Data Dude On RadioTFS

From http://vstskb.net - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/vstskb/~3/394424099/

Just published over on Radio TFS  a special episode on the Database Edition of Team System with the Data Dude man - Gert Drapers.  In the show Gert talks how the product got started, where it is now, where it is going in the future, the latest CTP of the Database Edition GDR and more.

<TestContainer> Works With WebTest & LoadTest In Team Build 2008 With SP1

Published on: http://vstskb.net/blog/2008/09/testcontainer-works-with-webtest-loadtest-team-build-2008-with-sp1/

The new <TestContainer> item in Team Build 2008 in a great way to run tests without test metadata file (*.vsmdi).

You can specify the following to run all unit tests found in assemblies matching the pattern *.Tests.dll and even specify .LoadTest and .WebTest files as well:

<ItemGroup>
  <TestContainer Include="$(Outdir)*.Tests.dll" />
  <TestContainer Include="$(Outdir)WebTest1.webtest" />
  <TestContainer Include="$(Outdir)LoadTest1.loadtest" />
</ItemGroup>

But if you try to run it in Team Build 2008, you will get an error like: Could not load file or assembly.

That's because the task tries to do an Assembly.LoadFrom() on whatever files you include in the <TestContainer> item. This obviously fails because .LoadTest and .WebTest are XML files, not assemblies.

This problem has been solved in TFS 2008 SP1. All you need to do is to apply the TFS SP1 patch to the build machine (If you don’t want, it’s not necessary to install TFS SP1 on TF Server to get the fix).

Team Build and ClickOnce

The other day I got a question: How can I deploy an app via ClickOnce using Team Build?

There is not out of box way to do that, but we can do it with a simple workaround:

we should overload the target AfterCompile in TFSBuild.Proj to call MSBuild Task Publish and can pass the PublishDir property:

<Target Name="AfterCompile">
  <MSBuild
  Condition=" '@(SolutionToBuild)'!='' "
  Projects="@(SolutionToBuild)"
  Properties="Configuration=%(ConfigurationToBuild.FlavorToBuild);
    Platform=%(ConfigurationToBuild.PlatformToBuild);
    SkipInvalidConfigurations=true;
    VCBuildOverride=$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\TFSBuild.vsprops;
    FxCopDir=$(FxCopDir);OutDir=$(OutDir);
    PublishDir=$(OutDir);
    ReferencePath=$(ReferencePath);
    TeamBuildConstants=$(TeamBuildConstants);
    $(CodeAnalysisOption);PublishDir=\\qa1Srv\drops\publishedVers\ "
  Targets="Publish" />
</Target>

From: http://vstskb.net/blog/2008/09/team-build-and-clickonce/

Team System Web Access 2008 SP1

The Team System Web Access team had released SP1 last week.

Some of the cool new features include:

• Ability to run multi-language in a single TSWA instance.
• 10 languages supported
• Work Item only view for users without a CAL!!
• more

Ed Hintz’s announcement to see what’s new in this release:http://blogs.msdn.com/edhintz/archive/2008/08/29/team-system-web-access-2008-sp1-power-tool.aspx

 

Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3ECD00BA-972B-4120-A8D5-3D38311893DE

Dealing with Security Issues

Guest Post  - by Heather Johnson

No sooner is one fixed than another turns up, and if you’re not careful, you could end up losing all the data on your computer and the money in your bank. Viruses, Trojan horses, worms and other malware that are floating around on the Internet are morphing into new forms each time someone comes up with an antidote for those that are discovered. Not everyone is savvy about protecting their systems from being breached by hackers who are some of the best in the business.

Security suites and anti virus software offer some form of protection, and as they are updated regularly as and when new virus signatures are discovered. But even if your security software is up to date and reliable, there are ways that hackers can get at your system if you are not careful.

