Etienne Tremblay on SQL 2008 + TFS 2008 SP1 the lowdown...

Martin Hinshelwood on Ooooh, RTM Delight and Updating to Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Ayman Badawi on VS/VSTS/TFS/,NET 3.5 SP1s are released!

Grant Holliday on TFS 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1 are RTM

Michael Ruminer on A Few Notable Things When Installing TFS 2008 SP1 and Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Jason Barile on TFS Installation and Administration guides updated for VS 2008 SP1

Update:  After creating the patched install of everything and running it, there were errors for the Team Build and Proxy installers.  Talking with fellow MVP Etienne Tremblay this is apparently a known issue, documented as such (d'oh, I should really RTFM) and that slipstreaming of the Build and Proxy stuff is not supported at this present time.  I've therefore updated this post to include the TFS SP1 rather than patched Build and Proxy installations so that you can do it the old fashioned way of installing, then patching...

Pre-requisites

• TFS 2008 Installation DVD (Workgroup, Trial or Full)
• TFS 2008 Service Pack 1
• An iso creating tool (I will use ISORecorder because it is good, free and works on Windows Vista x64).
• A couple of gigs worth of spare hard disk space to work in.

Slipstreaming the TFS Installation Files

1. First, you must copy the contents of the TFS installation media onto a temporary folder on your hard drive. In my case I have created a folder called D:\tfs_sp1\source and copied the contents there.
   
2. Extract the contents of the TFS installer executable by running the following command:
   en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_team_foundation_server_service_pack_1_x86_x64wow.exe /extract:<location>
   
3. Run the following command to apply the patch to the contents of the main TFS application installation folder (AT):
   msiexec /a <RTM Source Dir>\AT\vs_setup.msi /p TFS90sp1-KB949786.msp TARGETDIR=<SP1 Target Dir>\AT
   
4. Note that slipstreaming the Build and Proxy installations is not supported at this time.  Also, the sharepoint extensions folder  (wssExt) does not need patching so we can just copy these over.
5. Because slipstreaming the Build and Proxy is not supported, you will also want to copy over the original service pack .exe file so that you can run it after installing them.
6. Also, the Team Foundation Server client (Team Explorer) requires Visual Studio 2008 SP1, not the service pack for TFS.  If you installed Team Explorer without the service pack onto a SP1 server then bad things can happen (I've seen class serialization errors but you might see other symptoms) - therefore you might want to exclude the TFC folder from this SP1 disc so that you have to install it from a Visual Studio Team Suite disc instead - hopefully remembering to run Visual Studio SP1 afterwards.  However if, like me, you frequently install Team Explorer onto your TFS servers so that you can manage them directly from the server then you might want to also include the offline installation for Visual Studio on your new ISO image, that way you can quickly get access to the service pack.  To get hold of the offline installer, download the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 iso image, mount the image and then copy the vs90sp1 folder. 
7. While you are at it, you might as well download the latest copy of the TFS Install Guide.  If you are really fancy you can copy all the files over from the root of the RTM source and edit the setup.ini file to point to the new version of the document (mine is TFSInstall-RTM-v080811.chm).
8. Now we have a nice little package that contains all the bits we need to install TFS SP1 onto a server.  Mine looks like this: 
   
   If we go look inside the AT folder and check the file versions, we can see which assemblies were patched.  The TFS2008 RTM versions of the assemblies were 9.0.21022.8 but the TS 2008 SP1 versions are 9.0.30729.1
   
9. You could just burn the contents of your SP1 folder to a DVD, but I personally like to have it as an ISO image so that I can easily archive it and point to it from a Virtual PC. To create an ISO image using the excellent ISORecorder is very easy - just right click on your SP1 folder and select "Create ISO Image".
   

And there you have it. A handy ISO image that should speed up your TFS installations no end.  Happy installing!

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (needed for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Team System client, including Team Explorer), (exe version) (iso image version)

Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1 (needed for the server, build server and proxy server)

Note that to install TFS 2008 SP1 on Windows Server 2008 with SQL Server 2008, you must create a slipstreamed install.  Also - if you have installed any of the pre-release bits on a client machine then you should run the Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack Preparation Tool first.

For more information on what is in this release from a TFS perspective, see Brian Harry's blog post or listen to Radio TFS Episode #6.

Paul Hacker on IndyTFS 1 year meeting, RadioTFS #8 Version Control Basics,  and August TFS Times is out

Rob Caron on Mickey Gousset - Visual Studio Magazine Online

Eugene Zakhareyev on Check in your stuff now or else!

Neno Loje on CVS/Star Team to TFS Migration Tools (3rd Party), Version Control Tip: Excluding specific files from multiple checkout, and Users can see all team projects after upgrading from TFS 2005 to 2008

In this first episode back from the summer break we talk about the features available in TFS Version Control and talk about some of the fundamental concepts that you should understand to make your life easier.  Don't forget to stay tuned all the way to the end when Martin offers up a brainteaser for everyone and Paul goes crazy and offers a FULL copy of Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite to a lucky listener drawn at random who provides a correct answer to radiotfs@gmail.com before the end of August 2008.
If that is not enough for you, Mickey is running a competition over at Team System Rocks where you could win a years MSDN Premium Subscription with Visual Studio Team Suite.
Some links from this show:

• This Week on Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/This+Week+On+Channel+9/), RSS Feeds (RSS | iPod/MP4 | Zune)
• Inside VSTS Column in Visual Studio Magazine (http://visualstudiomagazine.com/columns/columnist.aspx?columnistsid=62)
• TFS Sidekicks from Attrice (http://shrinkster.com/10w9)
• July 2008 TFS Power Tools (http://shrinkster.com/10wy)
• Team System Rocks Logo Competition (http://shrinkster.com/10wz)
• Martin's Workspace 101 Blog Post (http://shrinkster.com/10w7)
• Martin's Source Control with TFS slide deck (http://shrinkster.com/10w8)

Don't forget that you can subscribe to the show using the RSS Feed in iTunes or Zune (http://feeds.feedburner.com/radiotfs), you can also listen to the show direct using this link (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/radiotfs/~5/356228001/radiotfs_008.mp3).
For feedback or suggestions for futures shows please contact us at radiotfs@gmail.com or leave a comment.

Go give it a listen and let us know what you think.

Purdue University maintains an online writing lab and I spent some time digging through it. Originally the goal was to grab some good tips that would help me out at work and on this site, but there is simply too much not to share.

40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation | via Dumb Little Man

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I would like to introduce everyone to a new author for this column -- Mickey Gousset. Mickey is a fellow Team System MVP, co-author of the book Professional Team Foundation Server from Wrox and an all-around great guy. Mickey and I will be alternating the authoring of this column. Enjoy! --Jeff Levinson

Read his first column on "The Red X of Death":

Can't access the Documents or Reports folder? Mickey shows you the two most common causes for this problem and how to correct them.

Visual Studio Magazine Online | Inside VSTS: The Red X of Death

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Eugene Zakehareyev on Work Item Customization tidbits: Special Fields (part 8 of X) and Permissions best practicies

Vesa Juvonen on Continuous Integration in MOSS development using TFS

How Do I: Build and Deploy Database Projects Using Team Build

AngelaB on Hands On VSTS Training Coming To Indianapolis - Write Better Code With Team Dev

Dennis Dietrich on Pimp your VSTT exception tests

Kirstin Juhl on I'm on DimeCast.Net!!!

Hakteng on TFS Installation / Setup Problems and VSTS Team Build To Get Specific Version To Build

Willy-Peter Schaub on TFS/VSTS ... Videos, Controls, my colleagues have been active again! and Branching Guidance II... a question to the communities

The NWCadence Blog on VSTS User Group on MSBuild and Team Build

Willy-Peter Schaub on Academia - VSTS/Java Interoperability Road Show: Day 3 and TFS - Undoing the checkout of another user

Ron Buckton on TFS Quick Tip: #1 Adding a screenshot to a workitem

Ed Glas on Web, Load and Unit Testing Videos on MSDN

James Whittaker on the european test community

Somasegar on Team Foundation Server - plays well with others...

