MSF, VSTS and TFS tales...

Two sessions at Microsoft Days '08 in Sofia

barbilor — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 03:10:36 GMT

I'm arrived yesterday in Sofia to speak at Microsoft Days '08.

It's the first time for me in Bulgaria, and it's my first time as an "official" Microsoft Evangelist.

Yesterday evening I attended the conference party, very cool and very well organized, with dancers, a famous (in Bulgaria) Rock Band and with all the Conference Hostess dressed like Cheerleaders.

Today I woke up early to finish my slides, and at 9.30 I delivered the first session about "Virtualization Technologies for Developers". The room was completely full, with more than 30 people standing at the back of the room. At the end I received a lot of interesting questions.

In the afternoon I delivered the second session about "TFS in the real world", with less people attending, but with a lot of questions during the session itself. At the end I was blocked in the corridor by people who wanted to congratulate with me for the session and that wanted to make other questions.

I also met Martin Kulov (one of my fellow VSTS MVP), both at the party and in the Speaker Lounge (he also delivered two great sessions today). At the end of the conference I took a taxi and I went in the center of Sofia, a city full of nice panoramas, and with some "strange" people.

Tomorrow I'll come back to Italy, but I really enjoyed the conference, the people and the city.

A new journey...

barbilor — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:47:33 GMT

Two days ago I joined Microsoft Italy in the Developer and Platform Evangelim division.

It's a great pleasure for me joining that team of highly skilled people, I've already worked with most of them several times in the past two years, but now it's completely different.

i don't think that my "blue badge" means that I'm arrived. I think that a new journey is just started, and I really want to enjoy every km (or mile... for my US friends... ), I want to leave a sign hoping that it's not on the sand.

I'll deliver two sessions at Microsoft Days '08 in Bulgaria

barbilor — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:29:11 GMT

I'm really happy because I was invited to speech at Microsoft Days '08 in Bulgaria.

The conference will be in April (24th and 25th).

I'll deliver a session about Team Foundation Server in the real world and another session about Virtualization technologies for developers.

Here is my bio with the links to my sessions.

Other speakers are David Sceppa, Jason Beres, Martin Kulov and many more!!!

When Transparency is not enough

barbilor — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:32:26 GMT

Last Friday I was speaking with a friend about the value of transparency.

With Team Foundation Server it's possible to be completely transparent about current and previous projects.

Everybody (or better, every login that we trust ) could access reports, work items, documents, builds, source code, with the appropriate permissions (from no access, to read only, modify, and so on), also on the Internet (using for example the Team System Web Access power tool).

This is a HUGE step forward. But it's not enough.

A glass window is completely transparent, but if I don't look through it, for me it's completely opaque and its content it's completely obscure.

The tool must allow us to be completely transparent (like TFS), but it's necessary to have the will to go beyond "opaque" transparency to have a clear understanding of what's going on.

I remember the initial selling points of Windows Vista: Clear, Confident and Connected.

I think that TFS has all the three attributes, but after that there is the human factor, and sometimes (it really depends on people involvement) it's better to schedule a meeting to discuss project status, using all the data from TFS, instead of saying "the truth is out there" (in TFS... ).

It's easy to check the IIS logs (or to remove permissions to appropriate users and wait for their complaints), and if nobody is accessing the data, we can act.

What happens when a Working Folder is removed from a Workspace

barbilor — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:09:09 GMT

Team Foundation Server has the notion of Workspaces (Working with Version Control Workspaces on MSDN for more details).

One of the things that "scare" users the first time they use Workspaces is what happens when a Working Folder mapping is removed (or changed) from the local Workspace: all the local copies are deleted.

Users are scared because they fear to loose all their files, but this is not the case.

Files that are mapped on the server are preserved there, while files that are local are handled in different ways, but they're never deleted (unless the user select the wrong option). Let's examine three examples:

Example #1: Files and folders that are not mapped on the server

In the first example, a Visual Studio Solution is mapped inside the TFSRTM08 Workspace:

Inside the local folder there is a TXT file that is not mapped inside the Workspace.

If we decide to remove the Working Folder mapping between the Source Control Folder and the Local Folder using the Edit Workspace dialog:

Team Explorer detects that the Working Folder mapping is changed and needs a Get Latest Version to update the Workspace. Team Explorer 2005 will remind it with a messagebox, while Team Explorer 2008 allows to invoke the operation directly from the messagebox:

When the Workspace is updated (from the messagebox, from Team Explorer or from the command line) all the mapped files and folders are deleted from the local path.

If there are files (and folders in our case) that are not mapped, they are preserved, but all the other are gone.

