Excluded files from tfs still being checked in - tfs

I'm currently working on a WiX project and I need to include some files in my project but exclude them from tfs. I need to do this because these files are auto-generated at compile time but they have to be part of the project to be compiled. I thought that I could exclude them from source control by going to File->Source Control->Advanced->Exclude <file> From Source Control but it still seems to be including it in TFS.
Below is a picture of my project and it appears that visual studio is trying to exclude them from tfs judging by the little red icon next to the files I'm excluding. However when I compile it errors out because the excluded files are read only and I can clearly see them checked in by looking at the source control explorer window.
Is this an issue in visual studio or am I doing something wrong here?

I resolved this by closing out my solution and deleting the files in source control explorer. Before when I was deleting them from source control explorer I had my solution open and it was actually removing them from the project file. Seems like when you exclude them from source control via the method described above it should remove them from source control but it doesn't.

Related

TFS not tracking changes if items added manually and not included into vs2015 solution

I've added a folder with asp.net core project which isn't supported by Visual Studio 2015 (which is used for everything else) and thus not included to the general solution.
To have those files in source control I had to manually add them using "add items to folder" command in source explorer. So they are checked-in but tfs not tracking changes for them anymore although there are differences that are shown if compare to the latest folder on the server:
How do I make TFS track them and show pending changes for edited files?
According to your description, looks like these files are all out side of Visual Studio.
Not sure if you are using server workspace or local workspace.
When adding or editing the workspace you click Advanced >> . There is a setting of Location: Local/Server.
For local workspace, when your script or anything else changes files outside Visual Studio, your workspace detects the changes automatically.
It also detects adds or deletes but you have to include them to your Pending Changes manually with the link under Excluded Changes.
For server workspace, you could choose to use Reconcile command. See https://stackoverflow.com/a/22860674/932282 for a complete answer.
Besides, you could also take a look at other solutions in below similar question:
How to have TFS 2010 detect changes done to files outside of Visual Studio?
Force TFS to detect changes
I think you just added them to source explorer and not to the solution, as you said. In this case, there is no editor application (even your VS) that is responsible for doing the check-out operation because they are not aware of TFS. On the other side, TFS can detect that changes have happened to the files but can not track them.
If you do not activate the "Get the latest version before check-out" option in your team project, then you can go to the source control and check-out those files manually and then check-in them manually again when your work with them is done.
Please before doing this, take a backup of your source code for caution.

How to check in mass changes into TFS

I have a situation where a developer made mass changes to a project outside of TFS (long story), and now we want to put those changes back into TFS (files added, removed, renamed).
Of course, TFS is not like Git; if I check out the project, then delete the files from the workspace and copy over the new files, TFS won't adapt to those changes.
I have discovered that I can do a Compare from File - Source Control, and that the Compare screen allows me to mark files as added/deleted. This helps, but is a slow process for a large project, and quite prone to human error.
So, my question is: Is there an automated way to get TFS to simply add all new files and remove all deleted ones?
I don't care about tracking history of renamed files--they can be
considered "removes" and "adds."
I have tried unbinding and rebinding the workspace; this did not work for me (or I didn't do it correctly).
I am using VS 2015, TFS 2015, and I have the TFS Power Tools.
If you are using a Local Workspace then you should be able to get latest on the workspace, then copy over all the new files in Windows Explorer which will generate pending changes and file adds.
If you go into Pending Changes in Team Explorer you will have lots of detected changes for new files etc. but you can promote them to included changes.
This isn't going to deal with file renames or deletions though so it might not be the best solution.
Alternatively you could use Reconcile Changes in Version Control
In Source Control Explorer, right-click a folder, and then click Compare.
In the Compare dialog box. select the folder versions to compare.
In the Folder Difference window, right-click the folder or file you want to reconcile, and click Reconcile.
This will allow you to choose what to add or change to version control
You might try using tfpt online. I would add the /adds /deletes /diff /recursive flags as well.
I think in almost any case you will have some conflicts/manual work to do here.
There is a blog post on a possibly similar situation that used tfpt online as well: Discover File Changes Made Outside of Visual Studio
Since I did not get to try the above suggestions, I'll post the workaround I did, in case it helps anybody else. Hopefully, the above suggestions are better than what I ended up doing.
Make sure nothing is checked out
Open solution
Team - Go Offline
Close solution
Windows Explorer - Copy latest source folder into the current source folder (Windows Explorer will do a Merge).
VS - Open solutin, select solution file
File - Source Control - Advanced - Change Source Control
if you get a message about unloaded projects, make sure all projects loaded. Click "Reload" on those that didn't.
Shift to select all project, click Bind
Do a Compare in Source Control Explorer. Manually add all new files. Manually delete all deleted files. Frown.

