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.

Project Server 2007 - TFS Connector

The Project Server 2007 - TFS Connector has been released on CodePlex.

The Visual Studio Team System Project Server 2007 Connector is designed to integrate the project management capabilities of VSTS with Project Server 2007.
It's been developed by the Visual Studio Team System Rangers in response to significant customer demand for a connector solution. Future versions of Team System will have native integration with Project Server, in the meantime this Connector solution is the best way to integrate the two Microsoft products.

Patterns & Practices Team Development with TFS Guide

Patterns & Practices Team Development with TFS Guide Beta 1 is release on CodePlex

This guide shows you how to make the most of Team Foundation Server. It starts with the end in mind, but shows you how to incrementally adopt TFS for your organization. It's a collaborative effort between patterns & practices, Team System team members, and industry experts.

TFS - Project Server 2007 on CodePlex

TFS - Project Server 2007 Connector is now finally available on CodePlex

The Visual Studio Team System Project Server 2007 Connector is designed to integrate the project management capabilities of VSTS with Project Server 2007.
It's been developed by the Visual Studio Team System Rangers in response to significant customer demand for a connector solution. Future versions of Team
System will have native integration with Project Server, in the meantime this Connector solution is the best way to integrate the two Microsoft products. This solution builds on the previous PS2003 VSTS Connector, published on GotDotNet. This solution is intended to provide guidance, provided as source code that can be sed "as is," extended, or modified by developers to use on enterprise development projects.

VSTS for DB Professionals SP1 Pre-release

The DataDude team, aka the team that develops Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals, has just published a preview of their first service release.

It's not just bug fixes, they've included a number of new features:

• 3+4 part name resolution through a new feature called "database references"
• File groups and files are now part of the project settings and can e fully parameterize then to fit your deployment needs (this replaces the need for the storage deployment script)
• SQLCMD variable support; this is enable through a new project property page for creating and editing variables that you can then use inside your scripts. Variables are stored inside the project file and can be mapped to MSBuild properties.

More details will be coming soon, but in the meantime check it out.

TFS Cube ... Uncovered !!

Jimmy Li has posted the most amazing TFS Cube related post I ever found ... Great job Jimmy ... It's a bless :)

The post covers complete understanding of TFS Cube inside out with screenshots, demos and tips on how to use it best. It can be checked out here, he promised he'll give more so keep an eye on it !! Enjoy ...

The initial learning curve for the TFS Cube is pretty steep. It is quite overwhelming to figure out the relationships between the large number of dimensions and measure groups in the TFS cube at first. In this blog entry I will explain some of the most commonly used perspectives and show how you can easily create Excel reports from them.