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

10 Dec 2007

Build Type Settings Changes

TFS

I've fielded a couple of questions lately about where some of the settings for build types in TFS 2008 are stored. In the new version of TFS (2008) some of the build type settings have been moved from the TFSBuild.proj file to the TFS databases (mostly the TfsBuild database). So, even though you see the settings within the XML file (TFSBuild.proj) the XML settings have no effect on builds within TFS 2008. However, if you still have VS 2005 (or other "version 1") clients accessing your TFS 2008 build types, you should keep the XML settings in sync with the…

07 Dec 2007

TFSInfo Updated for TFS 2008

TFS, Utilities

A few months ago I created a simple command line utility called TFSInfo that can be used to display various bits of information about a Team Foundation Server 2005 installation. I have now updated this utility to work with TFS 2008 as well as TFS 2005. You can see from the screen shot which information is displayed. In case you can't see the image, the following information is displayed by TFSInfo: AT server name AT Version AT Edition (e.g. Standard, Workgroup, or Trial) DT server Name DT Server Version (not available for TFS 2008) SQL Server Version Reporting Server…

04 Dec 2007

VS 2008 Add-Ins

Add-ins & Extensions, Visual Studio

As I (like many others) make the full-time transition from VS 2005 to VS 2008 I find that I'm having to update several add-ins and utilities that I've grown accustomed to. Here is a short list of what I've updated so far: Visual Studio 2008 GhostDoc 2.1.2 - I've become very accustomed to pressing Ctrl+Shift+D to fill in the XML comments for my code. I'm glad to see that VS 2008 is now supported. Project MRU Cleaner - This is a very handy utility for removing orphaned or otherwise unwanted solutions from the Recent Projects list in VS 2005/2008. ReSharper…

03 Dec 2007

Omaha VSTS User Group is Coming

User Group

A co-leader (Tim Kelsey) and I have been planning on starting a Team System Users Group in Omaha for several months now. The initial web site is finally up at www.otsug.org and we are excited to have our first speaker, Bill Maurer, scheduled for January 22nd, 2008. Bill will be presenting on the new features and updates in VSTS 2008. Time permitting, he will also cover some of what's coming in "Rosario". With the addition of the Team System Users Group, there will now be no less than four Microsoft technology-oriented user groups in the Omaha area, including: Omaha Team…

27 Nov 2007

Power Tools for TFS 2008 Roadmap

TFS

Brian Harry has posted a time line of which power tools will be released over the next month for TFS 2008. In summary, these will include: VSTS Web Access - the "final" version for TFS 2008. MSSCCI Provider - will allow access to TFS 2008 from VS 2003, VS 2002, and VS 6 as well as other IDEs. TFS Power Tools - the same basic TFS Power Tools that shipped for TFS 2005 but compiled against the TFS 2008 object model. Process Template Editor - mainly bug fixes and small improvements. Build Notification Tray App - this is a new…

26 Nov 2007

TFS 2008 License Changes

TFS

Brian Harry recently posted details regarding a change to the newly released TFS 2008 licensing model. In short, the new license structure will allow anyone in your company to perform the following actions against a TFS server (Standard Edition only - does not apply to the Workgroup Edition) within your organization without the need for a CAL: Create work items Query work items they've created View work items they've created Update work items they've created I suspect this type of activity has probably been going on quite a bit in the past with TFS 2005 - it's just that it…

16 Nov 2007

NDiagnostics – Beta Release

Utilities

Any of us that creates software on a day-to-day basis, that's actually used by someone other than yourself, has undoubtedly had to answer technical support questions about your software and/or troubleshoot why it's not working. In a lot of cases, you may have a dedicated support team that interacts directly with your customer base and they only contact you if they come across something they can't resolve or explain. Over time, the support teams tend to become very efficient at resolving application-specific issues regarding setup and configuration. However, when an application is first released, the process isn't so straight-forward and…

14 Nov 2007

TFS Book Wish List

TFS

Have you ever found yourself saying something along the lines of "If only I had more time, I'd write a book about such-and-such"? Well, I've found myself saying that several times over the past year or so about Team Foundation Server. Now, don't get me wrong, there are several good books currently available for TFS but none of them quite match what I'm looking for. I'd like a TFS Automation for Developers book that covers the details for: Programmatically creating new work items. Programmatically querying work items and modifying them. Creating custom check-in policies. Creating custom build tasks. Programmatically accessing…

07 Nov 2007

SafetyTip – My First Mobile App

Mobile, Utilities

A co-worker recently sent me a link about calculating checksums for tips (i.e. the tip you leave your server when paying for a meal at a restaurant). Without getting into the crux of the poster's original argument ("thieving restaurant servers" - I don't know how often this happens) I found the idea of creating checksums for tips intriguing. That same night, at one of my family's favorite restaurants, I decided to put the checksum into practice. However, I quickly realized that mentally calculating checksums for tips wasn't all that fun :-). So, what's a software developer (with a Windows Mobile-enabled…

31 Oct 2007

Getting Ready for Patterns & Practices Summit 2007

Conferences

It's almost time for this year's Patterns and Practices Summit and I'm excited for many reasons. There is a list of great speakers lined up along with some great sessions. One thing I'm looking forward to with this summit over the typical conference (e.g. TechEd or PDC) is I don't have to pick-and-choose between a dozen (or more) tracks when deciding which sessions to attend - there is only one track with about seven sessions per day. I'm also looking forward to visiting the Microsoft campus since I've never been there before. So, all-in-all, it promises to be a great…