EWM/RTC Work Item Command Line

Work Item Command Line Version 6.1

See the Prerequisites and Work Item Command Line 5.0 for instructions how to setup and install WCL.

Version Comatibility

Version 6.0 and later support 7.0.2SR1 and later. The changes remove Log4J1 and add Log4J2. The changes break compatibility to releases before 7.0.2SR1. For EWM releases before 7.0.2SR1 use this version.

License

This software is licensed under the MIT license which is as follows: MIT License

Disclaimer

All content is provided "as is" and without warranties. I am not responsible for any harm or damage caused by this material to you, your computer, your software, or anything else.

This software is open source and not supported by IBM. Do not open support cases at IBM against this software. If you have questions open an issue here and/or ask a question in the Jazz.net Forum.

Note:

All of the following examples use bash multiline syntax for legibility. Leave them out when using single line commands, or replace them with a backtick (`) if you are using powershell.

Table of Contents

• RTC Work Item Command Line
  • Prerequisites
  • Usage
    • Available Commands
  • Optional RMI server mode
    • Start WCL in RMI server mode
    • Start WCL in RMI client mode and run a command
  • WorkItem attribute parameter and value examples
    • Parameters
    • Values
    • Examples
  • Modes
  • Special Properties
    • Comments
    • Subscriptions
    • Tags
    • Approvals
    • Work Item State:
    • WorkFlow Action
    • Attachments
    • Links
  • Attribute ID Aliases
  • Link types
  • Import/Export
    • Import Modes
    • Export Modes
    • Attachments
  • License

Prerequisites

• WCL requires an up to date working Java. Currently Java 8 is known to work. Some newer Java versions might cause Class Not found and other exceptions.
• WCL requires the RTC/EWM Plain Java Client Libraries.

Download the Plain Java Client Libraries from the 'All Downloads' tab of the download page for your version of EWM. Unzip the Plain Java Client Libraries into a folder on your local disc for example C:\ELM702\PlainJavaAPI. The JAR files are supposed to be in this specific folder.

Download a prebuilt WCL release from the Releases and uncompress the file.

For Linux or Mac, We'll need to set the appropriate permissions with 'chmod' for wcl.sh file.

To run WCL, edit the wcl.bat or wcl.sh and change the environment variables JAVA_HOME and PLAIN_JAVA to your Java JRE and the Plain Java Client Libraries you installed to your values e.g.

PLAIN_JAVA=C:\ELM702\PlainJavaAPI

For Mac, if you're trying to run wcl.sh and are getting a message "/usr/bin/java/bin/java: Not a directory", then you need to update the JAVA_HOME value in the wcl.sh script. To locate potential Java installations on your Mac, execute the following command: /usr/libexec/java_home -V

Some commands use special libraries that I can not bundle with the download. The libraries and how to get them can be found in the ReadMe.txt.

It is possible to work with the WCL source code. It is possible to import the code of WCL into Eclipse and build your own WCL. The WCL requires the Plain Java Client Libraries to be accessible in the Eclipse project. See the RTC Extensions Workshop especially Lab 1 that helps setting up the EWM SDK and the Plain Java Client Libraries. Please see the blog rsjazz.wordpress.com for updates on how to perform the workshop with newer versions of EWM. Follow the Lab 1 to setup the SDK and development environmnet. Import WCL into this environment either the server development workspace or the client development workspace. Both should work.

To set up your own WCL development environment, download the GIT repository e.g. using GitHubDesktop. Import the code of the Eclipse projects. The code will likely not compile correctly yet. Download the supporting libaries as described in ReadMe.txt and place them in a folder. e.g. C:/Dev/WCL_ExternalLibs. Open the Java Build Path editor. On the libraries tab make sure the Plain Java Client Libraries user library has a correct Plain Java Client Libraries folder selected. Add the path to each of the external JAR files in C:/Dev/WCL_ExternalLibs to one of the existing user library definitions, or define your own user libraries containing the external JAR files needed. Once you have successfully added the external JAR files, all compiler errors should be gone. You can now launch and debug WCL from your Eclipse workspace.

