azure-devops export work items as csv and include ALL comments/discussions - csv

Question

if I make a query in Azure Devops for my work items, when I add columns to display, there is only comments count and discussions, but is there any where to include all comments from a work item in my output saved csv file? I need to archive the comments for every work item in a csv.
Can I do this through the azure desktop web ui somehow? or do i need to write my own script using the azure api to view comments and add them to a work item

Answer 1

Can I do this through the azure desktop web ui somehow? or do i need
to write my own script using the azure api to view comments and add
them to a work item
For your first question, the answer is NO. Since you want all the comments for a workitem, then built-in UI feature will not be able to achieve your requirement.
For your second the question, the answer is YES.
from azure.devops.connection import Connection
from msrest.authentication import BasicAuthentication
import requests
import csv
import os
#get all the comments of a work item
def get_work_items_comments(wi_id):
#get a connection to Azure DevOps
organization_url = 'https://dev.azure.com/xxx'
personal_access_token = 'xxx'
credentials = BasicAuthentication('', personal_access_token)
connection = Connection(base_url=organization_url, creds=credentials)
work_item_tracking_client = connection.clients.get_work_item_tracking_client()
#get the work item
work_item = work_item_tracking_client.get_work_item(wi_id)
#get the comments of the work item
comments_ref = work_item._links.additional_properties['workItemComments']['href']
#send a request to get the comments
response = requests.get(comments_ref, auth=('', personal_access_token))
#get the comments
comments = response.json()['comments']
return comments
#return work item id, work item title and related work item comments
def get_work_items_results(wi_id):
#get a connection to Azure DevOps
organization_url = 'https://dev.azure.com/xxx'
personal_access_token = 'xxx'
credentials = BasicAuthentication('', personal_access_token)
connection = Connection(base_url=organization_url, creds=credentials)
work_item_tracking_client = connection.clients.get_work_item_tracking_client()
#get the work item
work_item = work_item_tracking_client.get_work_item(wi_id)
#get the title of the work item
title = work_item.fields['System.Title']
#get the work item id
id = work_item.id
#get the comments of the work item
items = get_work_items_comments(wi_id)
array_string = []
for item in items:
text = item['text']
array_string.append(text)
print(item['text'])
return id, title, array_string
#Save the work item id, work item title and related work item comments to a csv file
#create folder workitemresults if not exist
if not os.path.exists('workitemresults'):
os.makedirs('workitemresults')
with open('workitemresults/comments_results.csv', 'w', newline='') as csvfile:
writer = csv.writer(csvfile)
writer.writerow(['Workitem ID','Workitem Title','Workitem Comments'])
#===if you want multiple work items, just for loop in this place and replace the value 120 in this place, 120 is the workitem id on my side.===
writer.writerow(get_work_items_results(120))
The above code is to capture the comments and information for one workitem. It works fine on my side(The place for what 'for loop' should be placed I had already mentioned in my code, using the for loop in that place you can capture multiple workitems):
In my situation, if I only want the text content:
#remove <div> and </div> from the text
text = text.replace('<div>','')
text = text.replace('</div>','')
Result: