VSTS

Visual Studio Export Templates and conditional inclusion of content

Tiago Pascoal — Sun, 31 May 2009 09:37:32 GMT

Visual Studio templates are a great way to give you an head start with code that has a lot of boilerplate code.

In fact you may already be using project templates withouth knowing. :-) When do option Open New Project in Visual Studio and select a project type (Windows Application, Console Application,etc) you are in fact selecting the project template that will be used to generate your project skeleton. This project skeleton not only includes some code/data files but it also includes the references to the .Net assemblies that your particular project type needs.

If you are curious of how out of the box project template looks like you can find them at:

VS 2005 - %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates
VS 2008 - %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates

Visual Studio not only provides you with a great number of project templates out of the box, but you can also write your own project templates

If you don’t want to spend time writing your project template you can find that a lot of people make them freely available on the net. For example Team System MVP Neno Loje created a project template that you can use to kickstart Team System Utilities.

You can create your own project by hand (which involves some labor) or you can create your project like you regularly do. Create all the boilerplate code, include all the references,all your content and then use that project as your project template by exporting it to a project template using the Export Template wizard (available in File->Export as Template)

I don’t want to get into much details of how you can create project templates. Either by hand or using the export option. There is plenty of information about that already.

You can read some fine information about it on these articles:

Create Reusable Project And Item Templates For Your Development Team – What are project/item templates and how you can create them. This should be enough to get you started. Although creating your own wizards it a little bit light.
Visual Studio 2005 Project And Item Templates – How to create project/item templates. The author explains the inner workings of project templates, how you can create them by hand, using the export wizard. It also explains how to include your own wizard and a even how to create an installer for your project template (however this is only needed if your project template has code that needs to by installed in the GAC (eg: your own wizards). If it’s only the template you can get away with the much easier VS Studio Content Installer VSI files)
Custom Project Templates for XNA Game Studio 2.0 – Not only explains how to export project templates. But also explains some inner working of project templates by explaining how you can merge two different project templates.
How to: Package Community Components to Use the Visual Studio Content Installer – How to create a VS content installer file (VSI) to easily install your project templates

Not to get back to the real intent of this post. :-) Conditional inclusion of content.

Starting with VS 2008 your project templates can have content that is only included if a certain condition is met. This is a simple IF condition and all you can do is comparing the value of a parameter to a value.

for this you simple have to use on your template files $if$ (<expression>) <your content here> $endif$

For example if your project template allows framework multi targeting you can use this to include references to Framework 3.5

$if$ ($targetframeworkversion$ == 3.5)using System.Linq;
$endif$

You can check here the list of parameters that are available out of the box and but you can also reference parameters added in the CustomParameters element or parameters added by your wizard.

Now there is a catch. In order to use conditions, your template has to be a template of version 3.0.0 (the template version is defined in VSTemplate element of the .vstemplate file)

eg: <VSTemplate Version="3.0.0" Type="Project" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/vstemplate/2005">

What is the catch then? If you use the export template to create your project template (even in VS 2008) the project template is exported as version 2.0.0 and you have to manually edit the .vstemplate file to use version 3.0.0 if you wish to use the $if$ functionality.

Post Scriptum: If you think project templates aren’t up to the level of customization you want, you can also use your own wizard in project template. And from that wizard use the VS API to do more complex things on the created project (or/and the solution that is going to hold it). And if that is not enough you can combine it with Software Factories to make it even more powerful.

DevDays 09 wrap up

Tiago Pascoal — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:52:44 GMT

Last week we had the DevDays 09 event. A two day event packed with more than 50 sessions in which i did 3 sessions (technically two and a half).

The last time we had a local DevDays event was in 2004. Which brings back some memories, Due to the foulness of someone who shall remain nameless i was invited to speak for the first on a Microsoft event (something which has been repeating ever since). It was a session about the on the defunct Shadowfax

Since then Microsoft didn’t organized any local Devdays (in 2005,2007 and 2008 we had TechDays) but this year IT was left out so we had DevDays which is mainly a developer event.

