Tomorrow, I’ll be presenting in this month’s geekSpeak about migrating from Visual SourceSafe to Team Foundation Server 2010.  I’m sure we’ll get through the VSS content pretty quickly so with the time left we’ll talk about new branching & merging features, branch visualization, and gated check-in.

In this geekSpeak, Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Ed Blankenship discusses migrating source code from Visual SourceSafe, including the history. There has not been a better time to migrate to the newest Microsoft source control offering, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server, because Microsoft Visual SourceSafe support is ending soon and Team Foundation Server will be part of Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscriptions in 2010. Ed discusses specific version-control features to help you become more productive like branching and merging visualization, annotate, shelving, and gated check-in. This geekSpeak is hosted by Glen Gordon and Brian Hitney.

Registration for the event available here:  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032438525

BTW – The end-of-life support date for Visual SourceSafe is mid-year 2011.  Don’t get stuck on an unsupported product :) especially one that’s holding your source code!

Update:  The recording of this presentation is now available on Channel 9 here:  http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/geekSpeak/geekSpeak-Recording-Migrating-to-Team-Foundation-Server-from-Visual-SourceSafe/ .  Sorry about the dropped call in the middle of the presentation.  Also, here’s some links that I mentioned during the talk:

• Whitepaper – “From VSS to TFS”:  http://sstjean.blogspot.com/2006/10/document-from-vss-to-tfs-introduction.html
• Whitepaper – Exposing TFS to the Internet:  http://blogs.msdn.com/ablock/archive/2009/08/24/exposing-tfs-2010-beta-2-to-the-internet.aspx
• Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4.0 Training Kit (Labs, Videos, Slide Decks, etc.): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en

Ed Blankenship

I’m going to be doing a session at the Columbia Code Camp about Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and Team Foundation Server 2010 and really looking forward to it!  Looks like Cameron Skinner already beat me by speaking out in Charlotte earlier this week but hopefully I’ll still have some people who haven’t seen the new features just yet!

Check out the other 32 sessions in the Agenda and be sure to Register.  Already looks like a big crowd so I’m hoping it ends up being successful.  There’s a lot to get through for a one-hour overview session but I plan on sticking around to chat if anyone ends up having any questions that we can’t get answered during the presentation.

Session:  Lap Around TFS and Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate

Time:  11:15 AM – 12:15 PM  (Right before lunch!)

Track:  Framework

Room:  Amoco Hall (1C01)

Location:  University of South Carolina, Swearingen Building, 301 Main St., Columbia, SC 29201

Cost:  Free!

Update: Slides are now available below.

Ed Blankenship

I'm pleased to announce that we now have pricing information that is publicly available for the Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 products!  Remember, these are Retail prices and if you are in a company you should never be paying retail :)  Always talk to your Microsoft Sales team and ask for volume licensing deals.

Also, if you didn’t hear, a production license for TFS 2010 and a TFS 2010 CAL is included with every MSDN subscription!

Suggested Retail Pricing (USD) for Visual Studio 2010

			With 1-Year MSDN Subscription*
Product	Buy	Upgrade	Buy	Renew
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate	-	-	$11,899	$3,799
Visual Studio 2010 Premium	-	-	$5,469	$2,299
Visual Studio 2010 Professional	$799	$549	$1,199	$799
Visual Studio Test Professional 2010	-	-	$2,169	$899
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010	$499	$399	-	-
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 CAL	$499	-	-	-
Visual Studio Load Test Virtual User Pack 2010 (1000 Virtual Users)	$4,499	-	-	-

* Subscription contents vary by purchased product.

Ed Blankenship

Thanks to the Visual Studio ALM Rangers, we have a new release of the TFS Branching Guidance!  Think of it like TFS Branching Guidance 3.0… it was developed specifically for TFS 2010 including tidbits on best practices using all of the new branching & merging hierarchy and visualizing change features.

I often talk about branching & merging strategies with my clients and it’s always great to have some diagrams and content to go back to and leave with them so that they can delve into Configuration Management a little more.

Head on over to their CodePlex site:  http://tfsbranchingguideiii.codeplex.com/

Project Description
The purpose of this project is to build some insightful and practical guidance around branching and merging with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010. The new release focuses on Hands on Labs and includes lots of lessons learnt from the community Q&A.
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Branching Guide 2010
Branching and merging of software is a very large topic. It is an area where there is a lot of maturity in the software industry. This Ranger solution focuses on applied and practical examples of branching that you can use right now. The 2010 release includes discussions around branching concepts and strategies but also focuses on practical hands-on labs.
Visual Studio ALM Rangers
This guidance is created by the Rangers who have the mission to provide out of band solutions for missing features or guidance. This content was created with support from Microsoft Product Group, Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVPs) and technical specialists from technology communities around the globe, giving you a real-world view from the field, where the technology has been tested and used.
What is in the package?
The content is packaged in 8 separate zip files to give you the choice of selective downloads but the default download is the TFS_Branching_Guide_2010_Complete_Package_v1 if you are interested in all parts.

