Azure DevOps–formerly named Visual Studio Team Foundation Server (TFS)–is a Microsoft product that allows developers to plan work, collaborate on code development and build and deploy applications. If your development teams are using Azure DevOps, integrating it with your service desk software can provide the following benefits:

• Create bugs directly from Incidents or Tickets
• Create Product Backlog Items from Service Requests or Change Requests

Vivantio includes an out-of-the-box, two-way integration with Azure DevOps, making it simple to have open communication and visibility between your support and development teams.

Our Azure DevOps integration helps you streamline your processes and keep everyone informed of what is going on, regardless of which tool they work in day-to-day, so there's no need for your developers to log into Vivantio, and no more phone calls to the development team to check on the status of bugs!

This tutorial will show you how to configure the integration and provides an example of creating a Work Item in Azure DevOps directly from Vivantio.

To connect Vivantio to Azure DevOps, you’ll need:

1. Vivantio ITSM
2. Admin access to your Vivantio Instance
3. Credentials to a user account for Vivantio in Azure DevOps
   

CONFIGURATION IN VIVANTIO

Step 1:

Log into Vivantio, open the Admin Area. Navigate to:

Integration & API >> TFS

Fill in your Azure DevOps login credentials:

• Version: Azure DevOps
• Organization Name: Enter your organization name. This will be used in your API URL, for example: https://dev.azure.com/OrganizationName/
• Username: The username for the Vivantio user account in Azure DevOps
• Password: The Personal Access Token for the Vivantio user account in Azure DevOps. For details on creating a Personal Access Token, see the Microsoft Documentation here.

The bottom of the screen will update to show a couple of different URLs: the Work Item Alert URL and the Service Hook URL. You will use the Service Hook URL to set up Azure DevOps to send information back into Vivantio.

Step 2:

Select IP Range in the top left corner of the screen and configure the IP Range for Vivantio to accept requests from.

Step 3:

Configure your ticket to Work Item Mapping settings. This allows you to control which types of Vivantio Tickets can be mapped to which types of Azure DevOps Work Items so that the correct type of information can be transferred to the correct type of records. Any number of necessary ticket-to-work item mappings can be configured.

Navigate to the Ticket to Work Item Mapping tab and select Add.

On the Basic Details tab, give the mapping a name and fill in the following information:

• Project Collection: The Project in Azure DevOps (If you’re using the hosted version of Azure DevOps, there will normally only be one option available here)
• Project: The Project in Azure DevOps
• Work Item Type: The Work Item Type in Azure DevOps
• Ticket Type: The type of ticket within Vivantio that you want to create the Work Item from

Step 4:

Navigate to the Sync Options tab. Here you can configure the settings relating to the sync of data from Vivantio to Azure DevOps. (Note that this option does not force Azure DevOps to update Vivantio–that is configured within Azure DevOps itself). You have the option to fill in the following fields:

• Link Work Item to Ticket: Checking this box will create a link to the Vivantio ticket from within the Azure DevOps ticket
• Action Sync: Selecting “All” or “Non Private” will automatically sync all (or only non-private) actions made in Vivantio to the “Discussion” section within the Work Item in Azure DevOps
• Attachment Sync: Selecting “All” or “Non Private” will automatically sync all (or only non-private) attachments added in the Vivantio ticket to the “Attachments” section within the Work Item in Azure DevOps

Step 5:

Select the Field Mappings tab and configure any additional field mappings. As standard, Vivantio will populate the Work Item Title and Description. If you want to add additional mappings, e.g., for custom fields, you can do so here. You can also choose to override the default mappings for Title and Description.

In the example below, we chose to map several custom fields from Vivantio to Azure DevOps.

After choosing the appropriate options, hit Save, and you’re ready to start creating Azure DevOps Work Items directly from Vivantio.

CREATING A NEW WORK ITEM FROM VIVANTIO

When viewing a Ticket in Vivantio, under the Actions menu item, you’ll see the option to “Create New TSF Work Item.”

Selecting Create New TFS Work Item will open a pop-up window where you can select the Work Item Type. Any mappings created for the ticket type, using steps 3 through 5, will appear as options.Selecting OK will cause a “TFS” Form to appear in the Vivantio Ticket Window and a Work Item to be created in Azure DevOps.

The TFS form provides a direct link to the Work Item in Azure DevOps and provides the technician with the options to unlink the Vivantio ticket from the DevOps Work Item and to send ad-hoc comments and attachments to DevOps, which can be useful if you didn’t choose to automatically sync actions.

Clicking on the link to the Work Item in DevOps, we can see that the Work Item was created and the mapped fields were passed from the Vivantio Ticket to the Work Item.

CONFIGURATION IN AZURE DEVOPS

Getting Information Back From Azure DevOps

Configurations can be made in Azure DevOps to automatically send information from DevOps into Vivantio. This is done using the Service Hook that was create in Step 1.

Step 6:

To configure the Service Hook in Azure DevOps, navigate to Service Hooks within Project Settings in Azure DevOps (Microsoft’s documentation on Service Hooks can be found here). On the first page of the Create Service Hook wizard, you’ll choose the Webhooks option and select Next:

On the next page of the wizard, you’ll choose the type of event the Service Hook triggers on. Vivantio currently supports “Work Item Commented On” and “Work Item Updated.” Enter any filters you want for the area or work item type.

