In Azure DevOps, you have the ability to create work items that contain detailed information about specific tasks or packages. These work items are essential for project management, but often not immediately suitable to be directly included in a changelog.
To address this, our extension offers the feature to write release notes for each work item. These release notes are precise descriptions of the changes or additions associated with the work item. Once the release notes are written, they can be imported into the changelog.
The changelog can be further personalized by applying a custom layout, sorting the entries by various criteria, and making additional adjustments. Finally, you can export the finished changelog in various formats to use or share it according to your requirements.
Practical Examples:
Example 1: Creating and Importing Release Notes
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Create Work Item:
- Create a new work item in Azure DevOps, e.g., a bug report or a new feature.
- Add all necessary details, such as title, description, and assignments.
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Write Release Note:
- Open the work item and navigate to the Release Note section.
- Write a concise and clear release note that describes the essential changes or improvements.
- Example: "Fixed: Bug that caused the application to crash when loading user data has been fixed."
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Import Release Notes:
- In your created entry, now import all desired release notes into the entry.
Example 2: Customizing and Exporting the Changelog
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Adjust Layout:
- Customize the layout of the changelog to your needs by defining headings, formatting, and section structures.
- Example: Create sections for "New Features", "Fixed Bugs", and "Improvements".
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Sort Entries:
- Sort the entries by criteria such as date, category, or priority.
- Example: First show the most important new features and then the minor bug fixes or vice versa.
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Export Changelog:
- Export the changelog in various formats, such as PDF, HTML, or Markdown, depending on your requirements. You can do this, for example, via the sort function of the work item types.
- Example: Export the changelog as a PDF to distribute it internally, and as markdown to publish it on the project website.
This approach allows you to effectively manage the work items in Azure DevOps and ensure that all relevant changes are clearly and comprehensibly documented. By personalizing and flexibly exporting the changelog, you can adapt the information to different target groups and purposes.
To learn about all possible options in the entry, please read the documentation under the Entry Configuration tab.