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Some guidelines for building TFS tools

Our MS IT group pulled together some "best practice" guidelines for building applications against TFS.  We did this because we've started to see people build some internally that put a lot more load on the server than they really should.  They just sent me a final draft to review and it looks pretty good, so I thought I'd share it.  It doesn't cover everything one could imagine but it's some good tips based on our (the TFS team's) experience building tools.  I've attached it to this post.

 

Brian

Published Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:34 AM by bharry
Attachment(s): Advice for developing TFS client applications.doc

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# re: Some guidelines for build TFS tools

Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:38 AM by Lorenzo Barbieri
I cannot see the attachment...

# re: Some guidelines for building TFS tools

Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:41 AM by bharry
Man, you are fast :)  I had to add the attachment after my initial post.  I've just finished adding it.

Brian

# Golden Rules for Developing TFS Client Applications.

Thursday, September 07, 2006 11:19 AM by Martin Woodward
Brian Harry has recently posted an excellent word document talking about some guidelines to follow when developing custom TFS extensions.  The document is definitely worth a read as it gives you a better understanding of the issues behind the

# TSF Project Building Guidelines

Thursday, September 07, 2006 11:34 AM by while(availableTime>0) {
If you are out there building TFS projects like me, then you will find Brian Harry latest post to be...

# re: Some guidelines for building TFS tools

Thursday, September 07, 2006 2:02 PM by mruminer
Excellent! I think I follow these rules but will definately ensure I do. Good stuff. Thanks, Brian.

# re: Some guidelines for building TFS tools

Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:55 PM by Alan Stevens
Brian,

Thanks for this guidance. I've been pondering how to improve performance on batch operations.  This is very helpful.

I agree that tf.exe offers some non-public dialogs, but if you re-direct output, it does not display them.  I spoke with Kevin Kelly about this shortcomding at TechEd.

Please consider removing this limitation for SP1.

++Alan

# re: Some guidelines for building TFS tools

Wednesday, September 12, 2007 7:22 PM by Creepy Gnome

Thanks for the guidelines. However, I need to use the "Direct Web Service Access" method. I am having troble finding documentation of what web services TFS server provides.  I needs to do some cross platform things with TFS and cannot use a .Net language for them.

Can someone provide a link to the Web Service's docs for TFS so that I can use the "Direct Web Service Access" method?

Thanks...

-Creepy

# re: Some guidelines for building TFS tools

Thursday, September 13, 2007 11:52 AM by bharry

I'd be happy to except that no docs exist on the web services.  It's just been a doc prioritization issue - we've focused on the object model.  You can get the WSDL from the web services and if you have specific questions, I can answer them.  I wish I had a better answer than that.

Brian

# re: Some guidelines for building TFS tools

Thursday, September 13, 2007 11:54 AM by bharry

Oh, and one more thing.  At one point Teamprise was talking about releasing a Java based cross plat SDK for TFS.  You might contact them.  They've already gone through the trouble of figuring out how all of the web service calls work.

Brian

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