Deleting work item in TFS 2010

After the release of TFS 2010 power tools I have noticed that the command destroywi that is used for deleting work items was removed. Searching the Visual Studio installation directory I found a new command line utility called witadmin.exe. This new tool hosts all the known work item management commands like import, export... To delete work items you use the same command as in the power tools with the work items id as a parameter:
Example: witadmin destroywi 10

Shelveset as a Backup

Long time since I posted. Been busy (implementing TFS), long vacation and a new work place.
In the last implementation I did I have noticed that in some cases users work in a network drive that is always backed up by IT. This is a good solution for backing up your workspace without checking in your pending changes (like we used to do when we worked with SourceSafe...) or performing a shelve for backup purpose. I thought it would be nice to share the idea of automatic backup shelves with those of you that work locally without any automatic backup. When you shelve your pending changes the shelve is saved in PendingChange table. The pending changes will be removed from the table when you delete or replace the shelveset. So to perform an automatic backup of your workspace that does not overload your TFS database you can add a schedule task that will run the following command:
tf shelve {workspace name} /replace /noprompt
Remeber to set the current folder to the workspace local path before executing the command.
Enjoy.

VersionControlPath - Class to Manipulate Version Control Items Path

I was navigating through TFS assemblies and I found out a static class that I wasn't aware of: Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Common.VersionControlPath. This class contains functions that help manipulating version control items path. It is like the System.IO.Path class. Here are some of the methods in the class:

• GetFileName
• GetExtension
• GetFolderDepth
• Combine
• GetFolderName
• ValidatePath

Very useful.

No matching items found in {0} at the specified version

I recently got this error while trying to create a branch from that its parent was renamed.

Here's an example of what happened:

1. A branch was created at: $/Project/Folder1/Branch1.
   
2. Some work has been done on Branch1 so its history contained several change sets.
   
3. Folder1 was renamed to Folder2 ($/Project/Folder2/Branch1).
   
4. A branch operation failed while trying to create one from a change set before the rename operation with the error: "No matching items found in $/Project/Folder2/Branch1" (A branch operation on a change set created later than the rename operation will succeed).
   

I thought that the rename operation has broken the branch history. Looking at the branch dialog I saw that the source branch text box is read only and I thought to myself what would have happen if I had changed the source from $/Project/Folder2/Branch1 to $/Project/Folder1/Branch1. It was time for some coding…

private void PerformBranch(string server, string workspaceName, string userName, string changesetId, string sourceBranch, string targetBranch)

{
TeamFoundationServer tfs = new TeamFoundationServer(server);
VersionControlServer vcs = tfs.GetService(typeof(VersionControlServer)) as VersionControlServer;
Workspace workspace = vcs.GetWorkspace(server, userName);
VersionSpec versionSpec = VersionSpec.ParseSingleSpec(changesetId, userName);
workspace.PendBranch(sourceBranch, targetBranch, versionSpec);
}

This method has fixed the problem and after running it with the old branch path (source = $/Project/Folder1/Branch1), pending changes were waiting for check in.

TF20015: The field 'xxx' contains a value that is not in the list of supported values.

While trying to save a work item in TFS you might be facing a problem doing it when the error TF20015 is raised. This error is raised when you are trying to enter values that are not part of the allowed values of the field. The strange thing is that it can happen although the value was already saved before to the work item and the field is disabled. As a result you cannot change the value and therefor cannot save the work item. So why does it happen? I faced this problem in two cases:

1. The user in one of the fields (which is implementing the valid user value list as the allowed values for the field) was renamed or deleted.


2. The work item schema was changed in a way that made some of the existing work items have illegal values. For example, if you made one of the fields mandatory trough all of the work flow and you have some work items with a null value in the field.

So, how can you fix it?

There are 2 ways to do it:

1. Changing the work item schema temporarily so the field won't be disabled and then you can change the value.


2. Write some code the change the field value:

Here's a code sample on how to update work item field values:

public void UpdateWorkItem(string serverUri, int id, string fieldName, string fieldValue)
{
TeamFoundationServer tfs = new TeamFoundationServer(serverUri);
tfs.EnsureAuthenticated();
WorkItemStore wis = tfs.GetService(typeof(WorkItemStore)) as WorkItemStore;
WorkItem workItem = wis.GetWorkItem(id);
workItem.Open();
workItem.Fields[fieldName].Value = fieldValue;
workItem.Save();
}

Set Work Item Type field allowed values when another field value changes

I was asked once by a friend if there's a way to filter the allowed values of a field when another field value changes. Well, the solution is not exactly as we think about filtering but more like a switch/case mechanism.