David Jung on Migrate from CVS or StarTeam to TFS

Maor David on CTP15 of the GDR Release of VSTSDB Is Available and VSTS 2008 TEam Foundation Server Power Tools - July 2008 Release

Willy-Peter Schaub on Academia - VSTS/Java Interoperability Road Show: Day 1

Hovsep Karaguezian on SQL Load Test

Grant Holliday on TF30076: confirm that the server name is correct and tf.exe: Unable to determine the workspace

So, here is the deal:  Team System Rocks needs a new logo.  I will use the logo on the site, and maybe on any materials I may make in the future (such as T-shirts, etc...).  As far as what I want or don't want in a logo, I have no idea.  Surprise me.

So, what do you win:  A copy of Visual Studio Team Suite with a year subscription to MSDN Premium. 

So, when does the contest end:  August 31st, 2008

Send all contest entries to me at mickey_gousset@.hotmail.com.  I'll announce the winner and unveil the new logo with the new facelift of Team System Rocks.

Let the games begin!

Christian Thilmany on Using Team System Web Access Using HTTPS and Updated Team System Futures Content on Codeplex.com - Team System 2008 and Beyond

Charles Sterling on Andy Leonard talking about Team System Database Edition and Introduction to Rosario by Mitch Denny (Melbourne, Aus)

Anthony Borton on VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR July CTP is now available

Mitch Denny on VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR  - New CTP

Eugene Zakehareyev on Deny or Allow - who wins?  A sequel and StyleCop confusion cleared

Willy-Peter Schaub on TFS | VSTS Course Materal and Syllabus and Academia - VSTS/Java Interoperability Road Show: Why?

Grant Holliday on Scripting TFS workspace creation and TF84034: Team Foundation was unable to initialize the workbook

Team Foundation Server provides a mechanism by which you can subscribe to events when certain things happen.  This is actually how many of the components in TFS are integrated between themselves and like the rest of the TFS glue - Microsoft make these events available so you can customize your TFS instance.

At a high level, I purchased a Nabaztag bunny and decorated it with the Visual Studio logo and Brian the Build Bunny was born. The code behind Brian the Build Bunny is actually very simple, a web service (in my case sat in IIS on my TFS server) listens for the events and then converts this into a string on text which it sends to the Nabaztag servers.  Nabaztag run this text through a Text to Speech engine and generate an MP3 file with the results, they then notify my build bunny about the MP3 file and he downloads the file over his WiFi connection and plays it on his speakers.

But if you want the full gory details then read on.

Brian the Build Bunny Project.

Pre-requisites:

• 1 Team Foundation Server instance (a VPC one to play with first is recommended)
• 1 Nabaztag bunny
• 1 Wifi connection to the internet for the bunny to use
• 1 sheet of clear labels (to print the Visual Studio logo as Brian's bow tie).  I used Avery J8560, but then again I'm a crazy European with metric pages.

Preparation:

1. Ensure your bunny is registered with Nabaztag and you have your serial number and API token.
2. Ensure your Team Foundation Server instance (or where-ever you want to host the "bunny listener") code has internet access so that it is able to talk to the Nabaztag server.  Try pasting the following URL into Internet Explorer on the TFS instance to make sure you can get out and talk to Nabaztag:
   

   http://api.nabaztag.com/vl/FR/api.jsp?sn=SERIAL&token=TOKEN&voice=UK-Mistermuggles&tts=Hello+my+name+is+Brian+the+Build+Bunny.

   
   Remembering to insert your build bunny's serial number and API token obtained when you registered your bunny with Nabaztag.
3. Download the image teamsystem.png (70 KB) and print out the Team System logo on a clear label.  Cut around the logo and stick onto your bunny to turn him into a smart looking Build Bunny.

