Add Columns to the Work Cache

Add Column to Work Lists
Add Column to Work Cache
Update Column Mapping
Add Column to Cache Report
Troubleshooting

When configuring work lists with additional columns you may want to include these columns in Work Cache reports. This topic explains the steps on how to do this.

Note: You need to be a Site Collection Administrator or a member of the BrightWork Cache Administrators group with full control to perform this task.

Add Column to Work Lists

Before you begin it is assumed you have added columns to your work lists. The list supported are: Tasks, Project Goals, Project Risks, Project Issues, Project Change Requests, as well as Project Requests.

Add Column to Work Cache List

First, you need to add a column to the Work Cache list. This list is hidden to prevent accidental editing. The only time you typically need to access it is when you need to add columns or to add a view.

Navigate to the site collection home page, paste bwWorkItemCache after the site name and click Enter on your keyboard to open the hidden Work Cache list. For example the URL should be something like:

https://myserver/sites/mysitecollection/bwWorkItemCache
Add a column to the Work Cache using the appropriate column type.
Map the column from the list to the Work Cache.
Update your reports using the Work Cache to show the column.

Use the same column type in the Work Cache as the source list. For example; if the column is a Date and Time column in the list, create a Date and Time column in the Work Cache.

If you are adding a choice column to the Work Cache list, we recommend the default value is left blank.

The Work Cache list supports the addition of calculated columns. You do not need to add these columns to the WorkItemCacheGlobalSettings.xml file.

We do not recommend adding Site Columns to the Work Cache list.

The name you use to add the column to the Work Cache list doesn't really matter as you will be mapping it in the next step; however, we recommend the same or a similar name to make the mapping maintenance process easier.

Note: When mapping columns of the same type to the Work Cache, there are two exceptions:

Lookup columns from lists should be mapped to text columns, i.e. Single line of text columns, in the Work Cache. This applies to all Lookup columns including cascading lookup columns from third parties as well as single value and multi-value lookups.
Choice Indicator Icon and Number Indicator Icon columns from lists should be mapped to Hyperlink or Picture columns, with the Format URL as Picture option, in the Work Cache.

Update Column Mapping

Note: We recommend using SharePoint Designer 2013 and having some experience with XML would be an advantage.

Next, you must update the global WorkItemCacheGlobalSettings.xml mapping file. This file maps columns from the supported lists to Work Cache columns.

Open the top level site of your site collection in SharePoint Designer 2013. For example, the URL should be something like: https://myserver/sites/mysitecollection
Click All Files | _catalogs | bwConfigStore | WorkItemCacheGlobalSettings.xml.
Click Edit File to open the file for editing.
Add an XML tag to the appropriate list template, for example:

<Field target="YourWorkCacheColumn" source="YourListColumn" />.

The WorkItemCacheGlobalSettings.xml is for specifying global mappings in a BrightWork site collection. Every site also has its own WorkCacheSettings.xml file.

If the column you want to map has a different internal name in a certain site (for example, one project template uses a column called Organization and the rest use a column called Department), update the local WorkCacheSettings.xml with the appropriate mapping information and it will override the global setting specified in the top level WorkItemCacheGlobalSettings.xml file.

Changes to the WorkCacheSettings.xml file are automatically included in Design Sync. This means that changes to this file should be made in the Template and synced, if Design Sync is being used.

Note: Take care editing the global mapping file as syntax errors will prevent all updates to the Work Cache.

Add Column to Cache Report

Finally, add the column to the Shared or Personal report that uses the cache.

Troubleshooting

After going through this procedure if you find the new column's data is not appearing in the report, the first recommended step is to retrace the above steps checking each step of the procedure.

If the Work Cache mapping file was updated after the work item(s) themselves were updated, then there will have been no event triggered on the list to update the work item(s) in the Work Cache. To fix this either:

Edit and save the Work Item(s) in the project. This will trigger an update to the Work Cache Update queue which, when processed, updates the Work Cache.
Open the Work Cache (as referenced in Add Column to Work Cache above) and delete the related item(s) directly from the Work Cache. Then perform a Refresh Work Cache to re-add the Work Item(s).