This year i was present in the architecture and the developer tracks. I did three sessions:

ARC206 Patterns & Anti-Patterns – While attending a session on Teched EMEA, me and Jota agreed that not only it was the best session we had attended so far. That we should present it on DevDays 09 :-).

It was a presentation about Architectue Patterns & Anti-Patterns, the first (and only :-)) mistake we did was placing patterns on the title since we only talked about architecture anti-patterns.

The presentation went very well, the room was packed (actually it was overflowing the people present exceeded the capacity of the room (which was 150 people)) and people seemed to genuinely like it (at least the session feedback was unusually high for an architecture talk). The presentation was based on Teched EMEA’s ARC 203 Architectures: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Based being the operative word. We not only cut the presentation in half so we could concentrate on the most important issues we also rewrote the content. If I’m allowed to say so i think we somehow manage to surpass the original presentation. :-)

The session went so well that me and Jota are already conjuring what we should come with next time. :-)

TLA206-Scrum e Team System – This was a mixed and ungrateful presentation. I wanted to do a talk on both Scrum and Team System. Since the time was short i had to base my session on the assumption that people were allready familiar with Scrum and had a vague idea what Tem System is.

In this session I’ve shown the three available process templates to use Scrum with Team System, namely:

Scrum for Team System from Conchango
eScrum from Microsoft
VSTS Scrum Template (AKA lightweight scrum) which is driven by the community

I’ve tried to enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of the three alternatives and i showed how you can leverage Team System while using Scrum. I did this by demoing Scrum for Team System and how you can complement it by using Scrum Dashboard to have a complete and visual grasp of the progress of your sprint. I’ve also shown how you can use Conchango’s TaskBoard to let you plan and manage your sprint more easily in a graphical manner.

The session was well received by the 120 people that were present.

TLA303 – Customização e Extensibilidade Team System – This was a session on customization and extensibility of Team System. This was a 300 level session and it was assumed people knew what Team System is. Perhaps this scared people off because the session wasn’t full. I don’t have an official count, but by calculations there were probably 68-80 people on the room. This is a purely hands on session. The session has 5 slides with content (excluding titles,etc) on which 3 are images, so it leaves us with 2 slides of information. The rest was done purely on a Virtual Machine with VSTS doing demos. Customization and extensibility is a topic that can be talked for hours so i had to focus my talk on a few topics. I’ve chosen these ones:

Customizing a process template (including reporting)
Using the Object Model
Work Item Custom Controls
Source Control Checkin Policies

In this session I wanted to do something different. Instead of the usual show the power and ease of process customization demo by demoing how it is possible to customize a process by adding a field to a bug to allow you to list the client who reported it or the date that is expected to have this feature implement or such trivial task.

To show the power of TFS i did a demo totally unrelated to software development. I created a process template from scratch to manage a soccer championship. Not only i modeled the games fixtures (so we can track the calendar, the results, which games have already been played,etc) I’ve also used it to model the workflow of the logistics that happens behind the scenes the allow the game to happen (you know, arrange the police escorts,referees, game reports, notify the press in sum all the tasks that need to happen before and after a game).

The has been modeled using TFS built in capabilities.

Areas to segregate different divisions (1st division, 2nd division,etc)
Iterations to model championship seasons and game weeks
Global list to hold the list of teams
Team Queries to see which games are scheduled, already played,etc,etc

To show the power of the object model I’ve created two demos

One that draws the whole championship fixtures in a random manor by creating all the work items that represent a game
An editor that allow you to see the games (leverages the team queries defined in the process template), edit a game or create associated tasks to a game.

Since the referee have to send reports about the game and sometimes they may include in the report non advisable words I’ve also shown how do develop a custom checkin policy to recommend referees not to include some words in the report. :-) (If you are Portuguese and keep up to date with soccer behind the scenes maneuvers this is much more clearer. Como diria o Octávio “Vocês sabem do que eu estou a falar”)

The session went well (not great but well), but the feedback was positive and people seemed to like my non traditional demo. :-)

I have to refine some of the demos and to make the story and the transition between the demos more smooth. To make things more easy i wanted to have a slide explaining the things i was leveraging in a demo, but this required a second project to show the slides while the demos were happening and a second project simply wasn’t available. Alas next time things will go smoother.

I thing overrall DevDays was very positive. As a whole things seemed to went rather well and this year the evaluations (at a general level) seemed to be above last events average.

At a personal level things went well too. I pulled of the fact that I had to present three sessions in two days.

Not to escape other events tradition, I was stalked by the usual Paparazzi which at the end of the last day managed to corner me and made me mumble a few words to a camera.

New Team System Web Site

Tiago Pascoal — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:31:11 GMT

Microsoft has launched a revamped Team System web site. It’s not only a more clean site has it has more dynamic content coming not only from MS team system team as well as aggregating and pointing to content written by the community.

Malevich – A new code review system

Tiago Pascoal — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:53:12 GMT

In a previous post i slightly grasped (actually just pointed to a good post) about the dynamic of code reviews.

I’ve also talked about the lack of tools for doing code reviews in Team System, something that JB Brown (from TeamReview) picked it up and wrote about it a such clear and sucint way that i should have done it in the first place. :-)

Anyway there seems to be a new kid in town. A new web based code review system that can be used in conjunction with TFS.

It is called Malevich, you can read it’s announcement right here or you can just go directly to the Malevich project site on codeplex.

I haven’t tried it yet but it seems a nice and capable. The TFS integration is a bit on the light side, since it only interacts with source control (since it supports other source control systems as well). You also need to use a command line tool to start code reviews.

If Visual Studio supported extending the checkin window it would be possible to add a way to trigger a code review directly from there. Since an addin would be come in very handy to start code reviews directly from Visual Studio.

When a code review is “requested” a mail is sent to the person (or persons) that are invited to review the code, it would also be nice if a code review task as automatically created in the work item store.

The good thing is that Malevich is available with source so you can hack it yourself. :-)

Team System Virtual Machines updates

Tiago Pascoal — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 08:09:42 GMT

TheVSTS 2008 virtual machines that are currently available are set to expire on 31 December, so Microsoft by the magical hand of Brian Randell dressed as santa (people who know Brian can easily get the resemblance :-)) and updated the virtual machines to expiry on 31 December 2009.

Not only he updated the machine with the latest goodies (power tools, the database edition GDR) but he also added to the list 2 new virtual images that can be run on Hyper-V, this brings up a total of 4 virtual machines (one with only TFS and another with TFS and Team Suite).

This is what has been included

the latest virtual machine additions or integration services components
all of the latest Windows Updates as of December 1, 2008
Team Foundation Server 2008 SP1
Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite SP1
Team System Web Access 2008 SP1
Team Foundation Power Tools, October 2008 update
the latest MSSCCI provider
Team Explorer 2005 (this allows you to work with TFS from Visual Studio 2005 which is installed so that you can edit and customize TFS reports)
the GDR for the product formally known as Visual Studio 2008 Database Edition (aka Data Dude)
current Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and Background Info

You can get the goods here

VSTS “all-up” Virtual PC/Virtual Server image (6 GB download, expands to 15 GB)
TFS “only” Virtual PC/Virtual Server image (3 GB download, expands to 8 GB)
VSTS “all-up” Hyper-V image (6 GB download, expands to 15 GB)
TFS “only” Hyper-V image (3 GB download, expands to 8 GB)

Or read all the details on Brian's post

TFS Branching guidance 2.0 has been released

Tiago Pascoal — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 18:24:52 GMT

When I give a Team System Workshop one of the topics that tends to generate some discusssions is the module about source control and branching (mainly the branching patterns and usage).

