Developers, Developers, Developers!

TechFest 2008

Join me at TechFest 2008 in Singapore 23-24 Oct 08.  A festival of technology for IT professionals and Developers!

This two-day event features a packed program on all the latest innovations, tools and technologies from Microsoft. If you want to push the boundaries of the Web, create and manage a dynamic, virtualized infrastructure, and provide productive, intelligent systems to users, then this is the place to make it happen!

http://www.microsoft.com/singapore/techfest2008/default.aspx

Upgrading From TFS2005 to TFS2008

For tips on upgrading from TFS2005 to TFS2008, please read this blog.

The Next TFS Power Tools

For a preview of the next TFS Power Tools release, please read this blog.

VB6 Support

Support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0 on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison Overview

The complete product and edition comparison list http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc149003.aspx

How To Add New Browsers To The Browser Mix in VSTS 2008

In Sean Lumley's Blog, it walks you through how to add a new browser to the Browser Mix in a Load Test in VSTS 2005.  For VSTS 2008, the Templates folder is in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\Templates\LoadTest\Browsers

Tech.Ed 2008

Join me at Tech.Ed South East Asia 2008 in Malaysia 11-14 Aug.  Microsoft’s premier and largest annual conference.  Learn, connect, explore, evaluate, problem-solve and ultimately experience and realize your full potential.

http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/techedsea2008/

Creating and Customizing TFS Reports

Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) Team Foundation Server (TFS) comes with standard reports for the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF).  You may have seen these reports and would like to customize them or create new ones.

The best way to learn to create and customize TFS reports is to read this MSDN posting and follow the tutorial closely.  One point to note, you would need the SQL Server Client Tools - Business Intelligence Development Studio.

You would discover you can create almost any kind of reports you desire, for example, including reports from other Team Projects, adding more than 1 graph in a report etc.

VSTS Team Build To Get Specific Version To Build

To select a specific changesets or labels to build, modify the TFSBuild.proj XML file. Use the GetVersion property - this is for VSTS 2008

  <PropertyGroup>

      <GetVersion>Cxxxx</GetVersion>

  </PropertyGroup>

You can put this anywhere within the <Property> tag in the file.

The syntax of the version (changeset or labels or etc):

Date/time (D10/20/2005)
    Changeset version (C1256)
    Label (Lmylabel)
    Latest version (T)
    Workspace version (Wworkspacename;owner)
         by default, it is ‘T’, get latest sources.

You can use the GUI to specify a specific branch of a solution in the version control. However, of that branch, it will always build the latest. This is the essence of continuous integrated build. If you do regular builds, you do not need to build previous versions.

TFS Installation / Setup Problems

I have come across several postings about problems with TFS installation.  Some of the error messages are TF220041, TF220044, TF220046, TF220048, TF220050, TF220059, TF31002, 32000, 28002 etc.  However, most, if not all, are due to failure to follow the installation instruction.  I have personally encountered TFS installation problems because I, too, did not follow the instruction and tried to circumvent, workaround or skipped a few steps (thinking I have extensive server installation experiences and took short cuts). 

To ensure success, you HAVE to follow the installation instruction to a tee!  Especially, the prerequisites for TFS.  Since my first success, I have tried several installations on different OS and SQL Svr versions combinations and they were all successful.  Again, please just follow the installation guide.

Installation notes:

1. When installing SQL Server 2005 (Reporting Service is required) on Windows Server 2008, if it cannot detect IIS 7, in the IIS 7 settings, add Role Service - IIS 6 WMI Compatibility.

2. During TFS installation, If complain about SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections - set Database Engine -> Remote Connections -> Using TCP/IP only.

3. When specifying the site URL during the Windows SharePoint Services installation, use the actual servername, rather than localhost.

4. Error 28002.  DNS issues, check DNS configured correctly on your domain controller or the TFS server has correct route to DNS.

5. Issues with user accounts setup for TFS, see this.