Posted by cbkadel on July 19, 2009
If you’ve spent any time in Team System, and if you work on a number of projects concurrently, you may notice that the Pending Changes dialog (same as the Check In..) dialog box shows a lot of outstanding changes that may or may not have anything to do with where you might have right-clicked to check in. The reason for this is that it shows all pending changes by default in your workspace (many of which are in other projects you might be working on).
Sometimes the file(s) that are relevant – such as within the Solution you’re working on, are at the end of a very long list. The more projects you work on concurrently and have outstanding changes on the more unwieldy this can become.
There are things that I do often to make the view more manageable:
- - Switch to hierarchical view from flat view. This doesn’t shorten the list, but at least shows only top level files/folders first – which are a much smaller set.
- - There’s a button on the toolbar of this window called “Filter to Solution.” This button will shrink the list even more so, if you’re a developer working on multiple solutions with outstanding changes.
When working with the source control integration with Visual Studio Solutions and the source control, you’ll notice that it does have some contextual awareness. Only those files that are below the folder/file that you might have right-click will be checked, but that the list shows everything in the workspace.
I might suggest in the future to show by default only those things under the right-click, with the option of viewing the workspace outstanding changes should the user need to do so. That would probably fit the 80 – 20 rule of how I work and I think a lot of people do.
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Posted by cbkadel on July 17, 2009
So, firstly, let me say that it has been a long while since my last post. It’s been quite a year at Polaris. A lot of good things, but enough that has kept me from blogging. I will make a self resolution to do a better job.
One of the things that is not too well documented is what happens with the field – Associated Work Items within the test view. I created a test for the purposes of this post called ManualTest1 as shown below:
When using the Test View you can select tests and are presented with this properties pane within Visual Studio 2008. Notice, you can press the … button to the right and it will even give you the standard Visual Studio Work Item Query screen. You can even choose one or multiple work items to associate with this test.
One might expect that this to manifest itself as a ‘link’ within the work item to this test definition, similarly to links to other work items or source control assets. It is not.
It’s also not in the vsmdi file, the sln file, but where is it?
In this case, a manual test, you normally open up the test (either text or mht), you’ll notice that there is no meta data about that test visibly within the IDE.
Well, it’s actually hidden. Open up that mht with the Source Code Editor (right click on the test in the Solution Explorer and select Open With…)
Now you’ll see where that Associated Work Item really is!
You’ll notice if you look at this file, these fields are in a commented out section of the MHT file which are not rendered in the default editor.
So – if faced with the challenge of associating “Test Cases” back to Requirements or other work items, just know that they are stored within the asset itself and if you’re use this information programmatically – get to know the Version Control APIs, be ready with some recursive programming skills, and know how to parse the embedded XML. It’s not readily available through SSRS or typical reporting techniques in Team System 2008.
Hope this helps!
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Posted by cbkadel on July 15, 2009
Well, to blatantly plug my next speaking engagement, it’s this one. You can click on the link to register below.
User group: Chicago VSTS UG
Event name: July 2009 Meeting: Architect Tools in VSTS 2010
Time period: 7/23/2009 5:30 PM till 7/23/2009 8:00 PM (GMT -6)
Location: 200 E Randolph, 2nd Floor. Chicago. United States.
Description:
Chris Kadel from Polaris Solutions will speak on the new Architect Tools included in VSTS 2010. These tools have undergone amazing transformations in the 2010 release which will make them indispensible for solution and enterprise architects. This session will involve an overview and demonstration of the Team System 2010 architect tools with a practical focus on how you can actually use these tools to create value in your organization.
Bio:
Chris Kadel has worked in the IT industry for over 10 years and has consistently worked with Microsoft technologies as a developer, designer, and architect. Chris is a co-founder and owner of Polaris Solutions, a Microsoft partner and leading provider of ALM Solutions including ALM Assessments, Implementations, and Process Consulting. Polaris has deployed Global TFS environments as well as have assisted small/medium size clients benefit from Team System.
Chris is most passionate about the Microsoft ALM tools such as Team System. His certifications: MCAD, MCSD, MCTS: SharePoint Server 2007, MCTS: Team Foundation Server
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