Branching is not an easy subject, it normally requires a mindset shift for people who are not used to it. Specially when there are so many ways of doing it.

In TFS 2010 branching is going to be a lot easier and powerful since the team has been spending a lot of time on branching and visualization support

When it comes to branching patterns my bible is still Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration but a few days ago the VSTS Rangers with the collaboration of the VSTS MVP's has launched the second release of the TFS Branching Guide on codeplex. This will help TFS users deal with branching scenarios and usages in TFS.

What will you get if you download the package?

TFS Branching Guide - Main 2.0

This is the main article which briefly explains branching concepts and introduces 3 levels of the most common branching scenario

TFS Branching Guide - Scenarios 2.0

A collection of less common branching scenarios

TFS Branching Guide - Q&A 2.0

A set of most frequently asked questions with answers

TFS Branching Guide - Drawings 2.0

A set of branching drawings in different formats including a large branching poster

TFS Branching Guide - Labs 2.0

A couple of examples for hands on labs with step by step instruction for practicing the branching scenarios

Nova Comunidade VSTS no Brasil

Tiago Pascoal — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:17:43 GMT

Foi lançado no brasil uma nova comunidade virtual de Visual Studio Team System.

É muito recente mas já conta com alguns membros.

Para os interessados, podem encontrá-la aqui

Customizing and extending Team System Session

Tiago Pascoal — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:26:30 GMT

On the 26th of this month I'm going to deliver a session on customizing and extending Team System.

This will be almost exclusively an hands on session. Only some introductory slides and then a deep dive into a virtual machine for a handful of demos.

Since the demos are not written (nor the slides :)). So I can't promise anything but my plan is to do demos that escape from the usual development process demos.

Is this enough of a teaser to spike your curisioty? come and see the session.

The event an an half day event and will be held in Microsoft Portugal auditorium and you can register for the event here (free :-))

Team Foundation Power Tools - October 2008 Just Released

Tiago Pascoal — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:42:03 GMT

The Team Foundation Power Tool has just been released.

It includes major news since the last release.

Major features highlights:

Explorer Extension - That's right you will now be able to do operations on TFS source controlled files directly from windows explorer!!!!
The concept of Teams (team tools) - The concepts have teams have been introduced. You can see teams inside team explorer (it even has IM integration). It also allows you to have team queries (work items for the team (or sub teams) instead of just my work teams)
Power Shell Extensions - If you are a scripting buff youwill love this
TFS Server Manager - Watch statistics and data about TFS usage (this is the tool Brian Harry uses to give us the TFS dogfood statistics on his blog)

The installer as also been greatly improved (for example the setup is now per machine instead of per user), tfpt.exe had some additions and the help file has been improved.

The Team Tools has a GREAT feature. It allows you to automatically get updates for custom contents (custom controls, check in policies,..) this will greatly reduce the hassle of manually distributing custom controls and check in policies.

Go grab it. I still haven't tried the final version but i have been using a pre release version for a few weeks and it's great (love the team tools).

Kudos for Team System Team to deliver value added tools between the major releases.

It is available for download here

[Update: Anthony Borton has published a post of how to do unattended install of the power tools]

TFS: I have a volume license but can't find my serial number anywhere...

Tiago Pascoal — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:25:10 GMT

This is the question I hear a lot.

People install a TFS trial and when they license it with a volume license agreement but they can't find their serial number to upgrade from trial to licensed version.

After failing to find the key, they do the sensible thing. Call Support. :-) Which normally doesn't help.

Here is the recipe to quick found your key.

Download the TFS ISO file from the volume licensing site.

Either burn the image or use an ISO reader to see it's contents.

There should be a folder called AT which contains a file called setup.sdb

Open setup.sdb with a text editor (notepad will do fine) and search for the string Product Key

The next line contains the product key.

Voilá. You are now read to fire up TFS setup (control panel->add/remove programs) and enter your serial key.