When we posted the Orcas Team Build Continuous Integration Spec, you may have noticed that there was no support for scheduling builds. We implemented build scheduling as a Design Change Request (DCR). That meant that we had to present a justification for the feature, a spec, and how long it would take to implement and test. By the time we had the DCR meeting we were nearly done with it. That made the conversation about the effort involved go a little more smoothly, since we could talk about it largely in the past tense.
Here is an edited version of what Jim Lamb, our PM, put together for the DCR meeting. Note that the screenshot below is from the actual product.
The ability to schedule builds is something that we’re frequently asked about. There are Connect issues (issue 1, issue 2, issue 3) on build scheduling. We believe that if we don’t ship this feature, our customers will be dumbfounded by our oversight. The Team Build Team would like to submit a design change for review to allow users to schedule builds to occur on selected days of the week at a specified time. To accommodate this functionality, the following changes would be made to the trigger page of the build definition dialog: The days of the week are taken from the system based on the locale and laid out within a flow-based layout control. The width of each check box is set to the maximum width of the widest checkbox so that, should they wrap to a second row, they will align with the first row. The drop down list box (editable) includes times from 12:00 AM through 11:30 PM at half-hour intervals. The localized name of the local time zone (taken from the system) is displayed next to the selected time for clarity. When the user selects the scheduled build option, the day selections will default to the first five days of the week. If the user selects the scheduling option but does not select any days of the week, a warning message will be displayed at the bottom of the dialog: “Select the days on which to queue this build definition.” A scheduled build will not be queued if no changes have been checked in since the previous build, unless the user selects the option to "build even if nothing has changed." If there are no previous builds a build will be queued at the specified day/time regardless of whether any changes were submitted since the build definition was created (or modified to include scheduling behavior). The determination of what to build is made in SQL. The schedule is represented as a set of days of the week and a local time. On the timer event, identify all build definitions scheduled to be built for today which have not already been built today (using system build time for the build definition) and specify a build time less than or equal to the current time and queue those for build. If the day of the week has changed since the last timer event (stored in the db to handle time changes when the service is down), each build definition’s system build time, which is set only when it’s queued by the system, will be cleared and the schedule re-evaluated. We are using TFSServerScheduler to invoke a team build web service method (EvaluateSchedules) once every 60 seconds. The evaluation of builds to be queued happens during a single round trip to the DT for both rolling and scheduled build definitions. There are no new permissions associated with this functionality.
The ability to schedule builds is something that we’re frequently asked about. There are Connect issues (issue 1, issue 2, issue 3) on build scheduling. We believe that if we don’t ship this feature, our customers will be dumbfounded by our oversight.
The Team Build Team would like to submit a design change for review to allow users to schedule builds to occur on selected days of the week at a specified time. To accommodate this functionality, the following changes would be made to the trigger page of the build definition dialog:
The days of the week are taken from the system based on the locale and laid out within a flow-based layout control. The width of each check box is set to the maximum width of the widest checkbox so that, should they wrap to a second row, they will align with the first row. The drop down list box (editable) includes times from 12:00 AM through 11:30 PM at half-hour intervals. The localized name of the local time zone (taken from the system) is displayed next to the selected time for clarity. When the user selects the scheduled build option, the day selections will default to the first five days of the week. If the user selects the scheduling option but does not select any days of the week, a warning message will be displayed at the bottom of the dialog: “Select the days on which to queue this build definition.”
A scheduled build will not be queued if no changes have been checked in since the previous build, unless the user selects the option to "build even if nothing has changed." If there are no previous builds a build will be queued at the specified day/time regardless of whether any changes were submitted since the build definition was created (or modified to include scheduling behavior).
We are using TFSServerScheduler to invoke a team build web service method (EvaluateSchedules) once every 60 seconds. The evaluation of builds to be queued happens during a single round trip to the DT for both rolling and scheduled build definitions.
There are no new permissions associated with this functionality.
[UPDATE 6/6/07] Based on feedback, we now support running the scheduled build even when nothing that affects the build has changed in version control. I've updated the screenshot (note the new checkbox at the bottom) and the text above. As always, thanks for letting us know what you need in these features.
We are happy to announce the release of version 1.2 of Team Foundation Power Tools (formerly known as Power Toys). This version includes some bug fixes to previous power tools, support for Vista, and adds the following new functionality:
Please note that the Process Template Editor has some additional pre-requisites, they are identified on the download page. The Power Tools MSDN Forum is available for discussing issues and requesting enhancements.
NOTE: If you go to the download page tonight, you may still see the old one. There are still some MSDN servers that haven't gotten the update apparently.
tags: tfs, team foundation server, tfs power toys, tfs power tools, version control, team build, process template editor, checkin policies
Lorenzo Barbieri, an MVP, pointed out the Orcas splash screen spec that's been posted. I'm guessing that's one of those things that leads to people believing we have an infinite supply of people to develop products, leading to comments like, "I can't believe you still can't do X!" X is everything from viewing labels in history to rolling back changes to assigning work items to groups of people to continuous integration (wait, we've got that in Orcas :-). Here are some excerpts.
The Splash Screen typifies some of the worst aspects of the Visual Studio User Experience. It is flat, rectangular, and uninspiring. This can be seen in Figure 1, which displays Visual Studio 2005’s current Splash Screen. We will enhance its sense of polish and visual design, and make it feel like a consistent part of the Windows experience. ... When Elvis first heard about Visual Studio Orcas being released, he wasn’t convinced that it was worth upgrading to, especially since he felt as though he had just purchased a copy of Visual Studio 2005. So, like any frugal developer, Elvis went and downloaded a trial copy of Orcas to test drive. Elvis could see that Visual Studio Orcas was new and different from the moment he started the application. The changes in the Splash Screen suggested to him immediately that this release was, indeed, different.
The Splash Screen typifies some of the worst aspects of the Visual Studio User Experience. It is flat, rectangular, and uninspiring. This can be seen in Figure 1, which displays Visual Studio 2005’s current Splash Screen. We will enhance its sense of polish and visual design, and make it feel like a consistent part of the Windows experience.
...
When Elvis first heard about Visual Studio Orcas being released, he wasn’t convinced that it was worth upgrading to, especially since he felt as though he had just purchased a copy of Visual Studio 2005.
So, like any frugal developer, Elvis went and downloaded a trial copy of Orcas to test drive.
Elvis could see that Visual Studio Orcas was new and different from the moment he started the application. The changes in the Splash Screen suggested to him immediately that this release was, indeed, different.
What impact does the splash screen have on your impression of the product?
tags: visual studio, orcas
Here's the announcement. Please download the TFS Virtual PC image and let us know what you think. Except for build scheduling, this CTP contains all of the new Team Build features, including continuous integration.
We are excited to announce that the Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” March 2007 CTP is now available publicly to all customers! This CTP is being released as both a Virtual PC (VPC) image and Installable Bits for both VSTS and TFS. If you wish to use the Virtual PC image you will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. You can use Virtual PC 2004 or Virtual PC 2007 (2007 required to run the VPC on Windows Vista). If you wish to use the self extracting install, we advise that you do not install this on a production machine. If you have Vista as the OS on your box, please only download the VPC. In either case, depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress. Use the following links for step-by-step instructions on installing and using the VPC images or installable bits, links to the ReadMe and provide feedback. VSTS Virtual PC Image TFS Virtual PC Image VSTS Self-extracting Install TFS Self-extracting Install
We are excited to announce that the Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” March 2007 CTP is now available publicly to all customers! This CTP is being released as both a Virtual PC (VPC) image and Installable Bits for both VSTS and TFS.
If you wish to use the Virtual PC image you will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. You can use Virtual PC 2004 or Virtual PC 2007 (2007 required to run the VPC on Windows Vista). If you wish to use the self extracting install, we advise that you do not install this on a production machine. If you have Vista as the OS on your box, please only download the VPC. In either case, depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress.
Use the following links for step-by-step instructions on installing and using the VPC images or installable bits, links to the ReadMe and provide feedback.
The download page says that the password to the VPC image is P2ssw0rd (user is Administrator). However, I'm betting it may be P@ssw0rd instead (that was the case on an internal VPC pre-release image that I tried).
Be sure to read all of the instructions for the CTP. In particular, make sure you download the base VPC image (otherwise, the download won't be of any value to you).
Here's what's new for TFS in this particular CTP. The download pages have the details for what's new in all of VS and VSTS (it's quite a lot).
tags: orcas, march ctp, vsts, visual studio, tfs, team foundation, team build, version control, work item tracking
Brian Keller replied to an internal email thread discussing generating documentation from code as part of a build. If you are looking to do the same, these links should be helpful. Here's what Brian wrote.
I just wanted to point out that there are several MSBuild targets available for Sandcastle which should make it pretty straightforward to integrate with Team Build. I was actually at one of my customer’s offices yesterday and they were showing me that they had integrated Sandcastle with their build process and it looked quite good. I haven’t tried using these targets yet so I can’t tell you which one is best, but between the three of them you should find something which works for your customer: Mike Diehl’s blog: http://weblogs.asp.net/miked/archive/2006/08/06/Sandcastle-MSBuild-target.aspx CodePlex project: http://www.codeplex.com/MSBuildSandcastle Richard Murillo’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/rimuri/archive/2006/10/30/reusable-msbuild-sandcastle-targets-file.aspx
I just wanted to point out that there are several MSBuild targets available for Sandcastle which should make it pretty straightforward to integrate with Team Build. I was actually at one of my customer’s offices yesterday and they were showing me that they had integrated Sandcastle with their build process and it looked quite good. I haven’t tried using these targets yet so I can’t tell you which one is best, but between the three of them you should find something which works for your customer:
tags: tfs, team foundation, team build, sandcastle, documentation, msbuild
The WorkspaceMapping.xml file is one of the files generated when creating a new build type. Those of you who've had to customize a build are probably familiar with the TfsBuild.proj file, which is the top-level file used to orchestrate the build.
The WorkspaceMapping.xml file is used by one of the custom tasks to create the TFS workspace that contains the files to be built. In version 1 of Team Build, you must edit the WorkspaceMapping.xml file in order to change the mappings used by the workspace created for the build (in Orcas, you can do this in the GUI, and this file is no longer generated or used).
There’s no formal schema on MSDN. Here are the rules.
Here's an example of a mapped and cloaked path.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <SerializedWorkspace xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <Mappings> <InternalMapping ServerItem="$/TeamProject/Some/Path" LocalItem="c:\this\path\is\ignored" Type="Map" /> <InternalMapping ServerItem="$/TeamProject/Some/Path/Cloaked" Type="Cloak" /> </Mappings> </SerializedWorkspace>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SerializedWorkspace xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Mappings>
<InternalMapping ServerItem="$/TeamProject/Some/Path" LocalItem="c:\this\path\is\ignored" Type="Map" />
<InternalMapping ServerItem="$/TeamProject/Some/Path/Cloaked" Type="Cloak" />
</Mappings>
</SerializedWorkspace>
This post only applies to Team Foundation Server 2005.
tags: tfs, team foundation, team build
Jeff has posted a nice GUI for creating event subscriptions. This tool makes the process less arcane and error prone. Check it out!
Team Foundation Server Event Subscription Tool To set up advanced subscriptions, you needed to use bissubscribe.exe. This is problematic, because the command-line syntax is complicated, and also because bissubscribe.exe is only available on the Team Foundation Server. To address this deficiency Naren posted a GUI tool that lets you create Work Item Event Subscriptions in July 2006. I took that tool and modified it so that it supports all event subscriptions, along with a bunch of other enhancements The new Team Foundation Server Event Subscription Tool is up on CodePlex now. more...
Team Foundation Server Event Subscription Tool
To set up advanced subscriptions, you needed to use bissubscribe.exe. This is problematic, because the command-line syntax is complicated, and also because bissubscribe.exe is only available on the Team Foundation Server.
To address this deficiency Naren posted a GUI tool that lets you create Work Item Event Subscriptions in July 2006. I took that tool and modified it so that it supports all event subscriptions, along with a bunch of other enhancements The new Team Foundation Server Event Subscription Tool is up on CodePlex now.
more...
tags: tfs, team foundation, bissubscribe
Ameya recently wrote about the new Radius tool from 90 Degree Software. I stumbled across a new Channel 9 video demonstration of it: Radius: What. How. Why. If you use or are interested in the reporting feature of TFS, this may be helpful.
On Wednesday, join members of the Visual Studio Team System product group to discuss features available in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, Team Editions for Architects, Developers, Database Pros, and Testers. In addition, discuss what's new in the latest Community Technology Preview (CTP).
Join the chat on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 from 10:00am - 11:00am Pacific Time.
Add to Calendar
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Below are highlights from the Feb. 7 VSTS MSDN Chat (the full transcript is attached to the bottom of this post). I hadn't participated in one in a quite a while. We got quite a few questions, and there were lots of folks from the product team on hand to answer the questions. Keep an eye out for the next one.
General JManning (Expert):Q: Is there an SP2 expected between now and orcas?A: We have not announced any plans for a SP2 JManning (Expert):Q: Are there any plans to make VSTS work better in Vista limited user account mode? It seems like a step backwards to have to run as admin.A: We're working on a GDR to improve this with Vista, but some scenarios (like debugging) may still require admin privs. drwill_MS (Expert):Q: I tried to install SP1 for VSTS, there is some issues with it, it was waiting a lot of time and I got error. Are there any reccomendations for it?A: SP1 for VS2005 requires a lot of disk space and a good deal of time to patch. Make sure you have the recommended amount of space available on disk and be patient with the installer. If you still have problems, you can try posting the error for more help on our MSDN Forums (http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=26&SiteID=1). Architect MarkG_MS (Expert):Q: what are the most importand changes in the team architect edition?A: For the Orcas release we have focused on updating the system designer to enable a more top-down approach to design. MarkG_MS (Expert):Q: How can I use VSTS Architect edition to build WCF Application Diagram? Currently VSTS 2005 allows you to build Application Diagram for Web Services, but there is not support for WCF. Are you planing to add it in Orcas?A: We currently do not support WCF natively within Team Architect of Orcas. There is a forum post explaining what can be done. <http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1112621&SiteID=1> Also the P&P Software Factories are where we are planning on supporting WCF code generation. MarkG_MS (Expert):Q: A: "We are also focusing on enabling WCF throught the P&P software factories"... how? are the gat and gax integrated in orcas?A: We are currently not planning on a in the box integration with GAT/GAX in the Orcas time frame, but we are taking feedback on this currently. MarkG_MS (Expert):Q: A question about VSTA -is there a way to design a distributed system connected by .NET Remoting instead of Web Services? Maybe this will be possible in Orcas?A: We do not have plans to have a .Net Remoting endpoint within Team Architect. You can use the SDM SDK that ships within the VS SDK, to create your own endpoint types, you will not be able to generate code from that at this time. Team Developer Ian Huff - MSFT (Expert):Q: Will the profiler be improved to support line level profiling in the next release?A: So this is a common request that we've gotten. We are working on this feature so keep on this lookout for it in a future CTP or Beta. DavidKean_MS (Moderator):Q: any ETA for a FxCop SDK ?A: I assume you mean a supported, documented and stable API? Unfortunately, there is no currently plan in the Orcas timeframe to make this a supported scenario; it will remain an off-road experience. Is this something you see as important? What kind of rules do you write? DavidKean_MS (Moderator):Q: For Code Analysis, will future releases have more rules included? For example, I think there are items in Framework Design Guidelines that are not currently checked that we would love to see (without doing it ourselves ;)?A: Of course, we have some great new analysis coming on board. You will see more analysis around Exception throwing (especially those covered in the following post: http://blogs.msdn.com/fxcop/archive/2007/02/01/how-to-design-exception-hierarchies.aspx), and naming (see http://blogs.msdn.com/fxcop/archive/2007/01/12/january-orcas-ctp-released.aspx). We will also be adding more maintainability rules. We also have a completely new feature coming on board, unfortunately, it's too early to talk about it, but keep an eye out on the FxCop blog and the next CTP. Team Test drwill_MS (Expert):Q: Any plans on enabling functionality in other versions besides Tester to create test lists? IMO, this should be in developer as well.A: You should see editing of test lists enabled in Team Developer Edition in the most recent CTP of Orcas. drwill_MS (Expert):Q: I think I didn't send the question correctly, I have the same problem as in this post http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1153014&SiteID=1. I need to deploy test cases data that is not being copied when run from Team BuildA: To clarify, you specify files to deploy with your tests in the test run config file which work when run in the IDE, but those files aren't being deployed when run via Team Build? Running tests from Team Build is similar to running them from the command-line with MSTest. You must specify the test run config file. I'm looking for the documentation on how to specify that in Team Build and I will follow up in your MSDN Forum post. drwill_MS (Expert):Q: What are plans for test case management in VSTT? Currently it seems like there is not test case work item so all tests have to be unit tests, generic tests, webtests, etc.?A: We are focusing heavily on bringing a whole TCM solution to VSTS after Orcas. Currently (VS2005) test case management is only possible at the VS solution-level and does not have any information stored in TFS. drwill_MS (Expert):Q: Follow-up on VSTT, will there be a new work item type for test cases?A: We are aiming at TFS project-level TCM, so yes we'll leverage TFS but I can't comment on implementation yet. drwill_MS (Expert):Q: Why are the .trx files that get spit out when running tests so huge? Any plans to change the format there to make them more parseable?A: The test results file (.trx) has a lot of information about the test. The more tests you have, especially tests that output a lot of info, will make the file large. Part of the bloat is due to the XML format. We are addressing the file format in Orcas to be more easily parsable. You should see the changes in the next CTP. Team Data DmitriyN (Expert):Q: Why the reason to make the database profession a different SKU all together? Developers could leverage the same functionality that it provides. Why the seperation? Any plans on merging the features into the overall product? I think it would be good.A: We will be integrating with Visual Studio Team System in Orcas, and we will continue to have a stand-alone product. So, the complete Orcas VS Team Suite will contain VS Team Edition for Database Professionals in it. Mairead - MSFT (Expert):Q: Any chance that you will be implementing better GUI/wizards into Data Dude to ease script writing?A: Can you elaborate on what type of script you would like a wizard for? Importing or exporting? DmitriyN (Expert):Q: DB Professional Q : when will you add the