TFS: issues batch update

Question

How can I change state for dozen issues in "few clicks" in TFS? I know it is possible to export them all into Excel, do batch operation and "import" them back... (or something like this, didn't try actually).

But I am wondering if there is any quicker way to do that? For example, I would like to: - launch some query; - select few issues (for example, that have same 'State'='Active'); Here I would like to see some kind of dialog that display only those issue properties, that are the same. After that: - change some field value (for example, state from 'Active' to 'Resolved'); - click 'Save' And have each selected issue updated.

Is this possible with usual Team Explorer? I know such operation is in Telerik TFS client, but I don't like it: it doesn't allow to query issues from different projects in one time. Probably there is a simple add-on for Visual Studio that do that?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

You can use web access (the web-based front end for TFS). It supports batch updating of work items from its query results view.

Exporting to Excel is actually reasonably quick and easy. Here are the general steps (reciting from memory so may not be 100% complete):

1. Right click on your query in Team Explorer and select the open in Excel command (you can also do this from the query results tool window).
2. Update the work items in Excel as appropriate.
3. In Excel, select the "Team" tab on the ribbon and click Publish.

That's it!

Answer 2

You could use the command line: See here for an example:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckh/archive/2006/09/07/tfs-power-toys-tfpt.aspx