Is it possible to save Board settings as Templates in VSTS? - azure-devops

Our team made several changes to the available settings on the Boards of Visual Studio Team Services. I would like to know if there's a way to save these settings as templates in order to apply it to new projects and teams.

No this is currently not possible. The ALM Rangers are working on a project which will allow you to copy/paste board configs from one team to another. JSON import/export is planned for the future. For now we'd like to get simple apply from master working.
We may open up for beta tests soon.

Related

Is there a way to migrate a project board in GitHub to project (beta)?

I have an existing project that uses project boards on GitHub. I want to move all issues (open and closed) to projects (beta) on GitHub. Is there a way to do that automatically? Right now, I only know how to add issues manually to projects (beta).
As far as I know, there is currently no official guide on how to migrate to GitHub Projects (beta). You might want to follow this discussion on the topic: https://github.com/github/feedback/discussions/6141
However, I created a tutorial on how to migrate from the legacy project boards to the new projects (beta) myself: https://github.com/galargh/projects-migration#how-to-migrate-from-github-projects-to-github-projects-beta
It describes how to migrate cards (including column names) by either running a GitHub Actions workflow or a bash script.
Unfortunately, it does require some manual steps because projects (beta) API is not complete yet - the project itself and the Status field options have to be created manually to be precise.
After the migration, I'm also heavily using this action I created https://github.com/protocol/github-api-action-library/tree/master/add-project-items-by-content-query. I use it to periodically populate my projects based on content search queries (e.g. I automated adding all the issues that mention me - https://github.com/galargh/.github/blob/684c316/.github/workflows/add-project-items.yml).
I implemented python script that helps you migrate your project (similar to #galargh's solution) which uses the GraphQL api for the old projects too (might be more future proof) and also allows you to map column names and migrate PRs.
https://github.com/doidor/gh-projects-migration
You can now do this by enabling the Project migration feature in feature preview
Once you enable it you should see a Start migration button when you go to your Classic (not beta) Project Board
Here are the official docs on how to do it

VSTS reporting capabilities

We're looking at moving from TFS to VSTS. However, one of the features I rely on is the ability to see which developers have got code checked out, when it's getting checked in, and to which branch. I need to see this at the collection level, not per project. Does this functionality exist in VSTS?
Tks
No such built-in features in Azure DevOps (VSTS).
However you can try below workarounds:
To see which developers have got code checked out, you can use the
tool Team Foundation Sidekicks which can retrieve the status
locked/checked out by other users. But the latest version is Version 6.0 only for Visual Studio 2015. Based on my test it's also available for VSTS. Please reference my answers in below threads:
Is there a way in Visual Studio and TFS to view items checked out to local workspaces?
List of checked out files
For when it's getting checked in, and to which branch, you have to
navigate to the specific repository to check the changesets which
include the history. You can also try calling the REST API
(Changesets - Get) to get the information.

How can I set up a code review process to my remote peers before checking in to TFS?

My development environment is set up behind a corporate proxy through remote VMs. We uses Visual Studio as the main platform for our code developement , so we had no issue with code review process as Team Foundation Server have this feature.
However recently, we switch to eclipse while still maintaining the projects in TFS. Eclipse have TFS plugin which is good as we can continue on from our previous track without much effort. The only thing missing is the code review.
So, is there anyone who worked using TFS and eclipse in offline mode behind a corporate proxy, have an alternative way to do code review just like visual studio + TFS.
It's based on which version control system your team are using.
If you are using GIT as source control.
For now, the Team Foundation Server plug-in for Eclipse (Team Explorer Everywhere) supports pull requests to review code and collaborate with members of your team.
Collaborate
Work and code together
Use pull requests to review code and collaborate with members of your
team. Triage and track comments at each stage of the work to ensure no
feedback gets lost. Finally, configure merge, build, and review
policies for your Git branches and stay up-to-date with alerts.
Source: Team Explorer Everywhere
If you are using TFVC as source control.
There is no this function in the plug-in directly. You may need to use 3-party code-review plugins to achieve it. Such as SonarLint, Checkstyle Plug-in...
If you want to enforce Code review before any checkin in TFS server. You may need to use check-in policies which can evaluate whether the pending changes meet the validation requirements before they can be checked in to the server. So, if the code review through Sonar can be called programmatically, then you can build a custom check-in policy that calls Sonar inside the Evaluate method.

Migrating issues from Visual Studio Team Services to github

I'm in process of migrating my open source project from VS Team Services to GitHub (in hope of having actual contributors at least).
Migrating git repository was easy, but now I have a problem of migrating issues.
I don't know how to migrate issues.
I really like Team Services board. Can I get something like this in Github?
For Question 1, there isn't any tool or simple way to migrate the VSTS issues to GitHub as I know since the issues in VSTS are work items that use a totally different template with GitHub. If you have large amount of issues need to be migrated, you may create an application and use VSTS Rest API and GitHub API to do this.
For Question 2, GitHub does not provide Kankan board feature by default but you can get it from some other service. For example: waffle.io

Migrate VSO to VSO with history and work items

I'm using VSO xxx.visualstudio.com. We have to migrate with history to yyy.visualstudio.com. I know there is no direct tool. Looking for good approach or solution.
Unique Difference with, below question:
Visual Studio Online migration (VSO to VSO)
Export Source code with work Items
TFS Integration Platform tool is not working.
OpsHub company is taking too long to reply.
You can use the TFS Integration Tools to move TFVC code and Work Items from one Team Project to another regardless of TFS/VSO version.
I have done this a number of times and it works pretty well..