Ed Blankenship asked a question recently regarding having multiple languages supported by the same TSWA instance. Hakan provided the answer, and both of them blogged it.
Please note that this is not a supported configuration (i.e., that means we didn't test it, it could cause problems with uninstalling, etc.).
Jelle Druyts has posted a document describing how to set up source server for Team Foundation Build. If you don't know what it is, read the MSDN magazine article that is the first link in his post.
Check it out!
Setting up Source Server for TFS Builds I've read about symbol servers and source servers before (in John Robbins' excellent Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications book, for example, and also due to the recent news that Visual Studio 2008 will support source-code debugging of the .NET Framework Libraries), but never really got around to trying them out since they seemed pretty complex to set up. However, I've recently set up a source server on a Team Foundation build server (twice!), and my eyes have now gone wide open: anybody who references assemblies built by those TFS build servers can now seamlessly debug them. When an assembly is "source server-enabled", the pdb file will contain the full path and the exact version of the file in source control that was used to build that assembly. If the debugger then enters a method, Visual Studio automatically downloads that correct file, places it in a local cache, and opens it for debugging. This is super sweet! Now the hard work was already done and published by Roy Osherove, but there were some extra steps to take if you wanted to integrate this in a real Team Build (i.e. on the TFS build server instead of on a local machine) and it also lacked some additional information to get everything working. So I put together a full document that covers all aspects of setting up a source server, modifying the Team Build script, configuring the project files, and finally configuring the development machines. The full document (PDF) can be downloaded here, and you can read the one-page summary that briefly covers the required steps below. I cannot recommend setting up a source server enough, it's free and takes less than an hour if you simply follow the procedure, and the advantages are - hopefully - obvious. more...
Setting up Source Server for TFS Builds
I've read about symbol servers and source servers before (in John Robbins' excellent Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications book, for example, and also due to the recent news that Visual Studio 2008 will support source-code debugging of the .NET Framework Libraries), but never really got around to trying them out since they seemed pretty complex to set up. However, I've recently set up a source server on a Team Foundation build server (twice!), and my eyes have now gone wide open: anybody who references assemblies built by those TFS build servers can now seamlessly debug them.
When an assembly is "source server-enabled", the pdb file will contain the full path and the exact version of the file in source control that was used to build that assembly. If the debugger then enters a method, Visual Studio automatically downloads that correct file, places it in a local cache, and opens it for debugging. This is super sweet!
Now the hard work was already done and published by Roy Osherove, but there were some extra steps to take if you wanted to integrate this in a real Team Build (i.e. on the TFS build server instead of on a local machine) and it also lacked some additional information to get everything working. So I put together a full document that covers all aspects of setting up a source server, modifying the Team Build script, configuring the project files, and finally configuring the development machines.
The full document (PDF) can be downloaded here, and you can read the one-page summary that briefly covers the required steps below. I cannot recommend setting up a source server enough, it's free and takes less than an hour if you simply follow the procedure, and the advantages are - hopefully - obvious.
more...
The documentation for the team build 2008 object model is now available as a CHM file. Later this year, I'm told that the MSDN web site will be updated.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/f/8/5f872c2e-4221-410b-b86e-4c3cd831b0c4/Team Foundation Build Managed Reference.chm
After you download it you will need to right click it, choose Properties, and then select “Unblock” before you can view it.
This documentation is newer than what Aaron posted back in August.
The following are posts with examples of using the 2008 object model.
The following came up a couple of weeks ago, and I thought it would be worth posting for anyone else who hits the same or a similar problem.
When I try to do a build using TFS Build I get this error: TF215085: An error occurred while connecting to Agent \Shopping Catalog\Nightly Build: The request failed with HTTP status 502: Bad Gateway
The solution was to set BypassProxyOnLocal in the registry for TFS on the server (application tier). Note the version number, 9.0, is for TFS 2008. This does not apply to TFS 2005, because the communication with the build agent is different in TFS 2008.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\TeamFoundation\RequestSettings] "BypassProxyOnLocal"="true"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\TeamFoundation\RequestSettings]
"BypassProxyOnLocal"="true"
Then run iisreset to make sure that the AT picks up the setting change.
