Azure DevOps

An Overview of Unito's Azure DevOps Integration

Ready to start syncing work items with Unito's Azure DevOps integration? Here's what you need to know.

What does this article cover?

Unito can sync Microsoft Azure DevOps (ADO) work items (epics, issues, tasks, etc) from your projects directly with work items in other tools. By creating a Unito flow, you'll be able to keep your work items in sync bidirectionally with automated updates based on rules set by you.

ADO Sync Items

First, you'll need to go into your ADO account and enable third-party application access via OAuth. Otherwise, you won't be able to see your projects in Unito.

Each Unito flow is comprised of the following steps:

Ready to get started? Book a free appointment with our solutions team to assess your organization and see a live demo of your use case in action.

Setup before syncing

Enable third-party application access via OAuth before syncing

Note: Unito can't access projects in Azure DevOps unless Third-Party Application access via OAuth is toggled. 

To enable it, select Organization Settings, then scroll down to click Policies. From there you should see the off/on switch like this: 

Azure DevOps Organization Settings

If you have multiple DevOps organizations, make sure this setting is turned on across all of them.

Supported fields in Azure DevOps

The table below lists out all the fields you can sync with our Azure DevOps integration, as well as which fields can be used in rules.

Azure DevOps field One-way  Two-way Rules
Acceptance criteria    
Area path
Assignee
Attachments  
Boolean (custom field)*  
Comment  
Created at    
Datetime (custom field)*  ✅  
Dates: Due date, Start date, Target date  ✅  
Description   ✅  
Effort  ✅  
Identity (custom field)*  ✅  
Integer (custom field)*  ✅  
Iteration path  
Link to issue    
Multi-line text (custom field)**  
Number picklist (custom field)  
Organization (custom field)*  
Picklist (custom field)*  ✅  
Priority  
Remaining work  ✅  
State  ✅
Story points  ✅  
Swimlane  
String picklist (custom field)
Tag  ✅
Text (custom field)*  ✅  
Test case steps    
Title  ✅  
Unique identifier    
Updated at    
Work item type

*Custom fields are only available with certain plans. Visit Unito's pricing page for more information.

**Multi-line text available with certain plans on request. Contact our team for details.

Note:  The Swimlane and State fields may be mapped once each in a single flow, or one of those fields can be mapped twice.

That means if you include the Swimlane field twice in a single flow, you can't then also map State. This is to prevent data conflicts from occurring. 

What counts as an item in sync?

In Microsoft Azure DevOps, Unito counts every synced work item (epics, issues, tasks, etc) as an item in sync.

Custom fields

The custom fields supported by our ADO integration include: User, Number, Dropdowns, Text (Single line), Boolean, Date Time, Dates, and Swimlane. Multi-line text fields are also supported on request.

Subtasks

This Unito integration supports Azure DevOps subtasks, and you can sync any number of levels of subtasks.

Attachments

Unito can copy attachments to and from Azure DevOps work items, meaning the whole file will be available in any synced work item as long as it's mapped to an attachment field in your other tool.

You can also stream attachments to the description footer of the other tool, adding a clickable link for anyone in the other tool to view it without logging in to ADO. 

How to filter Azure DevOps epics, issues or tasks with Unito

The default settings in Unito will sync all Azure DevOps work item types, but you can choose to specify between issues, epics and/or tasks in the rules of your flow. 

  1. Click Add a new rule, then select Work item type.
  2. Choose an is/is not condition and then the work item types you want to include.
  3. Selecting multiple work item types will sync any of the options you choose. 

ADO Work Item Filter

How to track ADO work items in other tools

If the other tool you're syncing to doesn't have an equivalent to a ticket number or unique identifier, you can simply create one as a custom field and add it to your field mappings:

mapping Azure DevOps unique identifier to Trello as a custom field with Unito

How to set multiple ADO work item types in your flow

When you sync items from other tools into Azure DevOps, you can have them appear as any work item type in your project. There are two stages to this.

Got feedback? Submit a Unito feature request to let us know what you'd like to see in the next update to our Azure DevOps integration.

Configuring ADO work item types in Unito

Unito allows you to control which Azure DevOps (ADO) work item types are used when syncing from other tools. Here's how:

Set the Default Work Item Type (Optional):

  • In the "Rules" section of your flow, you can set a default work item type. This type will be used for all synced items unless you specify otherwise in the next step.

ADO Set 1 Work Item Type

Map Additional Work Item Types:

In the "Field Mappings" section, map the "Work item type" field from Azure DevOps to the corresponding field in your other tool (e.g., the equivalent to "task," "bug," "epic," etc.

  1. Click the gear icon next to the mapping, then click "Add more work item types and..." to create specific mappings for each desired work item type.
  2. Now, set values for each item type you want to see in both tools. 

Wrike ADO Custom Item Type Fields (1)

In this example, a story, task or epic in our Wrike custom item type will appear as a story, task or epic in Azure DevOps. Any other item type not listed here will appear in ADO as our default work item type established in the flow's rules section.

Key Points:

  • Default Behavior: If you don't map specific work item types, all items will sync using the default type you set in the rules (or the first available option if you didn't set a default).
  • Flexibility: You can map any work item type from your source tool to its corresponding type in Azure DevOps.

Automatically adding ADO work items to the current sprint

By default, Unito won't add new ADO work items to your current sprint. But through Advanced Options, you can customize your flow to do exactly that.

Access Advanced Options for an existing flow by clicking the upright ellipses to the right, then Edit.

ado json 1

From there, click Advanced Options.

ado json 2

Then find the Advanced features box.

ado json 3

Finally, add the following bit of code to that box:

 

{

 "A": {

  "useCurrentIterationPathOnCreate": true

 }

}

If ADO is the first tool in your flow (i.e. it's on the left in the flow screen), then copy this code as is. If ADO is the second tool in your flow (i.e. on the right in the flow screen) replace the A with a B.

 

Limitations and considerations

    Unito syncs work items from entire Azure DevOps projects, not individual boards. To sync specific items from specific boards, create a custom single-select field on those boards and use it as a filter in your Unito rules.

    ADO Sync Items

    When you edit comments in Azure DevOps, these edits won't be synced over to other projects or other tools. That's because Unito only syncs new comments, not any edits to existing comments.

    Watch a demo of Unito's Azure DevOps integration in action

    Follow our step by step guide to connect Azure DevOps to Wrike or watch this demo with Zendesk below:

    Related articles:

    Here are several more step-by-step guides for specific use cases with Azure DevOps and Unito:

    If you'd like to see a demo or tutorial for a pair of tools not listed here, leave a comment in the feedback form on this page and we'll put it together as soon as we can!

    Ready to get started? Book a free appointment with our solutions team to assess your organization and see a live demo of your use case in action.