Let's take for example 2 fields that implement OS Platform & Version selection:

Windows --> XP, 2003 Server, Vista

Linux --> Ubuntu, Red Hat, Suse

Mac --> OS X 10.0, OS X 10.5

To implement this in the work item type definition file we need to define 2 fields. The xml should look like this:

<FIELD
type="String"
name="OS Platform"
refname="MyFields.OSPlatform">

<ALLOWEDVALUES>

<LISTITEM
value="Windows" />

<LISTITEM
value="Linux" />

<LISTITEM
value="Mac" />

</ALLOWEDVALUES>

</FIELD>

<FIELD
type="String"
name="OS Version"
refname="MyFields.OSVersion">

<WHEN
field="MyFields.OSPlatform"
value="Windows">

<ALLOWEDVALUES>

<LISTITEM
value="XP" />

<LISTITEM
value="2003 Server" />

<LISTITEM
value="Vista" />

</ALLOWEDVALUES>

</WHEN>

<WHEN
field="MyFields.OSPlatform"
value="Linux">

<ALLOWEDVALUES>

<LISTITEM
value="Ubuntu" />

<LISTITEM
value="Red Hat" />

<LISTITEM
value="Suse" />

</ALLOWEDVALUES>

</WHEN>

<WHEN
field="MyFields.OSPlatform"
value="Mac">

<ALLOWEDVALUES>

<LISTITEM
value="OS X 10.0" />

<LISTITEM
value="OS X 10.5" />

</ALLOWEDVALUES>

</WHEN>

</FIELD>

The version field contains WHEN rule for each platform. The result is a field that changes in real time when the parent field value changes.

You don't have to write the xml in order to achieve this. You can use the "Process Template Editor" which is part of the Team Foundation Server power tools to easily add fields and rules to you work item.

TFSQueryExplorer

I have a new project in CodePlex named TFSQueryExplorer. It is a Visual Studio addin that looks like the Team Explorer tool window but it is dedicated to the management of queries and work items. There are a lot of cool features like manage queries in tags/folders, quick search, integration with the work item templates power tool and so on. The project is an example for using Visual Studio SDK and Team System API. I hope that you'll find it useful.

Filename Collision - Another item with the same name exists on the server.

At one of our merges we encountered an error saying that there is a file collision and we could not complete the process. The error is raised when you are performing the check in after the merge. The merge itself passes with no error. It seem that it happens when 2 files/folders with the same name and location are added to both branches. While performing the merge the source branch treats the new item as a branch action to the destination branch which results in adding the file in the check in process. The merge process does not check if the file already exists and when you perform the check in you get the error and the only option to resolve it is to delete the local file (the file from the merge action). The problem is that we wanted the file from the merge source branch. To fix this we needed to delete the file in the destination branch (after performing undo pending changes for the merge) and than perform the merge again.

Moving Team Foundation Server from a single-server deployment to a dual-server deployment

It's been a while since I've posted something. Shame on me!

The last weeked was dedicated to moving our Team Foundation Server from a single server deployment to a dual server deployment. I have already gone throught the process of moving a server from one hardware configuration to another so I was quite sure that this would work.

Our previous configuration was a virtual server on an IBM blade with 2GB memory serving about 50 users. We have decided to split the deployment and add a database server which is the number one consumer of resources.

I've started the process around 21:00 and finished at 02:30. The most problematic part was that for some reason I could not uninstall SQL Server and Visual Studio from the application sevrer (the new deployment requieres uninstall of current Team Foundation Server installation and installing as an application server). I had to use the windwos installer cleanup utility to remove them from windows installer database and then I reinstalled them to their previous state. After that again unistall and installing the Team Foundation Server application tier. You can imagine it took me sometime...

Some remarks regarding the document (How to: Move from a Single-Server to a Dual-Server Deployment):

• In the section named To modify the Web.Config file to reflect the original Team Foundation data-tier server name: In 1.a there is a mistake when refering to the new data-tier server when locating the web.config file of the services. It should be the application-tier server.


