Ozzie Rules Blogging

Four new VSTS Usergroups (book mark this)

Domestic VSTS Usergroups

· Minnesota VSTS

· Indy TFS

· MA VSTS Usergroup

· Omaha Team System

· Dallas VSTS

· Chicago Visual Studio Team System Users Group

· Seattle Team System Usergroup

· A new New York City VSTS user group (NEW!)

· A virtual VSTS Usergroup  http://www.tsug-ve.com (NEW!)

· Spokane .NET User Group http://sug.dotnetprogramming.com/ (NEW) (They also cover other developer technologies)

International VSTS Usergroups

· Israeli Team System User Group

· .net usergroup netherlands

· Brisbane VSTS

· Sydney VSTS

· Groupe d'usagers Visual Studio Montréal

· Belgium VS Usergroup (doing more w/ VSTS) http://visug.be/ (NEW!)

· France ClubVSTS (NEW!)

New Code Plex Foreign language localization project for Team System Web Access Site

Huge congratulations to the VSTS MVP’s  who have just released their SECOND translation Team System Web Access checked in to the codeplex site: NL-NL and PT-BR language!

For more information please see the code plex site: http://www.codeplex.com/TSWAL

Team System Web Access Localization Project
Team System Web Access is a customizable Web interface that can access Team Foundation Server project data. It acts as a client of Team Foundation Server and provides most, but not all, of the functionality available through the Team Explorer client. Team System Web Access also introduces some new features such as data access restrictions and text search. This project is designed to enable TSWA Users the ability to localize Team System Web Access into languages in addition to the 9 that Microsoft shipped.
Languages Currently in Development in this project:

Dutch
Portuguese (pt-pt)
Portuguese (pt-br)
Norwegian
Turkish
Base Language already available from Microsoft for TSWA
English (US)
Chinese Simplified
Chinese Traditional
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Japanese
Korean

New VSTS White Paper: Integrating the Infosys Project Management System with Visual Studio Team System

Only took me 2 months to get it published…Man am i glad we have a site manager (Sharon Elkins) for the web site now!

The white paper is on how Infosys have integrated their Project Management System with Visual Studio Team System.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc907911.aspx

Brisbane Developer Usergroup Ashley Hubbard on Code Generation Tools

This month's meeting - Tuesday 16 September
Ashley Hubbard, Catalyticsoft: Producing a line of Business Application in Silverlight 2.0 in under 5 minutes.

Synopsis:
Ashley will demonstrate Catalyticsoft's CAT Accelerator automation system.  He will show how line of business systems can be rapidly built in either ASP.NET or Silverlight 2.0.  He is also going to cover his thoughts on where the .NET world is headed.

The presentation will cover:
1. Automating your solutions.
2. Automating your frameworks.
3. Implementing new architectures.
4. Taming Architecture "fragmentation".
5. State of play in the .NET Camp. Where is the .NET Framework going?

About Ashley Hubbard:
Ashley is the Chief Technology Officer for Catalyticsoft Pty Ltd.  He is a 3 decade veteran in the IT industry and has developed software for everything from AS/400s to PCs.  For the last 15 years he has been almost exclusively developing on Microsoft platforms.  His current efforts are involved in producing application automation toolsets.

Date: Tuesday 16 September
Time: 17:30 for 18:00 - 19:30  (It is important to arrive before the building lifts are locked at 6pm.  Late arrival? see below)
Location: Microsoft Brisbane office, Level 9, Waterfront Place, 1 Eagle St, Brisbane

These details, along with links to the tools mentioned, are also on our website at www.qmsdnug.org.

RSVP
All welcome. Bring your colleagues.
If you haven't already done so, an immediate rsvp by email to mike@fitzsimon.com.au will help with planning.

TFS End to End in 10 Webcasts –In German!

Just found out from a good friend that the German Community folks did a set of 10 web casts covering TFS from End to End.

So if you ever wanted to learn German and/or TFS this is certainly a great resource!

http://www.microsoft.com/germany/msdn/webcasts/serien/MSDNWCS-0802-01.mspx

Live Online Presentation: Automation with MSBuild 3.5 and Team Build 2008 August 21st, 2008 | 9:00am

Just a reminder the debut of MVP TV is today August 21st, 2008 | 9:00am – 10:00am (PDT, Redmond time)

The debut of MVP TV August 21st, 2008 | 9:00am – 10:00am (PDT, Redmond time)

The debut of MVP TV

All the Interaction of the MSDN Chats but with the richer experience of Live meeting and hosted by the recognized world technology leaders –the Visual Studio Team System Microsoft MVP’s. In this opening session of MVP TV, please join one of the most celebrated and recent Team System MVP Steve Andrews covering off Automation with MSBuild 3.5 and Team Build 2008. Did you know that .csproj and .vbproj files are really MSBuild files?  More than build processes though, MSBuild is a full-featured automation language. It includes structured control flow, variables, refactorability, error handling, logging, and powerful extensibility. You can easily integrate MSBuild into your own enterprise processes and start adding value right away.  We'll also look at how Team Foundation Build extends on MSBuild and adds robust integration with Team Foundation Server. This is one show you will not want to miss!

About Steve Andrews: Steve Andrews has been working as a developer for more than 9 years. During this time, he has designed and developed applications in such widely varying areas as trust accounting, medical information management, supply chain management, and retail systems. He is currently employed at RDA Corporation in Philadelphia, PA, as a Software Engineer and a team member in their Architectural Guidance evangelism team. Steve is also an MCP, ICSOO, Speaker Liaison for the Philly .NET User Group, and all around .NET fanatic.

Thursday, August 21^st, 2008 | 9:00am – 10:00am (PDT, Redmond time)

Hosted by MVP Lead Mei Liang, PJ Forgione

Attendee link:

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join?id=WP2PSH&role=attend&pw=4334ml%2BVHT8

WW event link:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032386225&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR release

Very happy to announce that Gert and co just released CTP16, of the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR release. We are yet another step closer to reaching the finish line which is waiting for us at PDC in Oct of this year.

This release adds the following features:

• VSDBCMD.EXE
  • We added independent commandline deployment and reverse engineer, which can be used on machines that do not have Visual Studio installed, in order to deploy the results of a database project build (.dbschema file), or if you need to generate a .dbschema file so you can for example compare it, this commandline tool will let you do that as well.
• Database Project (.dbproj) Upgrades
  • CTP15 enabled upgrade of project files, but did not included updating Data Generation Plans (.DGEN files), which now be upgraded when they are opened the first time inside the DGEN designer.
• Schema Compare
  • You can now choose the SQL Command Variables (SQLCMD) to use during a Schema Compare session by clicking the “Specify SQLCMD variables” button on the Schema Compare toolbar. This will allow you to compare projects that are using SQLCMD variables and provide the contextual information via the variable values.
  • You can now set the Schema Compare options at the session level, in addition to Tools->Options, by clicking the Settings button on the Schema Compare toolbar.
  • And you can now save your Schema Compare session and reopen it again. We also added an item template for this, name "Schema Comparison"
    
• Extensibility
  • We finished the namespace and assembly naming cleanup. As a result all assembly names and namespaces have been changed. This means if you have code leveraging our extensibility mechanisms you need to update the assembly references and namespaces in your code.
  • We added the ability to add your own refactoring types! So now you can create your own refactoring command and have it change all the required references inside the schema. This is above and beyond the ability to create your own refactoring targets (the sources your want to change by an refactoring type), static code analysis rules, data generators, data distributions and test conditions.
  • We now also offer public access to our TSQL parsers for SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, including the script generator functionality.
• And then there are many more enhancements in the parser, interpreter, validation, build and deploy.

Pre-requisites:

CTP16 requires the following components to be installed:

• Visual Studio 2008 SP1 RTM
• Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 SP1

Download location:

You can download CTP16 from the following location:

• http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/setup.exe
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/Readme.mht
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR Documentation.zip

NOTE: If you have a previous version of the GDR installed, you will have to first uninstall this and then install the latest CTP16 bits.

To set the expectations we are not 100% done with SQL Server 2008 support, the parser was just code complete after we were done with this release and this work is now being consumed by the interpreter, script generator, validation and build and deployment components. There will be a public release candidate once we are code complete, so one more release between now and RTM.

We are looking forward to your feedback which you can post to our MSDN forum and please file bugs and improvement requests using our Microsoft Connect site.

VSTS & TFS 2008 training courses in Adelaide Sept 9 and 15th

VSTS & TFS 2008 training courses from Microsoft Learning

Goods news for Adelaide. The worlds first “Beta” deliveries of the upcoming VSTS & TFS 2008 training courses from Microsoft Learning will be delivered in Adelaide starting September. This is a great opportunity to check out these great new course offerings and increase your knowledge of Team System.

6214 – Effective Team Development Using Microsoft Visual Studio Team System

This three-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to manage source control management, a configurable build process, tools that aid in test driven development, and process workflow all integrated directly into Visual Studio 2008. By the end of the course, developers are equipped to use test-driven techniques and proven software processes to create high-quality software with a minimal change in overall effort.

http://www.ddls.com.au/VendCourseDet/MS+/2/MSVI6214.htm

6215 – Implementing and Administering Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server

This two-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills to implement and administer Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server. The course focuses on installation and configuration details, team projects, work items, version control, Team Build, and reporting.

http://www.ddls.com.au/VendCourseID/MSVS6215.htm

Schedule

6214 (3days)

6215 (2days)

Adelaide

9-11 September

15-16 September

The debut of MVP TV August 21st, 2008 | 9:00am – 10:00am (PDT, Redmond time)

The debut of MVP TV August 21st, 2008 | 9:00am – 10:00am (PDT, Redmond time)

The debut of MVP TV

All the Interaction of the MSDN Chats but with the richer experience of Live meeting and hosted by the recognized world technology leaders –the Visual Studio Team System Microsoft MVP’s. In this opening session of MVP TV, please join one of the most celebrated and recent Team System MVP Steve Andrews covering off Automation with MSBuild 3.5 and Team Build 2008. Did you know that .csproj and .vbproj files are really MSBuild files?  More than build processes though, MSBuild is a full-featured automation language. It includes structured control flow, variables, refactorability, error handling, logging, and powerful extensibility. You can easily integrate MSBuild into your own enterprise processes and start adding value right away.  We'll also look at how Team Foundation Build extends on MSBuild and adds robust integration with Team Foundation Server. This is one show you will not want to miss!

