Some words of wisdom that have become apparent to me in my ventures…
I presented the above mentioned Microsoft event yesterday.
Here are the slides that I used
Some really cool news from Brian Harry this week. The licensing model for Team Explorer Everywhere (TEE) has been changed to reflect Team Explorer’s model. This means that TEE is now freely downloadable (previously you had to purchase the software). All you need is a CAL for TFS (same restriction as on Team Explorer).
This really opens up the TFS environment to non Microsoft developers out there..
This licensing model combined with TFS Express means that you can setup an environment using VS Express and/or Eclipse with TEE connecting to TFS Express, free for up to 5 people.
Anyone that is interested in an overview of managing and tracking requirements, bugs and test cases with Team Foundation Server, Visual Studio and/or Microsoft test Manager, I’ll be presenting an event at the Cape Town Microsoft offices next week.Check it out
This event is in CPT. The equivalent JHB event, which has been blogged about before, can be found here
Are you a tester or analyst on your team? Do you still track your requirements, test cases and bugs manually using Word, Excel and Outlook? Are the bugs you find difficult to reproduce and you have challenges on getting visibility on the quality and project status?
As software grows increasingly complex, quality assurance can no longer be an afterthought. An inefficient or isolated testing process can hinder software quality, reduce time to market and drive up costs. Microsoft is hosting an event to help your organization avoid these potential pitfalls by making testing and quality assurance an active part of the application lifecycle.
DATE/TIME: 13 March - 08:30: -10:30
VENUE: Microsoft South Africa, Golf Park 3 ,Engen HouseRaapenberg Road, Mowbray
COST: FREE
REGISTER : https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032505806&Culture=en-ZA
see you there…
It seems that Microsoft took some time to “search enable” a lot of the previously “un-searchable” areas. Some of the notable areas include the toolbox, error list, solution navigator (before VS power tools), etc.
For example, on the “Error List” – not that I would ever like to be faced with more than a few lines of errors/warnings, you have the search box present.
You may also notice a “filter” option on the left hand side that comes in handy, allowing you to show errors in the currently open document, all open documents, and the current project.
A nice little feature that some of these searches have is a shortcut key. For example the solution navigator shortcut key is “Ctrl” + “;”. This puts the cursor in the search criteria box and you are A-for-away to start typing your search.
So there has been a distinctive focus on making things searchable. The pièce de résistance in my mind is what I can only consider an attempt to reduce the large number command bars and have commands accessible to the developer when we need them. The Visual Studio team brought in – wait for it - yet another search. This one is a bit different though – it is called a “Quick Launch”.
What this little gem allows you to do is a search across all the commands available in Visual Studio and in your current context (e.g. saving the current open document). No more searching one menu after the other to find a command that is hidden away 2 or 3 levels deep… I think of all the searches this must be the one that will save me the most time.
Until next time…
Finally the BETA release for Visual Studio 11 has been announced. I wonder if it is going to be a good or bad omen, releasing it on the 29th !?
In addition to this Brian Harry has also covered an Express version of TFS making it easier for smaller teams to start adopting TFS. This should also make the decision a lot easier for start-ups considering version control systems that will be able to grow with them.
If that was not enough, another BIG bonus is that Visual Studio Express will be able to integrate with TFS!
For a list of links and announcements around this development check this out…
Things are starting to heat up now!!!
I started playing around with TFS 11 and Visual Studio 11 shortly after the announcement of the Developer Preview. Unfortunately (or fortunately) things started getting pretty busy with the business and the time disappeared.
Finally I have been able to polish off some of the posts that I started and will be posting these as time allows. So let’s start at the beginning:
The first thing most people do (I’m sure) is to open a solution, and the first difference shows itself. Thinking back, conversion from one version of Visual Studio project file to the next became a “blind” next, next, next operation. The new dialog almost took me by surprise. The standard csproj or vbproj files does not need to be converted (this is actually a feature in VS 11) and the smaller projects that I opened worked fine. Obviously something has changed with the Modelling Project and the Database Project (I’ll get to that in a later post).
Once your project files are up to date, the next thing you will notice is that Solution Explorer has changed a bit. Anybody familiar with the “Visual Studio Productivity Power Tools” would recognise this as the “Solution Navigator”.
Finally the “Collapse All” 