DB InteliSence inside of Team Suit?A: We are investigating this functionality for the next full release of Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals StevenPo_MSFT (Expert):Q: DB Pro: I'd like to suppress individual warnings like you can with Code Analysis if you don't find that warning important in that SP for instance not every instance of a warning because it could be important elsewhere.A: Unfortunately, this is not currently a supported feature. I would suggest that you log your suggestion at http://connect.microsoft.com. You could then post a note about your suggestion in our forums, with a link to it, so that other users can vote on the feature suggestion. That helps us prioritize requests such as this one when we are planning subsequent releases. Team Foundation SmithaS - MS (Expert):Q: Writing reports in Team Foundation System is not exactly straightforward. Can you give some guidance to tutorials for getting off the ground?A: If you are new to reports then creating new reports requires some learning time. You will need to get familiar with at least one of the tools that are available to create reports. One of them is Report Designer and you can find documentation for it here: <http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155805.aspx>. JManning (Expert):Q: We have a lot of VB6 source code files in VSS and we want to migrate to TFS Source Control. We are facing the following problems: 1. How to deal with all the shared files in VSS? the branch/merge mechanism is not a good solution for us.A: Branch and merge are the mechanisms we recommend when you had been using shared files in VSS - it's definitely a transition of process, but we feel it works well - you may want to check out this post - http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2004/06/14/155403.aspx jim_boyle_MSFT (Expert):Q: We need to integrate teams from outside our company. This was a problem in first realaese of TFS. Has this been addressed?A: SP1 for Team Foundation Server includes the Extranet feature which may address this Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Are there any enhancements to the Team Project Alerts for Orcas like specifying a directory on which you want to be alerted (instead of the whole project). I know about Bissubscribe but haven't had much luck with that tool.A: There aren't any new GUI tools in Orcas, unfortunately. John Morris MS (Expert):Q: Are there any plans to add DB maintenance features into TFS? I can't keep telling my company that the hardware requirements for the TFS database includes adding new hard drives every time the current ones get full.A: We planning on adding more administrative support in a future release. To some extent, you can SQL Server Management Studio to do some database maintenance. Did you have activities in mind? JManning (Expert):Q: Will TFS server renaming be better supported in the next release? It's currently such an ordeal and I haven't yet gotten it to work properly.A: Yes, we're hoping to make it less manual steps for doing operations like this in future versions. Matt Mitrik - MSFT (Expert):Q: Hi. How is it going with migration tool from Rational ClearCase to TFS Version Control? Any progress? Any dates?A: We're currently working on several conversion/synchronization tools, and the Rational ClearCase to TFS tool is one of our highest priorities. We don't have any release date at this time. Doug_Neumann_ms (Expert):Q: Do you have any good documentation on how to define areas and iterations ()best practices in TFS?A: You should use the iterations to represent the timeline breakdown of your team project. You might use the top level of the hierarchy to represent specific releases. The next level would represent development iterations or milestones within that release. The level below that would decompose those iterations to represent intermediate checkpoints. As for the area path, the suggestion is to use that as the functional breakdown of your application. That decomposition depends largely on how your app is structured, but to use Microsoft Office as an example, the top level would likely be something like Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Project, etc. The next level under Word would likely be something like Editing, Printing, Templates, etc. Under editing, you might have formatting, which would likely include text formatting, which might include the Font dialog. Make sense? Team Build Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Will you be creating any support for building legacy (VB6, VC++ 6.0) projects to TFS Build?A: No, we don't have anything new planned. Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Team Build related question. What about (in a single team build compiling 2 solutions) perform a custom action (a target) between 1st solution compile and 2nd solution compile? thanksA: There's no simple way to do that in v1. There were some approaches discussed in the MSDN forum. For Orcas, we've addressed this issue and made it easy. Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Will Continous Integration builds in Orcas be as straight forward to create as CI builds using CruiseControl.NET? We briefly toyed with TeamBuild in the current version but it seemed a bit, uh, obtuse to us. So we stuck with our own build infrastructure.A: Yes, it gets first class support. Here's a pointer to the spec: http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2007/01/06/orcas-team-build-continuous-integration-spec-is-now-available.aspx. Here's a link with more detail on other changes in Team Build for Orcas: http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2006/12/02/more-on-the-orcas-features-for-team-build.aspx Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Any plans for (out of the box) integration between Sandcastle and TFS build?A: We haven't talked about in-the-box support, but we'll add it to the list of things to consider for the next release. You may already be familiar with what's out there now, but here's a pointer to some possible solutions now: http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2007/02/03/generating-documentation-from-code-with-team-build.aspx
General
JManning (Expert):Q: Is there an SP2 expected between now and orcas?A: We have not announced any plans for a SP2
JManning (Expert):Q: Are there any plans to make VSTS work better in Vista limited user account mode? It seems like a step backwards to have to run as admin.A: We're working on a GDR to improve this with Vista, but some scenarios (like debugging) may still require admin privs.
