Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) Blog - by Neno Loje : Tools and Utilities

Tool for creating direct links to TSWA

neno — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 03:38:55 GMT

Buck Hodges from Microsoft blogged about all the possible links you can construct to point to TSWA pages.

For example the following URL opens the Work Item Editor:

Open the existing work item with ID 1234: http://mytfs:8090/wi.aspx?id=1234

To make it simple I created a small tool that helps you construct those URLs in an easy way:

You can download the source from here:

File Attachement: WebAccessLinkCreator.zip

Download: Visual Studio 2008 Project Template for TFS Utilities

neno — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:00:00 GMT

If you develop small utilities for Team Foundation Server a lot you might want to save some time and use a project template (see bottom for file attachment) that already comes equipped with the correct references to the Team Foundation Object Model (Microsoft.TeamFoundation.*.dlls) as well as the most important using statements and a few lines of code to get started.

Installation

Copy the ZIP file to {MyDocuments}\Visual Studio 2008\Templates\ProjectTemplates.

Usage

Create a new project and select “TFS Utility” from the “My Templates” list.

The template creates a new Windows Forms application with references to the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.*.dlls (btw: the C# compiler gets rid of all references that were not used in the project during compilation)…

… as well as a a few using statements and some code to start from.

Happy TFS tool development!

Download: TfsUtility.zip

Skype Collaboration Provider for TFS

neno — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:09:34 GMT

The Team Foundation Server Power Tools (October 2008) introduced a new "Team Members" node, which offers the ability to quickly identify which subteams and actual team members belong to a TFS team project. Additionally you can see their online status.

Support for Office Live Communicator and Windows Live Messenger is already built-in. There is an API to extend this to other IM software as well.

Nico Orschel from our team used this API to implement support for Skype, which is the IM we primarily use at AIT TeamSystemPro Team.

Our Skype Collaboration Provider (including source code) can be found on Codeplex at:

http://www.codeplex.com/tfscollab

Some screenshots:

V-Modell XT Generator creates TFS Process Templates

neno — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 21:07:00 GMT

Microsoft Germany [1], The Center of Software Concepts at the Technical University of Munich [2] and Zühlke [3] released the V-Modell XT Generator [4] that creates process templates for working with the V-Modell, which is a process modell widely asked for by German customers working for the public sector. It is available via Codeplex.

Congratulations to Marcus Alt [5] from Microsoft and the whole team for realising this project which was quite a bit of work as I experienced first hand!

[1] http://www.microsoft.de/

[2] http://zfs.in.tum.de/

[3] http://www.zuehlke.com/index.php?id=2&L=2

[4] http://www.codeplex.com/VModellXTTFS

[5]http://blogs.msdn.com/marcalt/

Some impressions:

CollabXT V-Modell® XT Generator

Instantiated V-Modell® XT in TFS

V-Modell® XT Work Items in in TFS

V-Modell® XT Work Items in WebAccess

Links from the Team System interactive sesssion at Basta

neno — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:53:46 GMT

Documentation

Team Foundation Installation Guide
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E54BF6FF-026B-43A4-ADE4-A690388F310E
Team Foundation Administrators Guide
https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2AED0ECC-1552-49F1-ABE7-4905155E210A
Branching Guidance
http://www.codeplex.com/BranchingGuidance
TFS Guide
http://www.codeplex.com/TFSGuide
VSTS Guidance
(including Managing Source Control Dependencies in Visual Studio Team System )
http://www.codeplex.com/VSTSGuidance

Tools

Team Foundation Power Tools
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718351.aspx
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider
(for VB6, VC6, etc.)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=87e1ffbd-a484-4c3a-8776-d560ab1e6198&DisplayLang=en

Tool for creating links to pages on Team System Web Access

neno — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:34:20 GMT

Would you like to send links to work items, team projects or source files on Team System Web Access?

For work items
… you can find the answer in the offical TSWA FAQ:

Q: What’s the URL to use if I want to send the link of a specific work item?

A: Work item links use the follwing format:

http://[TSWA:port]/wi.aspx?id=[WorkItemID]

For Team Projects
… it also pretty simple:

http://[TSWA:port]/index.aspx?pname=[ProjectName]

For Source Files
… it’s a little bit more “interesting” (thanks to Hakan from Microsoft for reveiling the details behind this secret).

