{"id":4563,"date":"2012-08-17T12:36:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T12:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/visualstudioalm\/2012\/08\/17\/work-item-field-attributes-what-you-can-and-cant-change\/"},"modified":"2022-07-22T04:43:25","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T12:43:25","slug":"work-item-field-attributes-what-you-can-and-cant-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/work-item-field-attributes-what-you-can-and-cant-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Work Item Field Attributes &#8211; What You Can and Can&#8217;t Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a project administrator, you may need to modify a field that&#8217;s being used in your team project. This post provides a quick\u00a0reference as to what you can and can&#8217;t change and how you\u00a0make the change. \u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Attributes That You Can Change Across a Team Project Collection<\/h2>\n<p>Here\u00a0are the\u00a0attributes that you can change for a work item field. Changes that you make apply to all team projects within the team project collection:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Friendly name<\/strong> that displays in the work item query. This name may differ from that displayed on the work item form.<\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><\/span>Synchronization<\/strong> with Active Directory &#8211; you can enable\/disable synchronization of person name fields. (added in TFS 2010)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Indexing<\/strong> &#8211; you can enable\/disable indexing of fields, which enhances performance\u00a0of queries that filter on these\u00a0fields.<\/li>\n<li>******Data type** &#8211; you can only change the data type for PlainText or HTML fields &#8211; <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">New in TFS 2012<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\n<p>******<span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><\/span>**Reporting attributes:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The name of the field as it appears in a report.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>The reference report name.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The reporting type: Detail, Dimension, or Measure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can change these attributes using <strong>witadmin changefield<\/strong> or <strong>witadmin indexfield<\/strong> commands. See <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/dd236909(VS.110).aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Managing Work Item Fields [witadmin]<\/a>. When changing reporting attributes, see <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ee921481.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Adding and Modifying Work Item Fields to Support Reporting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Attributes That You Can Change\u00a0for Each Work Item Type<\/h2>\n<p>And here&#8217;s the set of attributes that you can change for each work item type. You change these attributes by changing the work item type definition for the field:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Name<\/strong> that displays on the\u00a0work item form,\u00a0see the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/aa337625.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Control XML element<\/a>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Help text<\/strong>, see <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ms194943.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HELPTEXT XML element<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Allowed values<\/strong> or Items within a pick list or drop-down menu. See <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ms194982.aspx\">Defining and Using Lists, Pick Lists, and Global Lists<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Fields That Are Indexed Out of the Box<\/h2>\n<p>A query index is created based on those fields that have indexing enabled. This index improves the response time when running queries that include indexed fields.<\/p>\n<p>By default, the following fields are indexed: <strong>Assigned To, Created Date, Changed By, State, Reason, Area ID, Iteration ID,<\/strong> and <strong>Work Item Type<\/strong>. If there are other fields that your team frequently uses in their queries, you can add them to the query index.<\/p>\n<h2>Hidden and Non-Changeable Attributes and the Work Item Field Explorer Tool<\/h2>\n<p>In addition to the above attributes, there are a number of non-changeable and virtually hidden attributes for each work item field. You can look up the assignments of these fields using the Work Item Field Explorer tool which you access from the Process Editor power tool. You can download the latest version of the Power Tools for Team Foundation Server <a href=\"http:\/\/go.microsoft.com\/fwlink\/?LinkId=248625\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2012\/08\/8322.WorkItemFieldExplorer.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a description of each of the attributes that\u00a0Work Item Field Explorer lists.\u00a0Each attribute is linked to its corresponding WorkItemTracking SDK reference topic.<\/p>\n<div>\n<table style=\"width: 95%\" border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding=\"2\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <strong>Name<\/strong>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <strong>Can Change?<\/strong>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <strong>Description<\/strong>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.allowedvalues.aspx\">AllowedValues<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Yes\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Gets the\u00a0collection of valid values for a <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.field.aspx\">Field<\/a> that uses this field definition. You can change this by\u00a0specifying a pick list or global list. See <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ms194982.aspx\">Defining and Using Lists, Pick Lists, and Global Lists<\/a>.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.cansortby.aspx\">CanSortBy<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies whether work\u00a0items within a query can be sorted by this field.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.fieldtype.aspx\">FieldType<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies the data type defined for the field. You cannot change this except for the PlainText and\u00a0HTML data types.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.helptext.aspx\">HelpText<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Yes\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies the help text defined for the field. You can change this for each work item type using the <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/ms194943.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HELPTEXT XML element<\/a>.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.id.aspx\">Id<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies the internal ID\u00a0of the field.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.iscomputed.aspx\">IsComputed<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Indicates if the value set\u00a0by this field is computed (True) or not (False). Examples of computed fields\u00a0are ones that are set by the system, such as the ID, Revised Date, Changed Date, and External Link Count.\u00a0\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.iseditable.aspx\">IsEditable<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            \u00a0No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Indicates if users can\u00a0modify this field (True) or not (False). Examples of non-editable fields are\u00a0ones that are set by the system, such as the ID, Revision, Created By, and\u00a0Changed By fields.\u00a0\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.isindexed.aspx\">IsIndexed<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Yes\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Indicates if the field is\u00a0indexed (True) or not (False).\u00a0 When\u00a0you enable indexing for a field, you may increase the performance of finding work items whose queries specify that field. If you add a custom field that you use in many of your work item queries, you may want to enable indexing for that field.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.isqueryable.aspx\">IsQueryable<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Indicates if the field\u00a0shows up within the set of fields you can add to filter a query (True) or not (False).\u00a0\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.name.aspx\">Name<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Yes\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies the friendly display\u00a0name of this field definition.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.referencename.aspx\">ReferenceName<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies the reference name of\u00a0the field definition.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.reportingattributes.aspx\">ReportingAttributes<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Yes\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies the reporting\u00a0attributes of the field definition.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.systemtype.aspx\">SystemType<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            \u00a0No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies the type\u00a0declaration: class types, interface types, array types, value types,\u00a0enumeration types, type parameters, generic type definitions, and open or\u00a0closed constructed generic types.\u00a0\u00a0\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/microsoft.teamfoundation.workitemtracking.client.fielddefinition.usage.aspx\">Usage<\/a>\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            No\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>\n            Specifies whether the field\u00a0is intended for use with work items or work item link objects.\n          <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0For more information about the Work Item Tracking SDK, see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/library\/bb130347(VS.110).aspx\">Extending Work Item Tracking by Using the Client Object Model for Team Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a project administrator, you may need to modify a field that&#8217;s being used in your team project. This post provides a quick\u00a0reference as to what you can and can&#8217;t change and how you\u00a0make the change. \u00a0 Attributes That You Can Change Across a Team Project Collection Here\u00a0are the\u00a0attributes that you can change for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":45953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[227,253,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agile","category-azure-devops-server","category-devops"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>As a project administrator, you may need to modify a field that&#8217;s being used in your team project. This post provides a quick\u00a0reference as to what you can and can&#8217;t change and how you\u00a0make the change. \u00a0 Attributes That You Can Change Across a Team Project Collection Here\u00a0are the\u00a0attributes that you can change for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}