Extend the work item form

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2022 - Azure DevOps Server 2019

Learn how to customize how the work item form gets presented to users via contributions that are made through an extension.

See the UI example in the Azure DevOps Extension Samples on GitHub for the full source.

Add a group

Toolbar item in work item form.

To add a group to the main page, add a contribution to your extension manifest. The type of this contribution should be ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form-group and it should target the ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form contribution.

"contributions": [
   {  
       "id": "sample-work-item-form-group",
       "type": "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form-group",
       "description": "Custom work item form group",
       "targets": [
           "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form"
       ],
       "properties": {
           "name": "My Group",
           "uri": "workItemGroup.html",
           "height": 600
       }
   }
]

Properties

Property Description
name Text that appears on the group
uri URI to a page that hosts the html that shows on the work item form and its scripts
height (Optional) Defines the height of the group. When omitted, it's 100%

JavaScript sample

This example shows how to register an object that's called when events occur on the work item form that may impact your contributed group. Please see WorkItemFormGroup Sample for more examples.

import { IWorkItemFormService, WorkItemTrackingServiceIds } from "azure-devops-extension-api/WorkItemTracking";
import * as SDK from "azure-devops-extension-sdk";

// Get the WorkItemFormService.  This service allows you to get/set fields/links on the 'active' work item (the work item
// that currently is displayed in the UI).
async function getWorkItemFormService()
{
    const workItemFormService = await SDK.getService<IWorkItemFormService>(WorkItemTrackingServiceIds.WorkItemFormService);
    return workItemFormService;
}

// Register a listener for the work item group contribution after initializing the SDK.
SDK.register(SDK.getContributionId(), function () {
    return {
        // Called when the active work item is modified
        onFieldChanged: function(args) {
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onFieldChanged - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        },
        
        // Called when a new work item is being loaded in the UI
        onLoaded: function (args) {

            getWorkItemFormService().then(function(service) {            
                // Get the current values for a few of the common fields
                service.getFieldValues(["System.Id", "System.Title", "System.State", "System.CreatedDate"]).then(
                    function (value) {
                        $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onLoaded - " + JSON.stringify(value)));
                    });
            });
        },
        
        // Called when the active work item is being unloaded in the UI
        onUnloaded: function (args) {
            $(".events").empty();
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onUnloaded - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        },
        
        // Called after the work item has been saved
        onSaved: function (args) {
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onSaved - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        },
        
        // Called when the work item is reset to its unmodified state (undo)
        onReset: function (args) {
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onReset - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        },
        
        // Called when the work item has been refreshed from the server
        onRefreshed: function (args) {
            $(".events").append($("<div/>").text("onRefreshed - " + JSON.stringify(args)));
        }
    }
});

Events

Event Event description Argument Argument description
onFieldChanged Fired after a field has changed. If the field change ran rules which updated other fields, all these changes are part of a single event. ID The ID of the work item.
changedFields Array with the reference name of all changed fields. ID The ID of the work item.
onLoaded Fired after when the data gets loaded in the work item form, when the user opens a work item, or when the user navigates to another work item in the triage view. ID The ID of the work item.
onReset Fired after the user undoes the changes to the work item. ID The ID of the work item.
onRefreshed Fired after the user refreshed the work item manually. ID The ID of the work item.
onSaved Fired after a work item is saved. For work items in a dialog, you should target the "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-notifications" type to ensure the event fires since once the dialog closes, this contribution type gets unloaded. For more information, see Listen for events. ID The ID of the work item.
onUnloaded Fired before the user closes the dialog, or before the user moves to another work item in the triage view. ID The ID of the work item.

Add a page

A new page is rendered as a tab on the work item form. New pages appear next to the Details tab.

New page as a tab on the work item form.

To add a page to the work item form, add a contribution to your extension manifest. The type of this contribution should be ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form-page and it should target the ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form contribution.

"contributions": [
    {  
        "id": "sample-work-item-form-page",
        "type": "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form-page",
        "description": "Custom work item form page",
        "targets": [
            "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form"
        ],
        "properties": {
            "name": "My Page",
            "uri": "workItemPage.html"
        } 
    }
]

Properties

Property Description
name Text that appears on the tab page.
uri URI to a page that hosts the html that shows on the work item form and its scripts.

JavaScript sample

See the JavaScript sample in the form group section. The name of the registered object should match the id of the contribution.

Events

Event Event description Argument Argument description
onFieldChanged Fired after a field has changed. If the field change ran rules which updated other fields, all these changes are part of a single event. ID The ID of the work item.
changedFields Array with the reference name of all changed fields. ID The ID of the work item.
onLoaded Fired after when the data gets loaded in the work item form, when the user opens a work item, or when the user navigates to another work item in the triage view. ID The ID of the work item.
onReset Fired after the user undoes the changes to the work item. ID The ID of the work item.
onRefreshed Fired after the user refreshed the work item manually. ID The ID of the work item.
onSaved Fired after a work item is saved. For work items in a dialog, you should target the "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-notifications" type to ensure the event fires since once the dialog closes, this contribution type gets unloaded. For more information, see Listen for events. ID The ID of the work item.
onUnloaded Fired before the user closes the dialog, or before the user moves to another work item in the triage view. ID The ID of the work item.

Configure contributions in work item form

In Azure DevOps Services, by default the group extensions appear in the end of the second column of the form and page contributions appear after all the work item form pages as a tab. Control contributions are not shown in the form by default so users have to manually add them to the form. In Azure DevOps Server, to show/hide or move the control, group and page contributions in work item form, see Configure work item form extensions.

Add menu action

Add an item to the work item toolbar.

To add an item to the work item toolbar, add this contribution to your extension manifest. The item appears in the ... dropdown in the top right of the work item form.

"contributions": [
   {  
      "id": "sample-work-item-menu",  
      "type": "ms.vss-web.action",  
      "description": "Sample toolbar item which updates the title of a work item",  
      "targets": [  
          "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-context-menu"  
      ],  
      "properties": {  
          "text": "Try me!",  
          "title": "Updates the title of the work item from the extension",  
          "toolbarText": "Try me!",  
          "icon": "images/show-properties.png",  
          "uri": "menu-workItemToolbarButton.html"  
      }  
   }
]

Properties

Property Description
text Text that appears on the toolbar item.
title Tooltip text that appears on the menu item.
toolbarText Text that appears when the item is being hovered over.
uri URI to a page that registers the toolbar action handler.
icon URL to an icon that appears on the menu item. Relative URLs are resolved using baseUri.
group Determines where the menu item appears, related to others. Toolbar items with the same group name are grouped and divided by a separator from the rest of the items.
registeredObjectId (Optional) Name of the registered menu action handler. Defaults to the contribution ID.

Listen for events

To add an observer to the work item, which listens to the work item events, add this contribution to your extension manifest. There's no visualization for observers on the work item form. This is the best way to listen to work item form onSaved event since the observer lives outside of the form and doesn't get destroyed when form closes, which might happen right after save.

"contributions": [
   {  
       "id": "sample-work-item-form-observer",
       "type": "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-notifications",
       "description": "Gets events about the current work item form for the 'Try Me!' toolbar button",
       "targets": [
           "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-form"
       ],
       "properties": {
           "uri": "myformobserver.html"
       }
   }
]

Properties

Property Description
uri URI to a page that hosts the scripts listening to events

Events

Event Event description Argument Argument description
onFieldChanged Fired after a field has changed. If the field change ran rules which updated other fields, all these changes are part of a single event. ID The ID of the work item.
changedFields Array with the reference name of all changed fields. ID The ID of the work item.
onLoaded Fired after when the data gets loaded in the work item form, when the user opens a work item, or when the user navigates to another work item in the triage view. ID The ID of the work item.
onReset Fired after the user undoes the changes to the work item. ID The ID of the work item.
onRefreshed Fired after the user refreshed the work item manually. ID The ID of the work item.
onSaved Fired after a work item is saved. For work items in a dialog, you should target the "ms.vss-work-web.work-item-notifications" type to ensure the event fires since once the dialog closes, this contribution type gets unloaded. For more information, see Listen for events. ID The ID of the work item.
onUnloaded Fired before the user closes the dialog, or before the user moves to another work item in the triage view. ID The ID of the work item.

HTML/JavaScript sample

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Work item extension page sample</title>
</head>

<body>
    <script src="sdk/scripts/SDK.js"></script>

    <script>
        SDK.init({
            usePlatformScripts: true
        });
        
        SDK.ready(function () {
             // Register a listener for the work item page contribution.
            SDK.register(SDK.getContributionId(), function () {
                return {
                    // Called when the active work item is modified
                    onFieldChanged: function(args) {
                        
                    },
                    
                    // Called when a new work item is being loaded in the UI
                    onLoaded: function (args) {
            
                    },
                    
                    // Called when the active work item is being unloaded in the UI
                    onUnloaded: function (args) {
            
                    },
                    
                    // Called after the work item has been saved
                    onSaved: function (args) {
            
                    },
                    
                    // Called when the work item is reset to its unmodified state (undo)
                    onReset: function (args) {
            
                    },
                    
                    // Called when the work item has been refreshed from the server
                    onRefreshed: function (args) {
            
                    }
                }
            });    
        });
     </script>
</body>
</html>