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

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…

30 Sep 2010

OTSUG–A Look at Visual Studio 2010 Testing Tools

User Group

Last night, Russ Wagner and I met with the Omaha Team System User Group to present on “Creating Quality Software: A Look at Visual Studio 2010 Testing Tools”. Once again, Farm Credit Services of America hosted the event and provided pizza for the attendees. Here’s the description of the talk we gave: Visual Studio 2010 provides application lifecycle management (ALM) tools that enable teams to create quality software. In this presentation, Jeff Bramwell and Russ Wagner will demonstrate the new testing features of Visual Studio 2010 including Microsoft Test Manager, Test Runner, Coded UI Tests, Load Testing capabilities, and more. …

30 Sep 2010

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP2 Released

SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 is now available for download. What’s included in this service pack: SQL Server Utility. After you apply SP2, an instance of the SQL Server 2008 Database Engine can be enrolled with a utility control point as a managed instance of SQL Server. For more information, see Overview of SQL Server Utility in SQL Server 2008 R2 Books Online. Data-tier Application (DAC). Instances of the SQL Server 2008 Database Engine support all DAC operations after SP2 has been applied. You can deploy, upgrade, register, extract, and delete DACs. SP2 does not upgrade the SQL…

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. …

11 Sep 2010

HDC 2010–In the Books

Conferences, Visual Studio

For the past three days, the Heartland Developers Conference has been in full swing. The first day was comprised entirely of hands-on classes (eight choices all together) while the remaining two days consisted of 45 sessions, 4 keynotes, and 2 receptions/after parties. All this for a steal at $250 (plus a little extra if you signed up for any of the 1st day classes)! Needless to say, Joe Olsen has once again put on a great conference. I attended several sessions over the past couple of days and there was some great information to be consumed presented by some great…

09 Sep 2010

TFS Power Tools–September 2010 Release

TFS, Utilities

The latest release of the Team Foundation Server 2010 Power Tools are now available for download: TFS Power Tools Cross Platform Build Extensions MSSCCI Provider (no updates this release) There are several new features in this release of the tools, including: Admin Console Backup/Restore Wizard – you can now quickly and easily setup a backup schedule from within the Team Foundation Server Administration Console. View With – this feature adds a new context menu item, View With…, to the Source Control Explorer (SCE) window in Visual Studio 2010 giving you the ability to view a file, directly from the SCE,…

20 Aug 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management – Released!

TFS, Visual Studio

The final update for Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management has been released (click here for the download). This update contains fixes and updates to the Lab Management functionality to improve performance, stability, usability and diagnostic information. Here’s a list of major fixes for Lab Management included in this update: Improves performance for Lab Management Workflow Wizard. Improves performance for running automated test cases on Network Isolated Lab environments. Fixes an issue in which a Test Controller service account that is the same as a Lab Service account causes issues with environment capabilities. There is a new Expression Encoder 4.0 based…

19 Aug 2010

LightSwitch Beta 1 – Released

LightSwitch

A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft announced Visual Studio LightSwitch – a new addition to the Visual Studio family of products. Today, Microsoft made LightSwitch Beta 1 available on the MSDN subscribers downloads site (look under New Downloads->Visual Studio 2010). The beta will be made available to the public on Monday, August 23rd, on the LightSwitch Developer Center. Check out these links for more information: LightSwitch Beta 1 Documentation on MSDN Vision Clinic Application Walkthrough and Sample LightSwitch Forum LightSwitch on Channel 9

19 Aug 2010

TFS 2010 Backup Power Tool – Coming Soon

TFS

As with any software system that stores its data within a database, you need to have a sound backup/restore process to protect your data. Team Foundation Server is no different. Considering the number and types of artifacts stored within TFS, every TFS installation should have a sound backup strategy. This sounds easy enough, but if you’ve ever read the MSDN documentation, “Backing Up and Restoring Your Deployment”, then you know there are numerous steps involved with creating a backup strategy for your TFS installation. If you’re in a small shop, then you may not have dedicated database administrators who are…