Trying to set AssignedTo to in a Work item

Question

I am trying to set the AssignedTo in a PowerShell script, using the REST API. The user already has a bunch of work items assigned, and has been in the system for several month. I have tried using the Displayname, email (same as upn), and the link to the identity. All gives the same result:

Invoke-WebRequest : {"$id":"1","customProperties":{"ReferenceName":"System.AssignedTo"},"innerException":null,"message":"The identity value '[email protected]' for field 'Assigned To' is an unknow n identity.","typeName":"Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server.WorkItemFieldInvalidException, Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server","typeKey":"WorkItemFieldInvalidExce

I use the following script:

$tfsToken = "MYPAT"
$token = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes(":$($tfsToken)"))

$defaultColletion = "default_Collection"

$project = "Agile"

$childID = "63573"

$identityUpn = "[email protected]"


$childuri = ("http://tfs:8080/tfs/" + $defaultColletion + "/" + $project + "/_apis/wit/workitems?ids=" + $childID + "&expand=relations&api-version=5.0")
$header = @{authorization = "Basic $token"}

$childresult = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $childuri -Method Get -Headers $header -ContentType "application/json-patch+json"


$childObj = $childresult.Content | ConvertFrom-Json
$updUrl = ($childObj.value.url + "?api-version=5.0")


$ownerUpd = @{}
$ownerUpd.Add("path","/fields/System.AssignedTo")
$ownerUpd.Add("op","add")
$ownerUpd.Add("value",$identityUpn)

$json =  ConvertTo-Json @($ownerUpd) -Depth 5
$result = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $updUrl -Headers $header -Method Patch -Body $json -ContentType "application/json-patch+json"

Answer 1

You can set into System.AssignedTo exactly what you see in Assigned To field in work item: Display Name of a user. You can find example here Update an identity field by display name:

[      
  {
    "op": "add",
    "path": "/fields/System.AssignedTo",
    "value": "Jamal Hartnett"
  }
]

Additional examples:

1. Update an identity field by distinct display name
2. Update an identity field by IdentityRef