drwill_MS (Expert):Q: I tried to install SP1 for VSTS, there is some issues with it, it was waiting a lot of time and I got error. Are there any reccomendations for it?A: SP1 for VS2005 requires a lot of disk space and a good deal of time to patch. Make sure you have the recommended amount of space available on disk and be patient with the installer. If you still have problems, you can try posting the error for more help on our MSDN Forums (http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=26&SiteID=1).
Architect
MarkG_MS (Expert):Q: what are the most importand changes in the team architect edition?A: For the Orcas release we have focused on updating the system designer to enable a more top-down approach to design.
MarkG_MS (Expert):Q: How can I use VSTS Architect edition to build WCF Application Diagram? Currently VSTS 2005 allows you to build Application Diagram for Web Services, but there is not support for WCF. Are you planing to add it in Orcas?A: We currently do not support WCF natively within Team Architect of Orcas. There is a forum post explaining what can be done. <http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1112621&SiteID=1> Also the P&P Software Factories are where we are planning on supporting WCF code generation.
MarkG_MS (Expert):Q: A: "We are also focusing on enabling WCF throught the P&P software factories"... how? are the gat and gax integrated in orcas?A: We are currently not planning on a in the box integration with GAT/GAX in the Orcas time frame, but we are taking feedback on this currently.
MarkG_MS (Expert):Q: A question about VSTA -is there a way to design a distributed system connected by .NET Remoting instead of Web Services? Maybe this will be possible in Orcas?A: We do not have plans to have a .Net Remoting endpoint within Team Architect. You can use the SDM SDK that ships within the VS SDK, to create your own endpoint types, you will not be able to generate code from that at this time.
Team Developer
Ian Huff - MSFT (Expert):Q: Will the profiler be improved to support line level profiling in the next release?A: So this is a common request that we've gotten. We are working on this feature so keep on this lookout for it in a future CTP or Beta.
DavidKean_MS (Moderator):Q: any ETA for a FxCop SDK ?A: I assume you mean a supported, documented and stable API? Unfortunately, there is no currently plan in the Orcas timeframe to make this a supported scenario; it will remain an off-road experience. Is this something you see as important? What kind of rules do you write?
DavidKean_MS (Moderator):Q: For Code Analysis, will future releases have more rules included? For example, I think there are items in Framework Design Guidelines that are not currently checked that we would love to see (without doing it ourselves ;)?A: Of course, we have some great new analysis coming on board. You will see more analysis around Exception throwing (especially those covered in the following post: http://blogs.msdn.com/fxcop/archive/2007/02/01/how-to-design-exception-hierarchies.aspx), and naming (see http://blogs.msdn.com/fxcop/archive/2007/01/12/january-orcas-ctp-released.aspx). We will also be adding more maintainability rules. We also have a completely new feature coming on board, unfortunately, it's too early to talk about it, but keep an eye out on the FxCop blog and the next CTP.
Team Test
drwill_MS (Expert):Q: Any plans on enabling functionality in other versions besides Tester to create test lists? IMO, this should be in developer as well.A: You should see editing of test lists enabled in Team Developer Edition in the most recent CTP of Orcas.
drwill_MS (Expert):Q: I think I didn't send the question correctly, I have the same problem as in this post http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1153014&SiteID=1. I need to deploy test cases data that is not being copied when run from Team BuildA: To clarify, you specify files to deploy with your tests in the test run config file which work when run in the IDE, but those files aren't being deployed when run via Team Build? Running tests from Team Build is similar to running them from the command-line with MSTest. You must specify the test run config file. I'm looking for the documentation on how to specify that in Team Build and I will follow up in your MSDN Forum post.
drwill_MS (Expert):Q: What are plans for test case management in VSTT? Currently it seems like there is not test case work item so all tests have to be unit tests, generic tests, webtests, etc.?A: We are focusing heavily on bringing a whole TCM solution to VSTS after Orcas. Currently (VS2005) test case management is only possible at the VS solution-level and does not have any information stored in TFS.
drwill_MS (Expert):Q: Follow-up on VSTT, will there be a new work item type for test cases?A: We are aiming at TFS project-level TCM, so yes we'll leverage TFS but I can't comment on implementation yet.
drwill_MS (Expert):Q: Why are the .trx files that get spit out when running tests so huge? Any plans to change the format there to make them more parseable?A: The test results file (.trx) has a lot of information about the test. The more tests you have, especially tests that output a lot of info, will make the file large. Part of the bloat is due to the XML format. We are addressing the file format in Orcas to be more easily parsable. You should see the changes in the next CTP.
Team Data
DmitriyN (Expert):Q: Why the reason to make the database profession a different SKU all together? Developers could leverage the same functionality that it provides. Why the seperation? Any plans on merging the features into the overall product? I think it would be good.A: We will be integrating with Visual Studio Team System in Orcas, and we will continue to have a stand-alone product. So, the complete Orcas VS Team Suite will contain VS Team Edition for Database Professionals in it.
Mairead - MSFT (Expert):Q: Any chance that you will be implementing better GUI/wizards into Data Dude to ease script writing?A: Can you elaborate on what type of script you would like a wizard for? Importing or exporting?
DmitriyN (Expert):Q: DB Professional Q : when will you add the DB InteliSence inside of Team Suit?A: We are investigating this functionality for the next full release of Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals
StevenPo_MSFT (Expert):Q: DB Pro: I'd like to suppress individual warnings like you can with Code Analysis if you don't find that warning important in that SP for instance not every instance of a warning because it could be important elsewhere.A: Unfortunately, this is not currently a supported feature. I would suggest that you log your suggestion at http://connect.microsoft.com. You could then post a note about your suggestion in our forums, with a link to it, so that other users can vote on the feature suggestion. That helps us prioritize requests such as this one when we are planning subsequent releases.
Team Foundation
SmithaS - MS (Expert):Q: Writing reports in Team Foundation System is not exactly straightforward. Can you give some guidance to tutorials for getting off the ground?A: If you are new to reports then creating new reports requires some learning time. You will need to get familiar with at least one of the tools that are available to create reports. One of them is Report Designer and you can find documentation for it here: <http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155805.aspx>.
JManning (Expert):Q: We have a lot of VB6 source code files in VSS and we want to migrate to TFS Source Control. We are facing the following problems: 1. How to deal with all the shared files in VSS? the branch/merge mechanism is not a good solution for us.A: Branch and merge are the mechanisms we recommend when you had been using shared files in VSS - it's definitely a transition of process, but we feel it works well - you may want to check out this post - http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2004/06/14/155403.aspx
jim_boyle_MSFT (Expert):Q: We need to integrate teams from outside our company. This was a problem in first realaese of TFS. Has this been addressed?A: SP1 for Team Foundation Server includes the Extranet feature which may address this
Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Are there any enhancements to the Team Project Alerts for Orcas like specifying a directory on which you want to be alerted (instead of the whole project). I know about Bissubscribe but haven't had much luck with that tool.A: There aren't any new GUI tools in Orcas, unfortunately.
John Morris MS (Expert):Q: Are there any plans to add DB maintenance features into TFS? I can't keep telling my company that the hardware requirements for the TFS database includes adding new hard drives every time the current ones get full.A: We planning on adding more administrative support in a future release. To some extent, you can SQL Server Management Studio to do some database maintenance. Did you have activities in mind?
JManning (Expert):Q: Will TFS server renaming be better supported in the next release? It's currently such an ordeal and I haven't yet gotten it to work properly.A: Yes, we're hoping to make it less manual steps for doing operations like this in future versions.
Matt Mitrik - MSFT (Expert):Q: Hi. How is it going with migration tool from Rational ClearCase to TFS Version Control? Any progress? Any dates?A: We're currently working on several conversion/synchronization tools, and the Rational ClearCase to TFS tool is one of our highest priorities. We don't have any release date at this time.