Example #2: Removing a folder with pending changes

If the user has some pending changes in the Working Folder:

the pending changes are preserved if the mapping is removed (the steps to remove the mapping are the same as the previous example):

Example #3: Removing a folder with a writable mapped file

A file that is not checked out by the user is made writable by removing the read-only attribute:

When the Working Folder mapping is removed (as shown in the first example) and the Get Latest version operation is executed, a conflict on the local writable file is detected:

To resolve the conflict the user can choose to overwrite the local file (and in this case the file is deleted from the client) or to ignore the conflict:

If the conflict is ignored the file remains on the client:

Technorati Tags: TFS, Workspaces

Book Review: I. M. WRIGHT'S "HARD CODE"

barbilor — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:33:40 GMT

This is the best book ever published by Microsoft Press. PERIOD!

Eric Brechner already has one of the best blogs on MSDN, but he also have written a great book.

The book is the collection of 49 "Hard Code" columns that were first published on some Microsoft private sites.

If you've enjoyed Joel on Software and Eric Sink on the Business of Software you already know the style of the book. The only difference (a big one!) is that those books were made by "public" posts, this one is made up by "internal" columns, not initially thought to be published outside Microsoft.

The columns (and the book) are brutally honest, and are written with a very direct language (don't expect "politically correctness" or other forms of "clean" language), this book goes directly to the point.

It's a best practices book, not only about coding, but also about managing projects, people, work vs life, security, life cycle management, and so on.

If you plan to read only one book this year (), be sure to pick this one, and perhaps it will change your life!

If you already want to grow and read more than one book this year, be sure to start from this one... perhaps it will change your growing path .

I. M. Wright's Hard Code (Best Practices)
by Eric Brechner

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Book review: Global Outsourcing with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System

barbilor — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 03:58:28 GMT

This book covers Visual Studio Team System from a different perspective. It shows how to use VSTS and TFS to help in outsourcing scenarios.

It's one of the most addictive and complete book about VSTS and TFS, because it covers most of the topics with a very practical attitude. Things like Project integration, custom reporting, Office Communicator integration in Team Explorer, MSF customization, and more, like a custom plug in for Microsoft Outlook.

It also includes topics like unit testing, version control and team build, Excel reports customization and so on.

This book is one of the must have for every VSTS and TFS user, because it goes deeply in many details and it's very well written. If you're interested in the "outsourcing business", and even if you're not interested at all, this is the book to buy!

Global Outsourcing with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System (Networking & Security Series)
by Jamil Azher

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Always show solution

barbilor — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:36:00 GMT

Visual Studio by default doesn't show the Solution under Solution Explorer if there is only one project.

For example, I've created a Visual C# Windows Application called "WindowsApplication123" in a solution called "Solution123", and left the default option to "Create directory for solution".

In the Solution Explorer only the project is visible:

I don't like this default because I cannot right-click the solution and quickly add a new project. I've to go to File, New, Project and then select to create the new project inside the existing solution (and it's not the default option in this case):

The second problem is related to the "Add Project to Source Control" menu item:

That, in reality is a "Add Solution to Source Control":

Because it not only adds the project, but also the solution:

To avoid these problems (and perhaps also others that I don't remember now...) the first thing that I do when I install Visual Studio is to select "Always show solution" under Tools, Options, Projects and Solutions:

With this option, the solution is shown also when there is only one project:

Configuring Test Project defaults

barbilor — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:54:04 GMT

One complaint made by new users of Visual Studio Team System 2005 (Tester, Developer and Suite) is that when they have a Visual C# Project and they select "Create Unit Tests" from the context menu, the Test Project is created by default in VB, and not in C#.

To change this behavior it's really simple. In the Tools menu select Options, and then Test Tools, Test Project:

The first option is the default test project type. When "Visual C# test projects" is selected, the default language in the wizard will be C#.

Another complaint that I often receive is that users only want to create the Unit Tests that they've selected, and not also the Manual Test (or other test types). Unselecting unwanted test types (and also the "About Test Projects") will remove them from new projects (they can also be created later).

These options are available depending on the installed version of Visual Studio (for example Database Unit Test is available only when VSTE for Database Professionals is installed).

Visual Studio 2008 (Professional and Team System editions) has another option, that automatically creates a test project using the language of the production code (this works with "Create Unit Tests", the default language for normal Test Project creation is still selected using the combo-box).

As you can see, Visual Basic is the default language, but the default for the Test Project is in the same language of the code under test.

Another unknown feature (available both in VSTS2005 and VS2008) is the ability to filter methods in the Create Unit Tests form. You can select to display non-public items, base types or your code only.

Visual Studio Options are full of interesting items, I really suggest to explore them.

Technorati Tags: Unit Test, Test Projects

MVP Award: I was awarded for the third year

barbilor — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:17:08 GMT

I just received the MVP Award for the third year.

I'm MVP Visual Developer - Team System for the second consecutive year. It's really an honor to be part of this group with a lot of enthusiastic people.

Technorati Tags: MVP

Happy new year!!!

barbilor — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 22:29:25 GMT

I want to wish a happy new year to all the readers of this blog, to all VSTS MVPs, to all the people in the VSTS Product Team, and to everybody else!!!

