So here's the setup we have right now
1) We use TFS2013 for our code repository
2) We use TeamCity to do our builds
3) we have our tests created in CodedUI
From what I've read online is that for the CodedUI tests to run automatically, they need a build to reference. However, since we are using Team City to do the builds, our Build Explorer in TFS is empty. Switching off of Team City for builds is a no, so I'm trying to find a way to have the builds appear in the Build Explorer so I can have the automated tests run via MTM.
TL;DR: I need to get the Team City builds to appear in the TFS Build Explorer.
I saw this question, but it was for 2010, so I'm hoping it's changed since How do I make a TeamCity build appear in the TFS Build Explorer?
It can be done using the API. You could use the following blog post as a starting point to create an app that records in TFS the results from your TeamCity build. Then you could run your app as part of your TeamCity build.
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jpricket/archive/2010/02/23/creating-fake-builds-in-tfs-build-2010.aspx
Update: There are however downsides. Some capabilities of ALM are only available if the build is done in TFS. You loose Test Impact Analysis, relationships between builds and Work Items, identification of Verifiable Bug fixes, roll up for release management of release contents.
TF Build is more than just orchestrating a compilation, it is the glue that knits your ALM strategy together and you will not be able to amortize the realm value in TFS without builds in TF Build or a whole lot of custom work.
Sorry, it's not possible. Team Explorer is designed to show you Team Builds.
Related
I've been tasked with migrating a build from TFS to VSTS, I've used TFS from a developer point of view, however I've never created builds. Can anyone give me any advice where to start, good websites, tutorials, tools that might help, anything that might catch me out etc, basically my knowledge on this is very limited so anything would help. I've no doubt there must be somebody out there who can say we've done this, here is what we did...the new VSTS build will need to be a copy of the TFS build however some analysis needs to be done as the build process is old and certain parts may not be necessary. Thanks in advance!
Migrate New Vnext build definition from TFS to VSTS
If you want to template your builds or move them from TFS to VSTS, you could also use the REST API's to perform this. Details please refer this blog: HOW TO MOVE BUILD DEFINITIONS IN TFS TO OTHER PROJECTS USING THE REST API
Another example shown here. It shows how to get the JSON response of a build definition and again using the same reference to make a new one in the project you desire.
Migrate Old XAML to New Vnext build definition from TFS to VSTS
Unfortunately, there will not be any automated conversion processes. The new builds are based on a different architecture and run on a completely different system. And you can use both the new builds and agents alongside your XAML builds, controllers, and agents.
If you have heavily customized XAML builds and custom activities, you
can continue using those builds until you are ready to port your
business logic into scripts that can run in the new builds.
You should also take a look at these series of articles by jessehouwing devoted specifically to the case like yours.
About how to create a build, you could refer this tutorial from MSDN.
We are using TFS and the TFS Build Service. We are considering to migrate the Build service to Jenkins but we came across some issues. According to this site, there are some things that do not work very well with the TFS and Jenkins plugins. All of them we use a lot:
Associated Change sets – Team Build automatically associates a list of change sets that are included in the build
Associated Work Items – Team Build analysis the relationships and also associates Work Items with a build. Indeed it walks the work item tree (parent) and maintains that association in the chain.
Is this still true? We have this scenario:
A developer checks in a code that fix a bug or resolve a User Story. It does that by associating his check in with the work item ID.
His check in triggers a build that will associate the work item with his changeset. For bugs, the build will update the "Integrated in Build" field with the build number. We use this field to know in witch version the bug was fixed.
Is there any way to make Jenkins behave and do what TFS build service does?
Another option is to mix the two using dummy builds on the TFS side that set the records straight and kick-off the Jenkins' builds. Some hints
How to trigger Jenkins builds remotely and to pass parameters and “Fake” a TFS Build.
This approach requires a bit of effort but has many advantages:
No big-bang, use Jenkins opportunistically
Can continue using existing builds
Having a build identifier in TFS allows you an overall monitoring and to use the Test features
I have a VSTS build definition for one of our projects that requires jenkins to build, but we still have all our other products using VSTS natively. To maintain consistency, this build definition triggers a jenkins build. We configured the build definition to not sync code as jenkins will download it (save time) and not to publish the artifacts back to the agent (i have another script for that found here). This allows developers to continue to use git as normal, and the build/release process is consistent with our other products. Along with task tracking and such.
