Visual Studio » A Developer's Life

09 Mar 2011

TFS Project Server Integration Feature Pack

Feature Packs, TFS, Visual Studio

The TFS Project Server Integration Feature Pack has been in beta for a few months now. As of today, it is being released into the wild and is now ready for download from the MSDN Subscribers site. As seen on Brian Harry’s blog post, the TFS Project Server Integration Feature Pack enables teams to work together more effectively by: Providing up to date insight into portfolio execution, alignment with strategic objectives, and resource utilization of software development projects by leveraging the quantitative data stored in different systems. Automating the exchange and sharing of project information across teams and improving coordination between…

09 Mar 2011

Visual Studio Load Test Feature Pack

Testing, TFS, Visual Studio

Last August, Microsoft announced they would be including the lab agents (i.e. licenses) with TFS 2010 as well as Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN and Visual Studio 2010 Test Professional with MSDN (link). As of today, Microsoft has made another great licensing announcement – the Visual Studio Load Test Virtual User Feature Pack 2010. With this feature pack, you can simulate as many virtual users as you like without the need for purchasing additional virtual user licenses. This change only adds to the already great value provided with the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN subscription. More Information You…

08 Mar 2011

Visual Studio/TFS 2010 SP1 Released

TFS, Visual Studio

Service Pack 1 has been officially released for Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010. The download is immediately available on the MSDN Subscribers Site. The service pack will be publicly available on the Microsoft Downloads site on March 10th, 2011. There are several new features included with this service pack, including (but not limited to): Visual Studio Updated local help viewer Silverlight 4 tools now included Unit tests now supported in Visual Studio 2010 projects targeting the .NET Framework 3.5 IntelliTrace for 64-bit and SharePoint Ability to profile Silverlight code Support for IIS Express Lots of bug fixes…

04 Feb 2011

Free Visual Studio/ALM Training

ALM, Visual Studio

A fellow Visual Studio ALM MVP, Martin Hinshelwood, who also happens to be an employee of Northwest Cadence, recently posted a list of training (“coffee”) talks offered for free. Here is the currently scheduled list of talks: Coffee Talks These coffee talks have some superb topics and you can get excellent interaction with the presenter as they are kind of informal. Date Day Time Topic Register Here 01/04/11 Tuesday 8:30AM – 9:30AM PST Real World Business and Technical Benefits of ALM with TFS 2010 150656 01/28/11 Friday 9:00AM - 10:00AM PST The Full Testing Experience Professional Quality Assurance with Visual Studio…

28 Jan 2011

Visual Studio Code Metrics PowerTool 10.0

Visual Studio

Visual Studio Code Metrics (Current Functionality) Code Metrics was introduced in Visual Studio 2008. This feature allows developers to calculate various code metrics for projects and solutions. This feature calculates five separate metrics: Maintainability Index [higher=better]– Calculates an index value between 0 and 100 that represents the relative ease of maintaining the code. A high value means better maintainability. Color coded ratings can be used to quickly identify trouble spots in your code. A green rating is between 20 and 100 and indicates that the code has good maintainability. A yellow rating is between 10 and 19 and indicates that…

08 Dec 2010

Visual Studio 2010/TFS 2010 SP1 Beta

TFS, Visual Studio

The Visual Studio 2010/TFS 2010 SP1 Beta has been released to MSDN Subscribers. The SP1 Beta will be released to the general public this Thursday. The SP1 Beta does come with a “Go Live” license which basically means it can be installed in a production environment and an upgrade path to the final release version will be supported. There are several new features included in this service pack beta (some of which were previously available as a separate download) as well as quite a few bug fixes. Some of the new features include: Local Help Viewer Silverlight 4 Tools Unit…

16 Nov 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2

Visual Studio

Not too long ago, Brian Harry posted that Feature Pack 2 was imminent. As of yesterday, Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2 is available for download (here). This feature pack is cumulative in that it will also install the features previously available in Feature Pack 1. The highlights of Feature Pack 2 include: Testing features: Use Microsoft Test Manager to capture and playback action recordings for Silverlight 4 applications. Create coded UI tests for Silverlight 4 applications with Visual Studio 2010 Premium or Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. Edit coded UI tests using a graphical editor with Visual Studio 2010 Premium or…

09 Nov 2010

Testing Tool Enhancements Coming

Testing, Visual Studio

Brian Harry has blogged about the forthcoming Feature Pack 2. If you make use of Coded UI Tests and/or Microsoft Test Runner, then you will be interested in this Feature Pack. This Feature Pack, once released, will contain the following features: The ability to test Silverlight 4.0 applications (currently, browser-hosted applications only – out-of-browser applications will be supported in the future). Playback of recorded tests in Firefox. You still have to record the test scripts using Internet Explorer (v7.0 or later), however, you can play them back in either browser. Coded UI Test Editor. This new editor will allow you…

20 Oct 2010

“Context Menu” Patch for Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio

If you have been using Visual Studio 2010 for any time at all then you’ve no doubt been annoyed by scrolling context menus. This issue arises when you right-click an item within the Solution Explorer and, although there is plenty of screen real estate, the context menu forces you to scroll through the menu items. A set of hotfixes has been released to mostly resolve this issue. I say “mostly” because if your screen resolution is set fairly low and/or you have a lot of Visual Studio add-ins/extensions installed, then the context menu still may not be fully expanded when…

14 Sep 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Testing Tools Round Up

Testing, TFS, Visual Studio

Yesterday, I co-presented a session covering some of the testing tools available in Visual Studio 2010. Overall, the talk seemed to go very well. In fact, the majority of the feedback responses were highly positive. However, there was one negative comment – “This talk really was about Team Foundation Server. Without this expensive application, the information provided is useless.” This comment was, no doubt, formulated based on a statement I had made near the start of my talk. I pointed out that Microsoft Test Manager relied on Team Foundation Server (TFS) and that it could not be utilized without it. …

Category: Visual Studio