item form page",
        "targets": [
            "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form"
        ],
        "properties": {
            "name": "My Page",
            "uri": "workItemPage.html"
        } 
    }
]

Properties

JavaScript sample

See the JavaScript sample in the form group section. The name of the registered object should match the id of the contribution.

Events

Configure contributions in work item form

In Azure DevOps Services, by default the group extensions appear in the end of the second column of the form and page contributions appear after all the work item form pages as a tab. Control contributions are not shown in the form by default so users have to manually add them to the form. In Azure DevOps Server, to show/hide or move the control, group and page contributions in work item form, see Configure work item form extensions.

Add menu action

To add an item to the work item toolbar, add this contribution to your extension manifest. The item appears in the ... dropdown in the top right of the work item form.

"contributions": [
   {  
      "id": "sample-work-item-menu",  
      "type": "ms.vss-web.action",  
      "description": "Sample toolbar item which updates the title of a work item",  
      "targets": [  
          "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-context-menu"  
      ],  
      "properties": {  
          "text": "Try me!",  
          "title": "Updates the title of the work item from the extension",  
          "toolbarText": "Try me!",  
          "icon": "images/show-properties.png",  
          "uri": "menu-workItemToolbarButton.html"  
      }  
   }
]

Properties

Listen for events

To add an observer to the work item, which listens to the work item events, add this contribution to your extension manifest. There's no visualization for observers on the work item form. This is the best way to listen to work item form onSaved event since the observer lives outside of the form and doesn't get destroyed when form closes, which might happen right after save.

"contributions": [
   {  
       "id": "sample-work-item-form-observer",
       "type": "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-notifications",
       "description": "Gets events about the current work item form for the 'Try Me!' toolbar button",
       "targets": [
           "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form"
       ],
       "properties": {
           "uri": "myformobserver.html"
       }
   }
]

Properties

Events

HTML/JavaScript sample

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Work item extension page sample</title>
</head>

<body>
    <script src="sdk/scripts/SDK.js"></script>

    <script>
        SDK.init({
            usePlatformScripts: true
        });
        
        SDK.ready(function () {
             // Register a listener for the work item page contribution.
            SDK.register(SDK.getContributionId(), function () {
                return {
                    // Called when the active work item is modified
                    onFieldChanged: function(args) {
                        
                    },
                    
                    // Called when a new work item is being loaded in the UI
                    onLoaded: function (args) {
            
                    },
                    
                    // Called when the active work item is being unloaded in the UI
                    onUnloaded: function (args) {
            
                    },
                    
                    // Called after the work item has been saved
                    onSaved: function (args) {
            
                    },
                    
                    // Called when the work item is reset to its unmodified state (undo)
                    onReset: function (args) {
            
                    },
                    
                    // Called when the work item has been refreshed from the server
                    onRefreshed: function (args) {
            
                    }
                }
            });    
        });
     </script>
</body>
</html>