TFS » A Developer's Life

13 Nov 2009

Team Foundation Sidekicks Updated (v2.4)

Add-ins & Extensions, Team System, TFS, Utilities

First of all, if you are using Team Foundation Server and don’t currently make use of the Team Foundation Sidekicks (from Attrice Corporation), you should. That said, Attrice has released an update (v2.4) to their current set of Team Foundation Sidekicks. This update resolves a few issues with the previous release as well as one new feature - “Users View Sidekick”, which offers the following features: Display all users in Valid Users group on TFS server Search users list by user name or display name This is the last planned release that will support TFS 2005/2008. All future enhancements will…

10 Nov 2009

Cross Platform Support for TFS Gets Better

Team System, TFS, Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010

Yesterday, Microsoft announced they will be purchasing the Teamprise-related assets of SourceGear. The Teamprise tools allows software developers to take advantage of various features of Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server (e.g. work item tracking, automated builds, and reporting features) from other environments such as Macintosh- and Linux/Unix-based systems. There is also an Eclipse plug-in that provides functionality almost identical to that of the Team Explorer client that integrates with Visual Studio. Having this technology more accessible (e.g. via Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate) will no doubt go a long way in helping development teams that work across multiple platforms (e.g. .NET, Java,…

20 Oct 2009

Visual Studio 2010 – Links for Getting Started

Team System, Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010

If you are venturing to try out the latest Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 release then you may be looking for as much information regarding this release as you can. There is too much information available to condense into a single post so here are a few links to help get you started: Links & Downloads Visual Studio Home – this is the official Visual Studio home page. You will be able to view information specific to each SKU, as well as download the latest beta, once the site is updated (hopefully tomorrow). Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 can be…

19 Oct 2009

Visual Studio 2010 – Beta 2 Released

Team System, TFS, Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010

Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010 – Beta 2 is now available for download on the MSDN subscribers download site. This is a milestone release for Microsoft for several reasons: This release (Visual Studio 2010 – Beta 2) is generally considered to be feature complete (barring any loud feedback concerning some missing feature that just can’t be left out) It comes with a “Go-Live” license. This means that you can use Visual Studio 2010 and/or Team Foundation Server 2010 to produce production systems and the upgrade to the RTM version will be supported. The Visual Studio 2010 SKUs have been modified to…

04 Oct 2009

VSTS 2010 Beta 2 – Almost Here

Team System, TFS, Visual Studio 2010

According to this post by Brian Keller and another by Brian Harry, VSTS 2010 Beta 2 is “just around the corner” and will ship with a “Go Live” license which means: You can use VSTS 2010 Beta 2 for production development The upgrade path to VSTS 2010 RTM will be supported Brian Keller also provides links to a Microsoft Word document and a PowerPoint presentation that can assist you in planning for the VSTS 2010 upgrade.

03 Oct 2009

Team Foundation Server for the Masses

Team System, TFS, Visual Studio 2010

Early last year, I posted 10 Reasons for TFS with Small Teams that listed 10 reasons for using Team Foundation Server even if you thought your team may not be big enough to get any benefit from it. I still stand by those 10 reasons. However, reality has a way of overturning even the best of reasons. For example, cost of software licenses and hardware carry a lot of weight when it comes time to calculate ROI (whether real or perceived). Yesterday, Brian Harry announced some major changes coming in TFS 2010 that will go a long way in bring…

02 Oct 2009

TFS Work Item Manager/Dashboard

Team System, TFS, Utilities

A few days ago, Telerik announced the availability of two new free products built to provide an informational view into your Team Foundation Server projects. These products are TFS Work Item Manager and TFS Project Dashboard. TFS Work Item Manager highlights: Work Item grid filtering, grouping, and aggregation Area and Iteration filtering using single and multi select modes Filter query results using a tree of areas or iterations *Unique Task board view of work items independent from any process template Print work item cards for the board in your room Iteration schedule Paste clipboard contents into a work item "New…

23 Sep 2009

TFSExamples.com – Part II

TFS, TFS API

A while back, I blogged about a new site that I created called TFSExamples.com with the intent that it serve as a community-based repository for examples showing how to make use of the TFS object model. Several great examples were added by various supporters over the last year or so. Several weeks ago, the server hosting this site crashed and I have just now got the site back up and running again. The down side – my latest backup of this particular site (that was actually usable) was about 14 months old. I was able to restore a few of…

22 Sep 2009

Check for Warnings/Errors Check-in Policy

Check-in Policies, Team System, TFS

A few days ago a fellow co-worker asked if I knew of a TFS check-in policy that checks for Visual Studio compilation errors and/or warnings. I wasn’t aware of such a check-in policy (although it may exist out there somewhere) so I decided to go ahead and create it (who doesn’t love a challenge?!). When active, this check-in policy will evaluate the current Visual Studio solution to determine if any build warnings and/or errors are present. If so, the check-in policy will fail and will prevent the code from being checked in (this can, of course, be overridden). To enable…

27 May 2009

Omaha Team System User Group

TFS, User Group

Yesterday was a long day that ended on a great note – the Omaha Team System User Group meeting. Mike Douglas, from Deliveron Consulting Services, presented on Installing and Configuring Team Foundation Server 2008. Here is the synopsis: This presentation provides an overview of TFS 2008 and demonstrates best practices, lessons learned, and “gotchas” installing and configuring TFS 2008. The overview explains the architecture and components of Team Foundation Server 2008 and recommended server configurations. The demonstrations will include using the Best Practice Analyzer, setting user permissions and using the TFS Admin Tool, and creating and configuring a team project…

Category: TFS