18 Feb 2008

So, what’s the deal with $, @, and % anyway?

Team Build, Team System, TFS
So, you've decided that the default build script that's built by the "New Build Type" wizard doesn't quite do everything that you need it to do. So, you click on over to the Version Control Explorer, check out the TFSBuild.proj file, and dive in!At first glance, everything looks simple enough, you have various combinations of Targets, Tasks, and Properties. Things start to get a little interesting as you explore the concept of Item Groups. However, you start to notice a subtle difference with how various properties (or at least what look like properties) are accessed - e.g. some begin with…
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07 Feb 2008

Working with the BuildStep Task

Team Build, Team System, TFS
One of the new convenience tasks added to Team Foundation Build 2008 is the BuildStep task.  This task allows you to add custom messages to the build reports created when you run a team build.  For example, you may want to display the message "Publishing web site" while your build script is updating some files on a web site.  Having the ability to "see" what your build script is currently executing is not only useful but can also be a great debugging tool (the messages are also logged as well as being displayed). The BuildStep task accepts the following parameters:…
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05 Feb 2008

Displaying Quality Indicators

Articles, Team System, TFS
A few days ago, I put an article together for Paul Hacker's TFSTimes.  The article, Displaying Quality Indicators on your TFS SharePoint Site, discusses usefulness of the Quality Indicators report that ships with Team Foundation Server and how to add it to your project's SharePoint Site.  The article also describes how to modify your build types to automatically run all unit tests as well as how to include code coverage statistics with your build. You can read the article on-line here until the next issue is posted.  The archived PDF version is available here.
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26 Jan 2008

Omaha Team System User Group

Team System, User Group
The first Omaha Team System User Group meeting is, as they say, history!  The feature presentation, What's New in VSTS 2008, was presented by Bill Maurer (a Microsoft Developer Technology Specialist).  He also covered some of the new features coming in "Rosario".  The presentation was very interesting and information and was well received. Our first meeting was held January 22nd and was sponsored by Farm Credit Services of America.  It was very well attended with 75 attendees.  Our next meeting has not yet been scheduled but I am looking forward to working with fellow Team System enthusiasts in the Omaha…
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21 Dec 2007

TFS 2008 Power Tools Released

Team System, TFS, Visual Studio
The Team Foundation Server 2008 Power Tools has been released and is available for download here.  There are several tools/features included in this release - some new, some old: Team Foundation Power Tool command-line tool (TFPT.EXE) - contains some new commands for configuring Team Explorer connection settings (tweakui) and for  destroying Work Items and Work Items Type Definitions (destroyWI, destroyWITD). Process Template Editor - updated for use with Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server. It also has several improvements, including: the ability to launch standalone without a Visual Studio installation, performance improvements, improved discoverability and bug fixes. Custom…
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25 Oct 2007

TFS 2008 System Recommendations Released

Team System, TFS
In case you haven't seen it, Brian Harry posted the TFS 2008 System Recommendations a few days ago.  There is some great information in there if you are planning on upgrading existing TFS 2005 installations or if you're planning on installing TFS 2008 on a new system.  Based on the test results it looks like some pretty good performance improvements have been achieved.  You can read more here.
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18 Oct 2007

TFS 2008 Features in TFS 2005

Orcas, Team System, TFS
There are a lot of new features in TFS 2008.  So many in fact, it's difficult to list them all at once.  I will, however, do my best to cover as many new features as I can during this year's Tulsa TechFest when I present on What's New in TFS 2008.  There are a lot of new features that have been integrated into TFS 2008 that can also be had today in TFS 2005.  Some of these are listed below... Continuous Integration - there are several 3rd party solutions for implementing continuous integration in TFS 2005.  These include: A Microsoft…
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29 Sep 2007

TFS (2005) Power Tools Final Release

Team System, TFS, Visual Studio
The latest and final release of the Team Foundation Server 2005 Power Tools have been released.  This release includes two new additions to the existing Power Tool set: TFS Work Item Templates - work item templates allow you to define templates for existing work item types with specific fields already filled in.  The work item templates are accessible via a Visual Studio add-in allowing easy access to your templates.  This can be a great time saver if you fill out lots of work items - especially if they have a lot of fields that tend to use the same default…
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27 Jul 2007

Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 – Released

Orcas, Team System, TFS, Visual Studio
As of a short while ago, Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 was released.  This also includes the .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2.  Silverlight 1.0 RC is expected to be released within the next couple of days. Also, these releases (Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2, as well as Silverlight 1.0 RC) come with a "go live" license that allows you to start development now and not have to worry about a supported upgrade path when the final versions ship later this year. Here's a list of the installation disc images that can be downloaded: Visual Studio…
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25 Jul 2007

TFSInfo Updated

Team System, TFS
Just a quick post to let everyone know that the TFSInfo utility has been updated to also report the version number of the Team Foundation Server's data tier schema (per this post).  TFSInfo now reports the TFS version based on the Application Tier as well as the Data Tier. You can read more about it here.
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