RTC: Modify workitem templates

If you want to modify the work item template that you have created, follow these steps:

1. Export the work item template to an XML file. In the Eclipse - Client from the file menu Choose "Export" -> Team -> Work item template.
2. Use an editor to edit the file that you exported. The work item template itself has an identifier and a name of the template in the beginning of the XML (<dc:identifier> and <dc:title>) if you want to keep your original work item template in the project area you have to change this too for your modified template, otherwise the original template will be overwritten on import time.
3. Import the work item template again.

Hope that helps,

Henning

You can open the template.xml file in Rational Team Concert or any xml editor (such as notepad++) and change it

You cannot update template with the UI. You only can reinstantiate the workitems to a new template.

What we are doing:

We have the workitem structure, a Template is based on, in the project area in a special category/team and iteration. This WI's we can modify and recreate a template after editing. The special category/team and iteration is usefull, so you can build your own plan, where you only see this workitems you are using to build templates.

- Special Team: "Templates"
- Special Category: "Templates" associated to the Team "Templates"
- Special Iteration. "Templates"
- Special Plan: "Template Management", Owner: Templates, Iteration: Templates, Treeview

The Planned For and the Category value will be asked when you do "Create from Template.."

My first choice would be to instantiate the work item template in some "template editing" project area, make modifications to the resulting work items, and create a new (version of the) template from the modified work items.   If you are producing successive versions of the template, then I'd just keep using the same work items, and each time you want to make a change to the Template, modify those work items, and create a new (version of the) template from those work items.

Editing the XML for the template is possible, but I'd keep that as a last resort if for some reason the above approach does not work.

I was able to update the temlate later the same day where I made my post above. We did originally think it might be a permissions issue so we tried to do it using a user account that had essentially all permissions. It didn't work for that account either. When we did finally get it working, there didn't appear to be any special changes that had occurred in order to fix it. It's a mystery as to why it didn't work initially and began working later.