Connecting to a Rally Repository

There are two steps to connecting to a Rally repository.  First you must configure your client to connect to a Task Repository, which is done by adding a Task Repository to your Task Repositories View.  After establishing this connection you must specify which tasks to download, which is done by creating a Query over this Task Repository. 

Adding a Rally Repository

To add a Rally Repository to your Task Repository View follow these steps.

  1. Open the Task Repositories View - from the Window menu select Window -> Show View -> Other -> Mylyn -> Task Repositories
  2. Open the Add Task Repository Wizard - click the Add Task Repository button in the view toolbar
  3. Select Rally - choose Rally from the list of available repositories and click Next
  4. Enter and Validate the Task Repository Settings - in the Server field select the the Rally repository that you wish to connect to, which is normally Rally1 for Rally customers. Enter your Rally username and password and press the Validate Settings button to ensure that you have configured your Rally repository correctly. If you use a proxy within your organization enter the relevant settings in the Proxy Settings Configuration section.
  5. Finish the Wizard - once you have validated your settings, click Finish.  You should now see the Rally repository you configured in the Task Repositories View.  After finishing this wizard, you may be prompted to add a new Query, in which case you should skip to the next section.

Creating a Rally Query

Configuring a Rally Task Repository allows you to connect to the repository, but to download relevant stories, tasks, and defects you also need to create one or many Queries.  These Queries specify which tasks you would like to download, such as all the tasks that are assigned to you.

To add a new Query to your Task List follow these steps.

If the Task List is not visible, open it by navigating to Window -> Show View -> Other... -> Mylyn -> Task List.

  1. Open the New Query Wizard - click the dropdown for the New Task button in the Task List toolbar and select New Query. Alternatively, right-click in the Task List and select New -> Query.
  2. Select the Rally Task Repository - from the list of available repositories choose the Rally Repository and click Next. If you have not setup a Rally query before, the repository configuration will be fetched so you can work offline.  Fetching the configuration might take a few seconds.
  3. Refine the Query Settings
    1. Type of Artifact - select whether you want to query for Tasks or Defects and whether to include ones that are already completed.
    2. Rally Workspace - select the Rally Workspace that you would like to query.
    3. Owner - At this point, you will notice that the Owner combo has been populated with your username. You can choose to leave it to see only Tasks or Defects assigned to you, or you can change this.
    4. Project and Iteration - if desired, you can narrow down your query by selecting the Project and Iteration.  Alternatively, you can just search all Tasks or Defects in the selected workspace.
  4. Click Finish - In the Task List view, you should now see the Query that you created. After the Query has finished synchronizing, you will see all of the Tasks, Defects, or Stories that you queried for an you can begin working on them.

Working with Rally Tasks

Upon creating a Rally Query tasks that match the query will be downloaded to your Task List.  Once these tasks are downloaded they appear in your Task List and are ready to be viewed, activated, and modified.  To view a task you can double click on it in the Task List.  The task will open in the Task Editor, as shown below, where you can view and edit the task.  Once you are done editing the task you can either save your changes locally by saving or upload the changes to the server by pressing Submit. 

To work on a task you can activate the task via Task List's context menu or by pressing the Activate button in the Task Editor to take advantage of time tracking and focus.  Typically, a task will be downloaded into the Task List, the user will activate and work on that task, and finally the user will mark the task as complete or comment on the task and submit changes back to the server.

Often, especially during planning sessions, users find it helpful to edit multiple tasks at once.  For bulk-editing of Rally tasks, check out the Rally Dashboard.