Code:

You can download the example code using the following link, (VS 2008 project using C# in .NET 2.0):

There are many ways to listen for Team Foundation Server SOAP events. You can have a "proper" web service living on IIS, or you have have a hosted WCF process listening to a particular port. In my particular case I was happy with the IIS approach and so used the excellent Team Foundation Server Notification Event project template from Howard van Rooijen at Conchango as that's the fastest way to get up and running when doing this type of project.  If you wanted to go down the WCF route then take a look at Martin Hinshelwood's TFS Event Handler project up on CodePlex.

I created a quick class library that is a thin wrapper over the Nabaztag API, and exposes functionality via the Bunny class including building and sending of the HTTP message to the Nabaztag servers.
 

I then created a TFS Web Services Notification project (using Howard's template).  This gives me ready-made code to hook into various events - but I just wanted the build completion event and the check-in event for this example.

Build completion event:

Check-in event:

As you can see, I really don't do that much - just build up a string based on the data in the TFS event and then send that string to the bunny.

Subscribing the Bunny Listener to the TFS Events

Finally, once the web services are ready and listening - I must now tell TFS to send a SOAP message to my web services at the appropriate time.  To do this, I used the command line tool BisSubscribe.exe.  This can be found on your TFS server in the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server\TF Setup directory.

If you open up a command prompt and cd to it then you can type:

bissubscribe /eventType BuildCompletionEvent /address http://localhost:8181/bunnylisener/BuildCompletionEndpoint.asmx /deliveryType Soap /server http://localhost:8080bissubscribe /eventType CheckinEvent /address http://localhost:8181/bunnylisener/CheckInEndpoint.asmx /deliveryType Soap /server http://localhost:8080

Where the webservices are running at http://localhost:8181/bunnylistener.

Exercises for the Reader:

As you can see, the code above is just a starter.  There are many things that you can get this new notification device to do and the code above is designed more of a sample that I can use in a talk rather than full on production code. That said, if anyone is interested in starting up a CodePlex project around this then please drop me a line.  However, the following things are on my TODO list:

• Subscribe to BuildCompletionEvent2 which has some more relevant information
• Use the GlobalSecurityService API to obtain the users real names and speak those rather than the userid.
• Store the bunny config data in web.config rather than hard-coding bunny details in BunnyConstants class
• Allow multiple bunnies to be registered (perhaps with a UI), allow each voice to be separately configured
• Make sending of messages to Nabaztag asynchronous

Additionally - rather than using the eventing service to trigger Brian on build completition events, it might be interesting to write the "Bunny Link" as a windows service and get it to subscribe to the build queue using the same API as demonstrated by my Build Wallboard sample.  That way you could make Brian talk when a build was queued or many other things.

If anyone has any questions or would like more details then please drop me a line.

Option Strict OffOption Explicit OffImports SystemImports EnvDTEImports EnvDTE80Imports EnvDTE90Imports System.DiagnosticsPublicModuleRemoveAndSortModuleSubRemoveAndSortAll()        IterateFiles()EndSubPrivateSub IterateFiles()Dim project As ProjectDim projectObjects AsObject()Dim window As WindowDim target AsObject        window = DTE.Windows.Item(Constants.vsWindowKindCommandWindow)        projectObjects = DTE.ActiveSolutionProjectsIf projectObjects.Length = 0ThenExitSubEndIf        project = DTE.ActiveSolutionProjects(0)RemoveAndSortFiles(project.ProjectItems())EndSubPrivateSubRemoveAndSortFiles(ByVal items)Dim file As ProjectItemForEach file In items            DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.SolutionExplorer")If file.Name.EndsWith(".cs") Then                file.Open()                file.Document.Activate()                DTE.ExecuteCommand("View.ViewCode")                DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.RemoveAndSort")                file.Document.Save()                file.Document.Close()EndIfIf file.ProjectItems().Count > 0ThenRemoveAndSortFiles(file.ProjectItems())EndIfNextEndSubEndModule

Brian recently wrote a post about the new features: http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2008/07/08/july-08-tfs-power-tool-preview.aspx.

This release also includes some bug fixes to the build notification app.

Enjoy!

