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Copy Work Item Inconsistency


Robert Huet (23112684) | asked Jun 17 '13, 8:54 a.m.
 Hi,
Can anyone explain why creating a copy of a work item in the same project area (i.e. local clone using Eclipse client) sets the status of the new work item to the initial status (which makes sense), while copying the a work item to another project area (cross-project clone) retains the same status as the original?  Is this a bug, or is it by design?  If it is by design, what was the reason for the difference in behaviors?

We have users who need to copy (clone) work items to another project area, but they only have permission to create new work items in the other project area.  Therefore, they cannot use the copy/move function on work items that are not in the initial status because the cross-project copy retains that same status.  One work-around is to do this in two steps:  create local clone (to re-initialize the status), then copy the new work item to the other project area.  However, the local clone capability is not available in the web client so there is no work-around for those who do not have Eclipse.

Thanks,
Robert

2 answers



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Krzysztof Kaźmierczyk (7.4k373103) | answered Jun 17 '13, 9:34 a.m.
Hi Robert,
There was a defect for this: https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=231147 The issue has been fixed in RTC 4.0.1
It should help for you.

Best regards,
Krzysztof Kazmierczyk

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Eric Jodet (6.3k5111120) | answered Jun 17 '13, 9:38 a.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER
 Hello Robert,
thanks for this very interesting use case.

1 - agree - WebUI local copy will come with Provide "Create Work Item Copy..." action in the Web UI (113766)

2 - you may open a new enhancement so as to possibly add an option to the copy/move to project area operation:
"Ability to reset status when moving/copying a work item to another PA"

3 - proposed workaround
- create a status in PA "source" that does not exist in PA "target" - say "readyForCopy"
- before copy : set status to readyForCopy - save
- perform the move/copy to another PA
- as readyForCopy status will not be found in target PA, status will be reset to new

Hope it helps.
Eric.


Comments
Robert Huet commented Jun 17 '13, 11:19 a.m.

Thanks for the prompt response, Eric.  I can open up an enhancement request.  However, adding a "status reset" option will provide a work-around but will not address the underlying inconsistency/usability issue between local clone and cross-project clone.  This may have been done to maintain consistency with the "move" operation since they are bundled together in the same wizard, but these operations are fundamentally different.

As you pointed out, the enhancement to add "Create Work Item Copy" to the Web UI is a huge enhancement, not just for us, but a large population of customers.  Any idea why this is still on the backlog and not assigned to a release?

With regards to the proposed work-around, that is a good idea.  However, it will not work for my customers as they want to retain the existing status on the original work item.  Changing the status will disrupt their workflow.

My customers are using RTC on a huge scale, so these are big pain points for them.
Thanks,
Robert


Eric Jodet commented Jun 18 '13, 1:31 a.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER

 Hello Robert,

is currently a backlogged formal RFE.
You may vote for it, so as to express the need for it.

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