It’s a bit tricky but here it goes:

http://[TSWA:port]/UI/Pages/Scc/ViewSource.aspx?scc-item=[ItemData]

ItemData is the HtmlEncoded output of the query string something like “id=10&cs=-1”

id: the ID of the item in source control (you need to know this instead of the file path)

cs: changeset number (-1: latest)

In your example, the file id is 151611. So,

HtmlEncode(“id=151611&cs=-1”) -> “id%3D151611%26cs%3D-1”

https://[TSWA:port]/UI/Pages/Scc/ViewSource.aspx?scc-item=id%3D151611%26cs%3D-1

[We’re planning to provide more friendly URLs in a future version, similar to wi.aspx approach]

To make it fast and more convenient to create links to TSWA I created a small tool to help you with it:

It should be mentioned that this tool has a lot of room for improvement. :-)

You can download the source from an updated version here.

Free Add-On: Team System Web Access (TSWA) Power Tool by Microsoft

neno — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:10:07 GMT

Microsoft now offers version 2.0 of the Team System Web Access (formerly known as TeamPlain Web Access from DevBiz, which was acquired by Microsoft ) free of charge as a Power Tool with official Microsoft Customer Service support!

Download it from here.

Get a detailed list of all improvements here.

Make sure to read the Visual Studio Team System Web Access FAQ.

Copy area and interation structure using the Area Import/Export Tool

neno — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 19:21:48 GMT

If you look for a way to export and import your area and/or iteration structure the Team Foundation Object Model (TFOM) is your friend.

However it’s only your friend if you know where to look for.

While the export works perfectly using the WorkItemStore, the import is only possible through the ICommonStructureService (and could be used for export as well).

At the bottom you can download the source code of TFS Area Import/Export Tool.

It saves your area and/or iteration structure into a text file and lets you import it into another project (even on another Team Foundation Server).

Feedback is appreciated.

Version 1.0.1 – compiled against Team Explorer 2008
File Attachment: AreaImportExportTool_1.0.1.zip (25 KB)

Version 1.0.0 – compiled against Team Explorer 2005
File Attachment: AreaImportExportTool.zip (69 KB)

Use SnagIt to capure your screen and create a new Work Item quickly

neno — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:06:36 GMT

Capturing screenshots and new bugs quickly is a everyday task for software developers and testers.

The default Work Item form does not handle this scenario very efficiently, i.e. you have to click too many times until the new bug is created.

One nice solution comes out of TechSmith, the creators of the popular SnagIt screen capture tool. As Betsy Weber announced it they made a New “SnagIt Output for Microsoft Visual Studio Team System” [1] available which lets you create new Work Items with screenshots attached or update existing ones with ease.

Let’s try how it looks like…

You take a capture of your screen using SnagIt.
You use one of SnagIt’s diverse editing functions to make clear what’s the problem is (e.g. arrows, or text).
You click the new “Team System” bottom in the toolbar and select “New Work Item” if there is no work item existing already.
You supply connection information to your Team Foundation Server as well as which type of work item you want to create, what the name of the attached file and the associated comment should be.
After hitting “Create” you get the well-known Work Item form where you could supply more details on the bug.
Alternatively you can also add the screenshot to an already existing work item by hitting “Update Work Item” from the Team System toolbar menu.
This let’s you search for the bug and updating it’s attachments.
In either way the result is a nicely attached screenshot in your work item.

You can also watch a video [2] by TechSmith of the new output in Action.

[1] http://visuallounge.techsmith.com/2007/05/new_snagit_output_for_microsoft_visual_studio_team_system.html

[2] http://video.techsmith.com/snagit/accessories/teamsystem/enu/teamsystem.html

Get the free unlimited TeamPlain Web Access license

neno — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 21:07:30 GMT

Wow, now where TeamPlain Web Access is free for all TFS customers [1] you need to 'upgrade' your license to the unlimited license.

The creators - DevBiz - describe the process (which is as easy as downloading a ZIP file and placing it to a specific directory) in their blog at [2].

Enjoy! :-)

-Neno

P.S. BTW: If you've bought TeamPlain Web Access within the past 30 days before the Microsoft you can reclaim the money, but you need to do it asap since it is only a short time offer (see [1]).