To package WCL from your own code for shipping follow the build README.

Usage

The general syntax is:

-[command] {switch} {parameter[:mode]=value}

See A RTC WorkItem Command Line Version 2 for a more complete description. There are also newer blog posts about WCL on the RSJazz blog.

Multiple parameter/value pairs and switches can be provided separated by spaces. Commands might require specific parameters to be mandatory.

Switches influence the behavior of the operation. The switch /ignoreErrors ignores errors such as attributes or values not available and keeps WCL running.

Available commands:

Print the work item types of a project area

-printtypes 
    repository="value" 
    user="value"   
    password="value" 
    projectArea="value" 

Print the attributes of a work work item type in a project area

-printtypeattributes 
    repository="value" 
    user="value" 
    password="value" 
    projectArea="value" 
    workItemType="value"  

Print a work item.

-printworkitem
    repository="value" 
    user="value" 
    password="value" 
    id="value"
    /allColumns 
    /asrtceclipse
    /attributeNamesAsIDs	
    /ignoreErrors 
    /suppressAttributeExceptions 
    /ignoreErrors 
    [attachmentFolder="C:\temp\export"]
    [timestampFormat="MMM d, yyyy hh:mm a"]
    [columns="Type,Id,Planned For,Filed Against,Description,Found In"]

Create a work item of a specific work item type in a project area

-create 
    repository="value" 
    user="value" 
    password="value" 
    projectArea="value" 
    workItemType="value" 
    /enforceSizeLimits 
    /ignoreErrors 
    /enableDeleteAttachment 
    /enableDeleteApprovals 
    {parameter[:mode]=value}

Update the values of the work item with a specific ID

-update 
    repository="value" 
    user="value" 
    password="value" 
    id="value" 
    /enableDeleteAttachment 
    /enableDeleteApprovals 
    /skipEmailNotification 
    /enforceSizeLimits 
    /ignoreErrors 
    {parameter[:mode]=value}

Update the values of a bulk of work items provided by a query

-bulkupdate 
    repository="value" 
    user="value" 
    password="value" 
    query="value"
    querysource="value"
    /enableDeleteAttachment 
    /enableDeleteApprovals 
    /skipEmailNotification 
    /enforceSizeLimits 
    /ignoreErrors 
    {parameter[:mode]=value}

Imports work items from a CSV file

-importworkitems 
    repository="value" 
    user="value" 
    password="value" 
    projectArea="value" 
    importFile="value" 
    /skipEmailNotification 
    /ignoreErrors 
    /importdebug 
    /forcelinkcreation 
    /enforceSizeLimits 
    /importmultipass
    /ignoreemptycolumnvalues
    /suppressIgnoredAttributeWarnings
    [mappingFile="C:\temp\mapping.xml"] 
    [encoding="UTF-8"] 
    [timestampFormat="MMM d, yyyy hh:mm a"] 
    [delimiter=","]

Exports work items to a CSV file

-exportworkitems
    repository="value" 
    user="value" 
    password="value"
    projectArea="value" 
    query="value" 
    exportFile="value"
    /allColumns
    /asrtceclipse 
    /suppressAttributeExceptions 
    /headerIDs 
    /ignoreErrors 
    [encoding="UTF-8"] 
    [delimiter=","] 
    [columns="Type,Id,Planned For,Filed Against,Description,Found In"] 
    [querysource="JKE Banking(Change Management),JKE Banking(Change Management)/Business Recovery Matters"] 
    [timestampFormat="MMM d, yyyy hh:mm a"]

Migrates/copies the value of one attribute into another attribute for all work items of the specified type in the project area.

 -migrateattribute 
    repository="value"  
    user="value" 
    password="value"  
    projectArea="value"  
    targetAttributeID="value" 
    sourceAttributeID="value"
    workItemType="value"
    /ignoreErrors 
    /skipEmailNotification

Validates OSLC links on work items in a project area.

