Basic Team Explorer usage questions - tfs

We are setting up a new TFS 2008 implementation as our first usage of TFS for source control. We have several projects in Visual Studio 2003, 2005 and 2008, as well as other script/non-Visual Studio based projects.
My question is, for the Visual Studio 2003 and 2005 projects do we have to install Team Explorer 2003/2005 and make use of them to add projects to source control and to check out/in files, or, can we just use Team Explorer 2008 to add projects and check in/out files? The thought being that the developer could use 2008 to check out any thing and then open the appropriate visual studio version to work on their local instance of the project before then checking it back in using team explorer 2008 within their local visual studio 2008 application.
The concern is that by using team explorer 2008, that visual studio 2008 might impose changes on the older systems solutions dll or control details.
Thanks for any guidance.

This is possible. I have colleagues who are using Team Explorer for non-code files (Word documents, help files, etc.) and use it like they would VSS or any other SCC.
As an added bonus, I'm pretty sure that TFS Server 2008 is backwards compatible to at least 2005 (haven't run against 2003 in awhile). IIRC, I've run VSTS 2005 For Developers against a 2008 TFS Server.
I would double-check for you, but I've recently recently re-imaged my dev machine and haven't re-installed 2005 (working on new stuff!).
As an aside, I've found TFS to be a huge timesaver as far as the whole dev process. The IDE integration is top notch, and the linked bug/task tracking and changesets, with alerts, notes, built-in queries and reports had me wondering how I ever got along w/o it.
HTH.

The Team Foundation Client for VS 2005 and VS 2008 can be installed side by side so there's no issue there (there isn't one for VS 2003, but you could probably use the MSSCCI provider).
You can however, if you want to, do all of your source control operations in VS 2008 (or the Windows Explorer extensions in the latest power tools) but work on the projects from VS 2003/2005 without any issues. You just need to make sure you don't accidentally open the project files from within VS 2008 because that will upgrade the project format.

Related

Keep vss and tfs together installed in the same machine

I have legacy projects bound to Visual SourceSafe and done with Visual Studio 2003. Now, I have recently installed Visual Studio 2017 and TFS in the same machine.
Now when I try to open a legacy project that is bound to Visual SourceSafe I get a sequence of errors. Below the screenshots (pixeled for confidenciality reasons).
It seems like when open a legacy project (bound to Visual SourceSafe) with legacy visual studio 2003, it tries to connect to the TFS server (obviously it cannot). It is happening since I have installed new Visual Studio 2017 and TFS in the same machine, it seems like they cannot live together in the same machine. So how can I keep both VSS and TFS installed in the same machine? Is it possible?
UPDATED:
It seems like VS2003 does not allow to switch SCC providers. The only way is to hack the registry to switch.
I have found some interesting things that explains how to do it and it seems to work, the problem is that some links are broken, they are too old and not available anymore.
Source safe with Team Foundation Server in VS.2003
Installed TFS Version Control Provider and Now my VS 2003 Projects lost connectivity to VSS 2005?
MSSCCI Provider installation error
In above links it is provided a solution that consists on hacking the registry but the link they provide is broken:
Switch SCC providers
UPDATE 2:
As Edward Thomson has suggested in his answer, I have created a new key 'HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\CurrentSourceControlProvider\ ' and set it with a string value: ProviderRegKey="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SourceSafe". Below screenshot, but it is not working:
MSSCCI is the Microsoft Source Code Control Integration API, it was the original API provided by Visual Source Safe for IDE tools like Visual Studio. Early Visual Studio versions (like 2003) only spoke MSSCCI, and expected a version control provider to provide MSSCCI. As a result, you can only have one version control provider speaking that protocol.
The Team Foundation Server client APIs provide MSSCCI (for Team Foundation Version Control only, not Git). As a result, if you want to use Visual Source Safe, you will need to configure Visual Studio to speak to that set of libraries instead of the TFS set of APIs.
In slightly more recent versions of Visual Studio (like Visual Studio 2008), you can choose your MSSCCI provider on the fly, in Options > Source Control > Plug-In Selection. All the MSSCCI providers will be enumerated and you can select between Visual Source Safe and Team Foundation Version Control.
If you're using an earlier version of Visual Studio that did not have this option, then you can change your MSSCCI provider by updating the registry directly.
Find the registry key:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\7.1\CurrentSourceControlProvider\
And set:
ProviderRegKey="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SourceSafe"
Update 7.1 in the key with the version of Visual Studio that you have installed (Visual Studio 2003 corresponds to version 7.1.)
Once you have made this change, you will not be able to use Team Foundation Verson Control from Visual Studio 2003 without changing that back.

How to use Visual Studio Online source control with VFP 9 SP1

How can I use this Visual Studio Online source control with a visual foxpro (vfp) 9 sp1 project so that the VFP does automatic check in and check out as I change files and lets me undo or check in source code and view history like I can do in the Visual Studio 2010 IDE with dot net projects?
I see there's a free team explorer everywhere which i guess i can use outside of the vfp IDE - not sure how it will handle the SCX, FRX, LBX, PRJ files which are not textual.
May be you can't use VSO with Visual FoxPro 9, but surely you can use other SCM tools with Visual FoxPro, like SVN, Mercurial, PlasticSCM (which I use), etc.
For Diff and Merge you can use a new tool found on VFPx project, called FoxBin2Prg, that allow bidirectional conversion of VFP 9 binaries to text and vice-versa, so you even can modify the generated text version and rebuild the binary.
More info at FoxBin2Prg - Binary/Text Conversor for Microsoft Visual FoxPro 9.
Best regards!
I ran into this question while researching. Looks like Microsoft updated the MSSCCI to be used with Visual Foxpro
Install the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013&2015 MSSCCI Provider 32 bit : https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/06c8e056-7f77-4a5c-9b8b-49318c143df8
It supports Visual FoxPro 9 SP2 connection to Visual Studio Online
Combined with the Team Explorer for Microsoft Visual Studio 2013, you can branch, forward integrate, reverse integrate. I'm still exploring it
You can't, and the main reason is that while PRG and other textual files are fine method code and other stuff is stored in DBF-format files, which your chosen source control software will treat as binary.

Visual Studio 2008 and 2005 accessing TFS 2008 source control?

We have a TFS 2008 server that we are using for source control having migrated away from VSS :D This is great for all our web projects as they can all be migrated to VS2008.
My problem is that VS2008 doesn't support development of SQL2005 SSIS packages.
It is possible to check SSIS packages into TFS2008 from VS2005? Would this conflict with the VS2008 install on the same workstation?
Thanks in advance....
Looks like you'll be fine if you install Team Explorer 2005 onto Visual Studio 2005.
Out of the box, Team Explorer 2005 works very well with most of the TFS 2008 capabilities. Work Item Tracking and Version Control function the same as they always had for TFS 2005. End users wouldn't even notice the difference, except in some rare cases the increased performance.
From : http://weblogs.asp.net/dmckinstry/archive/2007/08/27/considerations-on-using-tfs-2008-with-visual-studio-2005.aspx

Use Team Foundation Server in Delphi 7?

I'm a .NET developer and use VS2008/TFS2008. Recently, another developer has left our company and now I have to maintain his code. He was a Delphi developer (Delphi 7 mostly, but also Delphi 2007) and he didn't use any source control.
Is there a way to put his code in Team Foundation Server? Integration in the Delphi IDE is a big plus.
To get IDE integration with TFS in Delphi 7, you need can use the MSSCCI provider for TFS in conjuction with SourceConnexion which gives MSSCCI support to Delphi. You will need to install the following on your machine if you do not have them already:
Microsoft Team Explorer 2008 (The TFS Client)
The Microsoft MSSCCI provider for TFS 2008
SourceConnexion
You need to ensure that you have TFS client access licenses for any of the Delphi folks connecting to TFS and get them a license for the SourceConnexion plug-in.
As you already have VS2008 installed on your machine talking to TFS2008 you probably only need to install items 2 and 3.
See Eyal's blog post for more information (a little out of date but stil valid).
We use SourceConnexion (3rd party plugin) with D2007:
http://www.epocalipse.com/scx.htm
(Works nice with SCC api plugin of Plastic SCM, which has better branching support than TFS :-) )
I realize that this is an old thread but during my reserach on how to use TFS2012 with Borland Delphi 2006 the posts here helped me a lot, so I wanted to share my experience.
To use TFS2012 or TFS2010 with Borland Delphi 2006 please follow these steps.
Download and install Microsoft Team Explorer 2010.
Download and install TFS MSSCCI provider TFS2010 (make sure you download the 32-bit version even if on a 64-bit machine!).
Download and install SourceConnexIon.
Open Borland Delphi 2006, click on the Source Control menu item and follow the configuration wizzard.
You must follow this order or SourceConneXion won't detect TFS.

migrate a asp.net mvc solution file from 2010 back to 2008

i did an upgrade and it caused lots of problems. unfortunately i didn't back it up. Is there anyway i can convert a 2010 solution file back into asp.net mvc 2008?
Make a backup of what's left of what you currently have before doing this ...
Create a new solution in Visual Studio 2008. Create new projects for the 2008 solution. Use the project menu or right-click the project and choose "Add Existing Items..." Choose all the code files .cs .vb, etc from your 2010 structure and include them in the 2008 structure.
Basically you're copying all the code back into a 2008 structure with the 2008 formatted project and solution files. The code shouldn't be substantially changed beyond repair. You might have to manually address some issues in the converted code but once you know what they are it will be a repetitive process more than anything.
If you are writing code of any importance you should be using a version control system like as SVN. I haven't tried Visual Studio 2010 yet, but can tell you from experience that the differences between 2005 and 2008 are laughably small. You can down convert a 2008 solution file by manually changing the first two lines from:
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00
Visual Studio 2008
to
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 9.00
Visual Studio 2005
the project files are fairly trivial as well with the product tag changing from:
9.0.21022
to
8.0.50727
Please note the changes I have listed for project files may not be 100% accurate and I have not tested for differences between service pack releases. However, creating a new project in an earlier version of Visual studio, making a copy and then doing an upgrade should allow you to run a diff and provide a better answer than what is currently accepted.

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