We recently got awesome new laptops at work (which are just awesome BTW) and on the standard image included a Team Foundation Server tool that I haven’t used in a while:  TeamCompanion 3.0.  I had used earlier releases of the tool but always seem to forget to install it whenever I pave my machine as I do quite frequently.  It’s been a while and I must say… the 3.0 version is just awesome.  I’d like to go over a few things that I really like in the latest release.

Experience

The experience of connecting to TFS inside Outlook is just first-class.  The same icons that are used in Visual Studio Team Explorer are the ones that appear in Outlook.  That really does make a difference for me…  Notice that I can also add certain work item queries that I’m interested in to the Favorites area as well.

If you are using Outlook 2010, you’ll notice that TeamCompanion adds a handy ribbon tab:

Work Items Galore

There are so many things you can do whenever working with work items with TeamCompanion!  For instance, let’s say you get an e-mail for a customer of a great feature request.  It’s super quick to create a new feature request work item or attach the e-mail to an existing work item.

What’s even cooler is that if the e-mail refers to a specific work item in the content (i.e. “Bug 1234”) then TeamCompanion can let you open the rich work item form to look at the details or edit the work item.  This is especially helpful for alert e-mails that you may get from TFS.

Even cooler is that all of the normal Outlook features work like replying, forwarding, flagging, categorizing, setting alerts, etc.

Other Work Item Features:

• Offline Work Item Support
• Scheduling Work Item Queries to Run
• Great Rendering of a Work Item
• Creating Tasks/Meeting Requests from Work Items
• Printing
• Editing Areas & Iterations
• Bulk Editing
• Searching Work Items
• “Query By Example”

Reports

I think my favorite feature of TeamCompanion has to do with handling reports.  By default, the rich reports you get with TFS are all scoped at the Team Project level.  However, I find myself frequently needing to filter to a particular Area Path and Iteration Path.  TeamCompanion actually allows you to save those common filters that you perform every day and store them.  Allows you to have all of the presets that you want.

Another handy feature is the ability to send an e-mail with the report easily within Outlook.  Nice!

I’m certainly not doing the latest release of the product justice.  They did a great job with improvements and new features from previous versions that I have used.  I’d suggest you’d download the trial and kick the tires.

Ed Blankenship

This is some really exciting news for customers of Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010!  Today, Microsoft has announced that customers who have purchased Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN or Visual Studio 2010 Test Professional with MSDN now receive the Lab Management capabilities for Team Foundation Server!  That means no per-processor licensing fees for your physical host servers that will be hosting your virtual machines!

Earlier this year, I passed on Lab Management news that indicated that it would cost $1,599 per processor (retail.)  Microsoft has listened to the feedback and has also made it a “feature” in the Visual Studio family instead of a completely separate product.

Microsoft has also announced an update to the Lab Management functionality in the different products to bring it to full RTM/RTW status.  You’ll recall that when Visual Studio 2010 released earlier this year that the Lab Management features ended up still being released in a “Release Candidate” status.  The product team has spent the last few months gathering feedback and include updates to improve performance throughout the product.  The “patch” will be available later this month.  I highly recommend updating to the latest version by installing the patch as soon as it becomes available.

When it is released, you will see the following “extra” installation media become available in your MSDN Subscriber Download listings:

• System Center Virtual Machine Manager* (SCVMM)
• Visual Studio 2010 Agents

*A grant of “limited use” rights for SCVMM are included.  This means that you can only use SCVMM for your Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management test lab.

This is a great move for customers.  Creating a virtual lab management can be an expensive endeavor for business.  I recall visiting customers who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on competing products like VMWare Lab Manager.  This is really bringing virtual lab management to everyone!

If you are curious about more information, see Brian Harry’s announcement.

Ed Blankenship

One of my pet peeves is places who charge for Wi-Fi internet access.  Another pet peeve in the same basket is those who make me pay for each device that I want to connect.  Even though more and more locations are starting to offer free Wi-Fi access, I can’t solve the first one.  However, I can attempt to solve the second problem scenario and here’s how…

I pay for internet access on my Windows 7 laptop and then use Connectify to create a virtual Wi-Fi hotspot.  What is this Connectify, you ask?

A Windows 7 feature called Virtual Wi-Fi didn’t end up making the cut line for the final release.  We’ll see if it makes it into a future version of Windows.  The cool thing is that the plumbing for that feature did make it into Windows 7 and that’s where Connectify steps in.  You can basically use your Wi-Fi card to create another ad-hoc network that can then be used to share your internet connection.  This even works whenever you are connected to a wireless network for that internet access.  It’s super easy and it’s free.

The one catch is that you need to be running Windows 7 to make it all work.  It works perfectly for most internet connections.  I have noticed that it doesn’t work whenever I’m connected using my Verizon card but that’s the only time I’ve noticed an issue.

Ed Blankenship

I’ve had a few questions about the missing Alerts Editor node in Team Explorer after installing the TFS 2010 RC Power Tools so I thought I’d share with everyone.  First, Alerts Editor has been renamed to Alerts Explorer in the TFS 2010 Power Tools release.  Next, you’ll notice that in the TFS 2008 Power Tools, that a node existed underneath each Team Project shown below.