.csproj files not getting checked in to TFS

My problem is that in my scenario, I have a project with two parallel project files for different build targets. I have a ProjectName.WP8.csproj and ProjectName.WinRT.csproj, which essentially include the same files.
I am trying to check-in this solution (SolutionName.WinRT.sln) to TFS and I get no errors. All the code changes to the code in the project goes through, but when I check the actual state of TFS, the (newer) PorjectName.WinRT.csproj files are not checked in.
This is quite peculiar since it worked perfectly for the WP8 version. How can I support this kind of scenario?
(If it's not possible, how do I easily migrate my parallel project to another TFS project?)
Just had this come up myself. I had been working on a project for a few days before checking the solution in. During the initial check in for the project, only the most recent file edits were seen by source control. I was able to highlight all the files in the Solution Explorer and select Add to Source Control from the right click menu, but the csproj files themselves did not check in. To do this, I had to go into the Source Control Explorer and open the project directory. From within the directory, right click and select Add Items to Folder. Then you can select the csproj files and you're good to go.

Can't manually add files to TFS

We use Codesmith to generate some code, and when we open up the projects, the files are there, in the solution, but there is no way to check them in. The DLL compiles just fine. The only difference to the .csproj is the addition of any new files we generated.
But unlike VSS, TFS, does not detect these files. I validated this behavior by editing the .csproj manually. For some reason, the only way to add a file to TFS is through Visual Studio.
However, when I remove them from the project, and then include them, I get the usual yellow plus sign.
You can manually add files to Visual Studio, however changing your project file isn't the best way to do this. If your project is already under source control and the files you want to add are visible in the Solution Explorer window, you can simply right-click a file and select Include in project. The next time you check your code in, the items will be added.
Since you're using TFS 2010, check out the Team Foundation Server Power Tools extensions. This includes the Windows Shell Extensions which give you integration into Windows Explorer which let's you right click on files or folders and add the to TFS outside of Visual Studio. Very nifty!
Looks like it is not possible and the workaround is to batch-add all the files through PowerTools. Though this article/forum-thread is dated it appears to be helpful:
Adding CodeSmith generated source file in Team Foundation System

Using TFS source control - how to remove files

I am a lone developer, and I am now using TFS 2010, having until recently used VSS.
I have not found it easy to get any books for beginners to help me use this.
So I have now got my project in source control. But when I check in I get references to a number of files that I no longer use. How do I remove files from the TFS Source Control repository?
So in the example below, you can see lots of files from different projects that I do not want to see.
Click on the last icon that looks like a solution (.sln) file icon (last icon on the top vertical row). It's right next to the refresh icon and just above the "Comment" box. That should clear all non-related project files, and only show the files on your current project.
In Source Control Explorer in Visual Studio, simply right-click on files and folders and choose "Delete". Then right-click again and choose "Check-in pending changes".
You need to Destroy those files first, then only those files will get removed from source control.
You can't make any changes in those files - they remain in source control until you destroy them permanently from TFS.
For more info about how to destroy see TF Destroy command utility.
The files in your screenshot are (mostly) listed as add - they are not in TFS yet, so deleting them from TFS is not what you want. Rather you want to ignore them, though that can be tricky: How to ignore files/directories in TFS for avoiding them to go to central source repository?

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