-validateoslclinks
    repository="value"
    user="value"
    password="value"
    passwordFile="value"
    projectArea="value"
    query="value"
    /trace
    /debug

Find if there are attribute Id's that conflict with enumeration literal id's.

-findidconflicts
  repository="value"
  user="value" 
  password="value"
  passwordFile="value"
  projectArea="value"
  /showProjects
  /showCatalog
  /verbose
  /trace
  /debug

Find any string in the project area states.

-findinprojectareas 
  repository="value"
  user="value" 
  password="value"
  passwordFile="value"
  projectArea="value"
  search="value"
  /trace
  /debug

Validate work item states and write them to files if exportFolder provided.

IMPORTANT: The user must have JAZZADMIN rights and the Repodebug Advanced Property must be enabled to run some tools. The validateworkitems uses the Repodebug service.

-validateworkitems
  repository="value"
  user="value" 
  password="value"
  passwordFile="value"
  projectArea="value"
  query="value"
  search="value"
  exportFolder="value"
  /trimHtml
  /local 
  /linksOnly
  /statesOnly
  /trace
  /debug

Import Work Item States.

importstates is used to replace the states in the repository. This command should be used with great care.

-importstates
  repository="value"
  user="value" 
  password="value"
  passwordFile="value"
  importStatesFolder="value"
  /trace
  /debug

RMI Mode - Optional

WCL supports to be run in RMI mode. This allows to run WCL as a RMI server that can be accessed from WCL RMI clients. The WCL server keeps running connected to the teamrepository and the time to repeatedly connect to the repository is saved. If you do not know what RMI is, you should likely not use this mode. Note that using this mode incorrectly, can cause errors that are hard to understand. Running in RMI mode requires two commands to be executed.

1. Run WCL as RMI Server and start it in RMI server mode.
2. Run a WCL as RMI client, with the parameters for the specific command you want to run.

See details below.

Start WCL in RMI server mode

If desired, use the switch /rmiServer to start an instance as RMI server. In this mode, the process will not terminate, but wait for RMI requests to perform commands. It will service commands requested by other WCL run as RMI client instances that run with the additional switch /rmiClient. It is not necessary to provide a command or any other input values, when starting the server as they will be ignored. Since the TeamPlatform needs to be initialized only once in this mode, the performance is considerably increased for multiple subsequent client calls.

By default, the RMI server uses the name //localhost/RemoteWorkitemCommandLineServer on port 1099. It is possible to specify a different name and port by providing a value to the switch.

The client command must be started with the same name and port as the server using the corresponding client switch

Example start as an RMI server:

WCL /rmiServer=//clm.example.com:1199/WorkItemCommandLine`

Start WCL in RMI client mode and run a command

To run against a running WCL RMI server, start WCL as an RMI client. To run WCL as RMI client, provide the command you want to run and provide the flag /rmiClient flag with the RMI server URI and the parameters for the desired command. E.g. to create a work item use:

WCL -create 
    /rmiClient=//clm.example.com:1199/WorkItemCommandLine 
    repository="https://clm.example.com:9443/ccm" 
    user=functional 
    password=********* 
    projectArea="Test" 
    workItemType=task 
    summary="New Item"

Please note, that the server and the client require a policy file for the security manager. A Policy file rmi_no.policy is shipped with the download. Rename and modify the file to your requirements. To enable security Java requires to call the class with the additional vm argument -Djava.security.policy=no.policy where the policy file name must exist. The WCL shell scripts are prepared for the default values shown here.

WorkItem attribute parameter and value examples

Format for parameter is:

parameter[:mode]=value

No spaces are allowed between parameter, value and the =. Parameter and value can also not have spaces. Use " to enclose values with spaces.

Example: "A Space"

Parameters

Parameter is a work item attribute ID and value is a value or a list of values. Use the command -printtypeattributes to retrieve the available attribute ID's, or inspect the process configuration of your project area to extract the attribute ID's.