• In the section named To restore and verify Report Server on the new Team Foundation Server: In 17 you are suppose to execute SetupWarehouse.exe but it won't happen since the TFSAppPull is still down. SetupWarehouse.exe uses the web service to initilize the process of rebuilding the Team System OLAP cube. You need to execute it after you are restarting the services in the section named To restart services and verify operation.

Another problem I encountered was related to the databases restore. I must say that it was my mistake since I did not follow the process and restored the databases by detaching the new ones and attaching the old ones. The issue was that the 2 databases using full text search catalog (TfsWorkItemTracking and STS_Content_TFS) were attached with the wrong reference to the full text catalog. As a result the catalog could not be rebuilt and backups failed. In addition while searching work items using the Steps to Reproduce field (which is indexed in the catalog) an error raised specifing the query failed and there is a problem on the server.

I did some search using the errors I saw in the event viewer and in database logs and understood that the catalog needs to be rebuilt. When executing the rebuild using the management studio I got no error but the process ran for about 24 hours. I'm not a DBA but this seemed strange so I stopped it and continue searching using this keywords: "Full-Text Search is not enabled for the current database", "Property FullTextIndexSize is not available for FullTextCatalog" and with the names of the catalogs: ix_STS_Content_TFS and TeamFoundationServer10FullTextCatalog. I did not find much (except for this incomplete posts). Anyway, I understood that I have to drop and recreate the catalogs. After doing this the catalogs were rebuild and everything worked.

Here are the steps I took to recreate the catalogs.

Please notice that this part is done by the Team Foundation Server installation and I did this only because the catalogs were corrupted. If you are not familiar with this stuff I suggest you consult with a Team System advisor or try to reinstall the server. Any way don't forget to backup the database. Since in this case you have problem doing it because the corrupted catalogs disturb the backup I suggest you copy the data files (mdf and logs) to another location (after you stop the system...) or find a way to disable backing up the catalogs (I read about it some where).

Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the Team Foundation Server database.

For recreating the ix_STS_Content_TFS catalog do the following:

• In the object explorer expand: Databases --> STS_Content_TFS --> Storage and right click the ix_STS_Content_TFS catalog. Select Delete from the menu and press OK button in the Delete Object window. This will drop the corrupted catalog (if your catalog is corrupted you will see error when trying to open it's properties window).

Right click the Full Text Catalogs item and select New Full-Text Catalog... from the menu. In the New Full-Text Catalog - STS_Content_TFS enter the name of the catalog: ix_STS_Catalog_TFS, select a location for the files, select Primary in the Filegroup combo box and in the Owner text box select dbo. Press the OK button.

Double click the newly created catalog in the Object Explorer tree. In the Full-Text Catalog Properties - ix_STS_Content_TFS select the Tables/Views from the left list view. Add the tables: dbo.Docs, dbo.Lists, dbo.UserData and dbo.UserInfo to the Table/View objects assigned to the catalog and start setting the Eligible colums for the tables.

For dbo.Docs select the Content and LeafName. For both of them select the language English in the Language for Word Breaker setting column. For Content select Extension in the Data Type Column.

For the dbo.Lists table select the tp_Description and tp_Title columns. For both of them select the language English in the Language for Word Breaker setting column.

• For the dbo.UserData table select all the columns except for tp_Ordering.
  
  
• For the dbo.UserInfo table select the tp_Email, tp_Login and tp_Title columns. For all of them select English in the Language for Word Breaker setting column.
  
• Press the OK button. The catalog should be processed for some time.

For recreating the TeamFoundationServer10FullTextCatalog catalog do the following:

• In the object explorer expand: Databases --> TfsWorkItemTracking --> Storage and right click the TeamFoundationServer10FullTextCatalog catalog. Select Delete from the menu and press OK button in the Delete Object window. This will drop the corrupted catalog.


• Right click the Full Text Catalogs item and select New Full-Text Catalog... from the menu. In the New Full-Text Catalog - TfsWorkItemTracking enter the name of the catalog: TeamFoundationServer10FullTextCatalog, select a location for the files, select Primary in the Filegroup combo box and in the Owner text box select dbo. Check the Set as default catalog check box. Press the OK button.
  
