IntelliTrace Session’s Slide Deck at DevTeach Mini (HOC)
TFS 2012: Set Default Task Activity in the Scrum Template
There is no option to do so without modifying the Task workitem template.
- You need to install the TFS 2012 Power Tools
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/b1ef7eb2-e084-4cb8-9bc7-06c3bad9148f
- Open Visual Studio 2012
- Click on Open WIT from Server
- Select Task to modify the Tasks template
- Click on Edit on the Activity field. At this point we want to know the valid values
- Select SuggestedValues and click on Edit
- You should see a list of the valid values
- Close all the dialogs to get back to the previous screen shot
- Click on the Workflow tab
- Right click on ToDo and click on Open Details
- Click on the new Button
- Select Microsoft.VSTS.Common.Activity from the drop down
- Click on the Rules tab
- Click on the New Button
- Select DEFAULT
- Select value from the From combobox and type Development in the Value field
- Click OK to close the Default dialog
- Click OK to close the workflow State Field Rules dialog
- click the save button.
- Create new Task from Visual Studio or Web Access
Ottawa IT Camp 2013
The sixth annual Ottawa IT Camp is scheduled for Saturday, May 4th, 2013 at Algonquin College. 2013 is year number 6 for the Ottawa IT Camp.
We are excited and eager to bring you the best camp that we can.
Look forward to lots of IT Topics.
This year we welcome OWASP‘s participation as the fourth local user group. Come see the new IT Security track at the camp.
Our three core user groups include: the Ottawa dot net community, the Profession Association of SQL Server and the Ottawa Windows Server User Group – this is a great learning and networking event for IT Technology.
Note: There is a $25 admission fee (to improve our attendance match to registrations) which is nothing for a full day training. Register now and you won’t regret it GUARANTEED!
For more info you can visit
Visual Studio ALM MVP 2013
April 1st at noon, I received an email from MVPAward congratulating me for becoming a Visual Studio ALM MVP. Don’t worry it wasn’t an April fool’s day prank.
It took me a great effort and dedication to achieve that but it is really worth it. During the last two years I have learned a lot from reading, experimenting and answering questions on the MSDN forums. I was also glad to share my experience and knowledge in Team Foundation Server and ALM with the community through my blog and presentations.
I would like to thank God for all the bounties he has been giving me and I would also like to thank everybody who contributed to the achievement of this milestone in my career. A special thanks goes to my wife, parents, family, Ottawa IT Community, MEA ALM Community, those who nominated me for this award and the readers of my blog.
Ahmed Al-Asaad
TFS2012: Create Build Definitions
Introduction
In this article I will explain how to create a build definition in the Visual Studio 2012 and TFS 2012 server. I used TFS 2012 Express when I wrote this post. In a previous post, I went through the build types that Team Foundation Server supports.
To run a Team Build in TFS, assuming you already setup the Build Controller and Agents, you need to create a build definition. A build definition acts as a settings or configurations file for the build process.
Create Build Definition
The following steps show how to create a team build definition:
Open Visual Studio 2012
Open Team Explorer (View—>Team Explorer)
Connect to a TFS Server and Team Project
After you are connected to the Team Project of interest, go back to the Home menu or page and click on the Builds link
Click New Build Definition to create a new build definition
Give your build definition a meaningful name (e.g. mypp-CI-Debug, myapp-Scheduled-UnitTests).
Queuing process option is sufficiently explained on the screen.
Click on the Trigger node
On this screen, you can specify the build type. Build types were covered in the previous article. Under Rolling builds, Build no more often than ever x minutes means you want at least x minutes between builds to allow for build accumulation. Under Gated Check-in, check the Merge and build up to x submissions, if you want to group submissions when building them to improve performance.
The next step is to configure the Workspace.
On this screen, you can select as many folders as you want. Those folders and their contents will be downloaded (Get performed) to the Source Directory to the code. As a best practice, you want to avoid referencing the root folder of you team project (e.g. $/MyTeamProject) because you want to avoid getting the code for unrelated files or projects. Point to the folder where your code exists and add other folders for other related code or libraries such as libraries for third party controls. When adding multiple folders, make sure you maintain the folder level or relative path among folders at the Build Agent Folder.
Click on the Build defaults, it is probably called with that name because you can override these values when you queue a build <— I am guessing 
On this screen, you have to specify a Build a controller and the drop folder location. The drop folder contains the output of the build process.
The Process screen is where you can define the Build process Template, which is a workflow of activities to execute your team build, and the Build process parameters that are passed to the workflow build template as arguments.
If you are using the Default Template, you need to at least populate the Items to Build parameter with a solution. Deferent build templates may have deferent parameters. You can also create and customize a build template.
Click the ellipsis button
Click on Add
Select a solution
You can select multiple solutions
You can set the configurations for the build in the Configurations tab
In another post, I will explain the other parameters.
The last step, is to define the retention policy. The retention policy automate the deletion of old builds to save disk space.
Save the build definition
Notice that it will be added to the build definition section on the build window. To queue a build manually, right click and click on Queue New Build
TFS2012: Run Concurrent Sprints
This post is in response to the following forum question http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsgeneral/thread/9b9c6479-34f8-427f-b461-09f8b6a3c8f9
In the post, I will show how to show two backlogs for a Release 1 and Release 2. Backlogs will NOT be visible at the same time.
Open TFS Web Access
Click on Configure Schedule and iterations
I have two releases two sprints in two different releases. In real case scenario, a later Sprint than Sprint 1 will be the current Sprint for Release 1
Click Set as team’s backlog iteration for Release one to show workitems assigned to Release 1 in the backlog
Close the popup
Click on View backlog
Notice that you can only see the backlog items assigned to Release 1
One of the issues you will have is when you view the backlog, the Iteration path is not one of the visible columns. It is useful to show the Iteration Path in the grid. Click on Column Options and add the Iteration Path from the left rest to the right one.
To show the backlog for Release 2. Click the home button and click on the configure schedule and iterations. You can select Release 2 now.
Make sure you check Sprint 1
In the steps, I will be adding a workitem query to the team favorites to show the number of the workitems assigned to a Release. Go to the Work tab then Work Items. lick on the Product backlog. Click on the editor tab then modify the iteration path then click on the Save as Query button. I am calling it PBL-Release1.
Create another query for Release 2.
Click on the little triangle next to the the new queries and add them to the team favorites
Notice that the queries got copied to the team favorites section
Go to the home page and notice the new tiles
TFS2012: Run Data Driven Unit Tests in TFS Team Build
In a previous post, I explained how to run one test method twice using the data driven approach with Excel workbook as a datasource. The solution worked without issues when running using Visual Studio 2012. But I wasn’t able to run the unit tests using TFS Team build. I was getting the following error
The unit test adapter failed to connect to the data source or to read the data. For more information on troubleshooting this error, see “Troubleshooting Data-Driven Unit Tests” (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=62412) in the MSDN Library. Error details: ERROR [IM002] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified
The following is my setup:
3 VMS
Active Directory: Windows 2008 R2
TFS 2012 Express: Windows 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012 Express
Team Build Server: Windows 2008 R2, Team Build Controller and 1 Agent running as NT Authority\ Network Service
Troubleshooting Steps
Check if the Excel file is copied to the Out folder
In my case it was copied
Check if you have the proper drivers installed
In my case I had make sure that the ODBC driver for Excel xlsx files is installed. There are two versions of ODBC Datasource: 32bit and 64bit. To learn more about that topic checkout this KB http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942976
I opened both the 32bit and 64bit versions of the odbcad32.exe on the build machine and I noticed that the drivers were installed for the earlier version of Excel (xls) and not the 2007+ version (xlsx).
The reason it was working in Visual Studio (local machine) is I had Office 2010 installed on the machine that has Visual Studio.
I logged on as lab\administrator (domain admin rights) and then I Installed Office 2010
Now I opened the ODBCad32 and found out that the driver is installed and the DSN is added to the User DSN.
If I run the team build now, I will fail with the same error because the service is running as Network Service not lab\Administrator
Change the Run as account
Open the TFS Admin console from the build machine
Click on Build Configurations Node
Stop the Build Service
Click on Change in the Run the Service as groupbox
Select User a user account
WARNING: You MUST NOT use a domain admin for your run as service. I will change it later on in the article. The reason I am using a domain admin here is because I installed office using that account. The office installation adds the DNS names for at the user level which only accessible to the current user. I will show it to you working first then I will change the account.
Enter your username. If you keep the “User the same identity as Windows Service” checked, TFS will add this account to the Project Collection\Project Collection Build Service Accounts group. You can use a local machine admin account in the first box and a domain user with limited privileges in the Connect to TFS as box as I will show later on.
Click OK and Save.
Queue a team build
Replace Run as Service Account
Now I will replace the the run as Service Account as a local Administrator
Open the TFS admin console from the build machine
Build Configuration—>Service Property—>Stop the service
Click the change button
I am using a local admin account. If you template interact with other network computers you need to use a domain account.
Uncheck Use the same identity as windows Service
Click the Change button
Enter the account information. This account will be used for any interaction with TFS
Click and Start
Queue a new build
The build should fail with same error we had above.
I am getting this error because the installation of Office 2010 added the DNS name to the User DNS which means it is only available to the the current user. You can fix this issue by logging on as your new account and add the DNS to the User DNS tab.
Add Excel DNS to the Local DNS list
Log on as the new user (I am logging on as LocalAdmin). You can also run the Odbca32.exe as a different user if you don’t want of log off and on.
Open “C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe”
In the User DNS
Click Add
Select Microsoft Excel Driver (the one that contains xlsx)
Click finish
Name it Excel Files
Click OK
Run the build again and it should pass
