Visual Studio news feed
Visual Studio news feed
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Azure Blob Storage as a Network Drive
Many applications make use of a network drive to backup and store files. When I was in university I found myself constantly coding for fun, and one example took the form of a network share for my roommates to share files wrapped in a handy little app. Unfortunately, that particular app has long since been erased from whichever hard drive it was initially birthed. Fortunately, I think we can reinvent this magical piece of software (albeit to a scoped degree) with Azure Blob Storage. In the past, network drives did the trick, but Azure Storage offers users automatic backups, better flexibility and global availabil...
Using AI to automatically redact faces in videos
In the last few years, many law enforcement agencies have adopted body worn cameras. In this blog post, I will provide some background on what is driving the growth and will talk about how AI can help law enforcement agencies with the processing of videos captured by body-worn cameras. Background on body-worn cameras A body worn camera is a wearable audio, video or photographic recording system. Law enforcement agencies are not the only consumers of body-worn cameras. Other consumers include journalists, medical professionals, athletes, and so on. The forecast unit shipments of body-worn cameras can be seen on ...
New VSTS Messaging Extension for Microsoft Teams
Today we are releasing our new Messaging Extension to add to the integrations between Microsoft Teams and Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS). The messaging extension allows you to search, find, and discuss specific work items in your channel or private chats. It is great way to have a group conversation about your work, without leaving Microsoft Teams. Instructions on how to set up the Microsoft Teams integrations can be found on the Team Services marketplace. Give it a try and let us know what you think. In the meantime we will continue to invest in our collaboration efforts with Microsoft Teams. If you have id...
VSTS/TFS Roadmap update for 2018 Q1 and Q2
We recently published an update to the “Features under development” roadmap on our Features timeline. This feature list, although subject to change and not comprehensive, provides visibility into our key investments in the medium term. We update the feature list as part of our agile planning rhythms, about every 9 weeks. Some of the features link to deep dive blog posts or articles where you can find out more. We also denote the version of on-premises TFS we expect the feature to be included in, often after getting mileage on VSTS. Here are a few features that are particularly noteworthy. Code: Add required revi...
Your guide to Azure services for apps built with Xamarin
When talking about app development today, the cloud is almost always part of the conversation. While many developers have an idea of the benefits that cloud can offer them – scalability, ready-to-use functionality, and security, to name a few – it’s sometimes hard to figure out where to start for the specific scenario you have in mind. Luckily, our mobile developer tools docs team has you covered! Today, we’re happy to announce the availability of the “Mobile apps using Xamarin + Azure” poster. This poster serves as your one-stop guide to the most relevant cloud services that Azure has to offer to you as a mobil...
File nesting in Visual Studio Solution Explorer
We are excited to share with you a new capability in Visual Studio that was a clear ask from you, the community. Visual Studio has been nesting related files in Solution Explorer for a long time now, but not everybody agrees with the rules it uses. That’s not a problem any more because Visual Studio now gives you complete control over file nesting in Solution Exporer! We hope your continued feedback helps us evolve this capability into a fan favorite!
What’s new in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 17.5: Data Discovery and Classification
We are excited to announce the release of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 17.5! Download SSMS 17.5 and review the Release Notes to get started. SSMS 17.5 provides support for almost all feature areas on SQL Server 2008 through the latest SQL Server 2017, which is now generally available. In addition to enhancements and bug fixes, SSMS 17.5 comes with several exciting new features: •Data Discovery and Classification is a new feature for discovering, classifying, labeling and reporting sensitive data in your databases. •Query Editor now has support for a SkipsRows option for the Delimited Text External File ...
Two Lesser Known Tools for Local Azure Development using Visual Studio
If you’re developing applications that target Azure services (e.g. Web Apps, Functions, Storage), you’ll want to know about two powerful tools that come with Visual Studio 2017 and the Azure development workload: •Cloud Explorer is a tool window inside Visual Studio that lets you browse your Azure resources and perform specific tasks – like stop and start app service, view streaming logs, create storage items. •Storage Emulator is a separate application to Visual Studio that provides a local simulation of the Azure storage services. It’s really handy for testing Functions that trigger from queues, blobs or table...
Guest Blog | Solving “What the Bug?” with the Visual Studio App Center Crashes Service
This is a special guest post from Miguel Cervantes, CTO at Payit. It’s every developer’s nightmare: something goes wrong with your app in the wild, with real users, or, even worse, when you’re showing it to a venture capitalist, potential client, or at public event. In the moment, we usually have no idea what’s happened or how we can fix it. I call these, “what the bug?” moments. Finding a bug in development isn’t easy, but we use automated UI testing on real devices to catch as much as possible at Payit so we can release with confidence (thanks, App Center Test service!). But, once you ship, all bets are o...