Updating the Reason field after Workflow Changes

Question

What options do I have for updating the Reason field after making modifications to workflow?  We changed some of the values of Reason and would like to update work item types with older values in them.  Ideally I don't have to have to transition work items in and out of states to change the reason field.

Answer 1

You probably need to change status twise, you could use the tfs api to create your own tool to do the update like this  

 WorkItemStore wiStore = new WorkItemStore(TFSCollectionUrl);

  WorkItemCollection wiLst = wiStore.Query(
    " SELECT [System.Id], [System.AssignedTo], [System.Title] " +
    " FROM WorkItems " +
    " WHERE [System.Id] = 1579 ORDER BY [System.WorkItemType], [System.Id]");

  foreach (WorkItem itm in wiLst)
  {
   itm.Open();
   itm.State="YourCustomStateForEditingofWorkflow" ;
   itm.Reason="YourCustomREASONforEditingofWorkflow" ;

   itm.Save();
   itm.State="YourOrginalState" ;
   itm.Reason="YourNewReason" ;
   itm.Save();
  }

 

 

 

 

Answer 2

Here's the PowerShell equivalent I ended up using:

[Reflection.Assembly]::Load("Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a") | out-null;
 
$tfsUrl = new-object Uri("http://myserver:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection");
$projectCollection = [Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.TfsTeamProjectCollectionFactory]::GetTeamProjectCollection($tfsUrl);
$workItemStore = new-object Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client.WorkItemStore($projectCollection);
 
$parameters = New-Object 'System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[string,string]';
$parameters.Add("TeamProject", "MyProject");
$parameters.Add("WorkItemType", "Task");
$parameters.Add("State", "Active");
$parameters.Add("Reason", "New");
$workItems = $workItemStore.Query("SELECT [System.Id], [System.AssignedTo], [System.Title]
                  FROM  WorkItems
                  WHERE [System.WorkItemType] = @WorkItemType AND
                     [System.State] = @State AND
                     [System.Reason] = @Reason AND
                     [System.TeamProject] = @TeamProject
                  ORDER BY [System.Id]", $parameters);
Write-Host "Found $($workItems.Count) work items";
 
foreach ($workItem in $workItems)
{
  Write-Host "Processing $($workItem.Id)";
  $workItem.Open();
	
  $workItem.State = "Active";
  $workItem.Reason = "In Progress";
  $workItem.Save();
  
  $workItem.State = "Closed";
  $workItem.Reason = "Done";
  $workItem.Save();  
}