Update 24 Sept 2008: Slides are now posted. Sorry for the delay.
Last week, I spoke at the Microsoft ReMix08 UK conference in Brighton, England on CodePlex and on Visual Studio Tips and Tricks. You can read more about the conference overall, the extensive jet lag, and the VS Tips talks on my blog.
I did a 1 hour presentation on CodePlex covering
- Why we built CodePlex
- Demo of CodePlex features and the new SVN client support
- How we build CodePlex using agile
Slides are attached at the bottom of this post.
My little camera couldn’t handle the lighting in the Community Room, as this photo doesn’t capture the pure awesomeness of the room. (yes, people could see me. I just couldn’t see them.)
After the conference, Dave Sussman and Phil Winstanley, the two Community Room track owners I have to thank for inviting me to England, another attendee whose name I can’t recall (i really need to write stuff down), and Travis Leithead (from IE team whose blog i can’t find) went down to the beach in Brighton for Ice Cream. Thanks Travis for taking the photo!
Below is the CodePlex flag at Big Ben. I’m having way too much fun taking this flag around the world with me. Thanks to Scott Guthrie for taking the photo!
CodePlex is now offering server support for SvnBridge, the tool that enables TortoiseSVN to talk to Team Foundation Server. Support for Subversion has been our number one requested feature, and by hosting SvnBridge, our users can now use their favorite Subversion client with any project.
What’s SvnBridge / TortoiseSVN / Subversion? What’s the big deal with server support?
Subversion is one of the most popular source code repositories in the open source community. TortoiseSVN is a Subversion client (similar to how Team Explorer is a client to Team Foundation Server) that is widely used among open source developers. We want TortoiseSVN users included in the CodePlex community, so we created SvnBridge to enable TortoiseSVN to work with Team Foundation Server.
Our first versions of SvnBridge have required client-side installations, meaning that TortoiseSVN users first had to install and run SvnBridge prior to interacting with the CodePlex source code repository. Having to start the SvnBridge software prior to every session has been the primary cause of dissatisfaction with our TortoiseSVN support.
Starting today, TortoiseSVN will just work as illustrated below, no extra software is necessary to work with CodePlex.
Setting up TortoiseSVN to use CodePlex
For users experienced with using TortoiseSVN, it is as simple as knowing the URL to use.
https://<projectname>.svn.codeplex.com/svn
Make sure you use HTTPS and replace <projectname> with the name of the project. See SVN Checkout below for illustration.
TortoiseSVN within Windows Explorer
When I first started using TortoiseSVN, I kept trying to find the GUI or “TortoiseSVN.exe” to launch. Try as I might, there was no executable to be found. It took me some time to accept the fact that TortoiseSVN merges itself into Windows Explorer. For those coming from a similar Microsoft background as I am, you’ll find yourself scratching your head if this is the first time you’ve seen source control commands within a Windows Explorer context menu.
TortoiseSVN in Action
The following illustrations will walk through some of the basic operations of using TortoiseSVN. Since SvnBridge is an open source project itself on CodePlex, I’ll use it as the example project below.
The first thing to try is starting the Repo-browser, short for repository browser, which lets you see the files in source control. The URL for the SvnBridge project is https://svnbridge.svn.codeplex.com/svn. Using TortoiseSVN, CodePlex supports anonymous access, so you won't be prompted for a login to see the files or for any other read-only activity. The Repo-browser is equivalent to the Source Control Explorer in Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer.
Use SVN Checkout to download the source code for a project to your computer. You will see the checkout progress screen while the files are downloading. For Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer users, “Checkout” is equivalent to “Set Working Directory” and "Get Latest Version", and “HEAD” means “the latest version.”
After the initial check-out is completed, you’ll see the finished checkout window.
The Show Log command displays the history for that particular file or folder. Just select the file you want more information on, right-click to bring up the context menu, and select the TortoiseSVN command.
You can also check out Steven Harman’s blog post for an actual TortoiseSVN user’s write-up regarding SVNBridge support.
Our latest deployment (yesterday) of the CodePlex software provides the ability to search based on user relevance. Search results are based on a ranking algorithm that factors in the project title, project URL, project description, homepage wiki text, and user-defined tags, based on a weighted score, page hits, and tops tags.
We appreciate any feedback you have using the new and improved search.
For the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, I went home to spend time with family, and thought why not speak to as many user groups as possible while I was down there. Little did I know I would be dodging hurricanes and tornadoes the entire trip.
Nonetheless, I spoke about CodePlex at DevLink in Tennessee, and in various states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. I also spoke to a computer science high school class at Rummel high school in New Orleans about open source and CodePlex. When did high school students become so young?
Here are some pictures from the trip.
on the farm in Houston, Mississippi (outside Tupelo)
at the birthplace of Elvis in Tupelo, Mississippi
at Elvis’s childhood home on the swing where he played the guitar
at the Waffle House where you can get your hashbrowns smothered, covered, scattered, diced, topped, peppered, capped, chunked…
at the Cracker Barrel – a popular restaurant chain in the South.
at the .NET User Groups for Birmingham, AL
at the Alabama rest stop crossing the Mississippi – Alabama border on I-10.
at Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans
at the Acadiana .NET User Group (Lafayette, LA)
Update 2 Sept 2008: The feedback reimbursement is now 100 dollars. Also, the correct dates are Sept 16 thru 18, not the 19th.