In 2009, there was a SO question on the same topic.
I'm wondering if later versions of Team Foundation Server are better at longer build pipelines. Refer features of Jenkins, TeamCity, ThoughtWorks' Go (my employer).
The visualizations of the build pipelines are important to me, as well as the notification about individual stages passing or failing. That and the eminent clone-ability of say a 'trunk' pipeline into one for a release branch as that branch leaps into being.
Secondly, a personal holy-grail is the CI server storing its config in the SCM that's holding the buildable thing itself, and even picking up on the creation of branches silently to provision new pipelines; Can TFS be configured to store the CI definitions/scripts in its SCM side rather than its accompanying SqlServer?
TFS build consists of three components:
The build definition - stored on the SQL server data tier.
The build workflow - a XAML file stored in the source control.
The supporting MSBuild scripts - usually contains user defined actions, also stored in the source control.
As the build progresses, you can see visualization of the build steps and you also get a different log for the main build and the MSBuild output.
The build definition in TFS is merely a collection of build settings, similar to CC.Net's config file and TeamCity's build configuration tab which both stored on the file system as well. Assuming there's a backup plan on the database you don't really need to store the build defintions on the source control, but if you must it's possible by exporting the tbl_BuildDefinition table.
The TFS Power Tools adds cloning functionality for build definitions.
There's no OOTB support for provisioning build definitions from a new branch though it's fairly feasible using the TFS-API.
Bit late to the party, but just don't bother with TFS if you want advanced build pipeline automation. It simply doesn't cut it.
I have used Jenkins and TFS both extensively. Tfs is just. pure. crap. Here's why.
No down/up stream build.
No piepline/orchestraion build. (like jenkins)
Obscure ways of adding build steps and falls back to using MsBuild.
Slow and still polls the source control.
Ties you to MsTest.
And please don't point me to "Oh look you can do everything if you write a custom activity". I'm not wasting time doing development for a closed source, sub-par platform. If I am going to contribute something, it's to a FREE. OPEN SOURCE platform.
We've been using Team City as our build deployment server. We'd like to now update the metrics in tfs like "Code Churn", "Code Coverage". Is it possible to do this with TeamCity or do we just need to start using the tfs build server?
It is possible to publish builds results (including metrics) to the TFS server but only when those are collected via MSTest. The MSTest /publish command might be helpful here. It looks like publishing custom results like this will be easier in TFS2010 but there are no details as of yet.
I am told TFS can accept data on build/test metrics from 3rd party continuous integration tools. Does anyone know how this works or have any good links for me? My google-fu seems weak today and I cannot find any info on this. We would like to have a short powershell script or app run at the end of the build and send all known metrics up to TFS so it could show up in certain reports. I actually would like things that (I think) should already have space for in the data warehouse for TFS BUild Server, but I will be using CC.NET. I am thinking build name, result (Pass/Fail), Number of Warnings, Number of Errors, Time, UnitTests Run, UnitTests Passed, Code Coverage, FxCop resultsThanks.
I'm afraid that there is not a ready made integration that does this yet. The plug-in that links CC.NET to TFS is available over at CodePlex but this just lets CC.NET use TFS for version control and doesn't allow the results of the builds to be published back into TFS.
To get the data into TFS from CruiseControl.NET you have a couple of options. You could write your own custom TFS Data Warehouse Adapter which is complex but ultimately flexible or you could use a combination of the Team Build API and a little bit of vodoo to push data in to the TFS Build store that would also get pushed into the TFS Data warehouse. However, this would be limited in TFS2008 as you would only be able to push data about the build and the unit tests but not things like Code Coverage.
That said, pushing data from CC.NET to TFS is something that I originally wanted to do. However in TFS2008 the built in build system was so good that I switched from using CC.NET to trigger the builds to using TFS to trigger and manage the build. This had the advantage that all the stats stuff was taken care of automatically (and the built in UI in Visual Studio). Because I moved to TFS2008 I then lost the motivation to get the CC.NET stuff built.
If anyone wanted to contribute a TFS build result publishing feature to the CC.NET integration then feel free to join the project on CodePlex - I would love to have any help going.