We are using Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools - Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2012 for our SSIS Packages development. We would like to integrate this with Team Foundation Server Express edition since it is free.
Please let me know whether this integration possible at all? What will be other limitations?
Thanks!
SQL Server Data Tools is a feature in VS, while TFS is a server that provides features like source code management, reporting, ect. If Visual Studio 2012 is not installed, you need to install Team Explorer to work with TFS.
Regarding TFS Express limitation, you may check this case: Limitations & Features of TFS Express 2013
By the way, instead of TFS Express, you may consider using Visual Studio Team Service.
I installed Visual Studio 2015 Enterprise RTM and only seeing "references" from Code Lens. We are using TFS for source control. I expect to see related commits from TFS. Based on this article, I have everything enabled in options:
Here is what I see in VS:
Is there anything wrong with my VS setup?
The TFVC lenses that are part of CodeLens only work when connected to a version of Team Foundation Server that is running the background job that generates the historical data. This means that you need to be running at least TFS 2013 or 2015 in order for this feature to work. Some features require a specific version of Visual Studio.
It is also possible that your server admin has disabled indexing on the server, one can do that using the tfsconfig codeindex command on the application tier.
I have an ongoing need to manage, in TFS source control, a collection of SQL scripts organized as an SSMS solution (.ssmssln file).
I'd like to capture the "success path" for using SQL Server 2012 SSMS with TFS2010, using the appropriate MSSCCI provider and Team Explorer versions and install sequence.
I'm using the "Developer Edition" of the SQL Server products, running locally on my Win7-64 dev box, and need to access a TFS 2010 server maintained by a different group. VS2012 and VS2013 are also installed on this "new" dev box and I have had no problems accessing our TFS 2010 server from them.
I had been trying to get SSMS from SQL Server 2012 (Developer Edition) to work with our TFS Server 2010 for some time, with no luck. I finally did get the SSMS 2012/TFS 2010 combination to work on the new dev box, but was left with the question "what was it that actually worked", and none of the other documented solutions address this combination. This one doesn't:
See: SQL Server Scripts 2012 Project into Team Foundation Server 2012, which addresses SSMS 2012 and TFS 2012.
My company's TFS versions tend to lag 1 major version behind our VS and SQL versions.
Other articles did not have steps that solved my problem.
https://dba.stackexchange.com/questions/17850/tfs2010-for-ssms-2012; the 2010 Team Explorer plus 2012 MSSCCI provider did not work for the SSMS 2012 + TFS 2010 combination. This article, http://www.techtree.co.uk/sql-server/management-studio-ssms/use-team-foundation-server-tfs-as-your-source-control-in-ssms/, while helpful, didn't really discuss the Team Explorer requirement except briefly in comments from others.
I had the SSMS 2008R2 and TFS2010 combination working fine on an older box using the MSSCCI provider. When I moved to a new box, installed SSMS from SQL Server 2012, and would open and edit my SSMS solutions (opening the .ssmssln files) I was not having any luck in getting integrated TFS source control to work, despite trying a number of different MSSCCI provider versions and TFS Team Explorer versions.
From SSMS2012, I would get the "Connect to a Team Foundation Server" dialog box, with an empty dropdown list of TFS servers, and then attempt to add my company's server, and inevitably get a 404 error, despite entering the same values that worked for SSMS 2008R2/TFS2010 on my older Win7-64 box.
The combination that I believe finally worked for me was:
Install Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2012
http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=30656
Install MSSCCI Provider for Team Foundation Server 2010 https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bce06506-be38-47a1-9f29-d3937d3d88d6
After doing these two things, I recall getting a prompt to open Team Explorer. I believe it was launched for me either after installing the MSSCCI 2010 provider or when I went to configure source control in SSMS 2012.
Interestingly, when Team Explorer launched, it showed "the Visual Studio 2010 logo." In any case, I opened it, and went to add the TFS servers. This time, there was an additional entry in the add servers box, that showed the TFS "initial path" (or "instance name") for our TFS 2010 server.
Our TFS server address appears to be:
http://OurTFSServer:8080/tfs
Previously, there had been no place to enter the "/tfs" part of it. This time, it showed up in the add TFS server address dialog box, and I believe was prepopulated for me.
It appears to me that the missing part was the install of the VS2012 Team Explorer, which seems to know about the "/tfs" initial path, where the VS2010 Team Explorer did not. Strangely, the Team Explorer that launched showed the VS2010 logo; note that I explicitly uninstalled the VS2010 Team Explorer prior to the sequence of installing VS2012 Team Explorer and then installing the TFS 2010 MSSCCI Provider.
Just to keep things interesting, the MSSCI provider version numbers and dates are confusing. Here is what the "readme.txt" file says for the MSSCCI version numbers. The file is located at:
Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Team Foundation MSSCCI Provider\readme.txt
NEW system:
Microsoft Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider
v 3.5 09/20/2013
OLD system:
Microsoft Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider
v 4.0 03/07/2012
So it appears the combination that was working on my "old" dev box for SSMS 2008R2 and TFS2010 was the Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2010, and the MSSCCI Provider for Team Foundation Server 2012. I also had VS2010, VS2012, and VS2013 installed on that box.
