Azure DevOps REST API - How are Picklists associated with Field?

Question

I am trying to use rest to create fields and picklists, on the web site I created a field as type picklist String and added some items to the list:

Rest url for field: https://dev.azure.com/{org}/_apis/work/processes/{processId}/workitemtypes/CMMI2.Bug/fields/Custom.AppType?api-version=5.0-preview.2

it is returning this:

{
referenceName: "Custom.AppType",
name: "AppType",
type: "string",
description: "",
url: "https://dev.azure.com/{org}/_apis/work/processes/bd96307e-3d16-44ac-b498-be1a8daff2d5/behaviors",
customization: "custom"
}

Rest URL for picklist: https://dev.azure.com/{org}/_apis/work/processes/lists/{picklistId}?api-version=5.0-preview.1 this returns:

{
items: [
"All",
"Item2",
"Item3"
],
id: "{picklistId}",
name: "picklist_{diffGuidFromPickListId}",
type: "String",
isSuggested: false,
url: "https://dev.azure.com/{org}/_apis/work/processes/lists/{picklistId}"
}

Here is documentation for this: https://docs.microsoft.com/zh-cn/rest/api/azure/devops/processes/fields/get?view=azure-devops-rest-5.0#processworkitemtypefield

Firstly - why is type of field string when it should be picklistString (as per documentation link)?

Secondly - how is the picklist linked to the field?

thanks

Hugh Lin Hugh Lin · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-20T10:41:48

The picklistString refers to the name of the type, its actual property is string, so the field type it displays in type is string.

Secondly - how is the picklist linked to the field?

(1) To achieve this, you can use this API:

POST  https://dev.azure.com/{organizationName}/{projectName}/_apis/wit/fields?api-version=5.1-preview.2

Here is my request body for you reference:

{
  "name": "{FieldName}",
  "referenceName": "{the reference name of WIT},
  "type": "string",
  "usage": "workItem",
  "readOnly": false,
  "canSortBy": true,
  "isQueryable": true,
  "supportedOperations": [
    {
      "referenceName": "{the reference name of WIT}"
      "name": "="
    }
  ],
  "isIdentity": true,
  "isPicklist": true,
  "isPicklistSuggested": false,
  "url": null
}

Note: Set isPicklist as true, and you can link picklist to this new field.

(2) For UI operation, just add new field, open the drop-down list of type and select picklist(string)/picklist(Integer) as what you need.

The difference between picklist(string) and picklist(Integer) is that picklist(string) allow a pick list of short text string (255 characters or less) values, and picklist(Integer) contains a pick list of Integer values.

Azure DevOps REST API - How are Picklists associated with Field?

2 Answers