Category: TFS

Lately I have been reviewing a lot of Visual Studio Team System videos and Webcasts.  After several days of searching I had acquired several link so I thought I would make this list public.  You can view the list of videos and Webcasts here. Please let me know if you've seen any VSTS-related video or Webcast that is not included in this list and I'll get it added.

Those folks over from Attrice have done it again and released another useful utility in their line of Team Foundation Sidekicks - the Team Build Sidekick. This is an add-in for Visual Studio 2005 that adds a few new features to the context menu for Team Build Types.If you've worked with Team Build Types then you already know how inconvenient it is to make modifications to them. First, you have to go to version control and locate the correct TFSBuild.proj file and check it out. Then you have to open it for editing to modify the XML. Although this isn't…

A new (and free) Continuous Integration tool for Team Foundation Server has been released by Notion Solutions.The installation files can be downloaded here and forum-based support can be accessed here.Although I haven't tried it out yet it's nice to see a free and supported continuous integration solution for TFS.

As some of you may be aware, I've kept a list of useful (at least in my mind) links to various Team Foundation Server-related sites and utilities on our company's web site.  There are currently two links: TFS Utilities TFS LinksAlthough I feel this is a useful list I thought I would make it easier to access by providing RSS feeds to the content.  So now there are two more links: TFS Utilities RSS Feed TFS Links RSS FeedThis feed should be viewable by any news aggregator that supports the RSS 2.0 standard. As always, if you've ran across a…

A new version of the Team Foundation Sidekicks utilities has been released. Version 1.1 introduces a new History Sidekick as well as a new user interface where all Sidekicks are now available within a single UI.The History Sidekick application pane provides the following features:View version control tree with files and folders (similar to Source Control Explorer) Search item (file or folder) by name and select found item in version control tree View selected item history either for all users or filtered by user Compare file versions selected in history View selected item properties and pending changes View selected item branches…

Martin Woodward has posted a tip on how to determine the expiration date of the 180 day trial edition of TFS. The short version is to run the following TFS command and add 180 days to the return value.tf changeset 1 /server:http://servername:8080 /nopromptHere's an on-line date calculator to help with the addition.You can read the full tip here.

A handy little utility, Bug Snapper, has been created and released by Grant Holliday. This utility allows you to quickly and easily create a "bug" work item within a Team Project without having to go through the Team Explorer client. You can quickly type in a title and description, specify a ranking, and take a screen shot.You can download the latest release here.You can also download the source code here.

It looks like the Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1 is getting closer to its initial beta release. Based on a blog post by Brian Harry, there is no current (public) timeline set for release but he expects the beta to be available in the "not too distant future".Here is a list of improvements included in TFSSP1:Version Control, WorkItem Tracking and Datawarehouse performance/scale improvements - the majority of these have come from our continued internal deployment. You can read one of my earlier blog posts for more detail on what kinds of things we've hit and addressed. We're now seeing…

The developers from Attrice have done it again. They have released a brand new sidekick - the Microsoft Build Sidekick. The Microsoft Build Sidekick allows you to edit your MSBuild projects in a graphical, hierarchical format. You can also use this utility to modify your TFS build types. It can take a few seconds to open up a build file and have it displayed in the utility but once it's loaded, it is very easy to work with.Here is a list of initial features:Load and modify any file complying to MSBuild schemaView build project structure in a tree view that…

Mitch Denny has posted a new TFS build clean-up service that will clean up your TFS build files throughout the day (at some pre-configured interval). If you find that you occasionally go in to manually delete old build files, this utility could be of use.There are certain rules that must be met before the utility will remove the build files, including:Has the expiry date for the build been reached?Does the drop location exist?Has the build actually completed?Has the build been abandoned? Read the full details in Mitch's post.