Out-of-the-box source server indexing with TFS2010

October 27, 2009

Wow! This is great! Tonight I just wanted to find out if and how it would work …

This is what I did with Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and TFS 2010 Basic on my Win7 laptop:

  • created a new Team Project
  • added a new solution with a C# Library Project to the Team Project
  • added a default Team Build to build the C# Library Project
  • added a new solution with a C# WPF Project to the Team Project
  • referenced the library assembly (file reference to dll) into the C# WPF Project and called a method on a class in that assembly
  • set a breakpoint on that line and hit F5 to start/debug the WPF application
  • pressed F11 (Step Into) when breakpoint was hit

Guess what?! Yes, Visual Studio 2010 was immediately stepping into the source file of the C# Library Project! Sweet!

I remember that it took me some time to get this working for TFS2008!

When you create a new Build Definition with TFS2010, the Index Sources option is set to true by default and this will make sure that source indexing is part of the build.

I took a peek into the DefaultTemplate.xaml file in the BuildProcessTemplates folder and found out that the Index Sources and Publish activity is indeed completely baked in! I love it already!


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Posted by pietergheysens

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2

October 20, 2009

Since yesterday, MSDN subscribers are able to download Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. I’m really excited about this release! Lots of important improvements in different areas of software development practices. I’m looking forward to further test and evaluate this release …

Today I did install already a Hyper-V image with a full blown Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2. Installation was absolutely flawless! First I installed IIS 7.0 and SQL Server 2008 on Windows Server 2008 R2. After that I was able to start the setup wizard of Team Foundation Server 2010 that’s now split into an installation part and a configuration part. The first part only copies the required files to the server while the second part takes care of the configuration. I did choose for the Standard Single Server wizard which guided me towards an easy and understandable configuration of the different TFS components. Thank you guys for keeping it simple! Other wizards are provided for more complex scenarios.

What I extremely like is the TFS Administration Console that pops up after closing the configuration wizard! It gives you a nice overview of what’s installed and you can control the project collections, build controllers, service accounts, … A lot of stuff that was managed via the command line in previous versions of Team Foundation Server. Good stuff! This Administration Console will probably evolve even more in the future.

You can start it now manually via Start > Programs (I do remember that with Beta 1 it was a snap-in for Microsoft Management Console).

So, that leaves me to install Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Beta 2 for starting up a first development project. Note that Team Explorer is now part of the Visual Studio client edition and doesn’t need to be installed separately. Every Visual Studio edition will have a Team Explorer to connect to a Team Foundation Server. Very good!

You might have noticed that Team System did not come up once in this post up till now. I need to recover from the first shock, but the Team System moniker will eventually disappear. Back to the Visual Studio brand! I do not want to go deeper into this holy discussion but I assume there might be good reasons to take this drastic decision. In the end the decrease of different Visual Studio editions should make it more clear for all type of stakeholders. Agree or not … we will have to live with it! The decision has been made!

  • VS 2010 Professional
  • VS 2010 Premium
  • VS 2010 Ultimate

Read more about the different editions here. The Ultimate Edition will contain *everything*, including IntelliTrace (Historical Debugger) and the Test and Lab Manager which won’t be part of the Premium edition.

There’s also an interesting limited offer for existing MSDN subscribers.

Let’s have some fun! In the coming days I will also try out a TFS Basic installation on a Windows 7 OS …

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Posted by pietergheysens

More fine-grained permissions in TFS2010

September 3, 2009

Recently (in TFS2008) I was stuck with the fact that I could not split up the permission to create/modify builds and the permission to create/modify build agents. In certain enterprise environments it might be necessary to revoke the right from development teams to create/modify build agents. Build agents may be for instance controlled centrally by an operations team that manages all build servers. In TFS2008 both tasks belong to the “Administer a buid” permission.

The good news is that TFS2010 will offer a lot more fine-grained permission sets! You will now have the possibility to set permissions on the Team Project Collection, on the Team Project, on the Build Definition level and on the Version Control repository!

  • Team Project Collection
    • Administer shelved changes
    • Administer test controllers
    • Administer warehouse
    • Administer workspaces
    • Alter trace settings
    • Create a workspace
    • Create new projects
    • Delete a team project
    • Delete team project collection
    • Edit collection-level information
    • Make requests on behalf of others
    • Manage build resources
    • Manage process template
    • Manage work-item link types
    • Trigger events
    • Use build resources
    • View build resources
    • View collection-level information
    • View system synchronization information
  • Team Project
    • Administer test environments
    • Create test runs
    • Create team project
    • Delete test runs
    • Edit project-level information
    • View project-level information
    • View test runs
  • Build Definition
    • View Builds
    • Edit build quality
    • Retain indefinitely
    • Delete builds
    • Manage build qualities
    • Destroy builds
    • Update build information
    • Queue builds
    • Manage build queue
    • Stop builds
    • View build definition
    • Edit build definition
    • Delete build definition
    • Override check-in validation by build
  • Version Control
    • Read
    • Check Out
    • Check In
    • Label
    • Lock
    • Revise other users’ changes
    • Unlock other users’ changes
    • Undo other users’ changes
    • Administer labels
    • Manage permissions
    • Check-in other users’ changes
    • Merge
    • Manage branch

Great! There are a few permission that are new and that I certainly want to look into a bit deeper … but now let’s go back to my problem in TFS2008 and how to fix it in TFS2010. Right clicking the Team Project Collection brings me to the permissions on the Project Collection level.

