Home / Announcements / Forums / TFS Work Item Manager and Project Dashboard: TFS Work Item Manager > Feature Requests

• Danya

  Posted on Jun 16, 2011 (permalink)

  Good morning!
  
  I will probably add to this list as I explore more into Work Item Manager but here are some features that would be nice to have:
  
  1. Collapsing quirk - Whenever I add or delete a query it would be nice if the "Work Item Queries" window stays expanded rather than collapsing everything.
  
  2. Grouping Loss - It would be nice if the queries I created in WIM with group by and grouping aggregates stayed intact if I accidentally open or run the query from Team Explorer in Visual Studio (VS). It appears that just by opening or running queries from VS that were created in Telerik Work Item Manager (TWIM) causes the Microsoft Work Item Manager (MSWIM) to overwite it, removing the grouping clauses. When I open the queries up again in TWIM, not only are the grouping clauses removed, but the query is stuck in QueryString mode rather than Query Builder. So I have to delete it and recreate it all over again to get things to stick. Is there not some sort of folder or sequested area within TFS that TWIM can use to store queries so that a backup is there and used when in TWIM as oppose to running from MSWIM?
  
  3. Querystring background coloring - When I am editing my query and it is stuck in querystring mode, I click the  Query Builder option button to recreate it, but the Querystring option turns gray thus making it hard to read the text so I can know which fields to pick again in the query builder section. Can you leave that black or change the text to black if you are going to change the background to gray?
  
  4. Aggregate Graph ChartTitle - The chart title at the bottom of the aggregate graph control in TWIM is showing overlapping data. I can shutdown down TWIM and open it back up and it still does it. I can connect to other projects and come back the main one and it still does it.
  
  5. Copy and Paste Queries - Would be nice to be able to select a query that's in one folder and copy it to another folder or create a copy of it within the same folder like we do in MSWIM. When I choose "Copy Query" from the context menu it creates a copy within the same folder rather than keeping it memory until I choose the folder I want and then choose some sort of "Paste Query" context menu option. I can't drag and drop a query from one folder to another. I can see where I can edit the query and choose another folder in the edit window, but it would still be nice to be able to drag and drop.
  
  I will be glad to demonstrate this for you in a web conference if you like!

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• Danya

  Posted on Jun 16, 2011 (permalink)

  Sorry about this one. It was about Project Dashboard. I'm moving this over to the Dashboard forum.
  
  
  

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• Answer Joel Joel

  Posted on Jun 21, 2011 (permalink)

  Hello Danya,
  
  Thanks for all the feedback!  I've logged #1, #3, and #4 as bugs and we'll try to fix them in a future release.  #5 has been added as a feature request.
  
  For #2, I'm not completely sure what is going on and we have not seen this issue before.  Opening a query in TFS should not modify the query in any way.  WIM does store some extra information for each query such as grouping and this info is stored locally and (optionally) in TFS source control.  One thing I can think of is maybe this extra information we store is not getting saved correctly.  Can you check if there are any files at the following location: {My Documents}\Work Item Manager 2010\{server}\{collection}\{project}\Queries?  If you chose to use the shared server settings for your project, then these same files should also be stored in TFS source control at the path $/{project}/settings/WIM/Queries.  If you're not sure if you're using the settings from the server, go to Application button > Options and see if the Use Server Settings checkbox is checked for your project.
  
  Some further information on #3.  The desired behavior is that when editing a query you should not be able to use the query builder anymore.  It is only supposed to be enabled when creating a new query.  The reason for this is because the query builder in WIM is quite basic and if you create queries in TFS it is possible that they can't be represented in our basic query builder.  For instance, we have no support for adding brackets or creating hierarchical queries.  We would have had to spend a lot of effort making our query builder as powerful as the one in Visual Studio and since our goal is to add value to TFS and not to replicate it's features, we decided not to spend too much time in this area.  We did however add a different way to create queries and that is by using the New by Example button in Work Item Queries group in the ribbon.  Using this button it is possible to create a new query based on the current view of a query that you are looking at.  For instance, if you drag a column to the group by row or filter by some column, you can use the New by Example button to create a query from those settings.
  
  Kind regards,
  Joel
  the Telerik team

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• Danya

  Posted on Jun 21, 2011 (permalink)

  Ok I checked {My Documents}\Work Item Manager 2010\{server}\{collection}\{project}\Queries and found that indeed there are about 8 or 9 xml files there. I checked the $/{project}/settings/WIM/Queries and found even more files there. And as far as the Shared Server settings, all projects have a check mark in the check boxes in the options dialog.
  
  I looked at one of the XML files in the first path above and saw the grouping tags. But I  may be wrong about TFS making the change. I found that I can edit a query, add a grouping aggregate, close the query and edit it again and the grouping aggregate disappears. But the grouping remained. I also tried adding a grouping aggregate, shutting down TWIM, bringing it back up and the grouping aggregate is gone again. I'm trying to run a simple query that groups by Area Path, Iteration Path, and shows a sum of Estimated Work. I'm just showing the WID, TItle, State, Priority, Area Path, and Iteration Path. I also have the same query again except the aggregate is the sum of Remaining Hours. Just for kicks, I opened the query in TFS and then went back to TWIM to edit the query and the grouping aggregate was gone, but the grouping remained. Let me play with this more and possibly create a PPT to show you what's happening here.
  
  Your explanation of the behavior of the query builder explains why the query appears to be "stuck" in query string mode. And I understand that you don't want to reinvent the wheel. But believe it or not, I like your simple query builder better than TFS. I may upset the Microsoft Gods at this point, but the less typing I have to do in the querystring area, the better. I see now that the New By Example button creates a copy of the query I have selected and then presents me with the New Query editing dialog. And from there I can select the folder I want to save the query into. Thanks!

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• Danya

  Posted on Jun 21, 2011 (permalink)

  Ok I see what's happening with the grouping problem.
  
  In order for the grouping aggregates to show up, you have to click on a field that you have under the grouping list. If there are no fields under grouping then the Add button is disabled.
  
  So if I have Iteration Path as my Group by field, click on it, then the Grouping Aggregates Add button becomes enabled. I can click Add and then choose to do a Sum of Work Remaining even though Work Remaining is not used in grouping nor is it even a field in the columns to show in my results. I presume this is desired behavior as you can't have an aggregate function in a SQL statement without a Group By clause. So force the user to choose some fields to group by first and THEN specify the aggregates. I think you can nix issue number 2 off my list as I can't seem to duplicate the loss of grouping fields when running or editing the query in TFS and then opening it again in TWIM. And I think I have a grasp now on how this process is suppose to behave. Thanks for the great response!

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• Answer Joel Joel

  Posted on Jun 23, 2011 (permalink)

  Hi Danya,
  
  Sorry for the confusion with the way the grouping aggregates work, but you are right, this is the desired behavior.  The aggregates are specified and calculated per group so you have to select a group from the list first before the aggregates are shown.
  
  Kind regards,
  Joel
  the Telerik team

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• Brian McCauley

  Posted on Jun 29, 2011 (permalink)

  I am a Scrum Master of 2 crews, a desktop product and a online product.
  It would be nice if I could somehow choose from multiple saved default task boards.
  I have scrum at 10am and at 11 am everyday, I have to constantly close the taskboard, edit the settings, switch the query, reopen the task board.  I do this everyday and its getting annoying.  Please consider a solution to the scrum master with multiple projects to switch between constantly.
  
  Thanks
  

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• Joel Joel

  Posted on Jul 5, 2011 (permalink)

  Hi Brian,
  
  Thanks for the feedback.  This feature is something that we have in our backlog, but has not been scheduled for development yet.  We will consider adding it to a future release.
  
  Regards,
  Joel
  the Telerik team

  Do you want to have your say when we set our development plans? Do you want to know when a feature you care about is added or when a bug fixed? Explore the Telerik Public Issue Tracking system and vote to affect the priority of the items

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