Work offline in Team Foundation Server - tfs

Is there a way to set "work offline" in TFS without having to try opening a solution, waiting for it to time out, and then having Visual Studio work out that it has failed?
It seems a touch ridiculous that I can't just tick a box to tell it myself, seeing as I'm probably the one most qualified to know when I'm not in the office!

This extension should solve your problem (for VS 2010):
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/425f09d8-d070-4ab1-84c1-68fa326190f4?SRC=Home

Here's the solution for VS 2008 with TFS
Navigate to Visual Studio Menu ---- File > Source Control > Change Source Control > Click on Solution/Project > Check/uncheck the project checkboxes > Click 'Unbind' button at the top.
This makes your complete solution or the selected project(s) in the solution Offline from the TFS.
When you want to Go Online, follow the same steps and click the button 'Bind'

Ben Ryan has the regkeys you seek on his blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/benryan/archive/2007/12/12/when-and-how-does-my-solution-go-offline.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/benryan/archive/2007/12/12/how-to-make-tfs-offline-strictly-solution-based.aspx
Most of these controls are also built into the latest Power Tools:
C:\Users\Richard> tfpt tweakui /?
tfpt tweakui - Enhance how client connects to Team Foundation Server
Allows configuration of how and when the client connects to a
Team Foundation Server. This includes client certificates, auto
reconnect, offline, compression, maximum connections, timeouts,
and bypassing the proxy.

when I have to work offline I just unplug my ethernet cable and start TFS 2008. It starts me in offline mode. Then plug back in, right-click 'work online' in solution explorer, and TFS will ask you to check in your offline changes.

add a host entry
127.0.0.1 tfs.foo.com

Team Foundation Server 2008 does support working offline.
This video demonstrates how to use this feature.

If TFS is down, you might have trouble going into offline mode. If you close and reopen your solution, a nice little dialog will appear asking you if you want to Go Offline.
Alternatively if you don't want to close/reopen the solution, you can install the TFS Go-Offline plugin, then click:
TEAM -> Go Offline

Related

Upgrade to TFS 2015.3 successful, but portal unavailable

Today we have installed update 3 to our existing TFS 2015.2 server. The offline installation ran for about an hour and completed succesfully. However when trying to reach the portal site, nothing shows up (well a 404 page shows up actually).
When opening the Team Foundation Server Administration Console, it correctly displays the expected product version: 14.102.25423.0 (Tfs2015.Update3). However when I click on 'Application Tier', it displays the text:
This feature has been installed but needs to be configured. Click on
Configure Installed Features to begin initial configuration.
This same text is shown on many other administrative pages. Is this the cause of the portal missing? When I configure these features again, will it not erase our current team projects, history, build definitions and work items?
Are there any better ways to troubleshoot why the portal is missing?
Thanks in advance for any guidance.
Yes, you are right. After the upgrade, the configuration is needed to make sure the normal operation of TFS server. It will not erase your current team projects, history, build definitions and work items. There are just some settings will not effect your Database. Certainly, it's also important to keep good backup habits. After all, we didn't have a foolproof thing in the world.
After you upgrade TFS to 2015, each team project may need to be
configured to use some of the new features in TFS 2015. You don't have
to do this immediately, but those features aren't available in that
team project until they're configured. Depending on the team project,
you'll use some combination of the Configure Features wizard that
appears on the Work page and some manual configuration.
Source Link: Upgrade your deployment to the latest version of TFS
For your situation, there maybe some other error cause it. However, still suggest you to finish the configuration first. If it's still not work, then you can try below ways to narrow down the issue:
Check the Event View in the server to see whether there are some
related info
Check the configuration logs (Team Foundation Server Administration
Console-Logs or browser the folder in the server
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Team Foundation\Server Configuration\Logs)

Change language of TFS 2012 after installation

I just installed a new Team Foundation Server 2012 in its English version. Is it possible to switch to another language?
I need this for changing the language of the process templates used by the server. Maybe its possible to just update them and leave the server in English?
I'm a little bit afraid of running the upgrade on this machine because I don't know, if upgrade can also mean TFS 2012 EN -> TFS 2012 OTHER.
I decided to take the risk and I did following:
Uninstall TFS 2012 German completely.
Start Setup from TFS 2012 German Image
Choose "Upgrade"-Option when the first installation is done.
After Setup don't forget to re-configure things like build.
For those of you who think: "Why the hell...?": I installed the english version and recognized, that I could not use some conversion-tools. If you for instance try to bring "My Work" online, it complains when you switched language. Thats why this was so important to me.
After all I got some strange errors on my dashboard. I figured out that the OLAP-Cube was not able to be rebuilt due to some translation problems. The solution for this is:
Use SQL Server Management Studio and log on to the Analysis Services module.
Exand the databases-node and delete the Tfs_Analysis-database.
Open TFS Administration Console from the start menu.
Got to Application Tier -> Reporting and click "Edit" in the right pane.
Got to the second tab "Analysis" and re-enter all informations leaving the database-name as it is.
Click "Ok". In SQL Management Studio you should see the recreated Tfs_Analysis-database.
Go back to TFS Admin Console and click on "Recreate" in the right pane.
Go to SQL Management Studio, expand the Nodes Tfs_Analysis -> Cubes and right-click on the "Team System"-node.
Hit the third option (I don't know the english name but should be something like "Process".
If no error is shown, your cube should work now.

