TFS Code Coverage Check-in Policy

TFS Code Coverage Check-in Policy is now available on CodePlex.

The TFS Code Coverage Check-in Policy enforces that the latest test run of the current solution has code coverage enabled and that the total code coverage percentage is not below a certain, configurable, threshold value.

It reads the information from test results folder stored locally beneath the current solution.

To ensure that the user actually ran all the necessary tests, this check-in policy should be combined with the Testing check-in policy, that ensures that the user has executed all tests from a predefined test list.

Team Build: Modify TFSBuild.proj Template File

One of the usually made changes in all TFS Builds are setting some Targets and Properties for each and every build. Changing the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets is not a supported and risky scenario as it can be changed from version to another (as happened between TFS05 & TFS08) so the best option is customizing the Template file that generates the TFSBuild.proj file to include those changes by default.

The template can be found in:

• [VS2005] C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\1033\tfsbuild.proj
• [VS2008] C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\1033\tfsbuild.proj

Note that those templates are found in the PrivateAssemblies folders which can be overwritten by Maintenance and/or Updates so always make sure the output file is correct

All you have to do is to add your Custom/Overriden Targets, Properties or ItemGroups in their needed locations and Copy the file to each Machine that will create a Team Build.

Hope that helps.

Thanks to Steve for the info

Extending Load Testing Browser Support

The browser support Out Of The Box for Team Edition for Testers is minimal.

But, it can be extended by adding your own browsers (common ones you'll probably want to add are IE7, Firefox and Opera).

The configuration files for the browser types are stored in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\Templates\LoadTest\Browsers.

The files end in the extension ".browser". These files simply contain the header information a browser sends with a request.

If you aren't sure of what information to enter in this file, simply open up your favorite browser that isn't in the list and go to http://www.ranks.nl/tools/envtest.html and grab the appropriate values!

Use the IE6.browser file as a template. For example, if you wanted to add support to test Opera you might add the following and save it as Opera.browser:

<Browser Name="Opera 8.0">
<Headers>
<Header Name="User-Agent" Value="Opera/8.00+(Windows+NT+5.1;+U;+en)" />
<Header Name="Accept" Value="text/html, image/jpeg, image/gif, image/x-bitmap, */*" />
<Header Name="Accept-Language" Value="en" />
<Header Name="Accept-Encoding" Value="GZIP" />
</Headers>
</Browser>

There are obviously other values you can place here and some of this will be dependent on your locale, plug-ins you have loaded and other environmental factors. Once you save this file, you should be able to go in and create a new load test and Opera 8.0 will now show up as an option in your browser mix list.

TFS Reporting Simplified using TFS Data Source Control

Kannan wrote two great posts on how to create a TFS Data Source Control and how to create a TFS Report leveraging the use of this control.

You can check the posts on the following links:

• TFS Data Source ASP.NET Control
• TFS Reporting Simplified

Customising TFS Builds with MSBuild Tasks

I just came acrossa great help for customizing TFS Builds, The MSBuild Community Tasks Project which is an open source project for MSBuild tasks. The goal of the project is to provide a collection of open source tasks for MSBuild.

TFS Power Tool - Feb 2007

The Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Power Tool (formerly known as Power Toys) is a set of enhancements, tools and command line utilities that improve the Team Foundation Server user experience.

This release includes two new command-line tools for the developer and three non-command line tools: a set of custom check-in policies, a build test task, and a process template editor. This version (1.2) includes some bug fixes to the Team Foundation Power Tool and adds the following functionality:

• Workspace Command (tfpt.exe) - Use the workspace command for additional workspace operations not supported in the currently shipping Team Foundation Server command line (tf.exe).
• Treeclean Command (tfpt.exe) - Use the treeclean command to see and optionally delete files in the current directory and all sub directories that are not under version control.
• Team System Process Editor - A tool integrated with Visual Studio that provides a convenient method of viewing and customizing process templates. When connected to Team Foundation Server, you can use this tool to customize work item type definitions and global lists on an active project.
• Check-in Policy Pack - A set of handy check-in policies to address needs customers have expressed.
• Build Test Tools Task - A tool that allows running unit tests by simply specifying the DLLs, or by specifying a file name pattern in TfsBuild.proj, instead of using .vsmdi files to specify tests to run.

A great addition to TFS. The Process Editor is really a great addition, you can check it's Forums here.

TFS Powerful Easy Reports Add-In

TFS ships with a number of reports that allow you to track your progress of a project but modifying or creating new reports in Microsoft Visual Studio™ can prove to be challenging. Radius, from 90 Degree Software, integrates directly with TFS and delivers a powerful but easy to use reporting solution that allows you to rapidly create and use reports based on existing TFS queries.

The Radius Advantage:

• Powerful and easy to use: Radius delivers report designers with an easy-to-use, yet powerful, reporting solution. The results-oriented user interface, designed to look and feel like Microsoft Office 2007, intuitively provides users with quick access to the features they need most, right when they need them. People who are already familiar with tools like Microsoft Office Word, Excel or PowerPoint will intuitively pick up and use Radius features with little instruction. As a result, report designers can create, modify and deploy user specific reports that are meaningful, interactive, and meet the needs of their diverse end-users, and they can do this quickly, increasing productivity.
• The Radius TFS add-in: Provides TFS users the ability to use an existing team or personal TFS workitem query as the report query. The user is then able to proceed in creating visual report objects such as tables, charts and matrixes. The add-in also allows the project manager to quickly define filters based on TFS items such as AssignedTo values. The project manager can define custom groups of developers to filter the report quickly without needing to define this in the TFS query. Once the project manager has added the TFS query or queries to the report all of the report design features are available.
• Search, Reuse and Securely Share: One of the powerful features Radius provides is the ability to search, re-use, and securely share any report or report component. As a result of leveraging existing reports and report components, organizations can decrease report deployment time, reduce the time, and costs required, to deploy reports.

The tool is really worth the check ...

IE7 Browser Template for VSTS Web Tests

Sean Lumley posted about creating an Internet Explorer 7.0 browser template for use in Team System Web tests.

This post walks you through the process of adding a new IE7 browser
template that can be used by your web tests when running them stand alone or
inside of a load test.

Guidance Automation Toolkit and Domain-Specific Language Tools for Visual Studio 2005: Integration Scenarios

Mauro Regio and Víctor García Aprea wrote a great article about Guidance Automation Toolkit and Domain-Specific Language Tools for Visual Studio 2005: Integration Scenarios on MSDN.

The Microsoft Guidance Automation Package (GAT) and Domain-Specific Language Tools for Visual Studio 2005 (DSL) are two key technologies in Microsoft's software-factory strategy that allow architects and developers to author and package guidance and domain-specific languages.

GAT and DSL offer considerable value when used separately. However, when used together, they complement each other and, more importantly, can make up for certain limitations that each technology might have in its current state.

This paper presents a few GAT/DSL integration scenarios and discusses the benefits of adopting them, how to combine the two technologies, and whether you need to develop significant code development to do that.