Doug_Neumann_ms (Expert):Q: Do you have any good documentation on how to define areas and iterations ()best practices in TFS?A: You should use the iterations to represent the timeline breakdown of your team project. You might use the top level of the hierarchy to represent specific releases. The next level would represent development iterations or milestones within that release. The level below that would decompose those iterations to represent intermediate checkpoints. As for the area path, the suggestion is to use that as the functional breakdown of your application. That decomposition depends largely on how your app is structured, but to use Microsoft Office as an example, the top level would likely be something like Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Project, etc. The next level under Word would likely be something like Editing, Printing, Templates, etc. Under editing, you might have formatting, which would likely include text formatting, which might include the Font dialog. Make sense?
Team Build
Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Will you be creating any support for building legacy (VB6, VC++ 6.0) projects to TFS Build?A: No, we don't have anything new planned.
Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Team Build related question. What about (in a single team build compiling 2 solutions) perform a custom action (a target) between 1st solution compile and 2nd solution compile? thanksA: There's no simple way to do that in v1. There were some approaches discussed in the MSDN forum. For Orcas, we've addressed this issue and made it easy.
Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Will Continous Integration builds in Orcas be as straight forward to create as CI builds using CruiseControl.NET? We briefly toyed with TeamBuild in the current version but it seemed a bit, uh, obtuse to us. So we stuck with our own build infrastructure.A: Yes, it gets first class support. Here's a pointer to the spec: http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2007/01/06/orcas-team-build-continuous-integration-spec-is-now-available.aspx. Here's a link with more detail on other changes in Team Build for Orcas: http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2006/12/02/more-on-the-orcas-features-for-team-build.aspx
Buck Hodges MS (Expert):Q: Any plans for (out of the box) integration between Sandcastle and TFS build?A: We haven't talked about in-the-box support, but we'll add it to the list of things to consider for the next release. You may already be familiar with what's out there now, but here's a pointer to some possible solutions now: http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2007/02/03/generating-documentation-from-code-with-team-build.aspx
tags: vsts, visual studio team system, tfs, team foundation
Neno Loje, an MVP, recently posted about dealing with HTTP 503 or 403 errors after installing TFS SP1. Now Brian Harry has written post that should serve as a quick guide to fixing the common problems that occur when installing TFS SP1. See Problems installing TFS SP1 for a table that shows each issue, its impact, and how to deal with it. If you are wondering whether you should install the service pack, Brian posted the list of issues fixed here and here.
The CodePlex team has posted about the latest update to CodePlex and encourage you to vote on what you'd like to see in upcoming releases. CodePlex is uses provides a hosted version of Team Foundation Server.
New CodePlex Version! I know this is a few days late, but as of Jan 30th we are running a new version of CodePlex! Some of the highlight features are: Source code browsing on the website Lots of improvements to discussions More granular RSS feeds for projects More importantly, the features we added have addressed 143 user votes! Thanks to everyone for telling us what is important to you. Don't forget to keep voting, because we need to know what you want in the upcoming versions: http://www.codeplex.com/CodePlex/WorkItem/List.aspx Your votes really make a difference because we launch a new CodePlex version every three weeks so you can make a difference in just weeks, not months or years. If there is a feature you really want, feel free to campaign for votes! Post about it, blog about it, link to it on your website! Here is more information about the latest version: http://www.codeplex.com/CodePlex/Wiki/View.aspx?title=January%2030%2c%202006%3a%20Build%205129&referringTitle=Deployment%20History
New CodePlex Version!
I know this is a few days late, but as of Jan 30th we are running a new version of CodePlex!
Some of the highlight features are:
More importantly, the features we added have addressed 143 user votes! Thanks to everyone for telling us what is important to you. Don't forget to keep voting, because we need to know what you want in the upcoming versions: http://www.codeplex.com/CodePlex/WorkItem/List.aspx
Your votes really make a difference because we launch a new CodePlex version every three weeks so you can make a difference in just weeks, not months or years. If there is a feature you really want, feel free to campaign for votes! Post about it, blog about it, link to it on your website!
Here is more information about the latest version: http://www.codeplex.com/CodePlex/Wiki/View.aspx?title=January%2030%2c%202006%3a%20Build%205129&referringTitle=Deployment%20History
Adam Gallant is putting together a series of webcasts on VSTS topics, including one on licensing (licensing always seems to generate plenty of questions). The webcasts will occur over the next couple of months. His post has all of the details.
New VSTS WebCasts... Visual Studio Team System and MSDN Licensing Demystified Integrated Team Development with Visual Studio Team System Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers
New VSTS WebCasts...