• Double click the newly created catalog in the Object Explorer tree. In the Full-Text Catalog Properties - TeamFoundationServer10FullTextCatalog select the Tables/Views from the left list view. Add the tables: dbo.WorkItemLongTexts to the Table/View objects assigned to the catalog. In the Eligible columns select the Words column and press the OK button. The catalog should be processed for some time and the window will be closed.
  

That's it. The catalogs were created and you should be able to process them.

How to Expose the Work Item Editor Control

I've used this while writing the Cropper TFS Work Item plugin. I needed a way to edit or create a new work item. The WorkItemFormControl located under the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Controls namespace is the same control used by Visual Studio work item plugin and also by the process template editor (which was the way I found how to use it).

Here's an example for creating a new work item with the control.

First we need to connect to a Team Foundation Server and obtain the WorkItemStore service:

TeamFoundationServer tfs = new TeamFoundationServer(serverName);
tfs.EnsureAuthenticated();
WorkItemStore wis = tfs.GetService(typeof(WorkItemStore)) as WorkItemStore;

After doing so we can now create the WorkItemFormControl:

WorkItemFormControl wifc = new WorkItemFormControl();

The WorkItemFormControl has a string property named FormDefinition. We need to set this property with an XML defining the work item type that we want to use. To do so we use the WorkItemStore service:

WorkItemType wit = wis.Projects[teamProjectName].WorkItemTypes["Bug"];

This will return the the Bug work item type.

After doing so we can use the WorkItemType to set the FormDefinition property:

XmlDocument xmlDocument = wit.Export(false);
wifc.FormDefinition = xmlDocument.InnerXml;

Now we can use the WorkItemFormControl with a newly created work item or an existing one:

WorkItem wi = new WorkItem("Bug"); or WorkItem wi = wis.GetWorkItem(bugId);
wifc.Item = wi;

To show the control embed it to a form or a panel on a form.

CropperTFSPlugin

I have uploaded the plugin to CodePlex. Here's the link to the project: http://www.codeplex.com/CropperTFSPlugin.

Cropper TFS Work Item Plugin

It's been a while since I wrote here. Anyway, I hope this post will compensate for it. I read this week a post about SnagIt! integration with TFS. Since I use Cropper I've decided to write a plugin for TFS.
The plugin enables you to capture images directly to a new TFS work item attachments field. You can also add an attachment to an existing work item. You can download it from here. Read the read me file for installation guide and how to use it.
The plugin uses the WorkItemFormControl to edit the work item. I will explain in future posts on how to use it.
I'm planning to add the sources to Cropper Plugins project in CodePlex.
The plugin is in it's early stages. I would be happy to hear your comments.

How to Get Build Result Details using TFS API - Part 3

The previous post in this series was about the build steps section of the build report. In this post we will see how to retrieve the associated changesets section details.

Using the BuildStore object we have created in this post we can get a list of ChangeSetData objects that contain the needed information (an example on how to get the buildUri parameter value available in this post also):

ChangeSetData[] changesets = buildStore.GetChangeSetsForBuild(buildUri);

foreach (ChangeSetData changeset in buildReport.Changesets)

{

MessageBox.Show(changeset.ChangeSetId.ToString());

MessageBox.Show(changeset.ChangeSetUri);

MessageBox.Show(changeset.CheckedInBy);

MessageBox.Show(changeset.Comment);

}

Extracting Images from Work Items Attachments

In this example I will show how to use the WorkItemStore interface. This example will execute a stored query on the work items database and will extract the attachments from the work items returned from the query. This is a good training for working with the WorkItemStore interface.

private void ExtractWorkItemsAttachments(string teamFoundationServer, string teamProject, string storedQuery,

string saveTo)

{
//Logon to the server and create the needed objects
TeamFoundationServer tfs = TeamFoundationServerFactory.GetServer(teamFoundationServer);
tfs.EnsureAuthenticated();
WorkItemStore store = (WorkItemStore)tfs.GetService(typeof(WorkItemStore));
Project tfsProject = store.Projects[teamProject];
StoredQueryCollection sqc = tfsProject.StoredQueries;
string querystring;
//Search for the query
foreach (StoredQuery query in sqc)
{
if (query.Name == storedQuery)
{
//Execute the query
querystring = query.QueryText;
querystring = querystring.Replace("@project", "'" + tfsProject.Name + "'");
WorkItemCollection workItems = store.Query(querystring);
//Extract the attachments
foreach (WorkItem workItem in workItems)
{
if (workItem.Attachments.Count > 0)
{
foreach (Attachment attachment in workItem.Attachments)
{
//Using WebClient to download the attachment
WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
webClient.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
string fileName = Path.Combine(saveTo, attachment.Name);
webClient.DownloadFile(attachment.Uri.AbsoluteUri, fileName);
}
}
}
}
}
}