You’ll see that in the TFS 2010 Power Tools, it’s no longer available as a node under each team project but rather available from the context menu of the Team Project Collection node and named “Alerts Explorer.”

What is the Alerts Explorer?

There is a rich eventing & alerting system in TFS that allows end users to self-subscribe to alerts that meet different criteria.  These alerts can either be e-mail alerts or SOAP-based alerts to a web service URL.  (SOAP subscriptions can only be created by Team Foundation Server Administrators.)  By opening up the Alerts Explorer, you can see any of the subscriptions that you currently have created on the server.

Also, you can create new alerts based on some out of the box templates like “Work Items Assigned to Me” or “Failed Builds.”  This is a good starting off point for creating alerts and allows you to further customize the filter criteria to your specifications.

Tip:  As shown in the screenshot above, if you don’t want to receive an e-mail alert whenever you actually change something, be sure to include the “Authorized As <> Your Name” clause.

You also get some handy context menus around the Team Explorer UI to help you to easily create subscriptions.  For example, if there is a particular work item (like a bug) that you want to get e-mail alerts anytime someone changes it, just choose “Alert on Change..” from the context menu on that work item.  You’ll find some other context menu items for Alerts in other places so have fun finding them!

Ed Blankenship

I really like to keep software on my computer up to date.  You never know when there are new features available, bugs fixed, or security vulnerabilities plugged unless you go out and look for them (and keep up to date with your Windows Updates.)  About a month or so ago I noticed that CNET had a new tool that I thought I’d try on my computers called TechTracker.  You can install it on up to three machines for free and it will just sit in your tray monitoring for updates.  I got a popup this morning letting me know there is a new version of Adobe Reader available and I was taken to this screen where I could download the new update from Adobe’s website.  Very handy!

Ed Blankenship

Surprisingly, I’ve heard from several people that they still want a hard-copy document form of artifacts that are getting stored in TFS like Test Plan documents or Requirements documents.  I can understand some situations like if you need to follow certain regulatory requirements as so forth but don’t really see the need beyond that why you would ever want a hard-copy :)  Help me understand more if you happen to be in that boat!

Anyhow, if you need a hard-copy test plan document then you are in luck!  Test Scribe has just been released which will take your test plan information, artifacts, and progress from TFS and generate a nice Word document.  Quite handy!  If only we can get the Requirements document power tool now then we’ll satisfy that other group of people!

I'd like to announce the beta availability of Team Test's first Power Tool release for Visual Studio 2010: Test Scribe.  This tool allows users of Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Beta 2 to generate a Word 2007-compatible Test Plan Document from their plan, suites, test cases, and other artifacts.  Using the tool is a fairly straightforward process, including:

   1. Launch the Test Scribe tool.
   2. Enter your server/collection URL (e.g. http://myserver:8080/tfs/DefaultCollection)
   3. Select a Project.
   4. Select a Test Plan (previously created in MTM).
   5. Click the Generate button.

The resulting document will contain (among other things) a list suites with test cases and steps detail and pie charts detailing the overall progress of your Test Plan.  You can see a screenshot below showing several sections of a generated document.  Feedback is welcome and appreciated, and you can find the tool download at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/d18873c7-909d-4788-a56e-0c496a1d8bb9.

Many thanks and appreciation to everyone who helped get this tool out the door.

More information available here:  http://blogs.msdn.com/vstsqualitytools/archive/2010/01/11/test-scribe-test-plan-documentation-for-mtlm-plans.aspx

Ed Blankenship

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this suggestion from people:  “Microsoft should just buy TeamPrise and make the Eclipse and non-Windows clients just part of the TFS product.”

That day is finally here.  Microsoft has purchased the TeamPrise-related assets from SourceGear.  More details about the acquisition announcement are available at Microsoft’s PressPass site and also the Pathways site for TeamPrise and Visual Studio.

Also, in addition to purchasing the TeamPrise assets, Microsoft has also hired a majority of the development team including, most notably, Martin Woodward who has been an absolutely fantastic part of the “Team System” MVP group.  It will be really sad to see Martin leave the group (as of today) but something tells me that he won’t be hiding :)  Congratulations to him and the entire team!

Now the one thing that i think people might be worried about will be what will happen to the future of the TeamPrise clients and will that development team be able to innovate as quickly as they had before?  I’m pretty sure the same “mission” will be in place and the team will be able to more closely leverage the other team members and assets within the Team Foundation Server product team.  As far as speed of innovation, that’s tough to tell.  Most other Microsoft products have tons of release requirements that slow them down such as localization, security reviews, etc.  All of which are great things but do end up slowing you down if you have to support those requirements.  Who knows if the TeamPrise development team will have to support them?  My guess is that if they’re going to be part of the “Visual Studio” product line that they will have the very similar if not the same requirements as the rest of the stack.  We will definitely see…  Another possible hang up is that Microsoft (specifically Developer Division) will have to learn how to sell & market a Java/non-Windows based product.  I can only imagine there will be some growing pains.

