A Developer's Life » Software Development, 42, and everything in between

09 Dec 2011

Team Foundation Service Update

Team Foundation Service, Visual Studio 2012

We’re just a few days shy of three months since Microsoft first announced the new Team Foundation Service (a.k.a. TFS Azure) at this year’s //build/ conference. Since that time, Microsoft has updated this service over a dozen times – mostly to address bugs. Yesterday, the service received a major update that directly impacts how the service looks and acts.A high-level look at some of the new features includes:Improved navigation (really glad to see this). Homepages with more/better information allowing you to see a project’s overall status at a glance. Simplified UI for project “teams of one” – i.e. if you’re…

18 Nov 2011

Even More of Getting Started with the TFS 2010 Object Model

Conferences, TFS, TFS API

Back in October, I presented on Getting Started with the TFS Object Model (as well as a look at what’s coming in Visual Studio 11) at the Tulsa TechFest. I had intended to post the source code for the demos I ran through during my talk but I never got around to it and it completely slipped my mind. A few days ago, I was gently reminded by one of the attendees (thanks Sean!) that I had not posted the source code so, here I am! Below is a screen shot of the main window displayed by the demos. This…

16 Nov 2011

OTSUG Meeting: Kinect + TFS = Kinban

TFS API, User Group

Although the Omaha Team System User Group has not met in several months we had a great meeting tonight. As always, our meeting was hosted by Farm Credit Services of America (FCSAmerica). This time, however, we had the privilege of meeting in the brand new building that just opened last month. The new building is outstanding and the meeting space for after-hours events just can’t be topped! Thanks again to FCSAmerica for sponsoring our user group! Tonight’s topic, Kinban, was presented by Jeremy Novak (side note: Jeremy presented once before for the OTSUG about two and a half years ago). …

21 Oct 2011

Visual Studio 2010 GDR

Visual Studio

A new update has been released for Visual Studio 2010 (client only) called the “Visual Studio 2010 SP1 TFS Compatibility GDR”. There are several fixes and improvements in this update, including (as taken from Brian Harry’s blog post): The update gets its name from the fact that it includes changes necessary to the Visual Studio 2010 client to allow it to work with a TFS 11 server – including the Team Foundation Service Preview (a.k.a. TFS on Windows Azure). The biggest “news” is the addition of support for multi-line test steps in Microsoft Test Manager. It’s mentioned in the #1…

07 Oct 2011

Team Foundation Service Preview Code

TFS

One of the many new features in Visual Studio/TFS 11 that I demonstrated today at Tulsa TechFest included the new Team Foundation Service (a.k.a. TFS for Azure). This is the new cloud-based Team Foundation Server service provided by Microsoft (currently in a developer preview/non-beta state). You can read more about the new TF Service on Brian Harry’s blog here. Microsoft has made the TF Service available for use on a limited basis - e.g. they handed out invitation codes at the //Build/ conference several weeks ago and have blogged a few invitation codes. The down side is that each code…

27 Sep 2011

Tulsa TechFest 2011

Conferences

It’s that time of the year again… Time for Tulsa Tech Fest 2011! I’ve had the pleasure of speaking at this conference for the past several years and it has always been a well-planned and orchestrated event. If you are going to be around the Tulsa area next week (Friday, October 7th) then take the time to register (it’s FREE! although a food donation is requested – see the web site for details) and enjoy some great content throughout the day. This year I will be presenting on the following topics: Getting Started with the TFS Object Model - Microsoft's…

27 Sep 2011

Getting Up and Running with the TFS 2010 Object Model

TFS, TFS API

I recently wrote a post for the MVP Award Program blog titled “Getting Up and Running with the TFS 2010 Object Model”. If you are looking for some basic information on how to start writing your first Team Foundation Server utility then please check it out. If you have any questions and/or regarding the post please let me know.

20 Sep 2011

Observations and Contemplation with Windows 8

Windows 8

Like most people who downloaded the Windows 8 Developer Preview last week, I’ve have only a short amount of time to play around with the bits. During that time I’ve hit several speed bumps and have scratched my head a bit while attempting to figure out a few (seemingly simple) tasks. What I’ve listed below are just a few of my observations and moments of contemplation that I’ve had over the past few days. How do I shut down my Windows 8 machine? This is one of those functions that is so completely obvious that you don’t realize it’s even…

14 Sep 2011

//build/ Observations from the Outside–Day 1

Conferences, Visual Studio, Windows 8

Like so many others, I was not able to attend the //build/ conference (formerly known as the Professional Developers Conference or PDC). However, I did have the opportunity to watch the streaming keynote live and I’ve also spent a good portion of the day watching various twitter, Facebook, and blog posts from those who are attending. With so much coming out of Microsoft in one day it’s hard to keep up with everything being announced and talked about so I thought I’d put a few notes together around today’s event. The word of the day is BOLD I didn’t actually…

25 Aug 2011

Team Explorer Profile Manager–Take 1

Utilities, Visual Studio

If there is one thing I can generally count on doing at least once a day it’s firing up Visual Studio 2010. Along with Visual Studio 2010 I am also a heavy user of Team Foundation Server 2010. I use it at my “day job” as well as at home on “side” projects. At work, I switch among multiple Team Project Collections and Team Projects relatively frequently. At home, more so because I tend to work with several CodePlex projects as well as local TPCs and Team Projects on my development laptop. [UPDATE: A new release is available – see…