Rob Caron announced a couple of days ago that Microsoft have release an updated version of the Team Foundation Installation guide. This update includes bug fixes and covers installing SQL Server 2005 SP1.

You can find the updated installation guide here

I just read a very interesting post from Mitch Denny entitled Clearing a mailbox full of bugs with Team Foundation Server{#_ctl0__ctl2_TitleUrl}. In the post Mitch uses a number of third party add-ins for TFS including Conchango’s Scrum Process Template and Personify Design’s TeamLook. Both are great products and Mitch’s post is well worth a read.

I had an interesting problem yesterday while working on creating some coded data driven web tests in VSTS. My developer PC has SQL Server 2005 installed and Visual Studio Team Suite. I was considering creating the test data in my local SQL Server database but then figured it would make more sense to create an MDF file inside the project. This would allow the database to be easily versioned in TFS (data is read only) and allow others in the team to easily run the data driven web tests as well without needing to run SQL scripts on their PC to create the tables and populate them with the sample data.

When I attempted to add the MDF file by right clicking in the project, Add

New Item..

SQL Database, I received the following message;

“Connections to SQL Server files (*.mdf) require SQL Server Express 2005 to function properly. Please verify the installation of the component or download from the URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkId=49251“

I dutifully installed SQL Server 2005 Express edition and applied service pack 1 to it for good measure. When I tried to add the SQL Database item to the project I again received the same error message.

It is at this point that I remind readers that I am certainly no SQL expert and in fact I’m not over savvy in all things SQL at all [:$]

The fix I found was to go VS2005 into “Tools

Options

Database Tools

Data Connections” and in the Connection Options there’s a textbox labeled “SQL Server Instance Name (blank for default):”. When I entered SQLEXPRESS into this field, I was able to then start adding MDF files to my project.

I have not managed to find very much information on this and cannot guarantee this will not break anything else but in the mean time I am happily data driving my web tests and things are all OK.

Can anyone provide an insight into exactly what this field does in VS2005? Any know problems having SQL Express and SQL Server 2005 on the same box?

[UPDATE]

Peter Jones (http://www.jonesie.net.nz) provided the following information in answer to my questions above. He also pointed out that my blog’s “comments” feature is broken still [:@]. Looks like I might need to upgrade to the latest CS version…

Here’s Peter’s helpful response;

You can install multiple instances of SQL Server (2k, 05, Express or otherwise) on the same machine.  Each instance has a name that is specified during install.  You can also have 1 default instance.

By default, VS installs SQL Express with an instance called SQLEXPRESS.  For the database connection thing to work in VS it needs to know the name of the instance.  From the server explorer you can create a connection to any database and you get the oppurtunity to specify the server name and instance.

I’m guessing it was blank in your setup becuase you explicity chose not to install SQL Express when you installed VS.

Armed with the knowledge that TFS should be OK if you install SQL Server 2005 SP1 on the TFS server, I went ahead and installed SQL Server 2005 SP1 for a new installation of TFS I did over the weekend. Following Rob‘s TFS Installation guide, I simply applied the server pack immediately following the installation of SQL Server and I skipped the step where you would normally install the SQL Server HotFix as it is part of the service pack.

The installation went smoothly and the System Health Check was fine [:)]

I read an interesting post from John Lawrence this morning where he points us to a VS2005 template project that creates SOAP endpoints for many of the core TFS event notifications. The project is a creation of Conchango’s Howard van Rooijen and you can find out more about the template from his blog post entitled Team Foundation Server Notification Web Services: Visual Studio 2005 Project Template

From Howard’s blog post;

This version of “TFS Notification Web Services” supports the following events:

• AclChangedEvent
  • Branchmovedevent
    • BuildCompletionEvent
      • BuildStatusChangeEvent
        • CommonStructureChangedEvent
          • DataChangedEvent
            • IdentityChangedEvent
              • IdentityCreatedEvent
                • IdentityDeletedEvent
                  • MembershipChangedEvent
                    • WorkItemChangedEvent </UL> This Visual Studio 2005 Project Template will create a SOAP Endpoint for each of the above events.</BLOCKQUOTE></p>

Like Rob, I have had a few questions lately about installing SQL Sever 2005 SP1 on Team Foundation Server servers. While I have not done this myself yet, Rob has posted about it this morning. Here’s what he has to say;

“While the service pack is not a requirement for Team Foundation Server at this time, it is highly recommended for both current deployments and new deployments as it contains a number of fixes and performance enhancements. In addition, for new deployments, the service pack includes the required SQL Server hotfix mentioned in the Team Foundation Installation Guide.

As always, you should back up your data before installing the service pack and review the accompanying readme. If you are installing in a cluster, be sure to read the special instructions included in the readme.

If you are updating Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, the Team Foundation data cube perspectives are not fully generated, but we will supply a workaround for that soon.”

So armed with that information, it looks like its time to backup the database and start installing the update.

Rob’s full post

I received an email this morning from Eugene at Attrice letting me know that they have released an updated version of their Team Foundation Server Version Control Sidekicks product. My first experience with their product was back in April when I looked at Workspace SideKick and it has been very useful since then. From his email;

“The version 1.0.2 contains;

• New release of Workspace Sidekick that allows duplication of workspace definitions. The change was requested by users in order to administer uniform structured workspaces (so that administrator will create workspaces of certain structure and then will be able to duplicate them to users)
  • Completely new Status Sidekick that provides GUI for viewing pending changes across users and TFS projects, filtering the results by user/project, viewing detailed data of pending changes and performing Unlock/Undo on selected changes. In our opinion there is great need for a tool like that (expressed in TFS newsgroups and by our customers).”</UL> The updated version is freely available on the Attrice website.</p>

While on the topic of VSTS Webcasts (yesterday’s post), I noticed Rob Caron has posted about a number of VSTS WebCasts scheduled for May. The topics for May are certainly looking good and there are a few I’m compelled to watch this month including;

• MSDN Webcast: Using Metrics from Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server to Manage and Troubleshoot Your Projects (Level 200)
• MSDN Webcast: How Requirements Management Can Help Good Development Teams Perform Better (Level 200)
• MSDN Webcast: Extending Visual Studio Team System (Level 200)

I have just finished watching the Visual Studio Team System Extensibility: Team Foundation Server webcast that was recorded on Friday 28th April. Yogita Manghnani, a Program Manager in the Team Foundation group, starts by providing a brief architectural overview of TFS. She provides a brief background to the Team Foundation Server Core Services and the Reporting warehouse before providing clarification on the difference between customisation and extension/integration. This is something I have been asked about in the past and for the record;

• Customisation = Tailoring TFS to your environment
• Extension/Integration = Adding new functionality

The webcast then moves into more technical detail and gets quite interesting. Rather than write the script for the webcast here, I’ll conclude that the webcast is a great starting point for anyone supporting Team Foundation Server in their environment and looking at opportunities for extending TFS functionality. Remember, as a level 200 session, this does not go into too much detail but provides a great overview of the topic.

The webcast run just short of 40 minutes and worth the time to watch.

I noticed this morning on the Visual Studio Team System User Education blog that they have released three new documents on upgrading your TFS server. The three new documents are;

• Team Foundation Server Upgrade Types
• How to: Upgrade from Team Foundation Server Trial Edition
• How to: Upgrade from Team Foundation Server Workgroup Edition

These are particularly timely as the full version of Team Foundation Server should be orderable in the next couple of weeks with any luck so those of us that have installed the trial version as an interim step should now be able to move forward.