User Information and How-to's for
Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2008 ("TFS").
Team Foundation Server is an integral part of Microsoft's VisualStudio.NET 2008 Team System ("VS.NET"). At its most basic, TFS provides integrated source control services to VS.NET. It also provides support for team collaboration processes such as agile development, bug tracking, work issues, etc. For more information about VS.NET-related issues, please see the Using Visual Studio wiki. Since TFS and VS.NET are intertwined, some issues that relate to both systems may be found in either wiki.
Pre-requisites for using TFS 2008:
- VS.NET 2008
- Installation of Team Explorer (TE)
- Upgrade VS.NET 2008+TE to SP1 -- must be done after Team Explorer install because it updates TE!
- Obtain from the Comp410 staff:
- The IP address or domain name of the current TFS
- Authentication privileges into the TFS (Comp410 class members should have this already)
Note: Currently, TFS security has been set such that Comp410 class members cannot create a newTFS project (not the same as a VS.NET project!) but do have privileges to add VS.NET solutions to an existing TFS project. Please contact the Comp410 staff if you need to create a new TFS project.
Important Distinction: TFS Projects vs VS.NET Projects vs VS.NET Solutions
This issue has, historically, caused much confusion and misuse of VS.NET and TFS by Comp410 students. Bottom line: TFS projects are not the same as VS.NET projects!
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TFS Project -- a self-contained collection on the TFS that manages overall permissions, work items, bug tracking, etc for multiple stored VS.NET solutions.
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VS.NET Solution -- A collection of related VS.NET projects on a developer's computer. A solution can reference one or more of its contain projects as applications to run when the user clicks the "Run" button.
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VS.NET Project -- The code and supporting files to create an individual application. A VS.NET project is stored as in a sub-directory of a solution on the developer's computer.
Always have your code as part of a VS.NET Solution. Never use bare VS.NET projects. Create multiple projects in a solution for multiple decoupled purposes. Create separate solutions when the work is unrelated to each other.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Install the TFS Power Tools set: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/tfs2008/bb980963.aspx. Be sure to install the full suite of tools, including any additional installations that may be required (e.g. Windows Power shell).
Key Features:
- Build Notification Tool: This will give you a little task bar app that will enable you to monitor the builds and will immediately tell you, by changing color, if the latest build by anyone was successful or not.
- Best Practices Analyzer: Tell you whether or not you are using TFS in its recommended manner.
- Alert Editor: Add-in to VS that enables you to easily create e-mail alerts for build and other TFS events, e.g. send an e-mail when the build breaks.
How-To's
Dealing with Problems and Issues
Text Tutorials
Video Tutorials
Microsoft has create many, many nice videos on learning TFS and VS covering almost every aspect of these systems, way more than can be listed here. Definitely check them out!
The following video tutorials were prepared for VS.NET and TFS 2005, but are, for the most part, applicable to VS.NET and TFS 2008. Note that some of the videos refer to a now-defunct TFS called "QUANTUM". Please disregard these references and substitute the name of the current TFS instead.
The video tutorials below are in the form of videos presentations that have been zipped up. These video presentations are in the form of executable EXE files. Simply unzip the downloaded archive and run the enclosed EXE file.