• TFS_Branching_Guide_Main_2010_v1.zip --> Start here
• TFS_Branching_Guide_Scenarios_2010_v1.zip
• TFS_Branching_Guide_Scenarios_2010_Poster_v1.zip
• HOL_Quick_Start_Basic_Branch_Plan_2010_v1.zip
• Lab_Files_HOL_Quick_Start_Basic_Branch_Plan_v1.zip
• TFS_Branching_Guide_Q&A_2010_v1.zip
• TFS_Branching_Guide_Diagrams_2010_v1.zip
• TFS_Branching_Guide_2010_Complete_Package_v1

Team
Bill Heys, James Pickell, Willy-Peter Schaub, Bijan Javidi, Oliver Hilgers, Bob Jacobs, Sin Min Lee, Neno Loje, Mathias Olausson, Matt Velloso
How to submit new ideas?
The recommended method is to simply post ideas to the community or to contact the Rangers at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/ee358786.aspx.

Ed Blankenship

Tomorrow, I’ll be presenting in this month’s geekSpeak about migrating from Visual SourceSafe to Team Foundation Server 2010.  I’m sure we’ll get through the VSS content pretty quickly so with the time left we’ll talk about new branching & merging features, branch visualization, and gated check-in.

In this geekSpeak, Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Ed Blankenship discusses migrating source code from Visual SourceSafe, including the history. There has not been a better time to migrate to the newest Microsoft source control offering, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server, because Microsoft Visual SourceSafe support is ending soon and Team Foundation Server will be part of Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscriptions in 2010. Ed discusses specific version-control features to help you become more productive like branching and merging visualization, annotate, shelving, and gated check-in. This geekSpeak is hosted by Glen Gordon and Brian Hitney.

Registration for the event available here:  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032438525

BTW – The end-of-life support date for Visual SourceSafe is mid-year 2011.  Don’t get stuck on an unsupported product :) especially one that’s holding your source code!

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

Report Builder is an awesome tool in lieu of using Microsoft Office Excel or Business Intelligence Studio to create custom reports with SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services.  The version of Report Builder that shipped with SQL Server 2008 is Report Builder 1.0.  Report Builder 2.0 was later released with plenty of new features and a better report writing experience.

The only issue though is that the most discoverable way to install Report Builder using Click-Once is through Report Manager but it points to Report Builder 1.0 even after you install Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2008.

If you installed Service Pack 1 for your Reporting Services instance, there is actually a way to change the behavior though to point it to the Report Builder 2.0 Click-Once install.  Click “Site Settings” in the upper-right hand corner and then fill out the Custom Report Builder Launch URL to “/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application” if your server is setup in Native mode (which it should be if it is the RS instance for TFS) or “/_vti_bin/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application” if it is in SharePoint Mode.

Alternately, if you want to download the full MSI installer you can over at Microsoft Downloads:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9f783224-9871-4eea-b1d5-f3140a253db6&displaylang=en.  Thanks to the Reporting Services Team Blog for the handy information.

Ed Blankenship

It wasn’t long ago that an original launch date (March 22, 2009) was announced for Team Foundation Server 2010, Visual Studio 2010, and the .NET Framework 4.0.  It then got postponed after the product teams realized that they weren’t going to meet that date and have a solid product up high release standards.  A new launch date has been announced to be April 12, 2010.

Now remember that launch date doesn’t mean release date!  I had a little discussion about it on a previous blog post but hopefully everything will get wrapped up, RTM, and will be available to MSDN Subscriber Downloads before the launch date.  Fingers crossed!

[Updated] Also, a Release Candidate will be available for all of these products in February and will include a public  “Go-Live” license just like Beta 2.  Be sure to upgrade to the RC as soon as possible and report any issues that you may be experiencing quickly since the time between RC and RTM will be very short.  I’m sure the product group’s largest goal is to make sure there are no show-stoppers being discovered in the RC.

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

Not sure if you have seen this but some of the product managers on the TFS Build team at Microsoft have been putting together some great blog posts for how to create custom build activities and get a little background about Windows Workflow 4.0 and how it relates to TFS Build 2010.

• How to Create a Custom Workflow Activity for TFS Build 2010 by Jim Lamb
• Windows Workflow 4.0 – CopyDirectory (Part 1 of 3) by Patrick Carnahan
• Windows Workflow 4.0 – CopyDirectory (Part 2 of 3) by Patrick Carnahan
• Windows Workflow 4.0 – CopyDirectory (Part 3 of 3) by Patrick Carnahan
• Windows Workflow 4.0 – CopyFile by Patrick Carnahan
• Writing Custom Activities for TFS Build 2010 (Beta 1) by Aaron Hallberg
• Display Custom Build Information by Jason Prickett
• Modifying the Default Display of Build Information by Jason Prickett

Also, we’ve been trying to put together a CodePlex project that’s designed to be a central location for contributions of Team Build 2010 customizations like custom activities, build process template customizations, build tools, etc.  You can take a look here:  http://teambuild2010contrib.codeplex.com/.  I’d encourage you to think about contributing any of your customizations to this project.  I know I’m personally hoping that it will be the “go-to” place for some of the common build activities that people need.  If you happen to have any feature requests for build activities, feel free to request one in the discussions and we’ll add it to the backlog:  http://teambuild2010contrib.codeplex.com/Thread/List.aspx

Thanks!

Ed Blankenship