The following post talks about an unrelated topic, but it covers this setting too. The context is normally the client rather than the server, but in this case the server is acting as a client and calling the build agent. http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2007/09/17/tfs-2008-controlling-the-number-of-threads-used-in-uploading-and-downloading-files.aspx
The final set of localized versions of the Team System Web Access 2008 Power Tool is now available.
Here is a list of links to all of the localized releases of TSWA.
We're always interested in what you think about the localizations, too. If there are ways we can improve it, we would like to incorporate that feedback into TSWA as part of Rosario.
Enjoy!
Sayed Ibrahim Hashimi's book, Deploying .NET Applications, contains a chapter on MSBuild. While I knew about the chapter in the book, I didn't realize that the chapter on MSBuild was available online until Eugene Zakhareyev mentioned it.
If you are looking for a good way to get started with MSBuild, MSBuild: By Example is a good place to start.
MSBuild: By Example Even if you have experience using an XML task-based build tool, such as Ant or NAnt, MSBuild is significantly different. In fact, MSBuild is different not only in execution but also in syntax. Therefore, to really get a feel for MSBuild, you must get your hands dirty using the tool. As you begin to explore what MSBuild has to offer to your projects, you will naturally seek more knowledge of MSBuild. This chapter will help you get your hands dirty by showing you several examples of how you can use MSBuild. Also, this chapter will present some important techniques for using MSBuild effectively. We will provide a variety of tips, covering topics such as integrating MSBuild into Visual Studio and formatting your output. These samples are set up to be mostly independent. This is because each sample expresses a set of specific ideas, so you will be able to examine and try each concept on its own. After this chapter, you should have a much greater feel for building your applications with MSBuild. Following this chapter, we will continue the coverage of MSBuild by showing how to use some of its more advanced features. more...
MSBuild: By Example
Even if you have experience using an XML task-based build tool, such as Ant or NAnt, MSBuild is significantly different. In fact, MSBuild is different not only in execution but also in syntax. Therefore, to really get a feel for MSBuild, you must get your hands dirty using the tool. As you begin to explore what MSBuild has to offer to your projects, you will naturally seek more knowledge of MSBuild. This chapter will help you get your hands dirty by showing you several examples of how you can use MSBuild. Also, this chapter will present some important techniques for using MSBuild effectively. We will provide a variety of tips, covering topics such as integrating MSBuild into Visual Studio and formatting your output. These samples are set up to be mostly independent. This is because each sample expresses a set of specific ideas, so you will be able to examine and try each concept on its own. After this chapter, you should have a much greater feel for building your applications with MSBuild. Following this chapter, we will continue the coverage of MSBuild by showing how to use some of its more advanced features.
You'll also want to read the article he wrote for MSDN Magazine, Compile Apps Your Way With Custom Tasks For The Microsoft Build Engine.
Finally, there are additional MSBuild resources, including an MSBuild wiki and additional tasks.
The new Web Deployment Project that was released as a power tool for VS 2005 did not work with VS 2008. Now there is a release of WDP that works with VS 2008. If you were using the old one, be sure to get this important update.
Announcing RTW version of Visual Studio 2008 Web Deployment Projects (WDP) In December 2007, we had released Community Technology Preview (CTP) version of VS 2008 Web Deployment Projects... Thanks a ton to all of you in the community for being so active in adopting and trying the CTP versions of WDP... Since the December CTP we have been monitoring the blogs, MS Connect feedback system as well WDP forums to collect your feedback and then have been working over last month or so to incorporate it within the product... more...
Announcing RTW version of Visual Studio 2008 Web Deployment Projects (WDP)
In December 2007, we had released Community Technology Preview (CTP) version of VS 2008 Web Deployment Projects... Thanks a ton to all of you in the community for being so active in adopting and trying the CTP versions of WDP... Since the December CTP we have been monitoring the blogs, MS Connect feedback system as well WDP forums to collect your feedback and then have been working over last month or so to incorporate it within the product...
I've made a significant update to the following post: Adding a path filter to a CheckinEvent subscription using bissubscribe. The reason is that the paths supplied by the server aren't consistently cased while XPath is case-sensitive. The result is that your subscriptions that filter based on paths will not work reliably without additional complexity, unfortunately.
A couple of days ago, we released TSWA in Japanese. French and German became available yesterday. We'll be releasing more over the coming days.