Can an Azure DevOps Work Item Template contain a simple multi-line text input?

Question

We are running on-premises Azure DevOps Server 2022.0.1 (AzureDevOpsServer_20230418.1)

I have added a String input to the Task WIT in my system From the Fields section:

<FIELD name="Cost Description" refname="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.CostDescription" type="String">
    <HELPTEXT>Short description of the costs involved in the task</HELPTEXT>
</FIELD>

In the <WebLayout> block in one of the <Section><Group>s, I added this:

<Control Label="Cost Description" Type="FieldControl" FieldName="Microsoft.VSTS.Common.CostDescription" />

However, the resulting form input is a single-line text box.

My question is, can the Type="FieldControl" attribute be something that specifies a multi-line input, but without all the overhead of a Type="HtmlFieldControl"? (Seems there ought to be reference document of attributes, etc., but I've not found one).

I considered just using the Type="HtmlFieldControl" attribute but this field does not need that overhead.

Answer 1

The reference doc is WebLayout and Control elements. The subsection Control element Type attribute syntax has examples of each supported value for Type.

The built-in choices are FieldControl or HTMLFieldControl. There isn't a simple multiline text control.

However, in the Azure DevOps Marketplace there is a Multiline Plain Text Field extension you may want to test out. I haven't used this extension and I know nothing about it except the Marketplace description and the GitHub repo listed under the Project Details.