We will be conducting usability studies in Redmond, Washington for our upcoming versions of CodePlex and are looking for people with varying levels of involvement in CodePlex -- from downloading code to coordinating multiple projects -- to participate in a one hour usability study. Your feedback will help us create a better CodePlex site.
The sessions will be held Sep 16 - Sep 18 in Redmond, WA (near Seattle), and you'll receive $100 for your feedback plus transportation reimbursement of 10 dollars.
Interested in participating? Contact us and include your:
- Name
- CodePlex username (if you have one)
- Phone number where we can contact you to schedule a time.
Thanks!
Myth #1: Software hosted on CodePlex is only for developers
Fact: CodePlex is for any open source software application. Some of our top projects include Rawr, a .NET tool for World of Warcraft players, and the Vista Battery Saver, an app for managing your laptop battery life.
Myth #2: You have to purchase Microsoft software to use CodePlex
Fact: Visual Studio Team Explorer is free for use with CodePlex. Other clients include TeamPrise, TortoiseSVN, and the CodePlex Client.
Myth #3: CodePlex is only for Microsoft projects
Fact: There are over 350 Microsoft projects on CodePlex. The other 5,000 projects are owned by members of the community.
Myth #4: CodePlex projects must run on Windows
Fact: CodePlex welcomes all technologies.
Myth #5: CodePlex is run by Microsoft
Fact: This one is true! =D
In our latest CodePlex deployment (today), we’ve introduced ratings and reviews.
Signed-in users can rate projects from one to five stars, and have the option of detailing their feedback in a review.
Ratings and reviews are release-specific and are displayed on the Releases tab. For the default release, the review is also displayed on the project’s homepage in the right sidebar.
Our latest deployment adds mailing list support for project discussions: start or respond to a discussion from your e-mail client; get notifications of new responses as they come in, or in daily digest format. Now users can subscribe to an entire project’s discussions, including all new discussions posted to the project.
Project owners get improved communication with their users, and users get increased assurance that their voice will be heard by the community, wherever project users and members may be when they receive the e-mail.
Sign up for a mailing list by visiting any projects discussions tab, or see our CodePlex Mailing Lists Documentation for more information.
Paula Bach, a PhD Student at Penn State University, is conducting research on how to integrate usability into open source software development. She’s been hanging out with us over the past month, learning how we develop the CodePlex software. She’s now seeking research volunteers from the CodePlex user base.
From her blog post,
I am looking for developers who are working on projects hosted on CodePlex. The projects could be in the planning stage, alpha, beta, or stable. As a volunteer, you would be asked questions about your activities performed on CodePlex. The interview should not take longer than 60-90 minutes.
You can follow up with Paula at codeplexresearch@live.com
The Sandcastle project has been republished. You can find both the project and its source code at http://www.codeplex.com/sandcastle
Today is the 2nd anniversary of the CodePlex launch announcement. We celebrated with some birthday cake on this nice, warm and sunny Friday afternoon in Seattle.
CodePlex team members who are not currently on vacation. =) We have a few who are out of office right now.
And a picture of our half-eaten birthday cake. I have got to remember to take pictures first, then eat the cake…
This year, SourceForge is inviting CodePlex projects to participate in their Community Choice Awards. The CCAs is an annual event where members of the SourceForge community nominate and vote for their favorite OSS projects.
CCA Badges are available for those who want to campaign for their favorite OSS project.
Go nominate and vote for your favorite eligible CodePlex projects!
As Sara already mentioned, we added syntax highlighting to CodePlex on Monday. To be specific, we added syntax highlighting to the source code browser. We intend to add it to the Wiki as well, in the near future.
Currently, we support the follow programming languages and file extensions:
- C# (.cs)
- VB.NET (.vb)
- SQL (.sql)
- HTML (.html)
- JavsScript (.js) *
- ASPX with C# and ASPX with VB.NET (.aspx, .ascx)
- XML (.xml)
* We also style JavaScript embedded in HTML and ASPX files
We plan to add more languages based on your requests. Please create an issue in the CodePlex Issue Tracker to request syntax highlighting for additional languages, or to report any problems you find with the current languages.
Yesterday, we deployed our latest feature – support for Code Syntax Highlighting.
Support for Syntax Highlighting was our 2nd most requested feature with 113 votes. For languages not yet supported, please open an issue in our Issue Tracker (and definitely vote if it is already opened!)
When you browse source files checked in under the Source Control tab, you’ll get syntax highlighting.
Screenshot taken from AJAX Control Toolkit
Thanks to everyone who stopped by the CodePlex booth to chat with us. We really appreciated the opportunity to share what we’re doing with CodePlex and to get your feedback and to answer questions.
We had a great turnout for the “Embrace Open Source on CodePlex” lunch talk, especially considering the tight TechEd schedule. Also, Colin had a great Q&A session during the “Meet the Experts.” Great questions, Great discussions, Great people.
A few pics from TechEd…
Colin working the CodePlex booth
Jim and Colin taking a break from booth duty
The teched logistic people told me to take down the CodePlex banner, so I decided to wear it as a cape and run around as an action figure.
