Removing a Custom Attribute

John Steele (27●1●8) | asked Jan 16 '18, 8:59 a.m.

I added a Custom Attribute to the Epic work item type, then removed it.

I am now trying to add a similar attribute back, but Eclipse reports, "An attribute with the same ID already exists".

What's going on?

There is no other attribute in this PA with the same ID, but there is another PA on the same server where the same attribute ID is used.

Is the old attribute's ID not really removed? Is there a way to fully remove it?

Many thanks in advance.

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Alex Akilov (121●15●24) | answered Jan 16 '18, 11:43 a.m.

You can try and run a query that lists that ID in the columns and see if any of the work items already have a value assigned. If you can change the value of those attributes in all of those work items to unassigned, and make sure all other references to this ID in the process specification and in editor presentations is removed, perhaps RTC will try and reclaim the attribute but I believe that as long as there are work items that have a "slot" for that ID already, that it's probably not possible to delete it since the column was already allocated for it in the DB.

You can use a slightly different ID for your new attribute and make sure that the other one is no longer used by any other item in this project area (what other project areas use shouldn't matter).

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John Steele commented Jan 16 '18, 11:59 a.m.

Alex,

I think this must be what's going on and I'll try to confirm it later.

Many thanks for taking the time to answer - it really helps having a sounding board.

- John

It's all about the answers!

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