Refresh Work Items and Change the List Type in Office Excel

Article
02/04/2013

You can refresh your queries to ensure that your data is current and use list types to see different views of your data when you are using Office Excel. When you refresh a list, you get the latest data from the Team Foundation database for the work items in that list. The way in which the data is refreshed depends upon its configuration. For more information see, Flat Lists and Tree Lists, Query Lists and Input Lists.

To refresh a work item list as it is configured, click Refresh from the Team tab. To change the list type and then refresh the work item list, complete one or more of the procedures provided below.

Topic Contents:

Changing the Query Used to Refresh a Query List
Converting a Query List to an Input List
Converting an Input List to a Query List
Converting a Tree List to a Flat List
Converting a Flat List to a Tree List

Important

When you change the list type, you may introduce changes to the list structure as well as the contents of the list. For example, when you change from an input list to a query list, the work items within your worksheet are completely replaced with the work items found by the query and the list structure that matches the query. For more information about the changes to the list structure that are made when you convert the list type, see Flat Lists and Tree Lists, Query Lists and Input Lists..

Required Permissions

To perform these procedures, you must be a member of the Readers group or have the View work items in this node permission set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

Changing the Query Used to Refresh a Query List

To change the query used to refresh a query list

On the Team tab in Office Excel, in the Work Items group, click Configure, and then click List.
In the Refresh from query list, navigate to the query that you want to use to refresh the work item list, and then click that query.

Note

If the list under Refresh from query is not available, the work item list is not a query list but an input list. Click Refresh from query to convert the work item list to a query list.
Click Apply.

Team Foundation changes the list structure to the list type that is used by the query that you selected and updates the list contents with those work items that match the new query.

Converting a Query List to an Input List

To change a query list into an input list

On the Team tab in Office Excel, in the Work Items group, click Configure, and then click List.
Click Refresh current work items only.
Click Apply.

The work item list heading shows [none] to indicate that the work item list is now an input list.

Converting an Input List to a Query List

To change an input list into a query list

On the Team tab in Office Excel, in the Work Items group, click Configure, and then click List.
Click Refresh From Query.
In the list, navigate to the saved query that you want to use to refresh the work item list, and then click the query.

Note

If the query that you select is configured as a tree query, the work item list will be a tree list. For more information about tree lists, see Flat Lists and Tree Lists, Query Lists and Input Lists.
Click Apply.

Converting a Tree List to a Flat List

To change a tree list to a flat list

On the Team tab in Office Excel, in the Work Items group, click Configure, and then click List.
Click Refresh work items only, and then click Apply.

Team Foundation changes the list structure to a flat list and the refresh list type to an input list. Also, Team Foundation refreshes the data for the work items contained in the worksheet.

Converting a Flat List to a Tree List

To change a flat list to a tree list

On the Team tab in Office Excel, in the Work Items group, click Add Tree Level.
In the Convert to Tree List dialog box, click Parent-Child or other type of link (only tree link types are listed), and then click Yes.

Team Foundation changes the list structure to a tree list.