Use work item templates to pre-populate fields

A work item template lets you pre-populate values for your team's commonly used fields. For example, you can create a task template that will set the area path, iteration path, and discipline or activity whenever you use it to create a task.

If you primarily create work items working in Team Web Access (TWA), you can create a hyperlink that captures the default values you specify for a template and opens the template in TWA.

If, however, you primarily work in Visual Studio or Team Explorer, and want to create work items from templates that you can access from the Work Items page, you can create work item template files (extension .wt). You create these files using Work Item Templates, a power tool for Visual Studio, which you can download here: Team Foundation Server Power Tools.

To create a TWA-based work item template

1. From the Work page, open a new work item.

   

2. Fill in the default values you want the template to contain and then copy the URL for the template.

   

   Assign values to each field that you want to have automatically defined by your template. You can leave required fields empty, or place some text in them.

3. In notepad, or other text editor, paste the URL that you just copied. For example (line breaks added for clarity):

   http://fabrikamprime:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection/Fabrikam%20Fiber%20Website/_workItems/create/Task?%5B
   System.AssignedTo%5D=Julia+Ilyina+(Fabrikam)&%5B
   System.Description%5D=Always+include+Remaining+Work+and+links+to+any+related+bugs+or+PBIs.&%5B
   Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Activity%5D=Development&%5B
   System.AreaPath%5D=Fabrikam+Fiber+Website%5CFabrikam+Database
   

4. Use the URL whenever you want to create a work item of the type you've defined with its default values.

   You can save the URL as a text file or add the URL to a Web page as a hyperlink.

To specify default field values or text on a form

• Another way to specify default values is to define them in the definition of the work item type (wit), FORM section. You can use the following elements:

  • To specify a default field value, use DEFAULT. See Define a Default Value or Copy a Value to a Field

  • To specify a text string to appear when a field is empty, use the EmptyText attribute in the FIELD definition. See FIELD (Definition) Element.

  • To specify text or a hyperlink within a work item form, use LabelText. See LabelText and Text XML Elements Reference.

  • To embed a webpage or html content within a work item form, use WebpageControlOptions. See WebpageControlOptions XML Elements Reference.

  For information about modifying the wit definition, see Add a Field and Change the Layout of an Existing Work Item Type.