Feature Request: Improve VS integrated client

[ajj3085]

I like that I can see work items directly within Visual Studio, but its pretty clunky, and I find myself still using the web client more. This is typically what happens to me.

In VS, go to View -> Vault Pro -> Work Items. A tabbed window opens. It hass queries, which you can define or use prebuilt.

Double click something. Another new window. Close the Work Items, its in the way. I have my At-A-Glance. Nice idea, but it only tells me item counts. To see whats open, click one of the number. Another new window.

Open an item, work on it, check in changes. The item detail is remains the same, it doesn't show completed. Close it because you're done with it.

Back to the open item lists. It still shows the thing you just completed, along with items others have completed. Also, I can't refresh it. Close it. The item counts on At-A-Glance are unchanged. I can click the number again for a new list of open things and another window opens. Close AAG because its too out of date and theres no way to refresh it.

The two primary problems are 1) Every window opens another window, until you're at the item detail. 2) None of the windows can be refreshed, forcing me to close and reopen windows.

This is what I think would be nice:

• The Work Items window should have a splitter and right side content. Single clicking a query or summary shows the item list.
• The right side pane should have a button to refresh it.
• The AAG should be a tree structure; I should be able to expand the Milestone (or whatever the grouping is) and see some of the item details, just like I can with the queries.
• Item details show show in the same window as well; the list and details can be part of the right side pane and can themselves be split amongst top and bottom.

The primary goal IMO of having the Work item windows in VS is to help developers easily find the work that they need to do, and then stay out of the way while they do it. The number of windows and not being able to refresh make the first part of that more difficult than it needs to be and the number of windows makes the second part impossible. Too many windows means I need to close them to get it out of my way; a single window that I could keep docked / collapsed, which is always up to date would go a long way to make me more productive.

[lbauer]

You right that there's no manual refresh for the work item information.

It's been a few years since we first implemented Work Item Tracking in Visual Studio integration with Vault. I've logged feature request 16273 with your comments so that our developers can revisit the design.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[ajj3085]

You right that there's no manual refresh for the work item information.

It's been a few years since we first implemented Work Item Tracking in Visual Studio integration with Vault. I've logged feature request 16273 with your comments so that our developers can revisit the design.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Thanks, I appreciate it. I really love Vault, improving the integration so that I can literally do everything I need right within VS would make it that much better.