[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2007/04/02/update-on-devbiz-acquisition.aspx

[2] http://dev.devbiz.com/blogs/teamplain/archive/2007/03/28/unlimited.aspx

stpBA: A Storyboarding solution for Team System

neno — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 11:10:00 GMT

stpsoft ltd., "The Software Requirements Company", created an interesting Visio add-on that let's you storyboard your scenarios withint Visio and post them back into Team Foundation Server.

That's what the producers say:

"Capture, elaborate and validate software requirements in Team System projects, and generate storyboards, specifications, work items and test scripts."

Overview - Team System Edition

Screenshot

Quick Tour - Team System Edition

Download: Team Foundation Power Tool v1.2

neno — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 09:56:27 GMT

The Power Tools are always a must-have download. Although they are 'officially unspported' they give you funcionality upfront that is probably going to be in the next version of Visual Studio.

New and added features include:

Team Foundation Server Power Tool Commands (tfpt.exe) - A command-line tool with enhanced functionality for Team Foundation Version Control with graphical user interfaces for some commands.
Process Template Editor - A tool integrated with Visual Studio for authoring custom work item types and some of the associated process template components.
Check-In Policy Pack - A set of handy check-in policies to address needs customers have expressed. These include Custom Path Policy, Forbidden Patterns Policy, Changeset Comments Policy, and Work Item Query Policy.
Test Tools Build Task - A tool that allows running unit tests by simply specifying the DLLs, or by specifying a file name pattern in TfsBuild.proj, instead of using .vsmdi files to specify tests to run.

[MS Project Integration] Open work items right inside of MS Project

neno — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:06:47 GMT

Working inside of MS Project and getting your data synchronized with TFS is a great thing. But there might be a reason why you want to access the work item details form and until now you needed to start Visual Studio 2005, invoke the Team Explorer, look for the exact same work item etc.

Ognjen Bajic, a fellow VSTS MVP, made that easier for uns with his great add-in for MS Project.

If you use MS Project today to work with TFS you'll love it.

Managing Test Lists with Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers using Ekobit Test Manager

neno — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 11:24:38 GMT

As you probably know the Test Manager within, which is needed to create test lists for your build process and/or check-in policies, is only available in the Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers.

Ognjen Bajic has the solution:

Earlier today Ekobit (www.ekobit.com) released “Test Manager Add-In for Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers”. This Add-In makes it possible for developers to manage the lists of tests, build hierarchies and execute tests from the Team Edition for Software Developers just the way they would be able to do using the Test Manager window if they had Team Suite. Being a VSIP package, Test Manager Add-In is seamlessly integrated in the Visual Studio environment and works as a part of the Visual Studio Team System integrated testing framework.

More on Test Manager Add-In can be found here: http://www.ekobit.com/testmngr.aspx

Download free trial here: http://www.ekobit.com/download_testmngr.aspx

Available Check-In-Policies for Team Foundation Server

neno — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 21:29:00 GMT

Included in Visual Studio 2005 Team System:

Work Items
Code Analysis: Check-in policy can be used to control and improve the quality of code that is checked into the code base.
Testing Policy

As part of the Visual Studio SDK September 2006 (can be downloaded for free):

Example.SimpleCheckinPolcy: Sample C# class to enforce check in comments. Demonstrates customizability of check in policies. Can be found unter:
%ProgramFiles%\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2006.09\VisualStudioTeamSystemIntegration\Version Control\ExtensibilityPolicySample
Example.ForbiddenPatternsCheckinPolicy: Sample C# project demonstrating a customizable forbidden patterns check-in policy. This sample provides the base C# project for defining a forbidden regular expression check in policy. Can be found unter:
%ProgramFiles%\Visual Studio 2005 SDK\2006.09\VisualStudioTeamSystemIntegration\Version Control\CheckinPoliciesForbiddenPatterns

Developed by the community:

TFS Custom Path CheckIn Policy: The Custom Path CheckIn Policy works in concert with existing Team Foundation Server (TFS) check-in policies, providing a mechanism that allows you to specify the source control path(s) that a particular policy is allowed to act on. This will allow for example a single Team Project to have one set of Code Analysis rules for a particular folder and completely different set of rules for another folder. It would also allow for filtering what specific items the rules work on for instance enforcing a Work Item for any check-in of files ending in ".cs, .sln, .csproj" but ignore the rule for all other check-ins.
Time That Task VSTS Check-In Policy: Custom VSTS check-in policy that gathers hours worked on a task during each check-in. This policy requires check-in to be associated with only one task that is in an "Active" status. It also gathers the number of hours worked on the associated task incrementing the completed hours and decrementing the remaining hours. If the number of hours worked on code in check-in is greater than remaining work hours on the associated task, user will be asked to re-estimate the number or hours remaining for the task.
Check for Comments Check-In Policy: Doesn't need an explaination, I think...
TFS - Code Comments Check-in Policy: This Team Foundation Server policy ensures that the code contains comments for classes, methods and properties before checking in it to the source control server.
TFS Code Review Workflow:This project is a combination of a Code Review Work Item and a Code Review Check-in Policy. The check-in policy doesn’t allow a check-in unless it has an associated Code Review work item, and that work item is set to approved. Only people in a TFS group named {Project}\Code Reviewers can set an item to approved: Code Review Work Item, Code Review Custom Check-In Policy and Code Reviewers Security Group.

Will be made available by Microsoft as Check-in Policies Pack:

Check-in policy granularity: there is one already in Code Gallery and what we will do is package this, change some of the UI and take out some of the complexity
Work-Item Associations: This is a very cool one that I hope many of you will find useful. You get to specify a query and if the associated work items by the developer are not part of the query results the check-in is blocked. This is very useful when it comes to making sure that check-ins are always associated with approved bugs.
Banned files: this policy allows you to specify a file extension or a regular expression in order to keep files that you don’t want out of version control. This is usually used for dll’s, build artifacts, or some website files that are automatically generated.
Check-in Comments: this policy gets shipped as part of the SDK. It looks at the check-in comments and makes sure it is not blank.

You know more? Don't let us die in ignorance: drop me a comment or contact me.

This list will be updated as new items arrive...

PowerToys for the Class Designer and Distributed System Designers now finally work with non-English versions of Visual Studio 2005

neno — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 20:58:28 GMT

There were a lot of requests in the past months since the PowerToys for the Visual Studio 2005 Class Designer and Distributed System Designers were released, because there were issues with localized, non-US versions of Visual Studio 2005 that these add-in handle correctly.

The great news comes directly from the author dmitriv:

"I've just uploaded a Nov 2006 update to release section which should fix the language dependency issue.
To verify that, I did a clean install of Visual Studio 2005 Professional (German) on top of German Windows XP SP2 and verified that it works."

Download the November 2006 release

Better together: Connector application brings Project Server 2003 and Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server together

neno — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 00:04:13 GMT

From the announcement "ANNOUNCING THE VISUAL STUDIO TEAM SYSTEM - PROJECT SERVER CONNECTOR":

"The Connector synchronizes Project, Resource and Task data between the two systems. Project Managers, Resource Managers continue to work in the EPM environment while the development team works in the development environment, i.e. VSTS, and data seamlessly flows between the two systems. Updates to work items in VSTS are automatically applied to the corresponding assignments and tasks in Project Server and vice versa. Project Managers have complete control over the inflow of the actuals into the project plan. In addition, resource management functions for all development projects, like managing time and utilization for resources working across multiple projects, team staffing etc. can be performed in Project Server. Lastly, portfolio and program level reports can easily be generated for projects being executed in VSTS and managed in Project Server."

[Download @ gotdotnet]

Visual Studio SDK v3 (September 2006) is now available

neno — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 08:32:00 GMT

Included in this release:

DSL Tools V1 RTM
IronPython web site and web project samples
Updated contents and samples for TFS extensibility and Team Test extensibility
Managed parser & lexer generator tools
Many more IDE integration samples
5 new cool PowerToys, including Source Outliner
Much more!

Team System specific content in yellow.

[Download]

Team Foundation Power Toys (v1.1 - September 2006)

neno — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:17:00 GMT

Team Foundation Power Toys is a collection of productivity tools for Team Foundation Server. Borne from practical experience using Team Foundation Server, they are a mix of command-line and Visual Studio integrated tools for users of version control and work item tracking.

[Download here]

VSTS goes Eclipse

neno — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 20:48:00 GMT

The goal of this project is to create a suite of plug-ins for Eclipse, that enable developers to leverage the Source Control and Work Item features available in Microsoft's new Visual Studio 2005 Team System.

Go to website