Azure DevOps Connector for PowerShell Azure DevOps Connector can be used to integrate Azure DevOps data in your App / BI Tools. You can create, read, query, modify, and delete WorkItems, Projects, Teams and more. In this article you will learn how to quickly and efficiently integrate Azure DevOps data in PowerShell without coding. We will use high-performance Azure DevOps Connector to easily connect to Azure DevOps and then access the data inside PowerShell. Let's follow the steps below to see how we can accomplish that! Download Documentation Azure DevOps Connector for PowerShell is based on ZappySys API Driver which is part of ODBC PowerPack. It is a collection of high-performance ODBC drivers that enable you to integrate data in SQL Server, SSIS, a programming language, or any other ODBC-compatible application. ODBC PowerPack supports various file formats, sources and destinations, including REST/SOAP API, SFTP/FTP, storage services, and plain files, to mention a few.

Connect to Azure DevOps in other apps Connect to Azure DevOps in SSIS Connect to Azure DevOps in SQL Server Connect to Azure DevOps in Power BI Connect to Azure DevOps in SSRS Connect to Azure DevOps in Informatica Connect to Azure DevOps in MS Access Connect to Azure DevOps in MS Excel Connect to Azure DevOps in SSAS Connect to Azure DevOps in C# Connect to Azure DevOps in Python Connect to Azure DevOps in JAVA Connect to Azure DevOps in Tableau Connect to Azure DevOps in SAP Crystal Reports Connect to Azure DevOps in Azure Data Factory (Pipeline) Connect to Azure DevOps in Azure Data Factory (SSIS) Connect to Azure DevOps in Talend Studio Connect to Azure DevOps in UiPath Connect to Azure DevOps in ODBC

Create ODBC Data Source (DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

Step-by-step instructions

To get data from Azure DevOps using PowerShell we first need to create a DSN (Data Source) which will access data from Azure DevOps. We will later be able to read data using PowerShell. Perform these steps:

1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack.

2. Open ODBC Data Sources (x64):

   

3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on ZappySys API Driver

   ZappySys API Driver

   
   • Create and use User DSN if the client application is run under a User Account. This is an ideal option in design-time, when developing a solution, e.g. in Visual Studio 2019. Use it for both type of applications - 64-bit and 32-bit.
   • Create and use System DSN if the client application is launched under a System Account, e.g. as a Windows Service. Usually, this is an ideal option to use in a production environment. Use ODBC Data Source Administrator (32-bit), instead of 64-bit version, if Windows Service is a 32-bit application.

4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Azure DevOps" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Azure DevOps" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

   AzureDevopsDSN

   Azure DevOps

   

5. Now it's time to configure the Connection Manager. Select Authentication Type, e.g. Token Authentication. Then select API Base URL (in most cases, the default one is the right one). More info is available in the Authentication section.

    OAuth [OAuth]

   Steps how to get and use Azure DevOps credentials
   Connecting to your Azure DevOps data requires you to authenticate your REST API access. Follow the instructions below:

   1. Go to https://app.vsaex.visualstudio.com/app/register to register your app.
   2. Fill in your application and company's information as required, and then select the scopes that your application needs. This should typically be Project and team (read and write) and Work items (read and write).
      Your selected scopes when registering your app must match the scopes you enter here on the connector screen. If they don't match, the connector will not be able to work with your Azure DevOps account!

      If you need further information about the scopes used in Azure DevOps, or need to see what to enter into the connector screen to match up with your selected scopes, visit https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/integrate/get-started/authentication/oauth?view=azure-devops.
      

      NOTE: For Authorization callback URL use your company's OAuth Redirect URL (if IT administrator provides you one) or you can use https://zappysys.com/oauth (it's safe).

