Work Item Migration via the WIT Web Service (Part 2/3)

The following is a wee snippet of the code that sends the work item information to the server:

/* first, create the ClientService object.
Path must be explicitly specified because another ClientService exists in the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server namespace (and you don't want that one). */

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Proxy.ClientService clientService = new Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Proxy.ClientService();

clientService.Url = http://your_server:8080/WorkItemTracking/v1.0/ClientService.asmx;

try
{
// send the package to the server for processing.
clientService.Update(Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Proxy.ClientService.NewRequestId(), insertWorkItem.DocumentElement, outputXmlElement, metadataTHE, databaseStamp, metadataRowSets);
}
catch
{
/* Update will fail if the xml is formatted incorrectly, or if filling any of the fields on the server fails. If the Update fails, the WI will not have been saved on the server side, no data is entered. */
}

Note: This method will allow you to upload work items that are not entirely correct; for example, you may upload a work item of state “Closed” but not have uploaded a “Closed By” and “Closed Date” value. The VSTS UI will inform you of this when you view the WI through Team Explorer.

insertWorkItem is an XmlDocument formatted as described in Part 3. This xml package contains the "guts" of the work item.

metadataTHE is an array of type MetadataTableHaveEntry, which can be found in the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Proxy namespace. This array must be populated with the TableName and RowVersion information returned from a call to Enum.GetNames(typeof(Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server.MetadataTable))

outputXmlElement is an XmlElement, databaseStamp is a string, and metadataRowSets is an interface IMetadataRowSets found in the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Proxy namespace. These parameters should hold no value, as they are returned by the Update function call.

.oO(in the next part, more detailed information on the required XML package insertWorkItem...)