Query for linked work items

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019

Querying work items across links is much like using typical navigation properties. Links themselves are entities though, so there's some extra complexity.

There are two ways to query for linked work items. The first is the Parent/Child hierarchy, and the second is the Links navigation property.

In this article you'll learn:

• How to construct a query to return hierarchically (parent-child) linked work items
• How to construct a query to return non-hierarchically (related, direct) linked work items

Note

The Analytics service is automatically enabled and supported in production for all Azure DevOps Services. Power BI integration and access to the OData feed of the Analytics Service are generally available. We encourage you to use it and give us feedback. Available data is version-dependent. The latest supported version is v2.0, and the latest preview version is v4.0-preview. For more information, see OData API versioning.

Parent-child hierarchy

You can include items related through Parent/Child links by using $expand on the Parent and Children properties.

Example: Parent to child query

To return information about an item's children, use $expand on the Children navigation property. The following code snippet requests to return the children of work item ID 359 from the Fabrikam Fiber project.

Request

https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/WorkItems?$filter=WorkItemId eq 359&$select=WorkItemId, Title, WorkItemType, State&$expand=Children($select=WorkItemId,Title, WorkItemType, State)

The response returns features 479 and 480, which are children of the epic 359.

Note

Most OData queries that request work item link information will return results but also a warning. The warning is a reminder to follow recommended query guidelines described in OData Analytics query guidelines. However, the query examples provided are valid.

Response

@odata.context	"https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam%20Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/$metadata#WorkItems(WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State,Children(WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State))"
vsts.warnings@odata.type	"#Collection(String)"
@vsts.warnings	
0	"VS403508: Using the Parent, Children, Descendants or Revision properties in a filter or expand is not recommended. Details on recommended query patterns are available here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=861060."
value	
 0	
   WorkItemId	359
   Title	"Phase 1 - Customer access and engagement 5"
   WorkItemType	"Epic"
   State	"In Progress"
   Children	
      0	
        WorkItemId	480
        Title	"Customer Phone - Phase 1"
        WorkItemType	"Feature"
        State	"In Progress"
      1	
        WorkItemId	479
        Title	"Customer Web - Phase 1"
        WorkItemType	"Feature"
        State	"In Progress"

Example: Child to parent query

By replacing Children with Parent in the $expand option, you can retrieve an item's ancestry.

The following query requests to return the parent of work item ID 1048 from the Fabrikam Fiber project.

Request

https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam%20Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/WorkItems?$select=WorkItemId,Title,State&$expand=Parent($select=WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType, State)&$filter=WorkItemId eq 1048

The response returns feature 480, which is the parent to product backlog item 1048.

Response

@odata.context	"https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam%20Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/$metadata#WorkItems(WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State,Parent(WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State))"
vsts.warnings@odata.type	"#Collection(String)"
@vsts.warnings	
0	"VS403508: Using the Parent, Children, Descendants or Revision properties in a filter or expand is not recommended. Details on recommended query patterns are available here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=861060."
value	
  0	
     WorkItemId	1048
     Title	"Support reset"
     WorkItemType	"Product Backlog Item"
     State	"New"
     Parent	
        WorkItemId	480
        Title	"Customer Phone - Phase 1"
        WorkItemType	"Feature"
        State	"In Progress"

Query for non-hierarchical links

In addition to the Parent/Child hierarchy, items can be directly related to other items with link types like Related or Duplicate. The Links navigation property allows you to request these relationships.

Example: Request an item's links

To retrieve the links associated with an item, you can $expand the Links navigation property. In this example the SourceWorkItemId, TargetWorkItemId, and LinkTypeName are retrieved for all links associated with the work item 363.

Request

https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/WorkItems?$select=WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State&$filter=WorkItemId%20eq%20363&$expand=Links($select=SourceWorkItemId,TargetWorkItemId,LinkTypeName)

Response

{
    "@odata.context": "https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam%20Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/$metadata#WorkItems(WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State,Links(SourceWorkItemId,TargetWorkItemId,LinkTypeName))",
    "value": [{
        "WorkItemId": 363,
        "Title": "Welcome back page",
        "WorkItemType": "Product Backlog Item",
        "State": "Done",
        "Links": [{
            "SourceWorkItemId": 363,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 400,
            "LinkTypeName": "Related"
        }, {
            "SourceWorkItemId": 363,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 470,
            "LinkTypeName": "Tested By"
        }, {
            "SourceWorkItemId": 363,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 501,
            "LinkTypeName": "Related"
        }, {
            "SourceWorkItemId": 363,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 1079,
            "LinkTypeName": "Tested By"
        }
    }]
}

Example: Request details of linked items

You can include the details of your linked work items by using $expand on the TargetWorkItem or SourceWorkItem navigation properties. In this example, we retrieve the WorkItemId, Title, and State of the target work item for each link.

Request

https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/WorkItems?$select=WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State&$filter=WorkItemId%20eq%20103&$expand=Links($select=SourceWorkItemId,TargetWorkItemId,LinkTypeName;$expand=TargetWorkItem($select=WorkItemId,Title,State))

Response

{
    "@odata.context": "https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam%20Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/$metadata#WorkItems(WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State,Links(SourceWorkItemId,TargetWorkItemId,LinkTypeName,TargetWorkItem(WorkItemId,Title,State)))",
    "value": [{
        "WorkItemId": 103,
        "Title": "Feature Y",
        "WorkItemType": "Feature",
        "State": "New",
        "Links": [{
            "SourceWorkItemId": 103,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 48,
            "LinkTypeName": "Child",
            "TargetWorkItem": {
                "WorkItemId": 48,
                "Title": "Story 15",
                "State": "Resolved"
            }
        }, {
            "SourceWorkItemId": 103,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 50,
            "LinkTypeName": "Child",
            "TargetWorkItem": {
                "WorkItemId": 50,
                "Title": "Story 17",
                "State": "Active"
            }
        }, {
            "SourceWorkItemId": 103,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 55,
            "LinkTypeName": "Child",
            "TargetWorkItem": {
                "WorkItemId": 55,
                "Title": "Story 22",
                "State": "New"
            }
        }, {
            "SourceWorkItemId": 103,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 112,
            "LinkTypeName": "Related",
            "TargetWorkItem": {
                "WorkItemId": 112,
                "Title": "Some issue",
                "State": "Active"
            }
        }]
    }]
}

Example: Links of a specific type

You may also be interested in a particular type of link between items. Specify the LinkTypeName property in a $filter clause. The following query example expands all Related links and filters out all other link types for work item 103.

Request

https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/WorkItems?$select=WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State&$filter=WorkItemId eq 103&$expand=Links($select=SourceWorkItemId,TargetWorkItemId,LinkTypeName;$filter=LinkTypeName eq 'Related';$expand=TargetWorkItem($select=WorkItemId,Title,State))

Response

{
    "@odata.context": "https://analytics.dev.azure.com/fabrikam/Fabrikam%20Fiber/_odata/v4.0-preview/$metadata#WorkItems(WorkItemId,Title,WorkItemType,State,Links(SourceWorkItemId,TargetWorkItemId,LinkTypeName,TargetWorkItem(WorkItemId,Title,State)))",
    "value": [{
        "WorkItemId": 103,
        "Title": "Feature Y",
        "WorkItemType": "Feature",
        "State": "New",
        "Links": [{
            "SourceWorkItemId": 103,
            "TargetWorkItemId": 112,
            "LinkTypeName": "Related",
            "TargetWorkItem": {
                "WorkItemId": 112,
                "Title": "Some issue",
                "State": "Active"
            }
        }]
    }]
}

Next steps

Explore Analytics metadata

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