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?

• Setup before syncing
• Supported fields in Azure DevOps
• How to filter Azure DevOps epics, issues or tasks with Unito
• Configuring ADO work item types in Unito
• Automatically adding ADO work items to the current sprint
• Limitations and other considerations
• Demo of Unito's Azure DevOps integration 

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.

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:

• Connect Azure DevOps and/or another tool

• Choose a flow direction

• Set up rules to filter items from syncing

• Link fields between tools

Setup before syncing

Enable third-party application access via OAuth before syncing

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

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.

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 task 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. 

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:

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.

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.

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. 

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.

From there, click Advanced Options.

Then find the Advanced features box.

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

 

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.

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:

• How to sync ADO area path, iteration and other key fields 
• Browse all of Unito's Azure DevOps guides and tutorials
• Best Practices for Azure DevOps
• Troubleshooting Unito's ADO integration

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

• Learn how to sync Azure DevOps with Jira.
• Follow a guide to connect Azure DevOps to Asana.
• Align support tickets between Azure DevOps and ServiceNow for 2-way IT management.
• Export and sync work items from Azure DevOps to Airtable.
• Connect Azure DevOps to Trello.
• Sync Zendesk tickets to ADO and automate your ticket escalation queue.

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!