Shai Raiten's Blog : DEV, Team System 2010, Source Control

The Git Hole

shair — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:31:00 GMT

I consider myself a calm person with plenty of tolerance, I believe in productive discussion and love it – Part of my job as a consultant is to talk with Teams and explain them why you should choose a specific product over another, in 99.9% of those meetings there is one guy that don’t like the change (No One Like Changes) and you need in a calm way to explain and show him the benefits of the new tool – Forcing someone to do something is never a good thing.

But sometimes there is no wining side in a discussion, you might say discussion are not about winning is about Accepting and Understanding, but Imagine yourself this scenario - You are a religious man, how about a discussion with a non-religious about “Does God Exists”?

You can throw billion argumentation's but nothing will matter because in this discussion there is not Logic but Faith and Emotions, so you can spend hours but in the end the non-religious will not believe and the religious will.

Even when you talk about Technology there is emotions if you like it or not – If you not believe me you should read some theory's from Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan and Sub Judice , (Latin for "under judgment"), I hope in this discussion you’ll understand you are not the first and for sure not the last how think he can control his emotions when you make a choice.

So why I told you all about that? Lately I’ve being asked about why TFS and Not Git?

First I think Git is a wonderful version control system and I even use it for several projects, I use SVN and several other Open Source Version Control Systems.

The reason sometimes I’m using other systems than TFS, is for specific projects:

Project I do by myself and I don’t need work assignment or project management.
Projects that doesn’t have Testers, Product Manager or anyone else besides Developers.
Projects that doesn't care about team collaboration and think that Email is a great solution for tracking the team.
Project that doesn't have the money to buy TFS (Dream Spark)

The question itself implies that the person didn’t understand what is TFS, and just think about saving his praised code.

Team Foundation Server – This is a suite of development tools all within a single platform
The idea of one platform for the entire team is brilliant. Microsoft created tools for each individual position on the team; there are tools for Requirements Management, design tools for Architects, Developer tools and of course testing tools ranging from manual test to automation and load testing. All is this is now under one platform. When the entire team works on the same platform the collaboration and integration become easy and fluent, collecting data to generate reports no longer needs to take a lot of time. The team’s efforts are now integrated as part of the platform. Synchronizing between different tools is no longer necessary because all are working together in one place.

So after I explain what is TFS the person told me –> but TFS doesn’t have distributed version control.

SO WHAT? Git doesn’t have Bug Management, Load Testing, UML Designer, Build Machine and a lot more. It’s not all about Code!

So developers think that everything about the Product is up to them – and they are wrong! the product is something that everyone is part of, the Project Manager, the Business Analysis, the Developers, Tester and more.

Sometimes one less feature is best for the Team than one extra feature just for you!

Now, let’s go back to the discussion, even after I explain TFS the person still want Git (although his company bought TFS) and in that point I understand that this is the same discussion as “Does God Exists” because the person has HMS (Hate Microsoft Syndrome) and this is what he believes.

Is there a cure? I really don’t know. But I do know that Emotions overcome common sense and facts.

I Love Microsoft and I really Love TFS, but TFS is not the only tool at the market today that gives teams the ability to work together under a single platform, there is IBM Jazz or HP ALM Solution, but with not doubt TFS is mature and most popular ALM tool today and I will continue recommend TFS and I’ll not surrender the HMS!!!

God, give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Thanks

Convert NUnit To MSTest Unit Test

shair — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:16:00 GMT

Visual Studio ALM Video & Two Updates for TFS/VS You Should Install

shair — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:31:00 GMT

Some news for Visual Studio 2010, I’ll start from several updates you should to apply on you TFS and Visual Studio.

KB - TFS 2010 SP1 Cumulative Update 1 – KB2536929

This is the first Update from Microsoft since SP1, and the new concept from Microsoft is to release hot fixes for critical bugs, every once in a while when the development team feels they have critical mass of fixes they will publish new Update includes all hot fixes. – So make sure your Visual Studio and TFS are up to date.

This update should be installed on TFS application tiers and build servers. It need not be installed elsewhere (clients or proxies).
*IMPORTANT UPDATE* - Don't install this patch on a TFS proxy!

KB - Rollup Update - Testing Tools in Visual Studio 2010 SP1 – Read KB

The above update solves several issues in Coded UI Testing:

Attempted to access an unloaded AppDomain. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131014)
"Search may have failed at '<name>' <control type> as it may have virtualized children. If the control being searched is descendant of '<name>' <control type> then including it as the parent container may solve the problem."
And More - Read KB

Visual Studio ALM + Team Foundation Server Blog

Esther Fan has released a great list of videos from MSDN about Visual Studio ALM, you will find videos for Testing, Development, Visualization, Modeling, and Architecture, Team Foundation Server and Lab Management.

Article - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vstsue/archive/2011/06/15/videos-about-visual-studio-alm-team-foundation-server-2010-on-msdn.aspx

A Glimpse:

Testing

Lab Management

TFS API Part 38 – Create Label

shair — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:16:00 GMT

In my last post on TFS API I summarize in Index Page include 37 parts -http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/shair/archive/2011/05/18/tfs-api-index-parts-1-to-37.aspx

And I coming back with more about TFS API, and Today about how to create Label using TFS API.

Download Demo Project

Step 1: Create Project and Add Reference

Create an WPF/WinForm application and add the following references:

First add reference for

Microsoft.TeamFoundation.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Common.dll
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.dll

All files located under - c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\ReferenceAssemblies\v2.0\

Step 2: Connect Team Foundation Server

for creating Label the only object we need to obtain is VersionControlServer, everything we need is there.

private void BtnConnectClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{     var dp = new TeamProjectPicker(TeamProjectPickerMode.NoProject, false);     dp.ShowDialog(); //Display DomainProjectPicker     if (dp.SelectedTeamProjectCollection != null)     {         tfs = dp.SelectedTeamProjectCollection;         //Create VersionControlServer object from TFS         sourceControl = (VersionControlServer)tfs.GetService(typeof(VersionControlServer));         bg.RunWorkerAsync();     }
}

Step 3: Map Source Control

I’ve already talked about this in the past, so please check this post - TFS API Part 16: Mapping Source Control Using VersionControlServer

(Also in the Demo Project)

Step 4: Create Label

And for the important part, when we draw the source control tree we assigned the Server Path ($/Project/Folder etc) as Tag – and this is very important because this is our Label Scope.

We will start with creating VersionControlLabel contains the VersionControlServer object, Label Name, Owner and Comments.

Then we need to define the ItemSpec for the label – Which Files, Folder we want to Label.

And Finally using VersionControlLabel.CreateLabel with our settings.

private void btnCreateLabel_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{     if (SourceTree.SelectedItem == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(txtLabelName.Text) ||

   comboLabelChildOption.SelectedItem == null || comboRecursion.SelectedItem == null) return;

    //get the full path from the selected file\folder   
    var path = ((TreeViewItem)SourceTree.SelectedItem).Tag.ToString();

    //Represents a version control label.   
    var versionControlLabel = new VersionControlLabel(sourceControl, txtLabelName.Text, sourceControl.AuthorizedUser,path, txtComments.Text);

    //Represents one or more files or folders on the local machine or in the repository.
    var itemSpec = new ItemSpec(path, (RecursionType)comboRecursion.SelectedItem);

    // What items should this label apply to? 
    var labelItemSpec = new LabelItemSpec[1];

    labelItemSpec[0] = new LabelItemSpec(itemSpec, VersionSpec.Latest, false);

    //*** LabelChildOption ***   
    //If you use Replace, any item that you specify in your request that's already in the label will be  
    //replaced by what you have specified. Anything that's not in the label already will be added to   
    //the label, and existing items that aren't modified by your request will remain as they were.    
    //Use Merge to leave unmodified items that are in your request but that already exist in the label. 
    //Any item in your request that's not already in the label will be added to the label, and existing
    //items in the label that aren't specified in your label will remain unchanged. Explaining the Fail    
    //option is not easy. Labels have the notion of a scope. The Fail option says that the call to create     
    //or update the label should fail if there is at least one label by the same name that exists at a      
    //scope that would be below the scope of the new label.

    var lb = sourceControl.CreateLabel(versionControlLabel, labelItemSpec, (LabelChildOption)comboLabelChildOption.SelectedItem);

    MessageBox.Show(lb[0].Status.ToString());
}

Download Demo Project

Enjoy.