On the "new" box, it appears the working combination for SSMS 2012 and TFS2010 is Team Explorer for Visual Studio 2012, and the MSSCCI Provider for Team Foundation Server 2010 (which has an older version number but a newer build/release date, compared to the 2012 MSSCCI provider).
What I am looking for is others who use this combination, SSMS 2012, and TFS 2010, to confirm and/or clarify the "success path" of what is required and the sequence, based on their experience from ACTUALLY GETTING THIS COMBINATION TO WORK. Not what "should" work (and often doesn't), but what DID.
This problem was resolved on several fronts, over time, by migrating to better-fit technologies, and updating to known-compatible versions of the Microsoft technologies involved.
1) I changed most of the SQL script content to JSON files, by serializing the data with Newtonsoft's JSON.NET. Now I no longer had a need to maintain these SQL scripts. Instead, I load the data from JSON files, to objects, having implemented serialize/deserialize approaches within the applications that use the data. This works out way better than SQL since the bulk of the data that was being kept involved representations of "content".
The content is represented as packets of documents, with each packet containing multiple document templates, and each template being comprised of multiple paragraphs. There are additional properties of packets, templates, and paragraphs up and down the object model. So JSON serialization/deserialization was a way better fit for these applications. It also enabled a "single piece flow" approach to updating content. Now I manage JSON files instead of SQL scripts, to keep point-in-time snapshots of these content objects. Typically I will back up the prior version of all the document packet objects as part of each content release, and store that backup in TFS.
2) There were other areas where I still need to maintain SQL scripts, such as reusable queries within the application. (I didn't want to use stored procedures for configuration flexibility reasons) I found an approach for making these SQL queries part of a .NET assembly via Resource Files and that addressed the need. One example of the type of approach I used is here: https://jopinblog.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/embedded-resource-queries-or-how-to-manage-sql-code-in-your-net-projects/
3) My company upgraded our TFS Server to TFS 2012 and we started using Visual Studio 2012 and 2013. The things that had been problems in SSMS started working when using newer known compatible configurations.
I'm running TFS client 2013 with Visual Studio 2013, TFS Server 2010.
I've installed TFS Power Tools 2013 but I am unable to locate Alerts Explorer
How do I open Alerts Explorer or is there some configuring I am missing?
Edit:
I know that in TFS 2012 and 2013 this is part of the product but I still need the functionality while using TFS 2010 with a more recent version of Visual Studio. Is there a way to have that functionality? The default Project Alerts functionality which is built-in is useless as it does not provide any control.
Hate to be a buzzkill but what you are trying to do simply will not work. There is no Alerts Explorer present in the Visual Studio 2013 client, even with the TFS 2013 Power Tools installed. Why? It appears they moved this functionality into the TFS 2013 web access so they didn't include it in the VS 2013 client. The VS 2013 client is not backwards compatible with TFS 2010 with respect to managing alerts.
The Alerts Explorer is a feature of TFS 2010 Power Tools. What you need to do is install the Visual Studio 2010 Team Explorer shell (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=329) and then install TFS 2010 Power Tools on top of that. It's going to be a pain to have to boot up the VS2010 shell just for alerts management but there's pretty much no other option. In case you are wondering the VS2010 shell looks just like VS2010 but it only contains the features for connecting to TFS. It's free... no licensing fees, etc.
Microsoft states this pretty plainly even though they use the word "might"...
Q: How do I manage alerts when I connect to TFS 2010?
A: The instructions in this topic require you to connect to TFS 2012 or TFS 2013. If you have upgraded to VS 2012 or VS 2013 and are connecting to TFS 2010, then you might have to install Team Explorer 2010 side-by-side to manage alerts stored on TFS 2010.
Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181334.aspx
You can also get to the alerts via Visual Studio using the menu. Team > Project Alert. This will navigate to your TFS web access (something like http://tfs:8080/tfs/TFS/PROJECT/_Alerts).
You don't need it anymore, that functionality is now part of Team Foundation Server 2012 and 2013.
In TFS Web Access click on your Name (top-right) and go to My Alerts -> Custom Alerts -> Other
I am installing VSTS. What components do i need to install for both .net & sql server. ?
How do we configure our projects?
There are two parts to a successful Team System environment: Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Team System.
For best results, install the former on a dedicated server. There are great resources to help you through installation right from Microsoft. There's even a video series of TFS-related content!
Once your Team Foundation Server (TFS) is installed, Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) is installed on your development workstation. VSTS looks just like any other VS install at startup. To configure it to work with your TFS instance, go into Tools > Options and Select Source Control: here you will see a pull down which should contain an entry entitled Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. I forget how to select your TFS server instance for VSTS to work with but I don't recall having trouble with it when I did it a few months ago.
Once you've configured all that, you interact with your TFS work items and source code from the Team Explorer and Source Control Explorer panes in VSTS: it should begin to feel rather like using VS without integrated source control from there forward.
The bigger issue is configuring your process in TFS to reflect your project's strategy, etc. That is an exercise in thought/reading more-so than how to configure it.
All this documentation is readily available via Microsoft's website. It does require some reading but devote some time to it: it'll pay off in the long run.
Team Foundation Server Requirements