Values

The values are specified by a string. This is can be display name of that value (enumerations) or composed of display values of the path to this item (category, iterations, process areas). For other attributes, such as users, work item types or work items, use the ID.

Examples

• For enumeration based attributes use the display value for the enumeration literal:

  internalPriority=High

• For HTML and string based attributes use a string. HTML types like summary, description, comment and HTML support the following syntax.

  description="Plain text<br/><b>bold text</b><br/><i>italic text</i><br/><a href="https://rsjazz.wordpress.com">External RSJazz Link</a><br/>User link to <b>@ralph </b><br/>Work Item link to Defect 3 <br/>"

• For Wiki and multi line text attributes use <br> or \n for line breaks and check the syntax in the wiki editor. The Wiki syntax can be found here http://www.wikicreole.org/ .

  custom.wiki="<br>=Heading1<br><br>Plain text\n==Heading 2\n\nNormal Text **bold text** <br>**bold text**<br>//Italics//"

• For work item type, owner and some other attributes use the object ID.

  workItemType=task

  owner=tanuj

• Use the display name for simple attributes or the path composed out of the display names for hierarchical attributes.

  category=JKE/BRN

  foundIn="Sprint 2 Development"

  target="Main Development/Release 1.0/Sprint 3"

  custom.process.area="JKE Banking (Change Management)/Release Engineering"

• Dates and Timestamps have to be specified in the Java SimpleDateFormat notation. The value "unassigned" can be used to delete the date.

  dueDate="2015/02/01 12:30:00 GMT+01:00"

  dueDate="unassigned"

• Duration values are specified in milliseconds, or a hours minutes format.

  duration=1800000 correctedEstimate=3600000 timeSpent=60000

  duration="1 hour" correctedEstimate="2 hours 30 minutes" timeSpent="30 minutes"

• WorkItem attribute values of List with a specified item type such as userList. Format is using the separator ,:

  "value1,value2,...,valueN"

  Example: custom.user.list:add="deb,al,...,tanuj"

• WorkItem attributes with an general attribute value such as Item or itemList require encoding to locate the items. Format is:

  custom.item.list=value

  Where value has the form: <value>{,<value>}

  With <value> of the form <TypeDescriptor>:<Item>

  No spaces are allowed in the value list.

  Available values are:

  • Project area: ProjectArea - specified by its name.

    Example: "ProjectArea:JKE Banking (Change Management)"

  • Team area: TeamArea - specified by its name path.

    Example: "TeamArea:JKE Banking (Change Management)/Release Engineering"

  • Process area: ProcessArea - specified by its name path.

    Example: "ProcessArea:JKE Banking (Change Management)/Business Recovery Matters"

  • Category: Category - specified by its category path.

    Example: "Category:JKE/BRM"

  • User: User - specified by its id.

    Example: "User:tanuj"

  • Iteration: Iteration - specified by its name path (including the development line name).

    Example: "Iteration:Main Development/Release 1.0/Sprint 3"

  • Work item: WorkItem - specified by its id.

    Example: "WorkItem:20"

  • SCM component: SCMComponent - specified by its name.

    Example: "SCMComponent:Build"

Modes

Modes allow different types of changes to attributes such as add values, append text or remove and set other data. Supported modes are default (no mode specified), add, set, remove. If no mode is specified, the default mode for the parameter is used.

• Example for default mode: summary="This is a summary.".
• Example for add mode: summary:add=" Add this to the summary.".
• Example for set mode: summary:set="Overwite the existing summary with this.".
• Example for remove mode: custom.enumeration.list:remove=$,Unassigned.

Which modes are supported and their behavior depends on attribute type. Single value attributes typically support default and set mode, but not add and remove mode. Multiple value attributes typically support default , add , set and remove mode. Default mode for single value attributes sets the value. Default mode for multiple value attributes adds the value(s). Set mode for multiple value attributes removes the old values and then adds the new value(s). Remove mode for multiple value attributes removes the old values specified, that can be found.

String values such as HTML, Summary, Wiki type attributes support default (same behavior as set mode), set and add mode.

Special Properties

Work Item ID: Parameter "id" can not be changed.

Project Area: Parameter "projectArea" can only be specified when creating the work item. It can not be set to a different value later.

Creation Date: Parameter "creationDate" can only be specified when creating the work item. It can not be set to a different value later. This is true for the importWorkitem command as well.

Comments

Parameter "internalComments" can be used to add a comment. This attribute only supports the default and add mode. Comments can not be removed.

Example: internalComments="This is a comment"

Subscriptions

Parameter "internalSubscriptions" can be used to subscribe a list of users using their user ID's. This attribute supports the modes default (same as) add, set and remove mode.

• Example set specific users: internalSubscriptions:set=al,tammy
• Example add users: internalSubscriptions:add=deb,tanuj,bob
• Example remove users: internalSubscriptions:remove=sally,bob

Tags

Parameter "internalTags" can be used to add a list of tags. This attribute supports the modes default (same as) add, set and remove mode.

Example: internalTags=Tag1,..,TagN

Approvals

Parameter "internalApprovals" can be used to add approvals and approvers using their user ID's. Approvals only support the modes default (same as) add, set and remove. Set and remove only affects approvals of the same type.

Format

internalApprovals[<ID>][:<mode>]="approval:Approval Name as string:userID1,..,userIDn"

Where <ID> can be left out if only one approval is specified or needs to be unique if multiple approvals are specified. Where <mode> can be left out and defaults to add.

Available modes are: set add (set as default mode) and remove.

Modes set and remove only remove approvals of the same type and must be enabled using the switch enableDeleteApprovals.

Example: internalApprovals="review:Please Review:deb,tanuj" Example: internalApprovals="verification:Please verify:sally,al"

where the user list is optional and can contain one or more users ID's

Work Item State:

Parameter "internalState" can be used to change the work item state. State change only supports the modes default and set.

Format

internalState=StateName to find a one step workflow action to change the state, and execute the action, or internalState=forceState:StateName to force the state change to the target state even if no workflow action exists

WorkFlow Action

A pseudo parameter "@workflowAction" can be used to set a workflow action to change the work item state when saving. This attribute supports only the modes default and set.

Example: @workflowAction="Stop working"

Attachments

Attachments are not stored in an attribute, therefore there is no attribute name or ID. WCL solves that by using pseudo attributes.

CSV export and import support attachments. The pseudo attribute name and type Attachment or attachment is used as column header representing the attachments.

For work item creation and update operations, a pseudo parameter @attachFile can be used to upload attachments. This attribute supports the modes default (same as) add, set and remove. Set removes all attachments, remove only removes attachments with the specified file path and description.

Format

@attachFile[<IDString>][:<mode>]="SomeFilePath,Some Description,ContentTypeID,EncodingID"

Where: <IDString> must be unique for multiple attachments in one command. If only one attachment is uploaded, the IDString can be left empty. ContentTypeID is text/plain or application/unknown or application/xml

EncodingID is UTF-8 (default) or UTF-16LE or UTF-16BE or us-ascii.

The file must be accessible and in the correct encoding.

Examples:

@attachFile="C:/temp/test.txt,Some Attachment,text/plain,UTF-8"
@attachFile_1:add="./test1.txt,Some Attachment 1,text/plain,UTF-8" @attachFile_2="./test2.txt,Some Attachment 2,text/plain,UTF-8"

A pseudo parameter @deleteAttachments can be used to delete all attachments. Modes have no influence on this attribute. This attribute supports the value yes.

Example:

@deleteAttachments=yes

Links

A pseudo parameter @link_ can be used to link the current work item to other objects. Links support the modes default (same as) add, set and remove. Set removes all links of the specified type before creating the new links.

Work Item Links

links between this work item and another work item within the same repository

Format

@link_linktype=value

The parameter value is a list of one or more work items specified by their ID. The separator is:|

@link_copied=id1|id2|...
@link_copied_from=id1|id2|...
@link_successor=id1|id2|...
@link_blocks=id1|id2|...
@link_resolves=id1|id2|...
@link_mentions=id1|id2|...
@link_predecessor=id1|id2|...
@link_parent=id1|id2|...
@link_duplicate_of=id1|id2|...
@link_duplicate=id1|id2|...
@link_related=id1|id2|...
@link_depends_on=id1|id2|...
@link_child=id1|id2|...
@link_resolved_by=id1|id2|...

Example:

@link_related=123|80

CLM Work Item Links

CLM links between this work item and another work item within the same or across repositories

Format

@link_linktype=value

The parameter value is a list of one or more work items specified by their ID (if they are in the same repository) or by the Item URI. The separator is:|

@link_affects_plan_item=id1|id2|URI2|...
@link_tracks_workitem=id1|id2|URI2|...
@link_related_change_management=id1|id2|URI2|...
@link_affected_by_defect=id1|id2|URI2|...

Example:

@link_tracks_workitem="https://clm.example.com:9443/ccm/resource/itemName/com.ibm.team.workitem.WorkItem/80|120|150"

Please note that the link "Mentions" can not directly be created during import or update operations. They can only be created indirectly by referring to work items and users in the description or comments.

CLM URI Links

CLM links between this work item and another item, described by a valid URI, in a different repository

Format

@link_linktype=value

The parameter value is a list of one or more CLM URI's for elements that support this link type. The separator is:|

@link_related_test_plan=uri1|uri2|...
@link_affects_requirement=uri1|uri2|...
@link_tested_by_test_case=uri1|uri2|...
@link_blocks_test_execution=uri1|uri2|...
@link_implements_requirement=uri1|uri2|...
@link_affects_execution_result=uri1|uri2|...
@link_related_artifact=uri1|uri2|...
@link_related_test_case=uri1|uri2|...
@link_tracks_requirement=uri1|uri2|...
@link_scm_tracks_scm_changes=uri1|uri2|...
@link_related_execution_record=uri1|uri2|...

Example: @link_affects_requirement=https://clm.example.com:9443/rm/resources/_848a30e315524069854f55e1d35a402d|https://clm.example.com:9443/rm/resources/_6c96bedb0e9a490494273eefc6e1f7c5

Please note that the link "Associate Work Item" between a change set and the work item can only be created by the SCM component and therefore not by the WCL. The link created here is the looser CLM link. Create the work item change set link using the SCM command line.

Build result Links

Links from a work item to a build result in the same repository.

Format

@link_reportAgainstBuild=buildResult1|buildResult2|...

The parameter value is a list of one or more Build results specified by their ID or their label. Prefix the build labels @. The separator is:

@link_reportAgainstBuild=id1|@BuildLabel2|...
@link_includedInBuild=id1|@BuildLabel2|...

Example:

@link_reportAgainstBuild=@_IjluoH-oEeSHhcw_WFU6CQ|P20141208-1713

Delete all links of a link type

Format is:

@deleteLinks_linktype=yes

Example:

@deleteLinks_includedInBuild=yes

Encoding

Importing from a CSV file can fail if the file encoding does not match the expected encodig. An encoding can be provided for the CSV import and export. The default encoding is: UTF-8

Format is:

encoding=encodingID

	Where encodingID is UTF-8 or UTF-16LE or UTF-16BE or us-ascii.

Example:

	encoding=UTF-8

Attribute ID Aliases

The attribute IDs available to a work item type can be listed with the printtypeattributes command. It is also possible to look into the process specification. The attribute type ID's can be looked up in the RTC project area administration Web UI. Note that the Eclipse project area administation UI does not show the correct ID. For example for the category attribute, the Eclipse project area admin UI shows com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.category but the correct value of the attribute is category. For Severity the correct ID is internalSeverity and not com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.severity as the Eclipse Admin UI shows. To mitigate this problem and to allow to use the values similar to the constants shown in attribute customization, WCL provides a mapping for additional strings representing the same attribute ID. The table below shows which attribute ID aliases map to the predefined values.