Change Visual Studio Compare Tool To WinMerge

shair — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:50:00 GMT

This is old news but sometimes it’s better to refresh the memory for those who don’t know how to do that, most of the people that came from Other tools than Visual Studio already use to other Compare Tools and want to use them.

Open Visual Studio 2010, navigate to Tools menu and Options.

Navigate to Source Control –> Visual Studio Team Foundation… –> Click the “Configure User Tools…”

Complete the below fields to configure WinMerge with Visual Studio Source Control.

Extension: .*

Operation: Compare

Command: C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe

Arguments: /ub /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2

%1 = Original file (in diff, the pre-changes file, in merge, the "server" or "theirs" file, the file that is the base file after "their" changes were applied)
%2 = Modified file (in diff, the post-changes file, in merge the "yours" file - the base file with "your" changes applied)
%3 = Base file (in the 3-way merge operation, the file which both "theirs" and "yours" are derived from - the common ancestor. This doesn't mean it's the version the changes were based from, since this may be a cherry-pick merge)
%4 = Merged file (The output file for the merge operation - the filename that the merge tool should write to)
%5 = Diff options (any additional command-line options you want to pass to your diff tool - this comes into play only when using "tf diff /options" from the command-line)
%6 = Original file label (The label for the %1 file)
%7 = Modified file label (The label for the %2 file)
%8 = Base file label (The label for the %3 file)
%9 = Merged file label (The label for the %4 file)

After saving the custom configuration when calling “Compare” in source control you will be notice the WinMerge dialog is prompting instead of Source Control Compare.

TFS API Index Parts 1 To 37

shair — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:03:16 GMT

Since 2009 I ‘m writing about TFS API and several people asked to get an index page with all parts related to TFS API, so here is it:

Basic

Source Control

Testing

Work Items – Definitions and Queries

Areas and Iterations

Builds

Power Tools for Microsoft VS 2010 users – Innovative software that saves time and money

shair — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:28:22 GMT

Power Tools for Microsoft VS 2010 users – Innovative software that saves time and money

Sela Technology Center is proud to announce the release of our unique software development productivity power tools for the Microsoft ALM environment:

SCRAT, WTM and WIMBI.
All products are well proven and based on our deep understanding of client requirements for Development and Testing activities using Microsoft VS 2010.

About SCRAT - MIGRATION: SCRAT tool enables the most time efficient and cost effective migration process from HP Quality Center to Microsoft TFS on the market today. Read More…

Download Trial Version

About WTM - TESTING: Web Test Manager (WTM) is the only tool that enables to test with TFS 2010 directly from the browser. Now, for the first time you can manage your tests without the need for any local installation. WTM is a web application integrated in VS 2010 Team Web Access™. Read More…

Download Trial Version

About WIMBI - CUSTOMIZATION: WIMBI is the only tool that enables you to manage versions using logical entities instead of physical files on VS 2010. Read More…

Information you need:

Testimonials for SCRAT

"If you are looking at adopting TFS and need to look at moving some or all of your QC assets into TFS, SCRAT is definitely worth a look." - Brian Harry / Technical Fellow, Team Foundation Server, Microsoft Corporation Read More…
"Working with the SCRAT tool really helped us a lot. It made my job as project manager of the migration project from HP QC to TFS 2010 a lot easier. Scrat migration has little risk, can be timed, budgeted and scoped well." - Benjamin De Leeuw / Project Manager, SdWorkx Read More…
"We are very satisfied with the tool and will be happy to use it in the future." - Ronen Ashkenazi / Services Director, Microsoft Israel

Building Setup Project In devenv.com Command Line Fails, Works In IDE

shair — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:08:47 GMT

Building Setup Project In devenv.com Command Line Fails, Works In IDE

I started to build a Build Definition in TFS 2010 (WF) for one of my customers and ran into a strange problem with couple of Setup Projects, when I build the Setup Project in Visual Studio 2010 IDE the setup built just fine but once I tried to build it using devenv command it fails.. (To build setup project using Team Build you need to invoke devenv with command line arguments.)

