Walkthrough: Resolving Conflicting Changes in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Project
This walkthrough shows you how to resolve work item conflicts and validation errors when making updates in Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel.
Tasks illustrated in this walkthrough include:
Updating a work item in Microsoft Excel.
Updating a work item in Microsoft Project.
Resolving a conflicting change.
Resolving a validation error.
Prerequisites
To complete this walkthrough, you will need:
A connection to a Team Foundation Server.
The Adventure Works team project. To create this team project, see Walkthrough: Creating a New Team Project.
Permissions to access Team Foundation Server.
Permissions to join the team project and view and update work items.
Note
To obtain permissions, contact your project administrator.
Required Permissions
To perform this walkthrough, you must be a member of the Contributors group or have the View work items in this node, and Edit work items permissions in this node set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.
Updating and Conflict Resolution
When updates are made to work items from multiple spreadsheets or project plans, conflicts can occur. A typical scenario is when one team member publishes a changed work item, and later, another team member publishes the same work item, but with different values.
Use the Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box to resolve conflicting changes and validation errors. The top portion of the dialog box displays all of the work items that caused an error during publication. These work items are not published yet and you must take specific action to correct the errors before they can be published.
The Details section of the dialog box provides additional information about the error for the selected work item. When you select a work item, details about the work item publish error appear in this section.
Depending on the type of error, additional buttons appear at the bottom of the dialog box to assist you in resolving the error.
To cause and resolve a conflict
In Team Explorer, expand the AdventureWorks, Work Items, and Team Queries nodes.
Right-click the All Tasks query, and choose Open in Microsoft Excel.
Microsoft Excel opens and the system creates a work item list with approximately 50 tasks.
In Team Explorer, right-click the All Tasks query, and choose Open in Microsoft Project.
Microsoft Project opens and the system creates approximately 50 tasks.
In Microsoft Project, locate the Setup: Set Permissions task, and select the cell under the Discipline column.
Note
If you cannot see the Discipline column, go to the View menu and select the Team System Task Sheet. You may have to scroll to the right to find the Discipline column.
Click the drop-down arrow that appears next to the cell, and choose Development.
Click the next cell, or press ENTER to accept the change.
From the Work Items menu, choose Publish Changes.
The system publishes the discipline value you just entered to the work item database.
In Microsoft Excel, locate the Setup: Set Permissions task, and select the cell in the Discipline column.
Click the drop-down arrow that appears next to the cell, and choose Program Management.
On the Team tab, in the Work Items group, click Publish.
Note
In Microsoft Office Excel 2003, use the Team menu.
Because the discipline in the work item list has a different value than the one you published from Microsoft Project, there is a conflict. The system displays the Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box.
In the Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box, click Program Management to preserve the local version.
For data conflicts, you must choose which value to keep on the server (work item database). You can choose the local version, or the server version. Both are displayed and you must choose one.
Click Publish.
The Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box will apply the local version and update the status to indicate that all work items were published successfully.
Click Close.
Resolving Validation Errors
Each work item type includes rules that govern how the work item behaves in the team project. Some fields are required, while others are limited only to a certain set of values. Also, the rules can change based on what state the work item is in.
When the system publishes a work item and a field violates a rule, a validation error occurs. Use the Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box to resolve any validation errors that occur. To fix a validation error, you must edit the work item using a work item form. Change the incorrect field value to a correct value.
To cause and resolve a data validation error
In Microsoft Excel, delete the title of the Setup: Set Permissions task.
On the Team tab, in the Work Items group, click Publish.
Note
In Microsoft Office Excel 2003, use the Team menu.
The system displays the Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box because the title is a required field. This causes a validation error.
In the Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box, click the Edit Work Item button.
The system displays a work item form so that you can provide correct values for any fields that have errors. A yellow background color denotes the required fields.
Type the title Setup: Set Permissions in the Title field.
Click OK.
Click Publish.
Because you resolved the error, the Work Item Publishing Errors dialog box will update the status to indicate that all work items were published successfully.
Click Close.