Available mappings:

From	To
CORRECTED_ESTIMATE	correctedEstimate
CREATION_DATE	creationDate
CREATOR	creator
DESCRIPTION	description
DUE_DATE	dueDate
FOUND_IN	foundIn
ID	id
MODIFIED	modified
MODIFIED_BY	modifiedBy
OWNER	owner
PLANNED_FOR	target
PRIORITY	internalPriority
PROJECT_AREA	projectArea
RESOLUTION_DATE	resolutionDate
RESOLVER	resolver
ESTIMATE	duration
FILED_AGAINST	category
RESOLUTION	internalResolution
SEVERITY	internalSeverity
STATE	internalState
SUMMARY	summary
TAGS	internalTags
TIME_SPENT	timeSpent
TYPE	workItemType
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.category	category
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.correctedestimate	correctedEstimate
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.creationdate	creationDate
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.creator	creator
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.description	description
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.duedate	dueDate
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.duration	duration
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.id	id
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.modified	modified
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.modifiedby	modifiedBy
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.owner	owner
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.priority	internalPriority
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.projectarea	projectArea
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.resolver	resolver
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.resolutiondate	resolutionDate
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.severity	internalSeverity
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.state	internalState
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.summary	summary
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.tags	internalTags
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.target	target
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.timespent	timeSpent
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.version	foundIn
com.ibm.team.workitem.attribute.workitemtype	workItemType

Link types

The following link types are supported. Please note that some link types might only be supported in some of the commands or use cases.

Display name	Id
Affected by Defect	affected_by_defect
Affects Plan Item	affects_plan_item
Affects Requirement	affects_requirement
Affects Test Result	affects_execution_result
Blocks	blocks
Blocks Test Execution	blocks_test_execution
Children	child
Contributes To	contributes_to_workitem
Copied From	copied_from
Copies	copied
Depends On	depends_on
Duplicate Of	duplicate_of
Duplicated By	duplicate
Implements Requirement	implements_requirement
Included in Builds	includedInBuild
Parent	parent
Predecessor	predecessor
Related	related
Related Artifacts	related_artifact
Related Test Case	related_test_case
Related Test Execution Record	related_execution_record
Related Test Plan	related_test_plan
Reported Against Builds	reportAgainstBuild
Resolved By	resolved_by
Resolves	resolves
Successor	successor
Tested By Test Case	tested_by_test_case
Tracks	tracks_workitem
Tracks Requirement	tracks_requirement

Import/Export

The import and export capabilities of the Work Item Command Line have some special behavior that are not obvious. Here a summary of those topics. See A RTC WorkItem Command Line Version 3.0 for more details on how export and import works.

Import Modes

By default, the WCL RTC import expects attribute data in a form that is compatible to the parameter it uses in the command line parameters. The format deviates from the export/import format of the built in CSV operations for EWM. It is possible to use the switch /asrtceclipse for the import. WCL tries to mimic importing the built in CSV format. Due to complexity of parsing not all data can be imported. Special Flags and behavior /ignoreErrors – Ignore minor errors in mapping and value lookup

/importmultipass – Import the work items from the CSV file in a first iteration and build up a mapping for the ID’s provided in the import file and the actual ID’s created and recreate the work item links between the new work items based on that mapping in a second pass; the old work item ID for a work item has to be provided in a special column with header name com.ibm.js.oldid.

/forcelinkcreation – if no target work item can be found in the map, use the given ID to create the link

/importdebug – Print more information during import attempts to help with finding issues

/enforceSizeLimits – Attributes such as description and medium strings have size limits, if this switch is set, the importer tries to clip content to avoid exceptions due to the size limits

Multi-Pass Import

Importing work items and recreating the link relationships between them is problematic, because while importing the work items the link target may not yet exist. To be able to import a set of work items and then recreate the linkage, it is necessary to do the import and then map the ID of the old work item to the ID of the new work item.

When using the RTC CSV importer in the Eclipse client, existing work items are provided with a # in front of the work item ID. To do an import and then recreate the links between the new work items (and not to the old ones in the import), a user would have to run the import without the links, then replace the work item ID’s in the import file by the new work item ID’s and update the work items with a second import. This is very manual and error prone.

The switch importmultipass enables an import mode, where the WCL tries to create the links between the imported work items, rather to the old ones. It imports the work items in two passes. It creates the work items in the first pass and ignores the link creation. In the second pass it tries to create the links. For links between work items WCL tries to find the work items that were created during the import and tries to match the links to the new work items, where possible.

Note: Only links between work items are handled this way. Links to objects other than work items are recreated using the values provided in the import file.

To be able to do this, the import file has to provide the old work item ID of the work items that are imported. The import requires a special ID for the columns containing the old ID’s. The column header for this column has to be specified with com.ibm.js.oldid.

The import file can be created using an export that included the ID of the work item in the export. The old column header for example ID of the column can be replaced by com.ibm.js.oldid. The work item links show the ID’s of the linked work items with their old ID’s.

Import Work Items With Links

The import works as follows. WCL runs the first pass and imports the work items. It stores the mapping between the original work item ID from the column com.ibm.js.oldid and the ID of the newly created work item in a map. Links are not created in this pass.

In the second pass WCL reads the import file again and only handles the columns that represent links. It detects if the link target represents a work item. If not, it tries to recreate the link as it is. If the link is a work item link, WCL tries to calculate if a new work item was created for the target using the map. If the work item was imported and a new ID is available, the new work item ID is used to create the link.

If the ID of the link target can not be found in the mapping, WCL can either ignore the link or it can try to create the link to the original work item. WCL supports these two modes. By default, the link is not created. If the switch forcelinkcreation is specified, the original value of the target work item ID is used as target for the link, if no mapping to a newly imported item was found.

Creating links is not trivial. One special case is importing/creating links. Some links have constraints i.e. parent and especially child links. A work item can not have multiple parents. So setting child links can cause the save to fail if the new child has already a different parent. This can create issues in import scenarios, especially if an export from the same repository is imported and the import causes child links to be created that have already another parent. In this case the import will fail with an error.

Export Modes

By default, the WCL RTC Export exports the attribute data in a format that is compatile with the WCL work item operations. The format deviates from the export/import format of the built in CSV operations for EWM. It is possible to use the switch /asrtceclipse for the export. This format mimics the built in CSV format. In this mode attachments are not downloaded and the attachment information is provided similar to the built in CSV format.

Attachments

The export to CSV can be used to download and store attachments. In the default mode, if the attachments column is detected in the exported attributes, the attachments are stored in a folder structure in the folder used to export the CSV file. In the CSV file, the exported attachment is referenced as path to the download location. This information can be used during import as well.

In the mode /asrtceclipse, attachment download is not supported. The exported data in the CSV file shows the same information that is provided in the RTC CSV export format.

Query

Provide a query name. The query by default is searched as a personal query owned by the logged in contributor. Provide a Query Source using the parameter querysource. The query source can contain a list of project area and team area names.

Query Source

Provide a list of project area and team area names.

exportFolder

Folder to export work item states.

passwordFile

The command can use a password file to give user id and password to the remote servers. 
passwordFile="pw.txt" 
The content of the password file is a subset of the server url and the user id and password.

search

The string to search for in project areas and states. 

/debug

Show extra logging which helps with debug analysis.

/trace

Show very detailed logging and log any read states.

/statesOnly

  Only check states, not links.

/linksOnly

  Only check links, not states.

/local

  Only check local links, not OSLC links.

License

Licensed under the MIT License.