After reading thisarticle I was convinced that Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V was the setup forme. So, I took the plunge. In the next blog post, I’ll go over the process of installingWindows Server 2008 as a workstation OS (also dubbed Windows “Workstation” 2008).

By the way, I run a Dell830 laptop with an IntelCore Duo T7500 mobile CPU and 4GB RAM. If your workstation does not support hardwarevirtualization, then it won’t run Hyper-V. However, you can enjoy the benefitsof Windows “Workstation” 2008 and still run your virts using VirtualPC 2007 SP1. Although Windows Server 2008 is not officially a supported host OSfor Virtual PC, it seems to work just fine.

Project Description

This tool takes a SQL Profiler trace file and generates a unit test that replays the same sequence of database calls found in the trace file. The unit test is designed to be used in a Visual Studio Load Test. The code generated is easily modifiable so that data variation can be introduced for the purpose of doing performance testing. The tool generates code for both Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. The source code is a Visual Studio 2005 project. The tool is still in pre-release stage of development.

Why Load Test SQL?

There is a lot of code out there that makes load testing the application very difficult. The most common type is a client application that contains direct database calls. The application however is not structured to allow the business logic to be exercised without the GUI. Another common scenario is a legacy application written in a language such as Visual Basic 6. In cases like these, it can be difficult to load test the application without a GUI test tool, which introduces other disadvantages. GUI test tools are notoriously difficult to use, generally lead to brittle tests and also have limitations in scaling the load injectors sufficiently to exercise the servers. This tool offers one possible alternative. You start with using the client application to generate a trace of the SQL statements which typically represent a usage scenario. You can then turn the trace into equivalent ADO.NET code program that can be used in a load test.

Tool Description

The tool generates a Visual Studio 2005/2008 Unit Test from a SQL Server Profiler trace. It extracts all the SQL statements and stored procedure calls from the trace and turns them into a single Visual Studio Unit Test, which can then be configured as a Visual Studio Load Test. The tool does not interact with the database itself when it analyzes the trace and generates the test code. It can therefore be used in “offline” scenarios. The generated code needs to be customized to include a connection string to the database under test. That code also includes hooks to allow the user to customize the parameters that are passed to the SQL statements and stored procedures, so that variability can be introduced into the data to prevent caching from producing artificially high performance figures. The tool is intended to be used in conjunction with a client program that runs against a database. A trace of the client’s SQL Server activity is captured using the SQL Server Profiler. This represents a test scenario, which is then processed by the tool to produce a Unit Test that replays the scenario.

Congratulations to the various Rangers involved in this project!  Please check it out and let us know what you think. 

This is a maintenance release free to everyone with a valid Teamprise 3.0 license and includes several bug fixes along with a few new features.  For the proper release notes, take a look here.  However I just wanted to point out a few highlights.

Improved Offline Support

With-out doubt, the biggest new feature in Teamprise 3.1 for most people will be the improved offline support. If you right click on a project in the Eclipse IDE, you are now presented with a "Go Offline" option which allows you to tell Teamprise not to bother trying to talk to TFS for a while (previously you had to restart Eclipse for Teamprise to ask you if you wanted to go offline, and only then after it had tried *really* hard to connect).

While offline, you can still perform all the file operations like you expect -- you can add, edit, move and delete files just like if you were online.

When you want to come back online (say when you have stepped back out of the plane, bus, meeting room), you can right click on the project and say "Return Online" and Teamprise will do it's best to detect what changes have happened while you were away, giving you the option to pend those changes.

There is even "return online" capability in the stand-alone client Teamprise Explorer which is very neat and makes working with tools that are not TFS aware a little easier too.  The actual algorithm used by the return online feature is more sophisticated than just checking for read/write status in your local workspace, we also do some magic and compare checksums of the file contents etc.  Fellow Teamprise blogger Ed Thomson was the lead developer for the offline work and he has some more details on his blog.