   3. Select Create Application and then the Application Settings page will be displayed.
   4. Record the App ID for us to use later:
   5. And do the same with Client Secret:
   6. Then go to https://aex.dev.azure.com and select relevant organization on the left.
   7. Then copy Organization's host name part (e.g. acmeinc, if full host name is acmeinc.visualstudio.com), save it to a file, and click it:
   8. Back at the connector screen, enter the App ID into the Client Id (App ID) field that was recorded in the previous step.
   9. Enter the Client Secret that was recorded in the previous step into the Client Secret field. In order to edit the text in this field, select the ellipses (...) button that appears when the textbox is clicked, and edit the Client Secret with the dialog box that appears.
   10. Enter the organization that was recorded in step 5 into the Organization name or Id for url field.
   11. Click Generate Token. If proper authentication occurs, you will see a notice saying so. You can click Yes to save a backup file of your generated tokens.
   12. Select the project you want to connect to by default from the Default Project (Choose after Generating Token) field.
   13. Select the Security tab.
   14. Enter https://auditservice.dev.azure.com,https://almsearch.dev.azure.com into the Additional Trusted Domains field.
   15. Select the Test Connection button at the bottom of the window to verify proper connectivity with your Azure DevOps account.
   16. If the connection test succeeds, select OK.
   17. To edit previously created app you can visit https://app.vsaex.visualstudio.com/me and see Applications and services section. Click on your desired app name.

   Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

   AzureDevopsDSN

   Azure DevOps

   OAuth [OAuth]

   https://dev.azure.com

   Required Parameters
   Client Id (App ID)	Fill-in the parameter...
   Client Secret	Fill-in the parameter...
   Organization name or Id for url (e.g. mycompany)	Fill-in the parameter...
   Return URL	Fill-in the parameter...
   Scopes (Must match with App Registration)	Fill-in the parameter...
   API Version	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   Default Project Name (Choose after Generating Token)
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

    Personal Access Token (PAT) [Http]

   Steps how to get and use Azure DevOps credentials
   To connect to Azure DevOps using a Personal Access Token (PAT), you must first create a valid PAT:

   1. Start by by going to https://aex.dev.azure.com and selecting relevant organization on the left.
   2. Then copy Organization's host name part (e.g. acmeinc, if full host name is acmeinc.visualstudio.com), save it to a file, and click it:
   3. Next, click User settings icon and then click Personal access tokens:
   4. Then click New Token button to create a new personal access token:
   5. Continue by...
      • naming your token
      • selecting the right Organization
      • setting token's Expiration date (it's recommended to use Custom defined option and make it expire after one year or later)
      • and setting the Scopes:
      

      NOTE: You may be restricted from creating full-scoped PATs. If so, your Azure DevOps administrator in Azure AD has enabled a policy which limits you to a specific custom defined set of scopes.

   6. Now click Copy button and save the newly created token into a file for quick access later:
   7. Go back to the connector screen, input the token you saved in a previous step into the Personal Access Token (PAT) field.
   8. Then enter the Organization host name part that you noted recorded in previous step into Organization name or Id for url field.
   9. Enter the name or Id of the project you want to connect to by default in the Default Project (Choose after above fields) field.
   10. Select the Security tab.
   11. Enter https://auditservice.dev.azure.com,https://almsearch.dev.azure.com,https://analytics.dev.azure.com into the Additional Trusted Domains field.
   12. Select the Test Connection button at the bottom of the window to verify proper connectivity with your Azure DevOps account.
   13. Done!

   Fill in all required parameters and set optional parameters if needed:

   AzureDevopsDSN

   Azure DevOps

   Personal Access Token (PAT) [Http]

   https://dev.azure.com

   Required Parameters
   Personal Access Token (PAT)	Fill-in the parameter...
   Organization name or Id for url	Fill-in the parameter...
   API Version	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   AuthScheme	Bearer
   AuthHeader	Authorization
   UserName
   Default Project Name (Choose after Generating Token)
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

6. Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Azure DevOps

   Azure DevOps Connector can be used to integrate Azure DevOps data in your App / BI Tools. You can create, read, query, modify, and delete WorkItems, Projects, Teams and more.

   AzureDevopsDSN

   

7. Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in PowerShell to retrieve data from Azure DevOps. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

   SELECT * FROM Projects

   
   Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the Azure DevOps API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.

8. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in PowerShell:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Azure DevOps

   Azure DevOps Connector can be used to integrate Azure DevOps data in your App / BI Tools. You can create, read, query, modify, and delete WorkItems, Projects, Teams and more.

   AzureDevopsDSN

   SELECT * FROM Projects

   
   You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
   A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Azure DevOps API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Azure DevOps servers).

9. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Video Tutorial

Read Azure DevOps data in PowerShell

Sometimes, you need to quickly access and work with your Azure DevOps data in PowerShell. Whether you need a quick data overview or the complete dataset, this article will guide you through the process. Here are some common scenarios:

• Quickly peek at Azure DevOps data
• Monitor data constantly in your console

• Export data to a CSV file so that it can be sliced and diced in Excel
• Export data to a JSON file so that it can ingested by other processes
• Export data to an HTML file for user-friendly view and easy sharing
• Create a schedule to make it an automatic process

• Store data internally for analysis or for further ETL processes
• Create a schedule to make it an automatic process

• Integrate data with other systems via external APIs

In this article, we will delve deeper into how to quickly view the data in PowerShell terminal and how to save it to a file. But let's stop talking and get started!

Reading individual fields

1. Open your favorite PowerShell IDE (we are using Visual Studio Code).
2. Then simply follow these instructions:
   "DSN=AzureDevopsDSN"

   

   For your convenience, here is the whole PowerShell script:

   # Configure connection string and query
   $connectionString = "DSN=AzureDevopsDSN"
   $query = "SELECT * FROM Customers"
   
   # Instantiate OdbcDataAdapter and DataTable
   $adapter = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($query, $connectionString)
   $table = New-Object System.Data.DataTable
   
   # Fill the table with data
   $adapter.Fill($table)
   
   # Since we know we will be reading just 4 columns, let's define format for those 4 columns, each separated by a tab
   $format = "{0}`t{1}`t{2}`t{3}"
   
   # Display data in the console
   foreach ($row in $table.Rows)
   {
       # Construct line based on the format and individual Azure DevOps fields
       $line = $format -f ($row["CustomerId"], $row["CompanyName"], $row["Country"], $row["Phone"])
       Write-Host $line
   }
   

   Access specific Azure DevOps table field using this code snippet:

   $field = $row["ColumnName"]

   You will find more info on how to manipulate DataTable.Rows property in Microsoft .NET reference.
   For demonstration purposes we are using sample tables which may not be available in Azure DevOps.
3. To read values in a console, save the script to a file and then execute this command inside PowerShell terminal:
   You can also use even a simpler command inside the terminal, e.g.:

   . 'C:\Users\john\Documents\dsn.ps1'

Retrieving all fields

However, there might be case, when you want to retrieve all columns of a query. Here is how you do it:

"DSN=AzureDevopsDSN"

Again, for your convenience, here is the whole PowerShell script:

# Configure connection string and query
$connectionString = "DSN=AzureDevopsDSN"
$query = "SELECT CustomerId, CompanyName, Country, Phone FROM Customers"

# Instantiate OdbcDataAdapter and DataTable
$adapter = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($query, $connectionString)
$table = New-Object System.Data.DataTable

# Fill the table with data
$adapter.Fill($table)

# Display data in the console
foreach ($row in $table.Rows) {
    $line = ""
    foreach ($column in $table.Columns) {
        $value = $row[$column.ColumnName]

        # Let's handle NULL values
        if ($value -is [DBNull])
        {
            $value = "(NULL)"
        }
        $line += $value + "`t"
    }
    Write-Host $line
}

SELECT * FROM Customers LIMIT 10

Using a full ODBC connection string

In the previous steps we used a very short format of ODBC connection string - a DSN. Yet sometimes you don't want a dependency on an ODBC data source (and an extra step). In those times, you can define a full connection string and skip creating an ODBC data source entirely. Let's see below how to accomplish that in the below steps:

1. Open ODBC data source configuration and click Copy settings:
   

   ZappySys API Driver - Configuration [Version: 2.0.1.10418]

   ZappySys API Driver - Azure DevOps

   Azure DevOps Connector can be used to integrate Azure DevOps data in your App / BI Tools. You can create, read, query, modify, and delete WorkItems, Projects, Teams and more.

