Long ago, we created something called the TFS Migration and Synchronization Toolkit.  The purpose was to enable TFS to interoperate with other systems.  We got a ton of feedback that it was WAY too hard to use.  It required WAY too much work to build even relatively simple integrations.  The docs were slim to non-existent, etc.

Last fall, I asked Bill Essary (an architect on my team) to take the lead on the project and really revamp it and turn it into a great tool for integrating with TFS.  Along the way he decided to rename it to the TFS Integration Platform.  Today we are releasing a Beta of the new TFS Integration Platform.

We’ve done a ton of work to improve the experience with the new tool kit, including:

• A greatly simplified installation and configuration experience (including a GUI framework for configuration)
• A much improved abstraction for “providers” that enables you to factor out the logic for dealing with another system.
• Reams of documentation and samples to show you how to use the new toolkit.
• Synchronization monitoring tools and reports.

In addition to improvements to the basic framework, we have delivered a number of adaptors:

• A TFS adaptor that can read and write to TFS source control and work items (duh, it would be kind of dumb if we didn’t include that :))
• A file system based adaptor that can synchronize with source code in the file system.
• A Rational ClearCase adaptor that can synchronize with source control operations in ClearCase.
• A Rational ClearQuest adaptor that can synchronize with work item operations in ClearQuest.

All of this comes with full source code so you can see how it works and leverage that to build your own adaptors.  Over time, we plan to add more adaptors and hope that you will too.  If there’s something that you’d really like to see, let us know and we’ll get it on the backlog.

The toolkit is on CodePlex (see the link above) and available free of charge based on the standard CodePlex licensing agreement.

Brian