Why does a programatically created custom attribute appear in the Database but nowhere else?
I created a custom attribute with the following code:
if (!teamNameExists(wiToUpdate)) {
IProjectArea projectArea = fetchProjectArea(wiToUpdate);
String identifier = Messages.getString("Attribute.Identifier"); //$NON-NLS-1$
String displayName = Messages.getString("Attribute.Display.Name"); //$NON-NLS-1$
String attributeType = Messages.getString("Attribute.Type"); //$NON-NLS-1$
IAttribute teamAttribute = getWorkItemCommon().createAttribute(
projectArea, identifier, attributeType, displayName,
monitor);
wiToUpdate.addCustomAttribute(teamAttribute);
IWorkItem workingWI = (IWorkItem) wiToUpdate.getWorkingCopy();
IStatus saveWorkItemStatus = getWorkItemServer().saveWorkItem2(
workingWI, null, null);
logger.info("Status of Attribute Save is: "
+ saveWorkItemStatus.toString());
}
When I opened the project that the work item was associated with and selected the Process tab. I checked the Project Configuration > Configuration Data > Types and Attributes and selected the correct Type. The custom attribute I had created and saved did not exist. However, when I attempted to manually enter the attribute, I got an error saying the attribute ID already existed.
When I try to retrieve the custom attribute programatically, created with the code above, the workItem method getCustomAttributes() returns null.
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One answer
I've found that the project area must know about the attribute before it can "cleanly" be in the work item context. I use this little ditty:
protected IAttribute getAttribute(IProjectAreaHandle area, String attributeId, boolean createIt) throws TeamRepositoryException { IWorkItemClient service = getWorkItemClient(); IAttribute attribute = service.findAttribute(area, attributeId, null); if (null == attribute && createIt) { attribute = service.createAttribute(area, attributeId, AttributeTypes.MEDIUM_STRING, attributeId, null); } return attribute; } which seems to do the trick. The above method is followed by a workItem.addCustomAttribute( returned attribute from above) |