TFS 2008 Power Tools: TweakUI

barbilor — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 20:33:16 GMT

TweakUI is one of the command line utilities that are available using TFPT.EXE:

This tool allows to configure how Team Explorer 2008 connects to different Team Foundation Servers.

In the main window there are all the global options. The most useful one is the first option that allows to specify if Team Explorer automatically connects to the last TFS on startup. Changing this option is very useful when the PC is often used in disconnected scenarios, because it allows Team Explorer (and Visual Studio 2008) to start quickly.

With this Power Tool is also possible to create new connections to Team Foundation Server, or it's possible to configure existing connections:

It's possible to disable the auto reconnection only to specific servers (for example one can disable the connection to a CodePlex server, while maintaining the auto reconnection to a corporate server), and is also possible to put the server offline (one of the new feature of Team Explorer 2008 is the ability to work disconnected from Team Foundation Server and then being able to reconnect to it and resolve all the conflicts).

It's also possible to configure Team Explorer to use SSL to connect to the specific instance of TFS and eventually to use a client certificate to authenticate the client, instead of using NTLM or Basic Authentication.

For more information about configuring TFS to use SSL you can see this MSDN page. A step by step guide on enabling SSL on the server can be found here. For more information about mapping client certificates in IIS you can see this page on TechNet.

I wanted to be able to use the tool without starting it from command line. To do so, I added it to Visual Studio as an External Tool. I went to Tools->External Tools and configured the options like in this picture:

More details on the External Tools Dialog Box can be found on MSDN.

The final result is this:

At this point it's very easy to customize TFS Connection Settings without going to the command line.

As a side note, you can configure also Team Explorer 2005 to do not automatically reconnect to the latest TFS by setting the following registry key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\TeamFoundation]
AutoLoadServer = 0 [DWORD]

The registry key for Team Explorer 2008 is the same, only with 9.0 before TeamFoundation.

Technorati Tags: TFS2008, Power Tools

TFS 2008 Power Tools: Open in Windows Explorer

barbilor — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 05:40:31 GMT

TFS 2008 Power Tools were released some days ago (you can download the setup here). The package includes some command line utilities, the TFS Best Practice Analyzer, the Build Notification Tool, the Process Template Editor, and it also have some extensions to the Team Explorer IDE (more details about the Power Tools can be found here).

In this release there is a new IDE extension called "Navigate to Windows Explorer":

It allows to open a new Windows Explorer window directly to the Local Path of the selected folder in Source Control Explorer (this feature also works in the Find in Source Control results window).

This feature is very useful especially with folders with file types not directly mapped in Visual Studio.

There is only one little problem with the tool. You can select a folder also in the right pane of the Source Control Explorer, but the Windows Explorer window is opened in the Local Path of the selected folder in the tree view on the left (the actual path is the one near the Local Path label, and not the selected folder):

This can cause some confusion if the parent folder is not mapped in the Workspace, but the selected folder is mapped:

Apart this little problem, it's really a useful feature. I hope that it will be included in the upcoming version of Team Explorer, like some of the previous Power Tools that were included in Team Explorer 2008.

Technorati Tags: TFS2008, Power Tools

Updated blog skin, feed and domain name

barbilor — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:01:45 GMT

Today I decided to start blogging again on this blog. And I updated the blog skin and the feed. I also redirected one of my domain names to this site.

Now you can reach this blog using this URLs:

Blog: http://www.lorenzobarbieri.info
Feed: http://feeds.lorenzobarbieri.info/vsts

If you've subscribed to the blog using the old feed (http://teamsystemrocks.com/blogs/barbilor/rss.aspx) please update the URL. The old URL is still working, but it's better to use the new one, because of new features and optimizations.

In the next days I'll continue to update the blog skin (and the blog itself...), so stay tuned.

Book review: Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System

barbilor — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:33:05 GMT

There are a lot of books about VSTS and TFS, but this is the only one that covers in great details the delicate art of managing a project using VSTS/TFS.

The book contains a lot of topics related to project management, both with and without VSTS. It uses MSF for Agile Software Development as the underlying methodology, but it also covers MSF for CMMI Process Improvement in some paragraphs. It relates MSF Agile aspects to PMIBOK and other "classic" ways to look at project management.

I really like the fact that the book is very direct and it uses a lot of examples and real cases to explain the different topics. Every aspect of a project lifecycle is covered, from inception to planning, execution, monitoring, and so on. Process improvement is covered, too.

All the tools that VSTS and TFS offer are covered (Team Explorer, Excel, Project, WSS, SSRS, and so on) with great details. I really liked the explanation on how to use Excel and Project to define, plan and schedule Work Items, because they go beyond the basic use (as an example the book shows how to use Pivot tables and custom project reports).

It's also the only book that explains how to customize the process template using the Process Template Editor (originally made by Joel, one of the authors of the book).

Managing Projects with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System (Pro-Developer)
by Joel Semeniuk, Martin Danner

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I bought the book during Tech Ed 2007 in Orlando, and I was very lucky to have it signed by both authors: