Sasha Sydoruk

Well, a couple of months back I passed 70-510. It took me around 20 days to prepare for it.

The exam is pretty difficult with a lot of focus on command line tools. By the way, talking about command line tools in TFS - Did MS really intend to make command line arguments different from one tool to another? What a mess, impossible to remember… I hope the vNext will resolve this absurdity and we all will move on with our lives. TFS team needs to hire a command line tool syntax usability expert.

To sum it up - I am really glad I took the exam. TFS is an awesome tool and studying for the exam really helped me understand how great TFS is. Too bad I don’t use it at my new place.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.VersionControl.Client;

namespace SashaSydoruk
{
    internal class Example
    {
        private static Dictionary<string, List<string>> pendingChanges = new Dictionary<string, List<string>>();

        public static void Main()
        {
            TeamFoundationServer tfs = TeamFoundationServerFactory.GetServer(“tfsserver”);
            VersionControlServer vcs = (VersionControlServer) tfs.GetService(typeof(VersionControlServer));

            PendingSet[] sets = vcs.GetPendingSets(new String[] {“$/”}, RecursionType.Full);

            foreach(PendingSet set in sets)
            {
                foreach(PendingChange pc in set.PendingChanges)
                {
                    AddPendingChange(set.OwnerName, pc.LocalItem);
                }
            }

            List<string> userNames = new List<string>(pendingChanges.Keys);
            userNames.Sort();
            foreach(string userName in userNames)
            {
                pendingChanges[userName].Sort();
                Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
                Console.WriteLine(userName);
                Console.ResetColor();

                foreach(string fileName in pendingChanges[userName])
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(fileName);
                }
                Console.WriteLine();
                Console.WriteLine();
            }

            Console.ReadKey();
        }

        private static void AddPendingChange(string username, string filename)
        {
            if(!pendingChanges.ContainsKey(username))
            {
                pendingChanges[username] = new List<string>();
            }

            pendingChanges[username].Add(filename);
        }
    }
}

Well, there is not much right now for to prepare for 70-510; so instead of roaming teh Internets I decided to purchase this book - Professional Team Foundation Server.

I am half-way through it and so far I really like it. Even if I don’t pass the exam, I have already learnt a lot of useful stuff. Two thumbs up!

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client;
using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Server;

namespace SashaSydoruk
{
    internal class Example
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            TeamFoundationServer tfs = TeamFoundationServerFactory.GetServer(“tfsserver”);
            ICommonStructureService css = (ICommonStructureService) tfs.GetService(typeof(ICommonStructureService));
            List<string> projects = new List<string>();
            foreach(ProjectInfo projectInfo in css.ListAllProjects())
            {
                projects.Add(projectInfo.Name);
            }
            projects.Sort();

            foreach(string projectName in projects)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(projectName);
            }

            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

One of my first steps to get ready for 70-510 is to thoroughly read Rob Caron’s blog and also subscribe to it. The blog is full of information that you will not find in books.

Brian Harry’s blog is excellent as well. Subscribed.

Another good site - http://teamsystemrocks.com/. The site features a bunch of TFS developers and forums to answers people’s questions about TFS.

While I was getting ready to take my 70-528, I received an interesting email from Microsoft. Apparently the beta exam of 70-510: TS: Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server is out and I am invited to take it for free. How awesome is that?

More information about 70-510 can be found here - Preparation Guide for Exam 70-510 

There are a couple of issues that concern me:

• Lack of study materials. There is no official study guide published yet.
• Lack of time to get ready for the exam. I need to take the exam within a month or so which is usually enough time, but with 2 kids it is kind of tough…

Anyway, I have already investigated some books that will server as study guides. I will keep posting about my experience preparing for the exam.

I am really sorry 70-528, but you will have to wait.