Team System Web Access for TFS 2008 CTP released

Buck Hodges

[UPDATE]  The final version is now available

Team System Web Access for TFS 2008 Power Tool CTP is now available!

For TFS 2008, TSWA will continue to be a power tool through the TFS 2008 release.  For the release after that, it will be a part of the regular product.  The final release of the TSWA for TFS 2008 power tool will happen near the time TFS 2008 ships, which we’ve stated is by the end of this year.

The big news with this release is the support for custom controls in work item forms.  When you install TSWA, you will find a subdirectory in the installation directory that contains the SDK documentation, which describes the interface, JavaScript functions, etc.  There are also several examples provided, including a checkbox, a work item picker, and a multi-value selector.  You will not be able to use existing custom controls as they are, because those are WinForms based and TSWA requires web-based controls.  However, the same basic concepts apply.  Please try this and let us know what you think!

We’ve also fixed a number of bugs and added support for some of the new Team Build functionality in TFS 2008 (queuing builds and viewing the build queue).  This should be a solid release.

For those of you who remember the need for the TSWA users group in the installation of the TSWA 2005 power tool, you’ll be happy to know that is gone.  That was something we had to add to satisfy security requirements, but we’ve since changed the code to handle the impersonation better such that impersonated user identities no longer need access to any of the local directories for cache files and user settings (i.e., the code reverts to the service account while it accesses those).

Note that you need to install Team Explorer 2008 on the computer before installing TSWA 2008.  The previous release required Team Explorer 2005.

Visual Studio Team System Web Access 2008 Power Tool CTP

Overview

Team System Web Access is a free download that will be incorporated into a future release of Visual Studio Team System. You may install it with licensed installations of Team Foundation Server. You must be a licensed user of Team Foundation Server to access Team System Web Access.
Features

  • NEW: Display custom controls on work item forms
  • NEW: view queued builds new, queue new builds
  • Add new work items or edit existing ones
  • Work with any type of work item, including custom ones
  • Add new work item queries or edit existing ones
  • View, download, upload, check-in and check-out documents on SharePoint team portal
  • View reports, export as PDF or Excel
  • Browse source control repositories, download files, view changesets, diffs, histories, and annotated views
  • View build results, start or stop builds
  • Search for keywords in work items

Enjoy!

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