The Error from the command line is:

ERROR: Unable to update the dependencies of the project. The dependencies for the object ‘DLL NAME’ cannot be determined.

This was very strange, so I did a comprehensive investigation why this happens and I found the problem!

For some reason when adding a File to the setup project that need Dependencies, Visual Studio automatically add them into the Dependencies folder in the Setup project and for some reason this dependency cannot be found from Command Line.

Here is a Simple Setup Project in Visual Studio

Through Command Line - Working

The same Setup Project + I’ve added an Assembly “API.DLL” and Visual Studio automatically added the necessary Dll’s.

This setup project build just fine in Visual Studio.

Through Command Line – Not Working!

The Solution: You need to add the missing Assembly in the same folder where the .vdproj file is.

Before I’m using WorkFlow to build those Setup Projects I built a special Activity that find the needed Dependencies of each setup project copy them into the folder and the Build the Setup project.

Than Through Command Line – Working Again!!!

Hope this helps.

Microsoft Acquires Teamprise Assets

shair — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:39:18 GMT

Microsoft Acquires Teamprise Assets

“Customers with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN also will receive the Teamprise Client Suite technology as part of their original subscription purchase.”

Microsoft Press Release - http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/nov09/11-09TeamprisePR.mspx?rss_fdn=Press%20Releases

Team Foundation Server, in combination with the Teamprise Client Suite technologies, will enable developers to use a single tool to overcome core development challenges, including version control, work-item tracking, build management, process guidance and business intelligence, regardless of the core platform in use. With the simplification of these important processes, developers will now be able to spend more time focusing on developing high-quality, creative applications.

Teamprise Client Suite currently includes the following:

Teamprise Plug-in for Eclipse. The Teamprise Plug-in for Eclipse allows developers to perform all their source control, bug tracking, build and reporting operations from within Eclipse and Eclipse-based integrated development environments (IDEs), such as Rational Application Developer, JBoss, BEA Workshop and Adobe Flex Builder.
Teamprise Explorer. Teamprise Explorer combines all the functionality available to Eclipse developers using the Teamprise Plug-in into a stand-alone, cross-platform graphical user interface (GUI) application that is perfect for team members working outside of an IDE, such as graphic designers, quality assurance testers and project managers.
Teamprise Command-Line Client. The Teamprise Command-Line Client provides a cross-platform, nongraphical interface to Team Foundation Server, making it perfect for scripting and build scenarios or for developers who prefer a command-line interface.

Shai Raiten's Blog : DEV, Team System 2010, Source Control

The Git Hole

Convert NUnit To MSTest Unit Test

Reference

Attributes

Assertions

Visual Studio ALM Video & Two Updates for TFS/VS You Should Install

KB - TFS 2010 SP1 Cumulative Update 1 – KB2536929

KB - Rollup Update - Testing Tools in Visual Studio 2010 SP1 – Read KB

Visual Studio ALM + Team Foundation Server Blog

TFS API Part 38 – Create Label

Step 1: Create Project and Add Reference

Step 2: Connect Team Foundation Server

Step 3: Map Source Control

Step 4: Create Label

Change Visual Studio Compare Tool To WinMerge

TFS API Index Parts 1 To 37

Basic

Source Control

Testing

Work Items – Definitions and Queries

Areas and Iterations

Builds

Power Tools for Microsoft VS 2010 users – Innovative software that saves time and money

Power Tools for Microsoft VS 2010 users – Innovative software that saves time and money

Building Setup Project In devenv.com Command Line Fails, Works In IDE

Building Setup Project In devenv.com Command Line Fails, Works In IDE

The Solution: You need to add the missing Assembly in the same folder where the .vdproj file is.

Microsoft Acquires Teamprise Assets

Microsoft Acquires Teamprise Assets

Teamprise Client Suite currently includes the following: