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witAdmin: Customize and manage objects for tracking work

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You can change how you track your team's progress by creating and customizing objects that track work items. By using the witadmin command-line tool, you can create, delete, import, and export objects such as categories, global lists, global workflow, types of links, and types of work items. You can also permanently delete types of work item types, and you can delete, list, or change the attributes of fields in work item.

As the following illustration shows, you manage categories and types of and work items for each team project. You manage global lists, types of links, and fields in work item for each team project collection. You can customize global workflow for a team project or a collection.

Work Item Tracking Objects

Note

You can create and modify objects for tracking work items by using Process Editor, a power tool for Visual Studio. This tool is not supported. For more information, see the following page on the Microsoft website: Team Foundation Server PowerTools.

Global parameters

You can use the following parameters to display help text for witadmin.

Parameter

Description

/help

or

/?

Displays the syntax and parameters for the witadmin command-line tool.

command /help

or

command /?

Displays the syntax and parameters for the witadmin command that you specify.

Command index

To access the witadmin command-line tool, open a Command Prompt window where either Visual Studio or Team Explorer is installed and enter:

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

On a 32-bit edition of Windows, replace **%programfiles(x86)% **with %programfiles%.

Tasks

Related content

Create and modify work item types. Work item types define the fields and behavior that you use to create and manage work items. You can create and modify types of work items to support the process objectives of your team and your team project.

You can manage work item types for a team project by using the following witadmin commands:

  • destroywitd:  Deletes a work item type.

  • exportwitd:  Exports the XML definition of a work item type.

  • importwitd:  Imports the XML definition of a work item type.

  • listwitd:  Lists the names of the work item types.

  • renamewitd:  Changes the display name of a work item type.

Customize process configuration. You can customize the Agile experience for Team Web Access.

  • exportprocessconfig:  Exports the XML definition for process configuration .

  • importprocessconfig:  Imports the XML definition for process configuration.

Import and export categories. By using categories, you can group work item types and then perform operations on them as a set. For example, you can specify a category when you define the criteria of a work item query to find all work items in that category, regardless of whether the items are different types.

You can manage work item categories for a team project by using the following witadmin commands:

  • exportcategories:  Exports the XML definitions of all categories.

  • importcategories:  Imports the XML definitions of all categories.

Manage global lists for work item types. By using global lists, you can share list items among multiple types of work items.

You can manage global lists for a collection by using the following witadmin commands:

  • destroygloballist:  Deletes a global list.

  • exportgloballist:  Exports the XML definition file that contains one or more global lists.

  • importgloballist:  Imports the XML file that defines one or more global lists.

  • listgloballist:  Lists the name of each global list that is defined for the collection.

Import and export global workflow. By using global workflow, you can minimize the work required to define and update global lists and fields in work items that many team projects and types of work items share. You can share definitions of fields and list items among multiple types of work items.

You manage global workflow for each team project or collection by using the following witadmin commands:

  • exportglobalworkflow:  Exports the XML file that define a global workflow.

  • importglobalworkflow:  Imports the XML file that defines a global workflow.

Manage link types. By using link types, you can associate work items based on a set of link rules. If you create custom types of links, you can track work items and their dependencies in more ways.

You can manage types of links for a collection by using the following witadmin commands:

  • deactivatelinktype:  Deactivates a specified type of link.

  • deletelinktype:  Permanently removes the specified type of link from the database.

  • exportlinktype:  Exports the XML definition files of one or more types of links.

  • importlinktype:  Imports the XML definition files of one or more types of links.

  • listlinktypes:  Lists the set of link types on a server.

  • reactivatelinktype: Reactivates the type of link that you specify. You can also rename the type of link.

Manage work item fields. You use fields to find work items and to track information in them.

You can manage fields for a collection by using the following witadmin commands:

  • deletefield: Deletes the field that you specify.

  • listfields: Lists the attributes for a field that you specify or for all fields.

  • indexfield: Turns indexing on or off for a field that you specify.

  • changefield: Changes one or more attributes of a field that you specify.

Destroy work items. You can permanently remove work items from a team project collection by using the witadmin destroywi command.

Force a rebuild of the client cache. After certain maintenance operations, you can force a rebuild of the cache of all client computers the next time that they connect to a team project collection. For example, you might force a rebuild after you move, rename, restore, or fail over a data-tier or application-tier server. By forcing a rebuild, you help prevent workspace errors during version control or build operations. To perform this operation, you use the witadminrebuildcache command.

See Also

Concepts

Configure and customize Agile planning tools for a team project

Customize work tracking objects to support your team's processes

Other Resources

Command-line tools for TFS