How can I add a Hyperlink to a DevOps work item using a flow?

[HeadInTheCloud]

My flow needs to update a DevOps work item with a hyperlink. This can be done manually through the DevOps user interface by adding an existing item and selecting Hyperlink as the link type. However, in the Flow, the Update  Work Item template does not allow Hyperlink as a Link Type. I put Hyperlink into the field, but the update errored with 'Unknown relation type System.LinkTypes.Hyperlink'. I really need this. Please guide me to how I can add the Hyperlink.

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @HeadInTheCloud ,

It seems we can't add hyperlink to work item, please check this similar thread:

https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/308914/not-able-to-add-hyperlink-to-work...

Best Regards,

[HeadInTheCloud]

@v-bacao-msft Thanks for the reply to my post. I'm not sure that applies to my issue since I am able to add a Hyperlink to a Work Item via the Web UI by going to the Links Tab and selecting the Add Link - Existing Item drop down option. That opens the form shown below and I can enter the URL and select Hyperlink in the Link Type. 

[edit - the UI image is in the next reply]

[HeadInTheCloud]

@v-bacao-msft Thanks for the reply to my post. I'm not sure that applies to my issue since I am able to add a Hyperlink to a Work Item via the Web UI by going to the Links Tab and selecting the Add Link - Existing Item drop down option. That opens the form shown in the first screen shot below and I can enter the URL and select Hyperlink in the Link Type. My problem is that I need to add a link to a Dynamics CRM record to a Work Item in a Flow. Options in the DevOps "Update A Work  Item" action allows me to add a link to another Work Item (see second screen shot), but not to a CRM item. IMO, that's an operation Flow should offer. "Create A Work Item" appears to have the same limitation.

Here's what Flow offers me for Link Type options - only links to other work items -

[HeadInTheCloud · Accepted solution]

I figured out how to do it - it took me all day - but I am tickled to find a solution using the "Send an HTTP Request to Azure DevOps" action.

See the following Flow action where the variable IDOfWorkItem is the work item to be updated and the variable DEVOPSAPIURI is URL:  https://dev.azure.com/<organization>/<project>/_apis/wit/workitems/@{variables('IDOfWorkItem')}?api-.... The AddLinkJSON below uses a RelatedItemURL that is in the form "https://....". Setting the Content-Type was one key to getting this to work.

Here's proof:

and the link now appears on the work item

[AnthonyPSlalom]

Thanks for sharing this solution.  Only thing I can't seem to figure out is to how to add a comment.  I've tried adding these to the JSON with no success

"comment":"sample comment"

"linkcomment":"sample comment"

"link comment":"sample comment"

I've also tried the above with the L & C capitalized in case things are case sensitive

Any guidance is much appreciated.

[HeadInTheCloud]

I haven't added a comment to a work item, but I have retrieved comments with an HTTP request and they are returned in an array. I hope that helps. If you have figured out how to do it, it would be great if you could post the solution.

[thomas05]

Hi @AnthonyPSlalom ,

you can refer the code below to add the comment.

[cassyfreeman]

Hi I realise this is an old post but I was hoping you could help. I have tried to follow your solution but am getting this issue: No api-version was supplied for the "PATCH" request

[cassyfreeman]

Sorted it thanks 🙂

[dfoxg]

I´m sending this JSON

{
"path": "/relations/-",
"op": "add",
"value": {
  "url": "https://www.google.de",
  "attributes": {
    "comment": "test"
  },
  "rel": "Hyperlink"
}
}

but receiving following error message

Invoke-RestMethod : {"$id":"1","innerException":null,"message":"Value {\r\n \"url\": \"https://www.google.de\",\r\n \"attributes\": \"System.Collections.Hashtable\",\r\n \"rel\":
\"Hyperlink\"\r\n} does not match the expected type
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.WebApi.Models.WorkItemRelation.","typeName":"Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Common.VssPropertyValidationException,
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.Common","typeKey":"VssPropertyValidationException","errorCode":0,"eventId":3000}
In **truncated**
+ ... dWorkItem = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Method patch -UseDefaultCred ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [Invoke-RestMethod], WebException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.InvokeRestMethodCommand

 Do you have an idea?

I´m using the onPremises Version Dev18.M170.8

[thomas05]

You may try to replace the value of op field with 0 instead of "add".

The constant Operation.Add is defined in the file below and I found the value is 0.

[dfoxg]

Thanks for your fast reply!

Changing the "op" from "add" to 0 doesnt fix the issue, I still get the same error.

When I remove the "attributes" JSON-Key, the hyperlink is getting created without the comment. 

After some research I found the API-Description of the WorkItemRelation Class which shows the variable "title". When I set this key the error is gone, but the hyperlink had also no comment.

[thomas05]

It works well as I am using the javascript SDK. 
Maybe the difference is caused by different SDK implement.

[dfoxg]

That could be since I´m not using any SDK. I´ve implemented the API-Call in plain powershell:

function Get-WorkItem-URLPatch($targetURL) {
  $nestedObject = @{}
  $nestedObject["rel"] = "Hyperlink"
  $nestedObject["url"] = $targetURL
  $nestedObject["attributes"] = @{
    comment = "test"
  }

  $object = @{}
  $object["op"] = "add"
  $object["path"] = "/relations/-"
  $object["value"] = $nestedObject
  ConvertTo-JSON $object | Write-Host
  return $object
}

function Update-WorkItem($workitem, $workitemPatchCollection) {
  $url = $tfsBaseURL + "wit/workitems/" + $workitem.id + "?api-version=6.0"
  $patchJSON = ConvertTo-Json $itemPatchCollection
  $utf8PatchJson = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8.GetBytes($patchJSON)
  $patchedWorkItem = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Method patch -UseDefaultCredentials -Body $utf8PatchJson -Headers @{'Content-Type' = 'application/json-patch+json' }
  return $patchedWorkItem
}

$itemPatchCollection += Get-WorkItem-URLPatch "https://www.google.de"
$updated = Update-WorkItem $workitem $itemPatchCollection