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.

The Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Power Tool (formerly known as Power Toys) is a set of enhancements, tools and command line utilities that improve the Team Foundation Server user experience. This release includes two new command-line tools for the developer and three non-command line tools: a set of custom check-in policies, a build test task, and a process template editor. This version (1.2) includes some bug fixes to the Team Foundation Power Tool and adds the following functionality:

• Workspace Command (tfpt.exe) - Use the workspace command for additional workspace operations not supported in the currently shipping Team Foundation Server command line (tf.exe).
• Treeclean Command (tfpt.exe) - Use the treeclean command to see and optionally delete files in the current directory and all subdirectories that are not under version control.
• Team System Process Editor - A tool integrated with Visual Studio that provides a convenient method of viewing and customizing process templates. When connected to Team Foundation Server, you can use this tool to customize work item type definitions and global lists on an active project.
• Check-in Policy Pack - A set of handy check-in policies to address needs customers have expressed.
• Build Test Tools Task - A tool that allows running unit tests by simply specifying the DLLs, or by specifying a file name pattern in TfsBuild.proj, instead of using .vsmdi files to specify tests to run.

Found via Rob Caron’s blog - Now Available: Team Foundation Server Power Tool v1.2

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.