by Matthew Manela | VS Code, VSTS

Pin a work item query in VS Code

A couple weeks ago the VSTS Extension for VS Code was released. This extension adds command and status bar integration for Visual Studio Team Services. When using this extension I loved seeing the number of pull requests and the build state in the status bar but I wished I could see the count of bugs assigned to me. About a week ago I forked the project to see how hard it would be to add this feature. To my surprise it was very simple. Jeff Young did a great job with the extension, it is well structured and easy to jump into. After a few hours I built the Pinned Query feature.

A pinned query is a work item query that runs in the status bar and shows you a count of how many items it returns (see the cute little bug icon). When you click on the icon it will run the query and give you the results.

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By default it is set to a built in query showing all the work items assigned to you but you can easily customize the pinned query in your user settings file. You can configure using a path to an existing query or by providing WIQL:

Using Query Text

 "team.pinnedQueries": [
        {
            "account": "your-account-name",
            "queryText": "SELECT * FROM WorkItems WHERE [System.AssignedTo] = @me AND [System.ChangedDate] > @Today - 14"
        }
    ]

Using Query Path

    "team.pinnedQueries": [
        {
            "account": "your-account-name",
            "queryPath": "Shared Queries/My Folder/My Query"
        }
    ]

You can also create a global pinned query which will be the default if you have not configured one for your account by replacing your-account-name with global in the previous examples.