As far as licensing, right now you’ll need to still purchase the TeamPrise clients and get support from TeamPrise directly.  A Microsoft-branded “TeamPrise” client will become available with the 2010 release.  If you own a current license of the TeamPrise 3.3 software it looks like you’ll be upgraded to the new version when it is released.  Also, if you own a Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN license at the time you’ll get access to download the new clients from MSDN Subscriber Downloads.  After the 2010 release, it looks like there will be a new SKU available to be able to purchase just the new clients that will also include a CAL for Team Foundation Server that will run somewhere around $799 retail.

I’m excited about the decision and it looks like both Martin and Brian Harry are as well.  I’m excited to see the platform broaden and truly support teams who have heterogeneous development environments!

Ed Blankenship

I’m up really early this morning.  I’m about to head to the airport to spend my Independence Day weekend in the Carolinas for some much needed beach vacation and visit with friends.  Thankfully, I didn’t miss Martin Woodward letting me know that the latest Radio TFS episode was made available just a few moments ago that includes my interview about our use of TFS and Visual Studio Team System at Infragistics.  It’s a longer episode than normal so it’s perfect if you’re going to be spending some time at the beach like me and listen to a fun talk.  We both really enjoyed chatting for this episode so we hope you enjoy it as well!

Using TFS with Ed Blankenship

In this episode we sit down and chat with Ed Blankenship about the use of Team Foundation Server at Infragistics. Ed has had some interesting challenges and experiences in running their TFS instance.  Additionally they have done some fairly advanced integration work which we discuss in detail.  This is a double-length show, so hopefully plenty of stuff to enjoy if you are sunning yourself on a beach somewhere.

Ed is the Release Engineering Manager at Infragistics, makers of the world's leading presentation layer tools and components.  He is also a Microsoft MVP in Visual Studio Team System.

     Play Now: Using TFS with Ed Blankenship

As the Release Engineering Manager, he leads the Release Engineering Department which is responsible for automated builds, creating product installers, packaging source code for customers, source configuration management/version control, metrics, release management, work item tracking, licensing enforcement, and development of internal productivity tools.  The department also is responsible for TFS Operations & Maintenance.

Ed has been a technical editor for the Wrox Silverlight 1.0, Silverlight 2 Developer's Guide, and Silverlight 2 Bible books, author of numerous articles, and has spoken at various user groups, events, and conferences.

Links from the show:

• Ed's Blog
• Microsoft Process Template
• Martin's Blog Post on Check-in Policies
• How to turn on Activity Logging with TFS 2005

As usual send any feedback to radiotfs@gmail.com.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions based on the Radio TFS chat.  I’m more than happy to get them answered for you!

Take care,

Ed B.

I’ll have to admit, the Easy Assist feature is not very discoverable if you have a Live Meeting account but it’s really really really useful!  So imagine you have a coworker or a mother who needs help but they’re not where you’re at.  There are a lot of different ways for people to do remote assistance support but if you have a Live Meeting account there’s another way that I’ve been using:  Easy Assist.  It’s the same app that lots of support professionals at Microsoft Product Support & Services use to help customers remotely.

BTW:  If you’re an MVP, you have received a complimentary Live Meeting account as part of your benefits!

Downloads for End-users who need support

• Download the Microsoft Easy Assist support console for joining an Easy Assist session
• Download the Microsoft Easy Assist Safe Mode Client for troubleshooting within Windows Safe Mode

Downloads for Support Agent

• Download the Easy Assist Launchpad for setting up Easy Assist sessions
• Download the Microsoft Easy Assist support console for joining an Easy Assist session

Easy Assist Launchpad

So the first thing you should do to help create support sessions quickly as a “support agent” is get the Easy Assist Launchpad installed so it sits in your tray and waits for you.  When you launch it for the first time, it’ll ask you to put in your Live Meeting credentials.  These are the same that you would use when you setup & configure the Live Meeting client. 

After you have finished that, the Launchpad will sit in your system tray and has a few options available for you:

I’ve went ahead and chosen “Create Session” and I’m just going to put in something to let my Mom (and I) know this is for her session.

After, creating the session you’ll have the option to join the session yourself and also send the invite by e-mail (using your default e-mail application) to the person you’re trying to support.  Look at the URL… you’ll notice it’s very similar to a Live Meeting invite but instead it has the “joinEA?” inside of it.  This is important because this is what makes the end user experience better for the support agent and the person being supported because it will fire off the Easy Assist client instead of the full Live Meeting client.

Support Agent Features

Once you’ve fired off the Easy Assist support agent client, you’ll be able to see the other support agents that are attending as well as the person(s) you are trying to support.  You can request that they reboot, share their screen, share your screen, request to control their session, send files, and more.  Support agent screens:

All the end user sees is a small window that’s out of view.  After the session, it even asks the end user if they would like to uninstall the Easy Assist client since it’s not needed anymore!  How nice?!  It even works if the customer has booted in safe mode.  Very handy at times.

You can see how it’s super easy to escalate a support call from a family member, an IM/e-mail from a co-worker, or even setting up a session for you to get help from a support agent who doesn’t have remote assistance provided by their employer.  Hope this is helpful to you!

Ed B.

This has been out for a little while but wanted to make sure that you knew about it as well!

Our Director of Product Development here at Infragistics, Joe Croney, has been working on a personal side project of creating an iPhone app that will connect to Team Foundation Server.  He’s got a BETAposted in the Apple iTunes store now.  At the moment it only supports checking on Builds but I know he’s starting a backlog.

More screenshots and an FAQ are available at the website:  http://www.tfstogo.com/

Joe is looking for some feedback and any bugs so if you find some feel free to report them at support@tfstogo.com.  Congrats Joe!

FYI:  We’ve found that if you connect over VPN in the iPhone that sometimes a local DNS name isn’t resolved correctly.  You can correct this by putting in the hard-coded IP address of the TFS server instead.

Have fun and enjoy!

Ed B.

In December, I had the privilege to be the “MVP in Residence” with the Team System product group.  Chuck blogged about the experience at the beginning and end of the week.  I felt really good about the accomplishments at the end of the week.  The main project I worked on was packaging up the Microsoft Process Template (MPT) so that it could used by the public community.  I’m happy to announce that it is live on CodePlex now so feel free to download and use it!

Description

The Microsoft Process Template (MPT) is a Microsoft internal, end-to-end project management solution that maps to the Microsoft product development cycle and works with Visual Studio Team System 2008 (VSTS). The MPT offers an out-of-the-box solution and includes all the work item types (forms), queries, documentation, engineering best practices, and reports required for Microsoft development teams to get up and running on Visual Studio Team System. The Engineering Excellence* and Visual Studio Development teams worked together closely over the last year to create this template by compiling the lessons learned from other teams that have implemented similar templates, incorporating engineering best practices, widely socializing the concepts, and finally piloting this template with several product groups.
*The engineering excellence team is a Microsoft business unit that provides Microsoft business group employees with high-quality technical education, best practices and guidance.

Be sure to check out the Introduction and the Getting Started guides to dive in and get the background information for the process template.  One of the main things that people will notice is that the MPT simulates work item hierarchy through the the use of some daemon services.  There are several ways to simulate hierarchy in TFS 2008 so if you’re looking for a solution the MPT has the services source code and reports created for them.

Here is a sample report that uses the hierarchy to rollup the progress by Feature:

There are a few known issues with the process template which are listed in the Getting Started guide.  I’ll be sure to keep the guide updated if I hear of any other known issues.

Other MPT Resources

Gregg Boer, Principal Program Manager on the TFS product group, wrote an excellent series of blog posts of how Microsoft uses the MPT internally along with an overview of the process around tracking progress throughout the release.

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS - Chapter 1 (Our Process)

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS - Chapter 2 (Feature Crews)

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS - Chapter 3 (Implementing the Process)

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS - Chapter 3 (Addendum)

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS - Chapter 4

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS - Chapter 5 (Tracking Progress)

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS - Chapter 6 (Tracking multiple projects)

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS - Chapter 6 (Addendum)

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS-Chapter 7 (Tracking Risk)

· How Microsoft/DevDiv uses TFS-Chapter 8 (Tracking Quality Gates)

· How Microsoft/Dev Div uses TFS - Chapter 9 (Transparency in Reporting)

Jeff Beehler and Brian Keller also put together a video of how Jeff uses the MPT & TFS to monitor progress of the release cycle. Take a look on Channel 9: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/briankel/Better-Project-Management-with-Team-Foundation-Server/

I really want to thank you to everyone that helped getting it packaged up for the public!  Also, thanks to Chuck for organizing the week, working logistics, and of course giving me a place to stay!

Ed B.

Fellow Team System MVP Mike Azocar has announced an awesome new contest to stir up the Team System tools ecoystem.  There are some really cool prizes so far including a free license for Microsoft Visual Studio Team Suite 2008 w/ MSDN Premium subscription and there are more donated prizes coming...  Get the full details at his blog post:  Want to be famous- Enter the Coolest Team System Gadget Contest!

Have you created a useful gadget for Team System? Do you have one in mind? I am looking for the coolest community built tool for VSTS. It can be something for TFS, for Visual Studio, or something that is stand alone. The winner will receive a one year subscription to MSDN with Team Suite!

To enter, submit a screen cast (up to 3 minutes long) which tells everyone why your gadget is the coolest and the source code. All submissions will be released to the public as free source to use and enjoy (with you getting all the credit of course). Videos will also be made available to the public to help make you famous! This should be something new (i.e. not on Codeplex or previously released) and not something repackaged. Submissions accepted up until August 31st 2008. Winner will be announced September 15th 2008.

Judges will be Mike Azocar, Martin Woodward, and I so this is going to be a lot of fun!

Ed B.

