Team System Utilities

Over the past few months I've come across several utilities related to Team System. Some of them have proven to be useful so I thought I'd compile a short list and post it in case anyone else might find them useful. Click here to see the list.

If you know of other Team System utilities that I do not have listed, please let me know about them so I can add them to the list.

Heartland Developers Conference

The 3rd annual Heartland Developers Conference has been scheduled for October 26th and 27th, 2006. This will be the first time the conference has been held in Omaha, NE. I'm excited to go because A: it's very close (about 15 minutes from my house), B: it's inexpensive ($125 early bird registration fee - which my company is paying for), and C: I'm looking forward to hearing some great speakers.

If you live in the midwest (e.g. Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, etc.) then you should definitely consider attending this conference. Registration starts Monday, May 1st. There will most likely be a sellout crowd, so register ASAP :-)

Although I'll be attending Tech-Ed 2006 in Boston this year I'm excited to know that I'll get at least one more conference in (i.e. learning opportunity) before the end of the year.

Upgrading Team Foundation Server

Three new documents have been posted on the Visual Studio Team System User Education blog explaining the various upgrade steps for Team Foundation Server. The three documents include:

1. Team Foundation Server Upgrade Types - this document explains the various types (i.e. versions) of Team Foundation Server and what can be upgraded to what.
2. How To: Upgrade from Team Foundation Server Trial Edition
3. How To: Upgrade from Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition

Click here for more information.

Workspace Sidekick

A new utility for manipulating Team Foundation Server Version Control workspaces has been released by Eugene Zakhareyev and is available here. Here are some specifications from the web site:

Workspace Sidekick is a tool for TFS Administrators and advanced users providing Graphic User Interface for viewing and performing administrative changes on TFS workspaces.

The version 1.0 of TFS VC Workspace Sidekick provides the following features:

• View workspaces filtered by specific owner or computer name (owner and/or computer name may be selected from list of Active Directory users or just typed in)
• Delete workspaces
• Update workspace computer name (for local workspaces only)
• View specific workspace details and folder mappings
• Delete specific workspace selected folder mappings
• Specify application configuration parameters (TFS server name, Active Directory domain for lookup)
• View log of performed actions (successful and failed)

There is a nice user's guide available on Anthony Borton's BLOG.

A GUID Debugger Visualizer for Visual Studio 2005

For those of you working in Visual Basic 2005, have you ever had a situation where you would like to view the value of a GUID variable during a debugging session?

One of the nice additions to Visual Studio 2005 are debugger visualizers. During a debugging session you can just hover over a variable to view the contents of that variable. This works for almost all .NET data types. However, if you try it with a GUID value, you can't see the actual value - rather you see "{System.Guid}" or "Empty", if you expand the visualizer.

I got tired of constantly typing "? guidVariable.ToString" in the Immediate window so I decided to create a GUID debugger visualizer. This visualizer allows you to view the actual value of the GUID variable, reset the value (either to an empty GUID or a GUID value of your choice), or generate a new GUID value. During a debugging session, simply click on the small magnifying glass while hovering over a GUID variable to display the visualizer (see image below).

Although I initially built this visualizer for Visual Basic 2005 (it's actually written in C#), it can be used for C# code as well. C#, oddly enough, has a built-in visualizer for GUIDs. However, my visualizer has some extra-added benefits (e.g. resetting to an empty GUID and generating a new GUID).

The installation package is available here: http://www.moonspace.net/blog/gv/GuidVisualizerSetup.msi

Please post with any suggestions.

Microsoft Releases Free eBook: Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Developers

Although I prefer developing in C#, I also develop in Visual Basic 2005. Microsoft has released the complete book, Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Developers, in PDF format for free.

Get a focused, first look at the features and capabilities in Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and the .NET Framework 2.0. If you currently work with Visual Basic 6, these authors fully understand the adoption and code migration issues you'll encounter. They'll step you through a quick primer on .NET Framework programming, offering guidance for a productive transition. If you already work with .NET, you'll jump directly into what's new, learning how to extend your existing skills. From the innovations in rapid application development, debugging, and deployment, to new data access, desktop, and Web programming capabilities, you get the insights and code walkthroughs you need to be productive right away.

You can download individual chapters or the entire set as a single zip file.

The eBook is available for download here.

Visual Studio Team System Training

I came across a (relatively) new Microsoft site today that is dedicated to providing technical information for Visual Studio Team System.

Here you can access comprehensive resources from introductory to expert that include both online and self-paced training, the latest technical articles, videos, evaluation downloads, Webcasts by Visual Studio Team System experts and more. Take the first step to expand your opportunities!

There are a few "coming soon..." placeholders here and there but there is still a lot of good information on this site if you're interested in learning more about Team System.