Can you have TFS states and groups with the same name?

May 2007 - We've been dealing with the very informative user error message "TF26212: Team Foundation Server could not save your changes. There may be problems with the work item type definition. Try again or contact your Team Foundation Server Administrator." for about two weeks now and we finally think we have an answer.

The error seemed to show up when we had a state (e.g. Testing) named the same as a group (e.g. Testing). Here are our steps and final thoughts on how we resolved the issue.

Start by editing the Web.config file under \Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server\Web Services by changing

name="traceLevel" value="1" to name="traceLevel" value="4"

and

key="traceWriter" value="false" to key="traceWriter" value="true"

This will start logging myriad amounts of information under C:\WINDOWS\Temp\TFLogFiles (or some other directory if you change the defaults).

After you make these changes (you don't need to bounce IIS) try to get the error again. If you see an error like below in the TFLogFiles you may be in the same boat as us.

[WI] [Error, 2916, 5, 11:31:33.016] SvrEx: Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server.ValidationException: Forcing rollback ---> System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Forcing rollback
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlInternalConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection)
at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.Run(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.HasMoreRows()
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.ReadInternal(Boolean setTimeout)
at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.NextResult()
at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server.PayloadTableCollection.Populate(SqlDataReader reader)
at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Server.SqlAccess.ExecuteBatchPayloadImpl(IRequestContext context, String sqlBatch, List`1 parameterList, Boolean& errorOnBulkUpdate, String connectionString)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---.

While we've had differing results with a number of use cases, the root cause seems to be related to having a state and group named the same. We saw the issue with a state called CCB and group called CCB and the same issue with a state called Testing and a group called Testing.

What's even more alarming is they don't even have to be in the same project. We're pretty sure if you have a Testing group in Project1 and a Testing state in Project2, you will get a conflict.

Again we're not 100% sure this should be written in stone, but our error has disappeared now that we renamed the CCB state to Change Control Board and Testing group to Testers. And removed all references to the CCB state and Testing group from all the projects in our instance. This seemed to work for us.

Good luck!