As I’ve been working with the new “vNext” version of Microsoft’s build technology, I’ve collected a few links along the way to some useful resources. You can probably find everyone of these links using your favorite search engine but sometimes it’s nice to be able to see them all in one place. That said, here’s a few links you might find useful…
Read All About It
If you’re looking to read about the new build system, check out these links:
- Team Foundation Build (on MSDN) – from here, you can get to information on deploying build agents (on Windows and/or Azure as well as non-Microsoft platforms). You can also read about how to setup build definitions as well as customizing the build process.
- Predefined Variable – lists the predefined variables that can be used when configuring your build definition as well as within your build scripts.
- VSO/TFS Features Timeline – this timeline will show you some of the features scheduled to be delivered for VSO and TFS. It also shows current features and whether they are available in TFS yet (features are typically pushed to VSO before being made available for TFS) and what version of TFS if applicable.
- Blogs – there is some great information made available on blogs as well. Here are a few blogs worth watching:
Videos
If you prefer to watch the new build technology in action, check out these videos. Most of these videos are linked in the sites mentioned above as well.
- Manually Deploy a Build Agent
- Configure Permissions for the Cross Platform Build Agent
- Install and Configure the Cross Platform Build Agent
- Build a Visual Studio Solution
- Deploy Azure Website with Team Build
- Deploy with PowerShell
- Build Your Xcode Project
- Customize Your Build Numbers in Team Build
- Using Continue on Error in Team Build
Source Code
If you are not aware, Microsoft has made both the cross-platform build agent and the set of agent tasks open source. If you’re curious about the inner workings of the new build system (or are interested in making a contribution) then check these projects out on GitHub.
Feedback
If you have feedback about Visual Studio and/or the build tools, there are a few options available to you:
- Connect – if you find bugs for Visual Studio, Visual Studio Online or Team Foundation Server, submit them here.
- UserVoice – if you have a new idea for a feature in Visual Studio, VSO or TFS, then submit those here.
- Send-a-Smile – if you are using Visual Studio 2015 you can now let the product team know what you like by sending a smile. You can also let them know where things might be improved by sending a frown.
While, no doubt, not an all-inclusive list of build “v.Next” resources, I hope you find this list useful. If you know of a resource that you feel should be included, but isn’t, please let me know.
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