Blend for visual studio 2012 connect to team foundation server 2012 server everytime blend gain focus

I'm working with visual studio 2012 and blend for visual studio 2012 simultaneously. The problem i have is that every time I switch to blend, it tries to connect to team foundation server causing about 10 seconds delays. This gets annoying real fast since I switch between blend and visual studio rapidly. I did block blend in firewall, but blend tries to connect until timeout.
is there a way to disable blend to connect to team foundation server?
I suggest you to go Offline TFS
Follow theses steps :
1.Using Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Team Explorer, open the solution file, and then, in the Go Offline dialog box that appears, click OK. For more information, see How to: Work Offline when the Server is Unavailable on MSDN.
2.Open the solution in Expression Blend and make your changes. When you save files, Expression Blend displays a Save of Read-Only File dialog box. Click Overwrite to remove the write-protection from the file.
3.When the Team Foundation server is available again, use the procedure at How to: Work Offline when the Server is Unavailable to go back online. If another team member made changes to the file while you had it checked out, you might need to resolve conflicts.
article about your case : http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee341367(v=expression.40).aspx

Can't find reports in Team Foundation Server 2010

I have recently setup TFS 2010 and am trying to access the reporting feature. TFS is installed on Windows Server 2008 R2 and I am accessing TFS using Visual Studio 2010.
From what I have seen on the web, I should have a reports option in Team Explorer or from the Team menu in Visual Studio. I don't have this option at all. I have seen MSDN articles saying the option may have a red cross next to it, but I don't see at all.
From the TFS Admin console, reporting seems to be setup. All three options (Warehouse, Analysis Services and Report Server) have a green tick and say "Configured".
If I access the reports URL, I get a web interface but there are no out-of-the-box reports.
Thanks in advance for your help.
The problem was that the default reports folder location had not been set. I only noticed by clicking through all the screens in desperation.
Open the TFS Admin Console, go to Application Tier > Team Project Collections. Then in the Reports Folder tab at the bottom make sure you have set a value. I just used the default example which was /TfsReports/DefaultCollection.
You don't see the folder "Reports" in this view?
Do you have a screen like this?

How to get TFS Build Status notifications?

I want to get the build status in TFS (whether it is succeeded or failed). Which classes and methods can be used for this purpose?
You can run Build Notifications, which is similar to CC Tray in that it will continually give you the status of all builds that you're interested in following. To launch the tool, go to...
All Programs-->Microsoft Visual Studio 2010-->Team Foundation Server Tools-->Build Notifications
Click on the Options button to subscribe to whichever builds are on your server. This will now show up in your system tray with a green check box or red X to indicate the status of the builds you've selected.
In Visual Studio 2013 with TFS 2013, you have email alerts from TFS and a Build Notification system tray tool: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181725.aspx
However, it usually doesn't show up in the Windows 8 Start screen, even with a search. So, run it manually in most installations from here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\BuildNotificationApp.exe
The TFS API is mostly documented on MSDN under the Visual Studio SDK: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/bb130146, however the build APIs are in a different location (in the TFS documentation): http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/cc339575.
These are the same assemblies that tf.exe and Team Explorer (etc.) use.
If you just want the alert (not programmatically): You can right-click on the project in the Team Explorer and select Project Alerts.
You can use AnyStatus to monitor both XAML and vNext builds and lots of other monitors such as Windows Services, HTTP, TCP/IP, Ping, GitHub, Other CI/CD tools, Performance Counters and more.
Disclaimer: I am the author of AnyStatus
Check out the MSBuildCommunityTasks library. It has a Mail task.
Import this into your build project to send the mails.
To enable build notification e-mail alerts, in Team Explorer:
If you are not already connected to the team project that you want to work in, then connect to the team project.
Choose Home, and then choose Settings.
On the Settings page, under Team Project, choose Project Alerts.
Select one or more alert events.
In the Send My Alerts To box, choose Edit and enter the email address of each person who should receive the alerts. Use semicolons to separate multiple email addresses.
more details, see : https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms181725.aspx
I just discovered CatLight which just works with little fuss. Never had any success with AnyStatus. CatLight sits in your tray and notifies you when builds succeed or fail.
Under TFS 2008, you can right click on the TFS Project name (in Team Explorer) and select Project Alerts.
Then pick the A Build Completes alert and put your email address into the Send To field.
I think TFS 2005 also has this feature, but I can't rememeber. It's been awhile. ;)

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