I'll be speaking on July 1, 2008 at the Dallas Visual Studio Team System User Group. Starts at 6 PM.  This is going to be a really exciting session for me personally and I love that we have a big block of time to get into some really fun Team Build details.  I think we are meeting at the Notion Solutions office in Irving for the July meeting but I'll double-check and update if there is a change.

Here are a few topics that I'll make sure we talk about:

• New Features for Team Build 2008
• Fun Stuff around Builds at Infragistics
• Build Notification Power Tool
• Building Java applications using Team Build & TeamPrise - (This blows people's minds away)
• Building Installers using Wix
• New Changes in TFS 2008 Service Pack 1 for Team Build
• If time, Extensibility with the Team Build API

Be sure to sign up on the user group website to get updates and the RSVP link whenever it gets sent out.

Ed B.

I'm excited to announce that we have finally released a free tool to help you visualize resource usage in your WPF applications.  Kudos to the team on a job well done!

Pistachio helps you by:

• Seeing what resources are being used.
• Finding unused resources.
• Displaying the types of resources being used.
• Filtering, Sorting, etc.
• Cool Visualizations of Usage

If you were at either of my talks at Boston ReMix or Tulsa Tech Fest you got a pre-release preview but now it's all ready for you to use!  Please let us know if you have any suggestions or problems while using.  There are several more features being planned so let us know what's important to you.

DOWNLOAD HERE:  Pistachio - WPF Resource Visualizer

Ed B.

This post actually applies to many different situations in which you would automate a build on a separate server.  I just happen to be familiar with Team Build.

Because of how NetAdvantage deals with licensing each build server will need a full copy of NetAdvantage installed.  Some build engineers have only copied the NetAdvantage assemblies over to their build server and will see LicenseException errors in their build reports.  Even copying them into the GAC isn't enough...  Just to save yourself a couple of headaches, take a few minutes to install using the product installer.  There is an option in the installer to install just the assemblies and licensing components.  I'd recommend deselecting all of the options if you don't need them installed on the build server.  Be sure to also apply any hot fixes that your application may use as well.

As an aside, according to Infragistics' current licensing agreement, each build server you install NetAdvantage on must have a separate license whoever creates the build script must be licensed.  If your team has separate build engineers, each of them should be licensed if they will be working on the build script.

Happy Building!

Ed B.

Microsoft has recently released a version of their application that generates the .NET Framework documentation that we see and love...  You can take a look at it and get more information about the project codename Sandcastle here:  Sandcastle Team Blog

Download the December 2006 CTP here:  Sandcastle - December 2006 CTP Download

Some of the high level features:

Sandcastle produces accurate, MSDN style, comprehensive documentation by reflecting over the source assemblies and optionally integrating XML Documentation Comments. Sandcastle has the following key features:

Works with or without authored comments

Supports Generics and .NET Framework 2.0

Sandcastle has 2 main components (MrefBuilder and Build Assembler)

MrefBuilder generates reflection XML file for Build Assembler

Build Assembler includes syntax generation, transformation..etc

Sandcastle is used internally to build .Net Framework documentation

Ed B.

Our new team at Infragistics, the User Experience (UX) Group, has come out with an article on Code Project about creating fantastic user interfaces using the NetAdvantage family of products. Kudos to several on the UX team who wrote and edited!

Be sure to check it out!  How to Make Users Happy Article

Ed B.

NOTE :  This is an unfinished article.  I have been working on this commentary for several weeks now but I felt I needed to post what I already have.  I will be adding sections over the next several days to complete everything so look for more links, screenshots, images, sections, and content.  I'll also watch for comments and post answers to really good questions or requests for more commentary.

I have been working on this post for several weeks now.  It's the "Toy Boy" in me that has been irking to talk about my experience with all of the .NET UI "toys" out there.  I am a huge fan and proponent of organizations choosing a third-party .NET component suite for purchase for their development team(s).  There are just so many reasons to have one chosen and used in all of an organization's applications.  The question that always pops up though is:  Which One?  In the last three years this question has come up for me from several different organizations including clients that I have consulted with.  Honestly, the best choice will always depend on the organization and its needs but I would like to go through a comparison of the major component vendor suites that are out today.  Even though I have my favorites, my goal was to be completely objective in my analysis and judging.  I will be comparing the following versions:

• Infragistics NetAdvantage 2006 Volume 3
• Telerik r.a.d. controls Q3 2006

I have further split my comparison into control groupings to ease the reading for major controls.

Grids

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

I'd like to see the component vendors offer data bars support like in Microsoft Office Excel 2007... that would be way awesome!

ASP.NET AJAX(Atlas)

Now, for the longest time I have been a huge fan of Telerik ajax control because of how simple it was to "ajaxify" your current web apps.  You still can easily but now you can also do the same with the new Infragistics release.  I would suggest giving them both a try but both components compete extremely well with each other and are compatible with the latest beta release of Microsoft AJAX.

Something minor but worth saying:  I love the gallery of different "loading" animations that are available out-of-the-box with the Telerik r.a.d. ajax control.  Take a look at them:  http://www.telerik.com/demos/aspnet/Ajax/Examples/Common/LoadingImages/DefaultCS.aspx

Editors

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Charting

Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE charts.  Love them Love them Love them!  (I know... the look you are giving me now is the same look I get from many when I talk about charts.  But hey, I LOVE charts!)  Charts in my opinion are one of those most fundamental tools you can use to convey so much information to an end user.  Well-presented charts are a must-have for every application that deals with data and needs to convey useful information.  With that said:  Absolutely nothing else to say:  Infragistics has the best charting controls between the two comparison suites.  I love using them.  They are just too easy to learn.  Just figure out how you want to convey the information using the design-time designers and then data bind!  POOF! 

Aside:  There are some things that I wish Infragistics would include in their charting controls.  Best of breed in the charting control space would have to be Dundas.  If you haven't taken a look at them, they have great controls for charts, maps, and gauges.  (Something that I would like to see included in the other component suites.)  Beware though... Dundas charges a pretty penny for them, but if all you need is really good charting controls, Dundas is definitely the way to go.

XHTML/Accessibility

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Toolbars

If you think about it, toolbars and menus have been around for a very long time; way before I was even born.  I think since the 1970s!  Wow... and they have really been the way UI designers have presented commands and features to users in just about every application.  With the latest release of Microsoft Office, Microsoft has invested several years of R&D for a new concept to replace menus and toolbars.  I think they did a great job with the Ribbon with Galleries and the Quick Access Toolbar, and "Office Button."

Telerik and Infragistics along with other component vendors have jumped onboard to offer us the ability to easily use these new UI features in our own applications!  Both have done a great job.  I'm somewhat biased with the Infragistics toolbar managers controls (with run-time customization support for end users) because I think the architecture of this is great.  The only two things that they missed (and I'm sure they know about since everyone has brought it up already) is that the window frame that would normally be "glass" in Windows Vista is being drawn over and the missing support for ribbon command merging in an MDI application.  The MDI merging has been one of the great features that has allowed Infragistics to excel.  Between all of the different ribbon controls out there I also think that Infragistics has done the best job at making their ribbon implementation most look like Microsoft's ribbon implementation in Office 2007.

<I want to put an image of each of the component suite's version of the Ribbon for comparison against an actual image from the Word Ribbon>

Office 2007 Ribbon UI Licensing Information

Microsoft has recently released how it is going to allow ISV's to use the new Ribbon.  It's pretty simple and here's my summary: 

• Follow the Design Guidelines (Five years down the road we don't need to see a million different versions of the ribbon!  We want to keep it the same so that end users will be able to feel comfortable going from application to application
• Register your application on the Office UI Site
• Don't use the new UI in an application that competes with the core applications in Microsoft Office - (Sorry, you can't use the Ribbon if you are developing something like a commercial version of Open Office)

There is a great Channel 9 video available that even includes a Microsoft attorney in it (probably the only one that has a member of their counsel) that discusses this new licensing.  Both Infragistics and Telerik (and several other component vendors) are partners in offering controls that follow the design guidelines.  I am really happy that Microsoft has opened up I am proud to see the vendors stepping up and making this new UI revolution available to the masses for use in their own apps.  (They've even been released before the official release of Office 2007 to the public! CRAZY)  If you happen to have any more questions about the whole licensing thing you can always shoot a good question over to officeui@microsoft.com.

Scheduling

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Tablet PC

This is one area that Infragistics definitely wins over all component collections.  Coming from doing medical industry development, I have been able to leverage the Tablet PC features of the Infragistics NetAdvantage suite.  We were able to use the ink-enabled controls inside our Windows Forms medical records app and the physicians loved the ability to write with their Tablet PC into the patient's record.

Surprisingly, it is extremely easy too.  All you have to do is drag and drop the WinInkProvider on to your form and all of the Infragistics controls instantly show their Ink buttons on an Ink-enabled OS installation (if the Ink button display visible property is in its default state.)  You can force the display of the ink button as well for devices that aren't ink enabled so that you can draw ink with your mouse...  Not fun though :(

Composite UI Application Block (CAB) Support

Both suite's controls support the CAB framework.  If you haven't taken a look at this new application block it's actually quite handy for UI developers.  I really enjoyed learning about it and am looking forward to the opportunity to take advantage of it in my next app.  For more information on CAB:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/cab.asp
• http://practices.gotdotnet.com/projects/cab
• http://www.infragistics.com/hot/cab.aspx

From what I heard, developers from Infragistics actually contributed greatly to the CAB project and were an instrumental piece of making it all happen... Kudos to them.

Miscellaneous

Support

I have very strong opinions about support with a product.  Let's face it, you will never everything about the control suite that is available.  I would be surprised if there is someone at each of the component vendors who knows EVERYTHING about their control suite.