About Steve Andrews: Steve Andrews has been working as a developer for more than 9 years. During this time, he has designed and developed applications in such widely varying areas as trust accounting, medical information management, supply chain management, and retail systems. He is currently employed at RDA Corporation in Philadelphia, PA, as a Software Engineer and a team member in their Architectural Guidance evangelism team. Steve is also an MCP, ICSOO, Speaker Liaison for the Philly .NET User Group, and all around .NET fanatic.

Thursday, August 21^st, 2008 | 9:00am – 10:00am (PDT, Redmond time)

Hosted by MVP Lead Mei Liang, PJ Forgione

Attendee link:

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/mvp/join?id=WP2PSH&role=attend&pw=4334ml%2BVHT8

WW event link:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032386225&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Channel9 Screen Cast: Interview with Windows Presentation Foundation Test Manager Ivo Manolov

Just posted another Channel9 Screen cast:

The Microsoft internal testers have put together a series of whiteboard sessions on testing the Windows development platform.  In this Whiteboard session we have Michael Hunter interviewing the Windows Presentation Foundation Test Manager, Ivo Manolov.

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles_Sterling/Ivo-Manolov-Interview-Test-Manager-for-Windows-Presentation-Foundation/

I was looking at some of my older screen casts and see that the Expression Animation Video has been downloaded 10,000 times!

QLD finals for Demos Happen Here Competition- Brisbane Monday 18th August

Anthony and William are running the State Finals for the Demo’s Happen Here Competition…I am guessing a 2.5 hour demo fest with those two running the show is bound to be a hoot!

Date:          Monday 18th August

Time:         6:00pm – 9:30pm

Location:    Microsoft Office

                  Theatre 1

                  Level 9, Waterfront Place

                  1 Eagle Street

                        Brisbane Qld 4000

Test SIG Monday August 18th from 3-5:00PM -Bellevue

The next Team Test Special Interest group will take place on Monday August 18^th from 3-5:00PM in the Enatai Room in the Microsoft Building in Lincoln Square in Bellevue (15^th floor - 10401 NE 8th St, Bellevue, WA 98004, map).  This session will feature a presentation by Rajesh Korde from the Microsoft Zune team on how his team goes about testing the Zune Marketplace, and discussions/demos on Test Data and our plans for improving developer-tester collaboration in Rosario.   The overview Rajesh’s presentation is as follows:

Testing the Zune Client to ensure that the Zune Marketplace can serve and render millions of pages for content while maintaining a consistent and pleasing UI aesthetic is a unique challenge. In the presentation, Rajesh will talk about how the Zune team uses a combination of manual and automated testing to test the safety of financial transactions and the client’s general stability.

The August Session will follow the following schedule:

1. Rajesh Korde Presentation on Testing the Zune Marketplace

2. Presentation and Discussion on Test Data

3. Demo and Discussion on Methods to improve developer-tester collaboration

Please respond to this post indicating your attendance if you plan to attend so that can have an idea of how many we can expect in Lincoln Square.

Thanks and I look forward to seeing you soon,

Naysawn, Chuck and w/ the Rosario Testing Team

Testing Browser Based WPF Applications

The Microsoft internal testers have put together a series of whiteboard sessions on testing the Windows development platform.  In this Whiteboard session we have Matt Galbraith walking through a great video on Testing WPF Browser Applications.

Check it out at:

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles_Sterling/Testing-WPF-Web-Applications-by-Matt-Galbraith

Most popular Team System How do i video’s

Just going through the website stats and noticed the “How do i video have become really popular!

I have included the top* 5 video’s below!

1. How Do I: Automate Team Build?
2. How Do I: Create and Manage Workspaces Using Team Foundation Server Control?
3. How Do I: Manage Test Results and Test Results Files?
4. How Do I: Use Shelving and Unshelving in Team Foundation Server?
5. How Do I: Install Team Foundation Server on One Server?

If you want to see the entire list please see:

"How Do I?" Videos for Team System

Great work to Richard all the MVP’s that have pulled these together!

*Per pages views last month

Testing Windows Presentation Foundation Controls Video

The Microsoft internal testers have put together a series of whiteboard sessions on testing the Windows development platform.  In this Whiteboard session we have Shozub Qureshi walking through testing WPF Controls.
To view the video please see the channel9 site:

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charles_Sterling/Testing-Windows-Presentation-Foundation-Controls-WPF/

For more videos and information on testing in general please visit the Tester Center at: 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/testing