How to Get Build Result Details using TFS API - Part 2

The previous post in this series was about the summary section of the build report. In this post we will see how to retrieve the build steps section details.
Using the BuildStore object we have created in the previous post we can get a list of BuildStepData objects that contain the needed information (an example on how to get the buildUri parameter value available in the previous post also):

BuildStepData[] buildSteps = buildStore.GetBuildSteps(buildUri);

Now we can go through all the objects in the collection and retrieve details for each one of them.

foreach (BuildStepData in buildSteps)
{
MessageBox.Show(buildStep.BuildStepMessage);
MessageBox.Show(buildStep.BuildStepName);
MessageBox.Show(buildStep.FinishTime.ToString());
MessageBox.Show(buildStep.Status.ToString());
}

How to Get Build Result Details using TFS API - Part 1

In this series of posts I would explain how to use TFS API in order to retrieve build result details as they appear in the build report.


In order to retrieve result details for a build we need to create a BuildStore object. There is an example on how to create a BuildStore object on a previous post: Get Build Changes. The example take into consideration that you have already created the BuildStore object and it is named buildStore.

In this post we will see how to retrive the details under the summary section of the build report. First, we need to get the BuildData object for the build. Here's how to get the BuildData object:

BuildData buildData = buildStore.GetBuildDetails(buildStore.GetBuildUri(teamProject, buildNumber));

Now that we've got the BuildData object we can retrieve the build details that appear in the summary section of the report:

buildData.BuildNumber
buildData.RequestedBy
buildData.TeamProject
buildData.BuildType
buildData.BuildMachine
buildData.StartTime
buildData.FinishTime
buildData.LastChangedBy
buildData.LastChangedOn
buildData.BuildQuality
buildData.LogLocation

On the next post for this series I will explain how to retrieve the details for the "Build Steps" section of the report.

Start a Team Build Using BuildProgressForm

I found out another way for starting a build using the BuildProgressForm. The BuildProgressForm is the same one used by Visual Studio Team Build intergration for starting a build.




This method is very useful for my tool TFSBuildManger.
Here's an example of how to do so:

BuildParameters buildParameters = new BuildParameters();
buildParameters.TeamFoundationServer = teamFoundationServer; buildParameters.TeamProject = teamProject;
buildParameters.BuildType = buildType;
buildParameters.BuildMachine = buildmachine;
buildParameters.BuildDirectory = buildDirectory;
BuildProgressForm frmBuildProgress = new BuildProgressForm(buildParameters, teamFoundationServer);
frmBuildProgress.ShowDialog();

TFSBuildManager UI Change (Tabbed View)

It been a while since my last post. Anyway, I have published a new release of TFSBuildManager under CodePlex. The main and only change for this release is that the UI now supports control of multiple build types simultaneously by using tabs. Hope you would like this change. You can download the new version here. I would appreciate your comments on this change and about the application.

TFSBuildManager New Version

I have released a new version of TFSBuildManager. You can download it here. I made some changes to the edit build type form and added some advanced properties that are inherited from the imported Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets file. There are some other cool features like "Execute Without Get" which actually resumes a build from the compilation point disabling the process of creating a workspace. This feature is very handy when you setup a new build machine and the build fails because of errors regarding the machine configuration and not because of source files. For the full feature list see the release change log.
Enjoy.

TFSBuildManager

I wrote a utility to manage build types called TFSBuildManager. You can download it's first release here. It is hosted under CodePlex.
Main features of this utility are:

• Start, stop a build
• Change build/s quality
• Delete, backup build/s
• Edit build type

I wrote it because I needed the ability to manage build types outside Visual Studio environment. Also, I needed some features that are not available through Visual Studio IDE.

I'm planning to add:

• Advanced build log
• Add new Build Type
• Build list filtering
• Edit advanced Build Type properties

Enjoy.