The one thing that just drives me bonkers is the inability to be able to call somewhat up on the phone to get some support at Telerik.  The support tickets that I have submitted have gone great in solving the issue but you know how well e-mail correspondence can go for in a support situation.  Especially having to wait between responses.  (Can you tell that I can get impatient at times? :) )

I just want to pick up the phone sometimes and just get something resolved so I can keep trucking with my development.  That's the nice thing about purchasing Priority Support with an Infragistics subscription.  You got to do it, it's well worth it and the people on the other side have always been extremely courteous and knowledgeable.  Not to mention spend as much time as is needed getting the issue resolved.  You know how you call some support lines and you can just tell the person on the other end just wants to get you off the phone as quickly as possible?...  Completely irritating if you ask me!

Learning

If you are looking for a great suite that has tons of further reuse but will require an investment of learning ramp-up time then go with Infragistics.  I will describe the Telerik r.a.d. controls suite as "simple" in comparison but that's not always what you want out of a control suite that you will use again and again.  Plus, a good way to go is to make the investment of going through the offered training.  Infragistics has both a fundamentals and advanced course that can be taken in person or online.  You can't beat that.

Some amount of time is needed to sit down and learn the Presentation Layer Framework (PLF) and use the controls effectively.  But once you have made the investment, you don't have much to learn about the individual controls after that since the whole suite uses the PLF.  Infragistics even offers the ability to use the PLF in any components that you actually write.  (See specifics)

Documentation

This is one area in which Telerik is lacking tremendously.  I have found it really difficult to navigate through their documentation.  Over the past couple of releases I would have to say that Infragistics has been improving their documentation pretty much exponenentially.  Before selecting a component suite for your organization be sure to download the trials and check out the documentation and make sure your developers will be able to find the info that they need!

Source Code

Both Telerik and Infragistics offer you their source code as part of a subscription purchase.  Until recently, Telerik would require that you purchased more than five licenses to have access to the source control.  I'm glad they changed that licensing model.

Pricing

Here's what I found as of December 1, 2006:

Telerik:

r.a.d. controls for ASP.NET Subscription:  $999
r.a.d. controls for ASP.NET:  $799

r.a.d. controls for Windows Forms Subscription:  included with ASP.NET subscription until March 2007
r.a.d. controls for Windows Forms:  included with ASP.NET license until March 2007

Infragistics:

NetAdvantage .NET (ASP.NET, Win Forms, and AppStylist) Subscription with Priority Support:  $1,490
NetAdvantage .NET (ASP.NET, Win Forms, and AppStylist) Subscription:  $995

NetAdvantage ASP.NET Subscription with Priority Support:  $1,290
NetAdvantage ASP.NET Subscription:  $795

NetAdvantage for Windows Forms Subscription with Priority Support:  $1,290
NetAdvantage for Windows Forms Subscription:  $795

NetAdvantage AppStylist with Priority Support:  $1,195
NetAdvantage AppStylist:  $695

Value

Telerik has a total of 18 controls (36 including the Windows Forms suite.)

Infragistics has a total of 88 controls and in my opinion has more bang for the buck...

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Volume Discounts

Telerik:

3 to 4 licenses - 10%
5 to 9 licenses - 20% 
10 to 19 licenses - 30%
20 or more - 40%

Infragistics:

Member of Enterprise License Program (>25 Any Infragistics Licenses) - 15%

Licensing

Pretty much every company has had great licensing models to deal with.  Per-Developer and royalty-free for applications produced from the licenses is definitely the way to go.  One thing that I am disappointed with is that the big developers force you to purchase another license for a build machine.  I really don't agree with this model.  The ability to centralize team builds using a product like Microsoft Team Foundation Server is a great feature to have... but having to spend more money just to have the binaries to compile your app?  Not a good way to go.  I hope that each of the components vendors will address this issue soon and change their licensing models to allow for a build machine license.

Single Vendor Exclusives and Other Vendor Comments

I've made a couple of comments about what each of the vendors developer that is exclusive to the other component vendors.  Also, I wanted to take the opportunity to make some comments that don't necessarily fit in any other section of this article.

Telerik

r.a.d. Rotator, r.a.d. Window, r.a.d. Upload and more... 

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Infragistics

AppStylist, TestAdvantage, JSF, and more....

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Developer Express

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Component One

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

ComponentArt

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Summary - Final Conclusion

Honestly, if your organization hasn't already chosen a component suite for regular daily use in your applications you absolutely will benefit so much by going out and getting one.

<Section Not Completed Yet - Update Soon>

Let me know what you think... I'd like to hear about other developer's opinions about what they like/don't like in the different component suites!  I hope that this helps you out in your product selections and feel free to let me know if you have any further questions about my experience with any of the component suites.

I will end with this:  I also know the other camp of developers who feel that only the controls that are in Visual Studio should be used.  The opinion I hear from that camp is that you get stuck down to a third-party when you begin to use outside controls.  Well, here's my opinion:  You can make a good UI with the out-of-the-box Visual Studio components but you can't make an AWESOME one without a lot of effort.  Imagine having to draw really good looking charts using only the System.Drawing namespace!  Now imagine just dropping a chart from the toolbox, using a designer, and then data binding...  That is what is in store for you!

Now Go Vote

There are several publications that are asking for your votes on the different component suites... So now is your chance to give your opinion for which one is your favorite:

• Sys-con's 2007 Readers' Choice Awards
  • http://java.sys-con.com/general/readerschoice.htm
  • http://soa.sys-con.com/general/readerschoice.htm
  • http://webddj.sys-con.com/general/readerschoice.htm
  • http://dotnet.sys-con.com/general/readerschoice.htm
  • http://ajax.sys-con.com/general/readerschoice.htm

Some legal disclaimer stuff:

This article expresses my personal views and opinions and are not the views of my employer, previous employers (or future employers for that matter.)  The information contained in this article is provided without any express, statutory, or implied warranties.  In addition, the respective companies, products, components, and other commercially available software suites are either registered trademarks or trademarks of the respective organizations in the United States and/or other countries.

Funny aside:  While I was in college, I would always complain about writing reports anything over 500 words... LOL  I just absolutely hated doing it.  Although, if you haven't seen one of the cool new features of Microsoft Office Word 2007... wait until my next post.  I sure would have loved to have that while I was doing research and stuff in school!  Kids these days...  They have everything handed to them :)

Ed B.

Update : If you are wanting to learn how to undo or rollback a changeset using TFS 2010, visit my new blog post about this topic here: http://www.edsquared.com/2010/02/02/Rollback+Or+Undo+A+Changeset+In+TFS+2010+Version+Control.aspx

So... I really needed to undo a changeset that was previously made by another user and started looking around for it. I knew you could do it but just hadn't ever had a need for it. I figure I start right-clicking different places in Source Control Explorer but that didn't lead me to anything :(

Until I remembered there were cool new features in the Team Foundation Server Power Toys. Once of which was an undo changeset command. Take a look at them because I know you will find several features handy. One of my favorites in there as well is Annotate. (Thanks to Dave McKinstry for previewing that one to us!) It's basically a solution to point-the-finger game for changes... It will show a bar on the side next to every line that shows who the last person was that edited it, date/time, and the changeset number. You can even double-click on the changeset number and the actual details of the changeset will pop-up. Very handy!

Other features in the power toys package: (taken from the documentation)

Unshelve Command

Rollback Command

Online Command

GetCS Command

UU Command

Annotate Command

Review Command

History Command

Workitem Command

Query Command

TreeDiff Command

Ed B.

So, Wow... All of y'all that happen to use Facebook they have released an initial API that you can use to make applications that will read data from it once Facebook users have logged in and approved to use either your web or desktop application.  Pretty cool I think!

http://developers.facebook.com/index.php

I haven't dived too much into it since I am getting ready to leave out of town for Labor Day Weekend but at first glance:

1. One thing I don't like is that it uses the REST protocol.  For more info about it check out the Wiki on it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer  It's pretty much making a POST of XML and then returning
2. They do say that they have plans on supporting SOAP:  http://developers.facebook.com/faq.php
3. I also noticed two guys have already made a VB.NET and a C# library to use.  I haven't looked at them yet and will take a look at them to see how well they did.  Obviously, I'll use the VB one :)  If I don't happen to think they will be useful for me, then I'll just create a Facebook.NET Library for it or just wait for them to implement SOAP so we can just use web services.
4. You can't get the entries of the logged in user's wall (or whichever user they choose to view.)  You can only get the wall count.  Boo!

Once again, it's a very early implementation.  I'm going to have to blame all those people who have nagged me for three years while I was in college about not having a MySpace and a Facebook because I broke in and now I'm glued on checking mine everyday.  I have gotten to meet up with a lot of people though that I haven't talked to in a long time.

Have a safe and fun Labor Day Weekend!  I'll be heading to Austin!

Ed B.

So many people think that I work for DevExpress because of how much I rant and rave about CodeRush and Refactor Pro!

I'm telling you... CodeRush and Refactor Pro are definitely two of my most favorite tools!  But I really don't work for DevExpress... I'll blog later on both of them and some of the tools that I use from day to day that are built upon DX Core which is the foundation for both of their products and many other small tools.  If you haven't looked in DX Core (which is free) and you build or will build a Visual Studio add-in then you should definitely give it a shot.

My next plan for a coding tool that I could use from day to day is adding comments to code files in the format that I always use.  There is actually a tool that uses DX Core that does this called CR_Commenter but the bad thing:  It's only for C# code.  I thought about rewriting it for VB developers (and myself.)

Ed B.

So this is the other Ed.  Ed B.  The Toy Boy as I am lovingly called.  I suppose I get my nickname because I like new gadgets and gizmos.  I also get my name from the constant search and discovery of new tools and components that make my life (and the rest of our lives) as developers better.

My professional objective in life is to provide more productivity and efficiency to people, developers, and processes.  I won't get all philisophical but I think that is how mankind will prosper :)

Enough of that!  From time to time, I'll add new commentary about new tools that I have found and ones that I use from daily in my developer life and in school.  There are some that I absolutely love more than anything else and just can't live without... some people even think I work for these companies since I am such a proponent! (I don't)

So until later, be more productive and efficient in your development!

Ed B.