The permission to Manage build resources allows people to create and modify build controllers and agents.

Right clicking Builds brings you to the permissions on the build definition level.

The permission to Edit build definition allows people to create and modify new build defnitions.

4 Comments | Security, Team Build, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by pietergheysens

New laptop … new system setup!

July 27, 2009

During my holidays I finally got some time to configure my new Dell Latitude E6400 laptop (4GB RAM, 128GB Solid State Hard Disk).

I have setup a dual boot with Windows 7 (really nice and fast install experience!) and Windows Server 2008. In the Windows Server 2008 operating system, Hyper-V is used to manage different virtual machines. For the moment I’ve created already two virtual machines :

  1. Team Foundation Server 2008 (workgroup edition)
  2. Team Foundation Server 2010 (Beta 1)

Instead of using a prepared TFS2008 virtual machine, I’ve decided to install and configure Team Foundation Server 2008 from scratch because I wanted to experience the difference(s) later with the installation procedure of Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 1. I have installed TFS2008 a few times in the past but it stays a pretty cautious task. The one and only rule is to stick to the latest version of the TFS2008 installation guide. This is a list of the software that got installed already on the TFS2008 “All-Up” virtual image (app + data tier) :

After that it was finally time to put my hands on the Beta 1 bits of Team Foundation Server 2010. Installation guidelines for TFS2010 can be found here and some more helpful instructions here.

It’s clear from the start that the TFS Team put a lot of attention to the installation process. Installation is now separated from the actual configuration of the Team Foundation Server. In the first phase the software is copied to the server and some basic registration takes place. After this you get the option to configure TFS in a new configuration wizard where you can choose between a default and a custom configuration. The benefit of this new separated installation process is that the configuration phase can be completed one piece at a time without ever rolling back the first phase. I didn’t take screenshots during the installation process, but you can find most of the screenshots in this blogpost of Brian Harry. For sure, it’s a big improvement and I feel more in control during the setup.

More TFS2010 news to come!

Other interesting impressions :

  • Solid State rocks!
  • The Windows 7 experience is great as well! No big issues so far … it feels good! Also the ability to mount .vhd files comes in handy.
  • My laptop has also a built-in eSATA port and I’m still looking for an external hard drive with an eSATA interface for extra storage. Any suggestions? What about storing virtual images on external drives? What type of external drives should I look for?
  • 14.1″ for my laptop screen has been the right choice
  • My IT Pro knowledge (Windows Server 2008 features/roles, Hyper-V, virtual networks, …) got a good upgrade during my holidays. What would I do without a connection to the Internet to set this all up. I also found a very good article on turning a Windows Server operating system into a workstation (link via Cameron Skinner).

2 Comments | Installation & Configuration of TFS, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by pietergheysens

VSTS/TFS Customer Testimonial – Adam Software

June 22, 2009

 
About a year ago I performed a VSTS/TFS assignment for Adam Software, a global software vendor of marketing platform technologies that provide the ability to manage, structure and deliver media between people, processes and systems. This assignment was really fun to do and the customer was really pleased with the result. A few weeks ago, a Microsoft case study was published to put Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server in the spotlight.

In case you still wonder : setting up a robust and reliable enterprise software development environment with Team Foundation Server may be a big investment, but it always pays off. Not only financially! Your development team will also be working with the best tools and processes to do their job. In the long run you might even attract or repel developers just because of the type of development environment you provide as an organisation! For those who worked already in a TFS environment with Version Control, Work Item Tracking and Automated Builds … would you want to go back in time and work with Visual SourceSafe to deliver quality software enterprise applications?

Still looking for a challenging development job where you are able to use the best tools and processes : Adam Software is hiring!

Read more :

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Posted by pietergheysens

About this blog

October 1, 2008

 
My name is Pieter Gheysens and I’m working as a .NET Consultant and Team Lead for Compuware Belgium. I already have a blog on .NET Development and I also blog there about the VISUG community events in Belgium which I organize as a User Group Leader.

Recently I decided to start a dedicated blog on Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM).

IMHO VSTS is currently the best solution on the market to deliver quality enterprise software in a controlled way. Whether you are a 5 person enterprise or a 1000 person enterprise, Team Foundation Server can help by making collaboration and communication easier than ever. You need good people in a software development team, but you also need the right tools and processes in place for your people to do their best work. That’s where Microsoft Visual Studio Team System comes into play. It’s an integrated Application lifecycle Management (ALM) solution comprising tools, processes, and guidance to help everyone on the team improve their skills and work more effectively together.

On this blog I would like to share some best practices about using Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server. Tips & tricks to make us more productive is what we all want not? Team System can be used out-of-the-box, but the product cries for customization and that’s where we all need some guidance. We should adopt Team System to fit into our process and not the other way around! I will also focus on the upcoming release(s) of Visual Studio Team System.

So, stay tuned for more!

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Posted by pietergheysens

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