TFS 2008 SP1 New Feature Support

Service Pack 1 of Team Foundation Server 2008 is hopefully due out soon, and with it come lots of lovely new features. We took advantage in the timing of our 3.1 release to update Teamprise to support some of the new server capabilities so that they are available to our customers as soon as TFS 2008 SP1 arrives.  These include:

• Last check-in date/time column (see my previous post about this feature)
• Support for work item meta-data filtering option (note that this option is already being used on some of the CodePlex servers so if you use Teamprise to talk to the work item functionality in CodePlex then you probably want to upgrade to Teamprise 3.1, after all the price is right :-) ).
• tf branch -checkin command, the fastest way to create large branches and perform the check-in at the same time.

Command Line Client Improvements

In this release we are making publicly available a bunch of improvement and new features that we added to our command line client after some great feedback from one particular customer who has un-questionably the largest and most demanding Team Foundation Server install base on the planet. In particular we have added the "-format:xml" option for most commands in addition to the usual -format:brief and -format:detailed.  The -format:xml option will output data from the command line client in a format easily XML parseable without truncating output which makes it much easier to use and parse command line output in scripting scenarios.  However, there have been many more improvements so check out the release notes for more information.

64-bit support on Windows.

Not really worth calling out separately only to say that Teamprise is now the world's first commercially available x64 TFS client for Windows :-)

While we are a Java application, as mentioned before, we have a bit of JNI code to do the stuff not possible from all the JRE versions that we support (such as native authentication on Windows or making a file writable).  Also we use SWT to give us a native look and feel on all platforms and SWT works by using lots of JNI to do the presentation calls.  This meant that if you tried to run Teamprise under a x64 Java runtime we died pretty quickly.  We've had x64 support available for other platforms for a while (including Linux), but with Windows x64 support coming in Eclipse 3.4 we took the opportunity to compile our JNI code over to the Win32 x64 architecture and it works great.

On a personal note, during this activity I had to fix some bits in the core Eclipse 3.4 codebase (specifically PDE for people that are interested) and the small patches that I submitted have been applied into the main Eclipse project which is a nice feeling. Eclipse is a poster-child of open source projects and it is with some pride that I can tell people I have contributed code into it. It's also nice that as Teamprise is a commercial company that uses a lot of the Eclipse code and is an Eclipse Foundation member, we are able to do our bit and contribute something back for the benefit of all.

As you can see, we've been busy. We've hopefully cleared some adoption blockers for some of our customers, done quite a few bug fixes and performance improvements and thrown in some new features along the way.  While the headline grabbing features of interest to most people are probably the offline support and the 64-bit support, I'm very proud of this as a solid "point" release and I would encourage everyone with a valid 3.0 license to upgrade.

• Chicago Bears: Football Team Connects with Fans, Drives Web Site Traffic with Desktop Application

‘The team-oriented features of Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition helped us ensure that we didn’t introduce any defects while developing,” says Strawmyer. “For instance, the code profiling capabilities of the product quickly and clearly showed that there was no processor abuse or inconsistent use of memory.”’

• Merrill Lynch: Merrill Lynch Creates Development Framework for Increased Productivity

‘Merrill Lynch upgraded to Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 as soon as it became available. “We opted to use Visual Studio Team System because of its tightly integrated workflow, design, and development capabilities.”’

• Starz Entertainment: Movie Provider Automates to Meet Higher Demand, Reduce Costs, Improve Brand Visibility

‘The collaboration and team features in Visual Studio Team System … make it faster and easier for a group of developers—we had eight working on MediaForge—to work together reliably.’

• Thomson Reuters: Media and Information Provider Unifies Development Processes

‘Using Team Foundation Server, the team manages more than 2,000 work items, 70,000 changesets, and 200,000 files and folders. Since Online Services implemented Team Foundation Server, four other business units either have adopted it or have begun the implementation process.’

Anyway, there are many more out there if you’re interested in learning more about how other customers are using Team System.

Enjoy!

Please take a look and let us hear from you.

Thanks!

jeff

• New role running the VSTS Architecture Edition team
• DSL + UML = Pragmatic Modeling

I’d certainly recommend subscribing to his blog moving forward as I’m positive he’ll have more interesting news moving forward.

Welcome back Cameron!