Team Foundation Sidekicks

Team Build Sidekick Visual Studio add-in released!

Version 1.0 of Team Build Sidekick add-in is released today! We also have made available source code for the product and an article describing the application design and how Team Foundation Server object model was used in the product.

Those familiar with Team Build integration in Visual Studio know that while creating new build type is supported through nice (though not very advanced) wizard, editing of existing build type requires series of simple yet annoying steps to be performed before and after actual file change took place (those instructions appear as the header of every .proj file created by Team Build wizard).

The add-in allows you to perform editing of Team Build type proj file by single-clicking context menu in Team Explorer. The add-in may be configured to use either Visual Studio or tool of user's choice (hint hint! think MSBuild Sidekick) for build project file editing.

The article describes TFS Version Control object model methods used to implement the application functionality as well as means of accessing Team Explorer in add-in. We hope that together with the source code that will be a good starting point for anyone seeking to extend TFS in Visual Studio.

If you have any questions or suggestions, just leave us a comment.

Enjoy!

VSCmdShell - A truly powerful Power Toy

About a month ago, the VSCmdShell Power Toy was released for VS2005 by the Developer Solutions team at Microsoft.

I've been following the different power toys releases for quite some time, but until now, I didn't find any real tools in there - only some cool toys I rarely get to use. When the VSCmdShell power toy was ported to Visual Studio 2005 (an earlier version already existed for VS2003), it presented a great opportunity with it - having a command-line shell, with all the .NET environment variables already loaded, right next to your code-editor, solution explorer and all other VS goodness.

For me, after spending so much time with Team System, this power toy really meant one thing: I get to use TF.EXE without even reaching for my mouse :) Sure, alt-tabbing worked fine until now, but when you add to that the ability to copy-paste, intellisense and direct access to IDE commands from the command-line - not to mention PowerShell support - this power toy is a winner in my book.

Here you can see it in action:

Go download your copy today. It really is the best of both GUI and console worlds.

MSBuild Sidekick featured in Windows Developers Power Tools

Our very own MSBuild Sidekick was selected, together with over 100 free and open-source tools, to appear in an upcoming book, titled Windows Developers Power Tools.

The book presents a comprehensive overview of some of the best free tools available for software developers. All of the tools are arranged in chapters, ranging in subjects from ASP.NET and WinForms to Team Collaboration and Lifecycle.

After the initial release of MSBuild Sidekick I was contacted by Jim Holmes, who is co-authoring this book together with James Avery, and asked to contribute an article about the MSBuild Sidekick for the book’s chapter about Build & Deployment. After about 10 minutes of giving this some serious thought, I’ve decided to take this opportunity, and there you have it – what started as a great idea for not having to stare at XML all day, MSBuild Sidekick is now acknowledged as a Power Tool for Windows Developers.

You can read more about the book on Jim Holmes’ blog.

TFSidekicks 1.1 Patched

Thanks to the alertness of a few quick sidekicks users, we were able to identify and fix an annoying bug in TFSidekicks 1.1. The bug occurs when trying to compare two versions of a file from on the Labels view in the History Sidekick.

An updated version of the Team Foundation Sidekicks is now available for download.

Thank you for your feedback. Be sure to let us know if you encounter any other problems.