This section covers synchronising work items with with Microsoft Team Foundation Server using SpecLog.TFSPlugin.V3. More information on work item tracking synchronisation in general can be found here. Information on synchronisation with earlier (legacy) versions of the TFS plugin can be found here.

WARNING If you have previously synchronised a repository with an earlier version of the TFS synchronisation plugin (V1 or V2), you should first migrate your repositories before enabling the V3 plugin and synchronising these repositories with TFS. If you do not migrate your repository, all requirements in your repository will be treated as new requirements, and will be added to TFS, resulting in duplicate work items. If you want to map diffferent SpecLog requirement types to different TFS work item types (previously not supported), ensure that you set up the corresponding card mappings before synchronising. Once a requirement has been synchronised with TFS, the work item type in TFS can no longer be changed, even if you change the target work item type in the card mapping. Once you have migrated to V3, you should not revert to an earlier plugin version, as this can cause issues with the synchronisation of existing items! Please also refer to the known limitations before upgrading, as the current version of the plugin has a few minor limitations compared to previous versions.

This topic consists of the following sections:
Supported TFS Versions and Templates
Known Limitations
Log Entries

The following topics contain relevant information on configuring synchronisation and migrating from previous versions of the synchronisation plugin:
Migrating to SpecLog.TFSPlugin.V3 from Earlier Plugin Versions
Configuring the SpecLog Server Plugin
Synchronisation

The following TFS versions are currently supported (more recent versions may also be supported):

• Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2012, 2013 and 2015
• Microsoft Visual Studio Online (Team Foundation Services, visualstudio.com)

The following TFS templates are supported (customised templates and more recent versions may also be supported):

• MSF for Agile Software Development v5.x and v6.x
• Microsoft Visual Studio Scrum 1.x and 2.x

Synchronising work items with TFS requires the following core fields in the template:

• Title
• Description
• Acceptance Criteria
• Estimate

Warning: Additional validation rules in custom templates can cause synchronisation errors if these rules are violated by updates synchronised from SpecLog.

You can log synchronisation errors encountered by the plugin in the SpecLog server logs (if logs are enabled), which can help you identify compatibility issues with customised templates. Details on what information is included in log entries can be found here.

The following limitations exist:

• Changes to the order of acceptance criteria in SpecLog do not trigger synchronisation with TFS. You need to make a manual change to the content to force synchronisation.
• Deletions performed in SpecLog cannot be attributed to a user even if impersonation is enabled
• Unlike earlier versions of the TFS synchronisation plugin, Gherkin files are not synchronised with TFS version control with V3. If you want to synchronise Gherkin files with TFS version control, use the TFS Version Control plugin instead.
• Parent-child links (refinements) are not synchronised

The plugin outputs the following information to the log file depending on the configured log level:

• Verbose: Detailed information for debugging and analysing (disabled by default).
• Information:
  • Information on when the plugin is started and stopped
  • Information on each sychronisation cycle with a summary of the actions performed
• Warning:
  • TFS session creation exceptions
  • Impersonation errors
  • Errors parsing work items

Migrating to SpecLog.TFSPlugin.V3 from Earlier Plugin Versions
Configuring the SpecLog Server Plugin
Synchronisation