17 November 2011

Even More of Getting Started with the TFS 2010 Object Model

Back in October, I presented on Getting Started with the TFS Object Model (as well as a look at what’s coming in Visual Studio 11) at the Tulsa TechFest.  I had intended to post the source code for the demos I ran through during my talk but I never got around to it and it completely slipped my mind.  A few days ago, I was gently reminded by one of the attendees (thanks Sean!) that I had not posted the source code so, here I am!

Below is a screen shot of the main window displayed by the demos.  This application has 10 basic types of functionality that can be demonstrated.  The first two are demonstrated by clicking on the ellipses buttons in the upper right of the window which will display a dialog allowing you to select a TFS Server/TPC and Team Project.

The remaining eight features are demonstrated by clicking on the remaining buttons, which include:

  • Get Version – demonstrates the ability to determine which version of TFS you’re communicating with – assuming you’re running on a client that has the TFS 2010 Team Explorer Client installed on it.
  • Get TPCs – lists all TPCs associated with the selected TFS server.
  • Get Team Projects – lists all Team Projects associated with the selected TPC.
  • Get Latest Build Info – displays a list of basic build information for all builds associated with the selected Team Project (an example of this is shown in the screenshot below).
  • Queue Build – queues a new build using the specified Build Name.
  • Get Work Item Count – displays the number of work items returned based on the WIQL query defined within the source code.
  • Create Work Item – creates a new, basic work item (in this case, a “Bug”).
  • Get Latest – demonstrates the ability to “Get Latest” source code from TFS.

API Demo Window

If you’re curious about the source code, you can download it from here.

16 November 2011

OTSUG Meeting: Kinect + TFS = Kinban

Although the Omaha Team System User Group has not met in several months we had a great meeting tonight.  As always, our meeting was hosted by Farm Credit Services of America (FCSAmerica).  This time, however, we had the privilege of meeting in the brand new building that just opened last month.  The new building is outstanding and the meeting space for after-hours events just can’t be topped!  Thanks again to FCSAmerica for sponsoring our user group!

Jeremy_CroppedTonight’s topic, Kinban, was presented by Jeremy Novak (side note: Jeremy presented once before for the OTSUG about two and a half years ago).  Kinban is a product that was born out of an internal initiative at FCSAmerica called GeekFest 2011.  Kinban adds life to your planning meetings and morning stand-ups by allowing the project team members to move user stories around with hand gestures – via Microsoft’s Kinect device.  Jeremy covered how the Kinect SDK, Reactive Extensions (Rx), AutoIt, and the TFS APIs were all combined to give the project team members a hands off experience with TFS.  He also covered various lessons learned along the way providing some helpful insight for those who might be thinking about integrating the Kinect device into their own applications.

You can download Jeremy’s presentation here.  The code for Kinban is available on CodePlex here.