While Azure DevOps is rapidly growing, with the dev team deploying new features every three weeks, there are still instances where users need functionality that simply don't currently exist. However, thanks in part to Microsoft's recent embrace of open source principals there is a large marketplace of community driven extensions available and since every extension added to the DevOps marketplace is reviewed before being added; you can use them with peace of mind. Below are five of the extensions I've found most useful in no particular order.
Azure DevOps Open in Excel
We've all been in a situation where we have to bulk update a bunch of work items. We could spend an hour or two fiddling with the Azure DevOps REST API or you could use this great extension from Microsoft DevLabs that will quickly allow you to pull the work items you need via query and then easily publish your changes done in Excel back to AZDO.
Pull Request Merge Conflict Extension
Before a Git pull request can complete, any conflicts with the target branch must be resolved. With this extension, you can resolve these conflicts on the web, as part of the pull request merge, instead of performing the merge and resolving conflicts in a local clone.
Azure Cost Insights
It's easy to get your Azure Costs out of control. Wouldn't it be great to get insights of your infrastructure spending in your daily routine? With this extension you can add widgets to your AZDO home screen. You can also customize it to show perennate information for developers, product owners and operations.
Azure Application Insights Widgets
Monitor and detect issues in your apps and services without ever leaving VSTS! Just put an Application Insights Widget on your VSTS dashboard, and keep tabs on how your resources are performing. Need to track several metrics or even multiple apps? No problem - just add widgets to your dashboard again as needed. There are now two types of widgets available to you: metric and chart.
Insights Lab Power BI Widget
This widget allows teams to embed PowerBI.com reports on Visual Studio Team Services team dashboards. The following objects can be embedded from Power BI:
- Complete dashboard
- Complete report
- Separate tile from a dashboard
