Monday, March 06, 2006

Serious?  I can't joke at a time like this. Click here, then click on valuable information. I don't think it gets any easier than that.

Thanks to Blake Handler for the awesome find.

posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 2:00:14 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback

Want a better looking desktop theme?  Microsoft a while back released a theme called Energy Blue or Royal.  I was first introduced to it via the Experience Pack for Tablet PC.  Well it turns out that theme doesn't just work on a tablet pc but XP as well, here's how:

  1. Download : http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/2/9/5295FA0C-575A-4EE6-B186-0A8CF7DDFDE6/WindowsXP-TabletPC-EnergyBlueTheme-x86-ENU.exe
  2. Do not run the exe as it will fail but rather unzip it
  3. Copy the content to C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes
  4. Select the Energy Blue theme from the theme drop down @ "Right Click on Desktop / Select Properties / Themes Tab"

Enjoy!

posted on Monday, March 06, 2006 12:39:42 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [1] Trackback
 Wednesday, February 15, 2006

This past release of TFS brought us the much needed friendly names in the Team Foundation Client user drop down lists.  Before that change, your WIQL query may have looked like this:

<Wiql>
    SELECT [System.Id], [System.Title]
    FROM WorkItems WHERE [System.TeamProject] = @project
    AND [System.AssignedTo] IN ('UserIdA', ''UserIdB')
    ORDER BY [System.Id]
</Wiql>

As you can see we are searching for any Work Item assigned to UserIdA and UserIdB.  The user list is delimited by a comma ( this will become important later ).  After the release canidate release that same query may now look like the following:

<Wiql>
    ...
    AND [System.AssignedTo] IN ('FirstNameUserA LastNameUserA', 'FirstNameUserB LastNameUserB') 
    ...
</Wiql>

The only change to this query was the replacement of the alias with the users First Name Last Name.  This query assumes your Active Directory is setup to display First Name Last Name rather than Last Name, First Name.  If your Active Directory is setup like the latter then your query will look like:

<Wiql>
    ...
    AND [System.AssignedTo] IN ('LastNameUserA, FirstNameUserA', 'LastNameUserB, FirstNameUserB') 
    ...
</Wiql>

With that setup the name actually introduces a comma which invalidates the list separator.  This query is now broken.  All is not lost. 

We can change the List Separator from a comma to a semi colon. Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Customize, on the numbers tab and you will find the List Separator setting.  Do realize this change may adversely effect other applications which may use the List Separator.

 

 

Your query will now change as follows:

<Wiql>
    ... 
    AND [System.AssignedTo] IN ('LastNameUserA, FirstNameUserA'; 'LastNameUserB, FirstNameUserB') 
    ...
</Wiql>

posted on Wednesday, February 15, 2006 7:44:17 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [2] Trackback
 Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Here is your a chance to provide valuable feedback to the Team Foundation product team. 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem/team/tfs_survey/default.aspx

posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2006 2:20:52 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [1] Trackback
Internet Links
Visual Studio Team System Home
Getting Started with Team Foundation
MSDN Technical Forums
VSTS Downloads
Team System Rocks
How To Links
Visual Studio Team System Install Guide
TFS Warehouse Troubleshooting
Step-By-Step Guide to Converting Web Projects from Visual Studio .NET 2002/2003 to Visual Studio 2005
VSTS Backup and Restore Procedures
Team Foundation Server Permissions
Team Foundation Server Default Groups, Permissions, and Roles
TF.exe Command Line Reference
Books
Working with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System
Test-Driven Development in Microsoft .NET
Test Driven Development: By Example
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
Refactoring to Patterns
Bloggers
Rob Caron
Rick LaPlante
Eric Jarvi
Buck Hodges
Jeff Beehler
Eric Lee
Nagaraju Palla
Khushboo
Gautam
Visual Studio Team System User Education
WebCasts
Introduction to Visual Studio Team System
How and Why Process Guidance Matters in Visual Studio 2005 Team System
Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Enterprise-Class Version Control
Managing Work with Visual Studio 2005 Team System
Test-Driven Development Using Visual Studio Team System
Accessing Visual Studio 2005 Team System Using the Teamprise Plug-In for Eclipse (Level 200)
Best of Launch: Visual Studio 2005 Team System (Level 200)
Load and Web Testing with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System (Level 200)
Migrating to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System (Level 200)
Shipping on Time and Under Budget with Visual Studio Team System (Level 200)
3rd Party Products
Teamprise
TeamLook
TeamPlain
VSTSEclipse 
VSTSPlugins
Tips and Tricks
  • When checking an item into source control you have the ability to associate a WI with that change set.  If you choose to do so there are two options, Resolve and Associate.  If you select Resolved the WI state will advance to the next state.
  • Fully process the TFS warehouse
  • Team Explorer blank ( missing server or lost network connection )
    • Delete the cache folder @
      • C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0\Portfolio Explorer
      • C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Team Foundation\1.0
  • Tools to modify WIT
    • WitExport.exe, WitImport.exe, WitFields.exe
    • These are found @ c:\ProgramFiles\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\
  • Change the TFS warehouse run interval
  • Secure a WIT transistion
    • <TRANSITION from="State 1" to="State 2"
         for="[global]\StateChangers"
         not="[global]\GroupThatsRestrictedStateChanges" >

  • Drivers required to create adhoc Excel reports against the TFS Analysis Services.  Install Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services 9.0 OLE DB Provider from the SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack

MSBuild & Team Build

Jomo Fisher on MSBuild

Robert McLaws MSBuild Compatibility Toolkit 1.0

Nagaraju Palla's Building binaries targeting .NET 1.1 and .NET 1.0 in TeamBuild

Khushboo's CI using Team Foundation Build 

 
.NET SDC Solution Build & Deployment Process & Tools
Downloads
Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Projects, ScottGu On Web Application Projects
Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects
SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack
Tools

FiddlerPopUp Forum Post

Test Driven .Net

BizUnit

posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2006 11:32:17 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Tuesday, February 07, 2006

All I can say is WOW WOW WOW!  I am very impressed and very stoked!  I have successfully completed one dual server install and upgraded a very active, multi-project single server installation.  Each took about 3 or 4 hours, where most of the time sucked up backing up and copying db files and ISO images around.  Huge improvement over the past installs.  This product just gets better with each release!  While the release candidate brings a number of improvements, a few of my favorite are:

  • Removing the BuiltIn/Administrators group from TFS groups the users contained in that group actually disappear in the drop down lists
  • Real user names in drop down boxes rather than aliases
  • An upgrade procedure.  B3 to RC was very straight forward and easy
  • Huge performance improvements
  • New reports
  • "Go To Changeset" ctrl + g in source control
  • Installation and health checking greatly improved
  • Installation instructions are greatly improved

If your one of those developers who reads blogs rather than instructions there are a few things to note:

  • Reporting services changes, dual server, uninstall/install or install
    • Reporting services was moved from the data tier to the application tier
    • Uninstall Reporting services on the data tier and delete its two supporting databases
    • When you install Reporting services on the application tier you cannot run the service as local system.
    • That user you've selected to run reporting services will need "Log On Locally" rights on the appropriate machines
  • The TFS upgrade utility can be found here: Upgrade Utility
  • There are two hotfixes which have to be installed on the appropriate machines, both are found on the media. KB913393, KB912838
  • Use the server name rather than the IP for the TFS data tier address
  • Run TfsBuildUpgrade.exe from a client machine and not the TFS server
  • For an upgrade, backup those databases
  • Just read those instructions!

Hats off to the product group, for a job well done!

posted on Tuesday, February 07, 2006 11:19:43 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback
 Sunday, February 05, 2006

Way off the beaten path...

A number of months ago my wife and I finally decided to build a new house.  If you have ever gone through the process of building or buying a new home, you know there is an unlimited amount of factors which ultimately affect the purchase and more so your monthly payment.  When we started this process I hit the ole Internet in search of a mortgage calculator.  I landed on the Office template section where I found a basic mortgage calculator workbook.  That workbook has since been revamped to closer depict a holistic purchase process.

The numbers represented in this spreadsheet are just for demonstrative purposes. MortgageCalc-2003.zip (36.04 KB)

I hope you find it as useful as I have. Enjoy!

posted on Sunday, February 05, 2006 7:55:19 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [1] Trackback
 Saturday, February 04, 2006

Yesterday ( Friday ) the official TFS Release Candidate was cut.  Today I received my copy and tomorrow I upgrade.  I'm stoked!

The bits are on their way to the MSDN download center and you should see them sometime on the 7th.

posted on Saturday, February 04, 2006 8:04:05 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)  #    Comments [0] Trackback