• Don’t log in to your computer as an administrator as this leaves your system vulnerable to attacks. When you surf the web and hit a strange or untrusted site, you could end up with a formatted hard disk. Hackers could also create their own user accounts with administrative privileges. When you need to perform tasks that require administrative privileges, you can log in temporarily as an administrator from a non administrative account.
• Do not click on links in emails from strangers.
• Do not open attachments without scanning them for malware.
• Do not share your passwords with even friends and family.
• Be up to date in applying security patches and system updates.
• Log out of your accounts, email, bank and others, when done.
• Do not use public computers to conduct sensitive transactions.
• Use secure sites that offer encryption when using your credit card to order goods and services online.
• Do not provide sensitive information online even if the request seems to come from trusted sources.
• Do not enable file and print sharing.
• Lock your computer or log out when leaving your desk.
• Shut down your computer when done for the day.
• Do not download software that is on offer from a source you cannot trust.
• Remove programs and applications that you do not use.
• Protect your home network from sniffers if you use a wireless router to connect.

By-line:

This article is contributed by Heather Johnson, who regularly writes on ATT Yahoo. She invites your questions and writing job opportunities at her personal email address: heatherjohnson2323 at gmail dot com.

VSTSDB 2008 GDR CTP16

Gert just posted about the release of CTP16 of the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR release.

From Gert’s post:

This release adds the following features:

• VSDBCMD.EXE
  • We added independent commandline deployment and reverse engineer, which can be used on machines that do not have Visual Studio installed, in order to deploy the results of a database project build (.dbschema file), or if you need to generate a .dbschema file so you can for example compare it, this commandline tool will let you do that as well.
• Database Project (.dbproj) Upgrades
  • CTP15 enabled upgrade of project files, but did not included updating Data Generation Plans (.DGEN files), which now be upgraded when they are opened the first time inside the DGEN designer.
• Schema Compare
  • You can now choose the SQL Command Variables (SQLCMD) to use during a Schema Compare session by clicking the “Specify SQLCMD variables” button on the Schema Compare toolbar. This will allow you to compare projects that are using SQLCMD variables and provide the contextual information via the variable values.
  • You can now set the Schema Compare options at the session level, in addition to Tools->Options, by clicking the Settings button on the Schema Compare toolbar.
  • And you can now save your Schema Compare session and reopen it again. We also added an item template for this, name "Schema Comparison"
    
• Extensibility
  • We finished the namespace and assembly naming cleanup. As a result all assembly names and namespaces have been changed. This means if you have code leveraging our extensibility mechanisms you need to update the assembly references and namespaces in your code.
  • We added the ability to add your own refactoring types! So now you can create your own refactoring command and have it change all the required references inside the schema. This is above and beyond the ability to create your own refactoring targets (the sources your want to change by an refactoring type), static code analysis rules, data generators, data distributions and test conditions.
  • We now also offer public access to our TSQL parsers for SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008, including the script generator functionality.
• And then there are many more enhancements in the parser, interpreter, validation, build and deploy.

Pre-requisites:

CTP16 requires the following components to be installed:

• Visual Studio 2008 SP1 RTM
• Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5 SP1

Download location:

You can download CTP16 from the following location:

• http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/setup.exe
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/Readme.mht
• http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/e/0ae1153a-8798-474a-93e6-d19299f37c8b/VSTS 2008 Database Edition GDR Documentation.zip

NOTE: If you have a previous version of the GDR installed, you will have to first uninstall this and then install the latest CTP16 bits.

TFS SP1 – Whats New? Want To Know Camano?

The Israeli ALM user group is back! I’m proud to be one of the 2 managers of this user group - my colleague is Sarit Tamir.

Next meeting (8 September 2008, 17:30) will be focused on the new features that were delivered with VSTS 2008 SP1 and the new Power Tools. We will also introduce the new testing suite (Camano) that will be shipped with the next version of TFS – Rosario.

Shahar Bracha will talk about Visual Studio Team System Power Tools which enables us better usage and ease when working with TFS.

During his session we will go over the new Power Tools and Service pack features  (such as: Web access enhancements, notifications support,  build, folder mapping and much more…)

For our second session, Eran Ruso will go over CTP 12 of Rosario in general and focus on Camano, a new standalone testing suite in Rosario.  Eran will also describe his experience as part of the first group that uses Rosario and Camano in production environments.

About the lecturers:

Shahar  is the ALM Manger at SRL Group, specializes in Microsoft technologies with an emphasis on the Team System, .NET framework and Web application architecture.

Eran  is a Senior Consultant at SRL Group, specializes in QA methodologies  and testing lifecycle.

 

I’ll be happy to meet you there!

Maor

 

Please register here to the event:

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032384162&culture=he-IL