Track your work by using managed queries in Azure Boards

TFS 2017 | TFS 2015 | TFS 2013

List bugs, user stories, or other work items based on field criteria you specify using queries. You can then review these lists with your team, triage work, or bulk update work items. Along with managed queries, the semantic search tool provides some overlapping and different functionality worth exploring.

Use managed queries to support these operations:

• Bulk update of work items using the web portal
• Triage and update work items
• Review a hierarchy of work items
• Share a list of work items with a team member

You can create queries and query folders from the web portal or from a supported client, such as Visual Studio Team Explorer and Team Explorer Everywhere, a plug-in for Eclipse. Changes you make in one client are reflected in other clients as all changes are stored in the work tracking data store.

Get started using queries

If you're just getting started, read View, run, or email a work item query. For a quick reference to query editor tasks and sample queries, see Query quick reference.

• To find work items that are assigned to you, add the @Me macros as the value for the Assigned To field in one of the query clauses.
• All valid users with standard access can create queries and folders under the My Queries area. To create queries and query folders under Shared Queries, you must have the Contribute permission set. For more information, see Set permissions on queries.
• You can modify any query by adding criteria to focus on a product area, an iteration, or another field. To modify a query, open the query editor.
• You can open any query in Excel. You can also update the fields of one or more work items and publish your changes to the database for tracking work items.
• You can visualize status or progress by creating a pie-chart, column chart, or trend chart for flat-list queries.

Query capabilities

The following sections provide an overview of the functions supported to define and manage work item queries.

• Query filters are defined through the Query Editor.
• Query macros can be selected for specific fields to create a query clause.
• Query results and query management features are capabilities available through the Query Results page.

Query filters

The following table summarizes the query filter functions supported by each Azure DevOps version.

To bulk move, copy, or paste query clauses, install and use the WIQL editor. To learn more, see Cross-service and enhanced query operations

Supported macros

The following table summarizes the query macros or variables supported by the Azure DevOps versions. You can use some of these macros to filter notifications.

For more detailed descriptions and links to examples, see Query fields, operators, and macros.

Query results and query management features

The following features provide support for working with query results, saving and sharing queries, and more.

Unsupported features

Work item queries only support querying of work items and work items linked to other work items. Here are a few of the tasks that managed queries don't support:

• Hierarchical views of Test Plans, Test Suites, and Test Cases. These items aren't linked together using parent-child link types. Instead, you can view the hierarchy through the Test>Test Plans page.
• Views showing linked objects such as builds, releases, code, or other non-work item objects.
• List work items linked from one project to another.
• Export a cross-project query to Excel. Direct links queries export to Excel as a flat-list.

Query types (flat, direct links, tree)

Azure Boards supports three query types. The icon next to each query indicates the query type. Use the following guidance to choose the query type based on what you want to accomplish with the query.

To learn more about link types, see Link type reference.

• Manage queries & query folders
• Set query permissions
• Favorite a query and Set personal or team favorites

Query charts and widgets

You can quickly create pie, bar, pivot, and trend charts from a flat-list query. Queries must be flat-list and return 1000 or less work items. You can add your query charts to a dashboard, retitle, and reconfigure them.

Query-based widgets provide support for presenting query information on a dashboard. For example, the number of active bugs or a list of work items that you can interact with. To learn about query charts and widgets, see these articles:

• Chart a flat-list query
• Chart for work items widget
• Query results widget
• Query tile widget

Add a custom field to support queries

To add a custom field to support your query needs, see Customize your work tracking experience.

Taskboard versus query list items

You may notice and wonder why the contents of the taskboard differ from the contents listed with its created query? To learn more, see taskboard items versus query list items.

Full-text search queries and collation settings

To support full-text search queries, the collation settings of the SQL Server database should correspond to a language that has a word breaker registered with SQL Server. If you use an unsupported language, you could receive unexpected results when you run a work item query that specifies the Contains or Contains Words operators with text strings.

To learn more, see the following articles:

• sys.fulltext_languages (Transact-SQL)
• ALTER FULLTEXT INDEX (Transact-SQL)
• SQL Server 2008 Full-Text Search: Internals and Enhancements
• Query Fields, Operators, Values, and Variables

SDK resources

To programmatically interact with queries, see Query for Bugs, Tasks, and Other Work Items.

Related articles

• Query FAQs
• Query quick reference
• Cross-service and enhanced query operations
• Work item field index
• Set query permissions
• Query fields, operators, and macros
• Bulk add or modify work items with Excel