   AzureDevopsDSN

   
2. The window opens, telling us the connection string was successfully copied to the clipboard:
3. Then just paste the connection string into your script:
4. You are good to go! The script will execute the same way as using a DSN.

Limitations of using a full connection string

Despite using a full ODBC connection string may be very convenient it comes with a limitation: it's length is limited to 1024 symbols (or sometimes more). It usually happens when API provider generates a very long Refresh Token when OAuth is at play. If you are using such a long ODBC connection string, you may get this error:

"Connection string exceeds maximum allowed length of 1024"

But there is a solution to this by storing the full connection string in a file. Follow the steps below to achieve this:

1. Open your ODBC data source.
2. Click Copy settings button to copy a full connection string (see the previous section on how to accomplish that).
3. Then create a new file, let's say, in C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt.
4. Continue by pasting the copied connection string into a newly created file and save it.
5. Finally, the last step! Just construct a shorter ODBC connection string using this format:

   DRIVER={ZappySys API Driver};SettingsFile=C:\temp\odbc-connection-string.txt

6. Our troubles are over! Now you should be able to use this connection string in PowerShell with no problems.

Write Azure DevOps data to a file in PowerShell

Save data to a CSV file

Export data to a CSV file so that it can be sliced and diced in Excel:

# Configure connection string and query
$connectionString = "DSN=AzureDevopsDSN"
$query = "SELECT * FROM Customers"

# Instantiate OdbcDataAdapter and DataTable
$adapter = New-Object System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter($query, $connectionString)
$table = New-Object System.Data.DataTable

# Fill the table with data
$adapter.Fill($table)

# Export table data to a file
$table | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation -Delimiter "`t" | Out-File "C:\Users\john\saved-data.csv" -Force

Save data to a JSON file

Export data to a JSON file so that it can ingested by other processes (use the above script, but change this part):

# Export table data to a file
$table | ConvertTo-Json | Out-File "C:\Users\john\saved-data.json" -Force

Save data to an HTML file

Export data to an HTML file for user-friendly view and easy sharing (use the above script, but change this part):

# Export table data to a file
$table | ConvertTo-Html | Out-File "C:\Users\john\saved-data.html" -Force

Actions supported by Azure DevOps Connector

Learn how to perform common Azure DevOps actions directly in PowerShell with these how-to guides:

• Create Project
• Create Team
• Create Work Item
• Create Work Item Comment
• Delete Project
• Delete Team
• Delete Work Item
• Delete Work Item Comment
• Get List of Projects
• Get List of Queries
• Get List of Teams
• Get Project Details
• Get Query Fileds
• Get Team Details
• Get Team Iteration Capacities
• Get Team Iterations
• Get Team Members
• Get Work Item Column Fields
• Get Work Item Comment by Comment Id and Work Item Id
• Get Work Item Comments (by WorkItem Id)
• Get Work Item Types
• Get Work Items by Ids
• Get Work Items for Specified Query Id
• Query Work Item Comments
• Query Work Items
• Search for Work Items by Text
• Update Project
• Update Team
• Update Work Item
• Update Work Item Comment
• Generic Request
• Generic Request (Bulk Write)

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Azure DevOps in PowerShell and integrate data without any coding, saving you time and effort. It's worth noting that ZappySys API Driver allows you to connect not only to Azure DevOps, but to any Java application that supports JDBC (just use a different JDBC driver and configure it appropriately).

We encourage you to download Azure DevOps Connector for PowerShell and see how easy it is to use it for yourself or your team.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact ZappySys support team. You can also open a live chat immediately by clicking on the chat icon below.

Download Azure DevOps Connector for PowerShell Documentation

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