How to: Create a Pick List
You can create a pick list to use with a work item type field by exporting the XML file and modifying its content. As soon as you have added the pick list, you can import the XML file to start to use the updated work item type.
Required Permissions
To perform this procedure you must be a member of the Team Foundation Administrators group or a member of the Project Administrators group for the project. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.
To create a pick list
If you are modifying a work item type on a single project, run witexport to export the XML file for the work item type you want to modify. For more information, see How to: Export a Work Item Type from an Existing Project.
In Visual Studio, click File, click Open, and then click File.
This displays the Open File dialog box.
Under Look in, move to the location where you exported the file.
If you are modifying a work item type to customize a process template, move to the location where you downloaded the process template.
Note
If you are running Windows Vista, you might not have access rights to certain folders. If you try to export the work item type to a location where you do not have access rights, the registry virtualization technology automatically redirects the exported file and saves it to the virtual store. For more information, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=92325 and https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=92323. To avoid this redirection, you can export the file to a location where you have access rights.
Select the work item type XML file that you want to update, and then click Open. When you are prompted about line endings, click No.
Find the <FIELDS> section of the XML file, and in it, the field you want to modify.
Add a list of allowed values for the field by inserting an ALLOWEDVALUES rule. The new rule is shown in bold text in the following XML.
<FIELD name="My Field" refname="MyCompany.MyProcess.MyField" type="String" reportable="dimension"> <REQUIRED /> <ALLOWEDVALUES> <LISTITEM value="Process Management" /> <LISTITEM value="Planning" /> <LISTITEM value="Review" /> </ALLOWEDVALUES> </FIELD>Make the Category field optional by deleting the REQUIRED rule, as shown highlighted in the following example.
<FIELD name="My Field" refname="MyCompany.MyProcess.MyField" type="String" reportable="dimension"> <REQUIRED /> <ALLOWEDVALUES> <LISTITEM value="Process Management" /> <LISTITEM value="Planning" /> <LISTITEM value="Review" /> </ALLOWEDVALUES> </FIELD>On the toolbar, click Save to save changes to the XML file.
Import the updated work item type.
To import the new work item type to a single project, see How to: Import a Work Item Type to an Existing Project.
To add the work item type to your process template, see Work Item Types.
To verify changes imported to a single project
In Team Explorer, click Refresh to download the latest updates from the server.
These updates include the changes that you just imported. Wait several seconds until the Work Items node is loaded. Nodes that are still loading display the word working.
Create a new work item using the work item type you modified. To do this, right-click the Work Items node, point to Add Work Item, and then click the work item type.
This work item is created from the work item type that you changed and imported.
Click the list for the modified field.
Notice that the field now supports only the values specified by the ALLOWEDVALUES rules.
Note
The allowed values in the list always appear in alphabetical order regardless of the order of the LISTITEM elements in the XML file.
Click Close to close the new work item. Click No when you are prompted to save the work item.
See Also
Tasks
How to: Create a Dependent Pick List
How to: Make a String Field Match a Pattern
How to: Customize the Assigned to Field