MSDN Magazine - August 2008 - (Page 103)

BriAn A. rAndEll Team SySTem Essential Power Tools Microsoft has a long history of introducing new features to already shipped products as a way to add value to what you have purchased. Many teams have released such enhancements under the banner of Power Toys. The first release to be deemed a Power Toy came from the Windows team for Windows® 95 (see Raymond Chen’s blog at blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/ archive/2005/02/02/365432.aspx for more details). Other teams have followed suit, including the Visual Studio® Team System (VSTS) team. What you need to understand is that, unlike many of the Power Toys released by other teams at Microsoft, I find many of the tools released in this fashion by the VSTS team to be mandatory. In this column, I’ll provide you with a tour of the major tools that are available today and describe the ones I believe you really should download and use. While many items I’ll discuss exist for VSTS 2005, I’ll be focusing on the current releases avail- Figure 1 Team System Web Access able for the VSTS 2008 versions of the tools. example, TSWA is planned to be a core component of the next reTeam System Web Access lease of Team System. The very first item on your download list should be the VSTS While I personally tend to prefer a rich client experience, havWeb Access 2008 Power Tool (go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=120834). ing a rich Web interface is really a core feature needed by most Team System Web Access, or TSWA, provides a rich Web-based development teams using TFS. When you install TSWA, you get access mechanism to your Team Foundation Server (TFS) instal- the flexibility of using integrated authentication or forms-based lation, as shown in Figure 1. TSWA allows you to manage work authentication. Thus, you have the flexibility of installing TSWA items and builds, view and run reports, access SharePoint® docu- for internal use only on your intranet or you can deploy it in an ment libraries, and view source files under version control. Micro- extranet environment. soft acquired this tool and added it to its stable of available tools Even though you can install TSWA on your application tier, typiin March of 2007. cally you should deploy it on its own server. You just need Windows The team changed the name from Power Toy to Power Tool Server® 2003 or Windows Server 2008, IIS, and the Team Founafter the first few releases. Brian Harry, Technical Fellow and dation Client 2008 installed. The client must be installed because “godfather” of TFS, discusses this in his blog (blogs.msdn.com/ currently there is no redistributable runtime for the TFS libraries. bharry/archive/ 2006/09/04/739645.aspx and blogs.msdn.com/ bharry/ TSWA, along with any custom code you write, uses the client liarchive/2006/11/30/team-foundation-server-roadmap.aspx). Brian points out braries to access TFS programmatically. that the features the VSTS team is providing aren’t really toys. They Once you deployed TSWA, you have a rich Web interface that are out-of-band or off-cycle product updates or enhancements. duplicates most of the features found in the Windows-based client Note that the VSTS team and Microsoft both support these tools. Thus, you can use them with confidence. In fact, over time, Send your questions and comments for Brian to mmvsts@microsoft.com. many of the tools will find their way into the core products. For August 2008 103 http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/02/02/365432.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/02/02/365432.aspx http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=120834 http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2006/09/04/739645.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2006/09/04/739645.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2006/11/30/team-foundation-server-roadmap.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2006/11/30/team-foundation-server-roadmap.aspx

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of MSDN Magazine - August 2008

MSDN Magazine - August 2008 Toolbox CLR Inside Out Basic Instincts Cutting Edge Patterns in Practice Data 2.0 - Expose And Consume Data In A Web Services World Biztalk EDI - Build A Robust EDI Solution With BizTalk Server Silverlight - Create Animations With XAML And Expression Blend Write On! - Create Web Apps You Can Draw On With Silverlight 2 Wicked Code - Craft Custom Controls For Silverlight 2 Team System Foundations Windows With C++ Concurrent Affairs Going Places { End Bracket }

MSDN Magazine - August 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.