This solution automatically generates release notes from work items returned by one or more VSTS queries and publishes them as CSV, JSON, or HTML files.

Difference between this solution and the vsts-to-release-notes-html-table Health Catalyst project

This solution generates release notes from VSTS queries. The other solution generates them from work items associated with a VSTS release.

Create custom VSTS work item fields if necessary

See this info about custom work item fields in the Health Catalyst VSTS instance for details.

Create VSTS queries

Modify the code

Add your PAT

In the two lines with authorization code, enter your username:PAT.

Documentation on how to get your VSTS personal access token (PAT)

Use encoding from Fiddler (to Base64; 2 places).

Add your custom fields

Add references to your custom fields in:

• The public class Fields section at the top
• A few lines down on the string wiDetails line
• A few lines down on the csv.Append line
• A few lines down in the block of output.Append and csv.Append lines

Add your query URLs

Replace/add one or more query URLs under public class CodeEvaler.

To find the URLs, modify this URL and enter it in your browser or (for better readability) a tool like Postman:

https://healthcatalyst.visualstudio.com/DefaultCollection/<your project name - e.g., CAP/_apis/wit/queries/shared%20queries/<directory if it exists>/<subdirectory if it exists>/<name of query - e.g., myquery>?$depth=2&api-version=2.2

To automate publication with a VSTS build or release

Add VSTS build or release steps that:

• Build and execute the solution
• Run the script that outputs the notes in a format of your choice (this script includes commands)
• Publish the artifact on the server

What the output/start.txt is for

For the script to output successfully, an output directory is required inside the parent directory. An empty directory cannot be stored in Git. start.txt is a blank file to allow the output directory to be cloned.

To build locally

Open the solution in Visual Studio and click Start. For future reference if needed, this creates an .exe in LeadAndCycle/bin/default.

Customize output

The solution exports JSON (designated by fields named in the output.Append lines) and CSV (designated by the fields named in the csv.append lines).

HTML

Following is an example of how to modify csv.Append to form HTML:

csv.Append("<tr style=\"font-size: 14px;\"><td align=\"left\" style=\"padding: 6px 10px 6px 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid #f0f0f0;\"><span style=\"color: white; background-color: #6761b7; text-align: center; display:block; width: 45px; padding: 1px 2px 1px 2px; border-radius: 4px; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 85%;\">Added</span></td><td style=\"padding: 6px 10px 6px 5px; border-bottom: 1px solid #f0f0f0;\">");
csv.Append(value.fields.ReleaseNote);
csv.Append("<br><span style=\"color: #cc0099; font-weight: 600; font-size: 12px;\">Demo</span> <a href=\"/videos/");
csv.Append(value.fields.DemoId);
csv.Append("\"></a><br><span style=\"color: #ff9900; font-weight: 600; font-size: 12px;\">User requested</span> <a href=\"/ideas/");
csv.Append(value.fields.IdeaId);
csv.Append("\"></a></td><td style=\"border-bottom: 1px solid #f0f0f0; padding: 6px 5px 6px 0px; text-align: right; color: #999999\">");
csv.Append(value.fields.SystemId);
csv.Append("</td></tr>");
...

System.IO.File.WriteAllText($@"..\..\..\output\workitems{i}.html", csv.ToString());
...

When uploaded into HC Community, it appears like this: