Question

I have previously used TFS for bug Tracking, and the one feature available out of the box that we found really valuable was the ability to install a small Excel add-in which would allow us to easily retrieve, edit, create and modify cases directly from Excel (http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2008/10/06/using-excel-to-manage-your-work-items.aspx).

It made it really easy to do things like go to a project meeting, identify work items or features and ensure that we have entered all the correct fields (release, estimates, due dates, etc.) When we have to enter each case individually it is more time consuming and error prone (Although your product is still outstanding).

Ideally a new FogBugz addin would allow a user to open Excel, connect to a FogBugz server, pull in work items based on selecting an existing FogBugz filter, and then edit any of the fields on any of the work items associated with the filter before performing a mass-save of updates back to the server.

Case FC1904095

Answer 1

Import / Export

• You can export a filter to a CSV file using the Filter Export plugin.
• To import cases from a CSV or Excel file, you could use the Plugin Architecture to create a feature in FogBugz that lets you upload a file and define the column mappings, then import the new cases.

Live Interaction

I have opened a feature request to consider this feature for a future release. Please up-vote this question to show your support for adding this feature. This is a good candidate for a pair of plugins: one for Excel and one for FogBugz. You can read about developing FogBugz plugins here.

Answer 2

Yes, TFS has an Excel add-in. Ideally a new FogBugz addin would allow a user to open Excel, connect to a FogBugz server, pull in work items based on selecting an existing FogBugz filter, and then edit any of the fields on any of the work items associated with the filter before performing a mass-save of updates back to the server.

See http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2008/10/06/using-excel-to-manage-your-work-items.aspx for an example of how a competitor (TFS) allows interacting with work items via an Excel add-in.

Answer 3

It is currently possible for me to build upon the filter plugin and\or the web service to create a tool to perform a mass import\update, and I may use Excel automation to do this directly from Excel. So yes, what I'm requesting can be accomplished with a little effort.

I have previously used TFS for bug Tracking, and the one feature available out of the box that we found really valuable was the ability to install a small add-in which would allow us to easily retrieve, edit, create and modify cases directly from Excel. It made it really easy to do things like go to a project meeting, identify work items or features and ensure that we have entered all the correct fields (release, estimates, due dates, etc.) When we have to enter each case individually it is more time consuming and error prone (Although your product is still outstanding).

Answer 4

We are currently using TFS at work - and I really dislike TFS. The one single feature it has that is nice is the excel integration, but this feature is a killer one. The ability to pull in a query like "current iteration" and easily slice and dice with pivots, simple filtering and formula, and conditional formatting has altered how we work, and it covers up many of the issues with TFS.

Combining this one ability with all of the awesomeness in FogBugz would make switching a no-brainer. Because many people here have come to rely so heavily on it, until we find another product that can do this, we're stuck with TFS. I really hope that FogBugz soon says "yes, you can switch to us".

While the TFS excel add-in has many features, there are only three we MUST have

1. Open in excel - open a query in excel, each work item/bug is a row, and each field a column.
2. Publish - after making changes to the work items, send the changes back to the tracker.
3. Refresh - reload the query, overwriting any local changes.

And nice to have is the "choose columns" ability - rather than changing the query to include more columns, this lets you add/remove columns on the fly. Not required, but useful.