Clik here to view.
New Feature: Lightweight Query Charts in Web Access
I have installed TFS 2013 RC. I upgraded my TFS Express (that I use for mucking around with code) from TFS 2012.3 and everything went smoothly. I then opened up Web Access and was pleased to see one of...
View ArticleContributions to TFS Build Extensions
Some of the code I’ve written before has made it into the TFS Build Extensions latest release. They are my “Include Merges (and associated work items) in a build" and “Fail code based on Code Coverage”...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fix: You Open TfcvTemplate.12.xaml and Don’t See Any Parameters
I upgraded my demo environment from 2013 Preview to 2013 RC. Everything looked good until I got to the builds. I had configured a couple of default builds – the 2013 default template is actually stored...
View ArticleMonitoring Web Applications – Continuous IntelliTrace
If you have Visual Studio Ultimate and are not using IntelliTrace in production, you should be drawn and quartered. This is arguably the best feature of Visual Studio Ultimate, and in my opinion this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
TFS 2013 Default Build – The GetEnvironmentVariable Activity
If you’ve upgraded to TFS 2013, then you’ll notice that there’s a new Default Build template. In fact, to support Git repositories, the product team moved the default template into a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WebDeploy and Release Management – The Proper Way
I’ve just completed recording a Release Management webcast (more on Imaginet’s Visual Studio webcasts here). While doing the webcast, I wanted to show how you can use tokens which Release Management...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Build Script Hooks for TFS 2012 Builds
EDIT: My colleague Tyler Doerksen pointed out in his comments that my solution doesn’t do any error checking of the scripts. If your script fails, the build happily continues. I’ve added another post...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Error Handling Poor Man’s RunScript in 2012 Builds
Yesterday I posted about how to create script hooks in a 2012 build template. My colleague Tyler Doerksen commented and pointed out that there was no error handling in my solution.Returning Error Codes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
CrossBrowser Testing: ChromeDriver Window Hangs after Test
I have been doing some coded UI testing and running tests using Chrome (via the Selenium components). However, I noticed that when my test completed successfully, the Selenium (ChromeDriver) window...
View ArticleFix: Release Management “Service Unavailable 503”
At a customer we installed Release Management for their TFS 2013 TFS Server. The server component installation went really smoothly – however, it was only when we installed the Client that we realized...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fix: Release Management WebDeploy Deployment Fails: Access Denied
If you’re using WebDeploy and Release Management (as you should to release Web Applications) you may hit the following error: Info: Adding sitemanifest (sitemanifest).Info: Creating application...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Integrating TFS and Project Server – Two Way Manual Sync
I often do road-shows showing off TFS and VS to customers around South Africa. Usually I’m doing this with Ahmed Salijee, the Developer Platform Specialist (DPS) for Developer Tools in Microsoft South...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Project Plans, Agile, Pizza and Startups
Last week I posted about how to integrate TFS and Project Server “manually”. In the post I did put in a bit of philosophy about why I think project plans can be a Bad Thing. Prasanna Adavi posted a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Application Insights Telemetry for WAWS or Customer-Hosted Sites Without MMA
There are a couple of tools that change the development landscape significantly for .Net developers. One such tool is IntelliTrace– this revolutionizes how you debug production issues. Another...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WebDeploy Gets Even More Awesome – Profile Specific Transforms
I love WebDeploy – I have ever since I read Scott Hanselman’s post “Web Deploy Made Awesome: If You’re Using XCopy, You’re Doing It Wrong”. Whenever I’m helping teams that build web applications...
View ArticleColin’s ALM Corner – Updated Blog Engine
I have been using Blogger ever since I started my blog back in 2010. Once you get the template right (and set up a domain) it’s not a bad hosting platform. It works nicely with Windows Live Writer (as...
View ArticleColin’s ALM Corner – New Theme and Live Tiles
Last week I updated my blog engine from Blogger to MiniBlog. The last couple of days I’ve been updating the theme and style. Every good blog needs some good bling!Apart from the new look and feel, you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Enabling JavaScript Code Coverage Link in Builds
In a previous post I wrote about how to do JavaScript unit testing in VS 2012. The same procedure applies to VS 2013 – but the Chutzpah test adapter now allows you to run code coverage too. At the end...
View ArticleImaginet Timesheet: Time Tracking for TFS and Visual Studio Online
We’ve been working on a rewrite of our Timetracking tool (formerly Notion Timesheet) and it’s going live today – Imaginet Timesheet! Timesheet lets you log time against TFS work items using a web...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PowerShell DSC: Remotely Configuring a Node to “RebootNodeIfNeeded”
I’ve started to experiment a bit with some PowerShell DSC– mostly because it’s now supported in Release Management (in Update 3 CTP at least).Sometimes when you apply a configuration to a node...
View Article