Select and configure the action to perform with the service hook. Under “URL,” paste your service hook from Step 1. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “[Latest]” for Resource Version.

Now when we comment on Work Items in Azure DevOps...

...the comment is automatically added to the linked Ticket’s history in Vivantio:

Additional configurations can be made in Azure DevOps using Webhooks to automatically update fields in Vivantio based on updates in Azure DevOps.

If you’re using Vivantio and Azure DevOps and you don’t have them integrated yet, give it a try and see how it helps improve communications between your service desk and your development team.

INTRODUCTION

In every company, it’s crucial to have effective, efficient communication, such as the ability to alert your team about new urgent issues, or let a customer know you’ve responded to their request. Thanks to API integration and webhooks, Vivantio makes sending messages to applications such as Slack from your department easy.

This tutorial will show you how to configure this in Slack and provides two examples of using notifications in the Vivantio platform. If your company is using Microsoft Teams, you can find the tutorial here.

To connect Vivantio to Slack, you’ll need:

1. Vivantio ITSM
2. Admin access to your Vivantio Instance

CONFIGURATION IN SLACK

Step 1:

Begin by logging into Slack. You will then go to:

api.slack.com/apps » Create New App

• Fill in the App Name. This is the username that notifications from Vivantio will be posted in Slack from.
• Choose a Development Slack Workspace, which is where you will manage your app. If you don’t already have a Development Slack Workspace, you can create one at slack.com/create#email
• Select Create App

Step 2:

Your new app will appear under Your Apps on the api.slack.com/apps page. Select your app. This will bring you to a new page. Navigate to:

Add features and functionality » Incoming Webhooks » Activate Incoming Webhooks: On » Add New Webhook to Workspace

Step 3:

Choose the channel you want to post to in Slack. Select Allow.

Step 4:

Next, copy the webhook URL that is created, circled in red below. This will later be used to set up the webhook in Vivantio.

CONFIGURATION IN VIVANTIO

Step 5:

Log into Vivantio, open the Admin Area. Navigate to:

Integration & API » Webhooks » Add Webhooks

Then select the ticket type you want the webhook to be available for.

Step 6:

Enter a name for your webhook.

Step 7:

Next, navigate to the Basic Details tab and enter the following information:

• Request URL: Paste here the URL produced when you configured the incoming webhook in Slack.
• HTTP Method: POST
• Response Content Type: application/json

Step 8:

This next step, filling out the parameters tab, is optional. Set up parameters for the webhook by selecting Add. These are either values the technician will be prompted to complete, or populated automatically from the ticket. In this example, we have created a multi-line text field for a technician to enter the message that they wish to send into Slack.

Step 9:

Now, fill out the Request Body tab.

For the Request Content Type field, select application/json. The Body Template will contain the information you wish to send in Slack notification, such as specific text, details from the ticket or a webhook parameter. Screenshots from the Request Body tab of two example webhooks are given below.

Example 1:

A notification message sent into Slack that utilizes the webhook parameter we created in the previous step.

{"text": ""}

Example 2:

A notification sent into Slack that includes details from the ticket. In this case, we use fields from the ticket. The “\n\n” signifies a line break. Note that Steps 2 through 8 were followed to create another Webhook “Slack – High Priority Ticket.” Once the Request Body is filled in, click save.

{"text": "High Priority Ticket Logged – Ticket Details: \n\n ID: {{ticket.displayid}} \n\n Subject: {{ticket.title}} \n\n Caller Name: {{ticket.callername}}"}

Step 10:

The last step before we can use our new webhook is to configure its roles. By default, there will be no roles assigned to the webhook. To update the roles, select the webhook and click Roles. Drag the roles you want the webhook available for into Current Roles.

Now let’s put the webhooks we set up into action!

You can use your webhook to send ad hoc notifications into Slack directly from a ticket window or you can execute your webhook through Trigger Rules. Two examples are given below:

Example 3:

An ad hoc message sent into Slack from a Vivantio ticket window

Actions » Slack Notification

The technician is prompted to fill in the Notification to Slack parameter we set up in the Webhook. Recall that this webhook was configured so that the text entered here will be sent into Slack.

Press OK and voila! This message is sent into Slack.

Example 4:

Sending a notification to an IT team’s channel in Slack any time a high priority ticket is logged.

In this case, you can set up a trigger rule to automatically execute the Webhook when a high priority ticket is logged. Go to:

Admin area » System Areas » Select the ticket type you created the Webhook for » Business Rules » Trigger Rules

To add a Trigger Rule, click “Add,” then:

• • Enter a Rule Name and select when the condition is to be executed, either when the ticket first meets the condition (for example, if you just want people to know the ticket has been created) or when the matching ticket is updated (if you want everyone to see all updates to the ticket)
  • Enter the condition(s) for the trigger. In this example, the trigger rule condition is for tickets with the priority name equal to “high.”

For the trigger rule “actions,” select Webhooks » Webhook you want to fire; in this case, we chose

Slack – High Priority Ticket » Save

Once the trigger rule is set up, the “Slack – High Priority Ticket” Webhook will automatically send a notification with ticket details into Slack any time a “High Priority” ticket is logged.

CONCLUSION

There you have it! Now you can easily communicate to any team in Slack directly from Vivantio.

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