A few days before I started looking into TFS and tried to set it up for out project development environment for upcoming projects and to get a real testing of the product as well as how well it fits into our model\mode of development. Setting up itself was a different experience altogether. We were finding issues, searching for solutions, trying certain things by our own and eventually solved the issues and succeededd in installing TFS Server 2008.
The installation platform includes Windows Server 2008, TFS 2008, VS 2008, SQL Server 2005 with SP2 and Sharepoint Services 3.0. Windows Server 2008, TFS 2008, VS 2008, SQL Server 2005 were present on one system while the SharePoint Services 3.0 installed on other system such that Team portal for any Team project would be hosted on one system (remote system) and Reports would be published on another (host system). To configure remote system having Sharepoint server you would need to install WSS Extensions on it. You would need to run the TFS Server set up on remote machine and choose the last option (Install WSS Extensions).
TFS setup includes Server setup, TFS Server proxy, TFS Build, Team Explorer (or client setup) and WSS Extensions. For installation on Windows Server 2008 you would need to enable IIS 6.0 compatibility. Go to Server Manager and then Roles. Click add roles and select Web Server (IIS), locate IIS 6.0 from the list and select all the options. Continue and wizard will install IIS 6.0 compatibility components. I will write another post explaininig installation issues we faced and there solutions. There is one really cool feature of this setup which saves a lot of time during installation failure scenario. Before installing the components it looks for potential installation risks and compatibily check. It gives complete error message alerting you about what might cause an installation failure so that it can fixed before proceeding. One the check passes you are sure that installation success ratio would be very high.
TFS or Team Foundation Server serves as an integrated solution for a product development team including Bug Management System, Build Management System, Source Code Control and a Common Team Portal for Overall project management.
Once the TFS Server is setup and a team project has been created then you would need to create a solution\project and add that to source control.
Team needs to install TFS Client which comes as part of TFS Setup (just install Team Explorer which is TFS Client). Once Team Explorer is installed on your system VS will start showing Team Project in new\open project option. Open a Team project by connecting to your TFS Server and then you would be able to see the Team project. For the first time users, you would need to first add TFS Server by clicking Team project and then in the wizard click Add Server. In Visual Studio IDE on the right end you will now see Team Explorer window along with Solution explorer and other windows.
Go to Team Explorer click on the Team project you are going to work on (You will presented with the Team projects where you have been given access by the Team Project Administrators). You would need to check if you have permision to view team portal and report site (right click team project name and reports folder for this). You should be able to view both of these. Team Site can typically be found at http://[WSS_Server]/Sites/[TeamProject/ and report site at http://[Report_Server]/Reports/Pages/Folder.aspx?ItemPath=/[Team_Project]. If not, check with project admins for giving you permission in reports server and share point team site both. There are different roles which decide what all you can do on these portals.
Second task would be to add a solution from source control.
1) Check that your Source Control Provider is TFS.
2) If not, then go to Tools -> Options -> Source Control and change current value to TFS on the right pane.
3) Once you have TFS selected as your Source Control provider go to File Menu -> Source Control -> Open from Source Control and then you would be shown the projects in Source Control.
4) Select the one you are going to work on and then select a local directory. All files will be copied to your local directory and then you can open the solution from your local directory. You will be able to see the same in solution explorer.
5) Team explorer will help you with overall project management, your work items and tasks, build requests and check-in controls where as Solution explorer will help you with working on the project or project development.
Please try to play both with Team Explorer and Solution here and see what new options you find with respect to Source Control and Team portal. I have found some issues and scope of improvement regarding source control which I will be mentioning in one of my future blogs. Till then keep testing TFS, Team Explorer, Build, Test support and Source Control :)
bye for now.
my team @ http://india.rampgroup.com
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