Buck Hodges
Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS and Team Foundation Server)
Latest posts
MSDN chat with the VSTS product team
Visual Studio Team System ChatCome and join members from the the Visual Studio Team System product group to discuss features available in the Visual Studio Architect, Developer and Tester editions as well as Team Foundation Server. There will be experts on hand to answer your questions, so we hope to see you there! Add to Calendar September 6, 200610:00 - 11:00 A.M. Pacific timeAdditional Time Zones
Branching and merging strategies
I saw Rob Caron mention this new MSDN article, and it's a topic that comes up relatively frequently. If you've wanted to know more about different strategies for organizing your branches, this article provides a nice overview and links for you to dig deeper. Another link that may interest you is an article on branching models mentioned in the post, Branching Models. Branching and Merging PrimerChris BirmeleDeveloper Tools Technical SpecialistMicrosoft Pty Ltd, Australia / New Zealand August 2006 Applies to:Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Summary: An introduction to the conc...
Team Build blogger: Aaron Hallberg
Aaron Hallberg, a developer working on Team Build, has taken the plunge and started a blog. Those of you who frequent the MSDN Team Build forum will probably recognize the name. You now have a blog to go with the name!After getting post #1 out of the way, Aaron shows you how to insert custom build step from a custom task. The build steps are the messages that are displayed in the build report window. For example, you would want to insert a build step if your custom task takes a significant amount of time, so that the person running the build has some insight into what's going on. ...
Two good posts: Building projects with shared code and using Web Application Projects (WAP)
Last week, the folks at Vertigo Software wrote a couple of really good posts involving Team Build.The first one, written by Jeff Atwood, is about building projects that have code shared from a different team project. The crux of the problem is that in v1 Team Build doesn't allow mappings in the Workspace.xml file to span team projects. Jeff takes Manish Agarwal's solution for builds requiring files from more than one team project and lays out a solution for dealing with VS projects that include code from other team projects. How do I build a Team Project with shared code? One question that comes ...
New Team Build content on MSDN
The VSTS User Education blog announced new MSDN content on using and customizing Team Build. Check it out!New Team Foundation Build Customization Content on MSDN We are adding new content on explaining Team Founadation Build customization targets and tasks. Check out the following topics on MSDN: Understanding Team Foundation Configuration Files Customizable Team Foundation Build Targets Customizable Team Foundation Build Properties Team Foundation Build Tasks Additionally, a walkthrough that explains how to build a Visual Studio setup project in Team Foundation Build is posted at: Using Team Build to...
Finding the changes between two labels in TFS version control
Carl Daniel (code) and Robert Downey (code) each wrote and posted code to show the changesets between two labels in TFS version control. They each took the same basic approach: call QueryLabels() to get the set of items in each label, find the highest changeset version for each set of items, and then call QueryHistory() with the range of versions specified as the two highest changeset versions found.There's one technical flaw with this approach. A label in Team Foundation Server is not a point in time. In TFS labels are collections of files, each at a particular version. Brian Harry wrote ...
Dev lead for Team Build
For three years I worked on Team Foundation Server Version Control. Most of my contributions were to the version control object model, the tf.exe command line, and general infrastructure. After v1 shipped in March, we reorganized the TFS organization. Version 1 of TFS Team Build was developed by a small team in India, led by Gautam. As part of the April reorganization, the Team Build feature moved to North Carolina, and I became the dev lead. It's still a small team, compared to version control and work item tracking. Durham, North Carolina is now home to the build auto...
Check-in policy: Requiring a comment
A check-in policy to require a comment has always been a frequent request. Jeff Atwood has posted a convenient installation package (.msi) for James Manning's check-in policy to require a comment. Installing the Check for Comments Check-In Policy In a previous entry on adding a new check-in policy, I provided the source code for a comment policy. I re-packaged that source into an easy one-click installer:
A tool for reporting expiration dates for RC and RTM trial editions of Team Foundation Server
As some customers have found out the hard way, the TFS release candidates have started to expire without warning at the end of the 6 month (180 days) period. The TFS trial edition (RTM) will start to expire next month, again without warning. It also expires 6 months after installation.This morning, Brian Harry posted a tool that you can use to detect which version of Team Foundation Server you have installed and when it will expire. More Expirations Coming Soon... A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the impending expirations of TFS Release Candidate installations and Trial installations that were inst...