One of the investments the product team did (hidden feature ) in Team Foundation Server Update 1 is moving the rename project email to a template format (XSL file), Previous to update 1 (TFS 2015 RTM) the email was embedded and you won’t be able to edit it.

The template located with the rest of Team Foundation Server templates at Drive:\%programfiles%\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 14.0\Application Tier\TFSJobAgent\Transforms\1033, if you want to customize the email contents or format just edit ProjectRenamedEmail.xsl  (make sure to backup the file first!)

TL;DR;

Team Foundation Server 2015 brings lots of exciting features, on top of the new features and the #1 voted UserVoice story was Project rename.

When renaming a project and automatic email alert sent to the team with a predefined format mentioning some resource and the old. new name of the project.

Challenge

Recently one of my customer went through a serious restructuring for their Team Foundation Server collections and project this involved renaming lots of projects to reflect the common codename used to identify those projects in the organizations.

While the email above seems very descriptive and gives lots of context, customer want to customize the content and the look and feel as well for this email.

TFS Templates!

Most of templates used for email alerts in Team Foundation Server are maintained at the following location Drive:\%programfiles%\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 14.0\Application Tier\TFSJobAgent\Transforms\1033 To customize the alerts format you can modify their associated XSL transform files [MSDN: Customize the format for TFS email alerts]

Note: Test Plan reports are using the same approach but it’s located under Drive:\%programfiles%\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 14.0\Application Tier\Web Services\_tfs_resources\TestManagement\v1.0\Transforms\1033\TestSuite.xsl 

Only TFS 2015 Update 1 uses a template file ProjectRenamedEmail.xsl for Team Foundation 2015 RTM the email was embedded and you won’t be able to edit it.

Since MATLAB applications are as much as any other applications at the end, and Rule#1 applications need Application Lifecycle Management ==Team Foundation Server J, provide you with the needed capabilities to manage your repositories, build processes, testing infrastructure, and lab deployment all while easily collaborating and reporting status. Team Foundation Server supports your team so you can connect, collaborate, and deliver on time.

MATLAB can be integrated with Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Online for version control using Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 MSSCCI Provide (https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/06c8e056-7f77-4a5c-9b8b-49318c143df8) whereby you can utilize the needed version control functionalities available from within the MATLAB IDE and you can access the rest of ALM functionalities using Team Foundation Server Web Access from you browser.

Prerequisites

• Mathworks MATLAB version R2014a
• Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 MSSCCI Provider
• Team Explorer 2013

Configuration steps

• Install and activate MATLAB R2014a
• Download and install Team Explorer 2013 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40776
• Download and install Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 MSSCCI Provide https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/06c8e056-7f77-4a5c-9b8b-49318c143df8
• Run MATLAB, from top menu select Preferences , Source Control you will be able to select Microsoft Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider from Source Control Systems drop down

  

• Click Apply and then OK.
• By completing this step, we have configured MATLAB to use Team Foundation Server as version control.
• Right click any file, package or MATLAB artifact, you should be able to see Source Control context menu item visible, click it and then click Register Microsoft Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider Project with MATLAB…

  

• You will be asked to select a registered TFS Server or add a new Server if none available

  

• Once selected a server, you can select any project to source control those files to it, you can also choose or add a new workspace for your project.

  

• Note: we recommend Server Workspaces when working with MSSCCI provider, if the workspace you selected or created is local one you will be prompted already to change it.

  

• Once done, you have "Add to Source Control…" active in the Source Control menu

  

• Click it to add the selected file(s) to the Source Control, you will get "Add to Source control" dialog with the selected files and a comment box to provide comments.

  

• Once added, you will be able to check-in/ remove the added files to/from TFS anytime by right click then Source Control

  

• Check-in will bring the normal Visual Studio TFS Check-in dialog where you can have more options while check-in files like work items association, comments, check-in notes, policy override and conflict

  

• Source Control menu will now have more active items like history, differences and properties for the source controlled file

  

• Access to those files will be available to your development team from within any TFS client

  

   

   

The What?

MEA Virtual Launch for Visual Studio 2013 streaming live from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, where we launch Visual Studio 2013 and .NET 4.5.1 and announce the availability of Visual Studio Online in MEA.

There are tons of cool stuff that we will show and announce during the Virtual launch event:

• Visual Studio 2013
• Visual Studio Online
• Visual Studio Online “Monaco”
• Visual Studio Online Application Insights
• Release Management
• Visual Studio 2012.4

The When?

November 19th starting from 9:30am Dubai Time (UTC+4)

The Where?

Tune in to watch the keynote and demos live at https://visualstudio2013.cloudtivi.com/

The Schedule

Join us on Twitter as well #vs2013dubai

• What is static code analysis?
• When to use?
• Supported platforms
• Supported Visual Studio versions
• How to use
• Run Code Analysis Manually
• Run Code Analysis Automatically
• Run Code Analysis while check-in source code to TFS version control (TFSVC)
• Run Code Analysis as part of Team Build
• Understand the Code Analysis results & learn how to fix them
• Create your custom rule set
• Q & A
• Visual Studio static code analysis vs. FxCop vs. StyleCpp
• Code Analysis for SharePoint Apps and SPDisposeCheck?
• Can I use Code Analysis to find dead code in my application
• Can code analysis detect the duplicate code in my application?
• Code Analysis and SQL Server Database Projects?
• ReSharper 8 vs. Visual Studio 2013?
• References

What is static code analysis?

Static Code Analysis feature of Visual Studio performs static code analysis on code to help developers identify potential design, globalization, interoperability, performance, security, and a lot of other categories of potential problems according to Microsoft's rules that mainly targets best practices in writing code, and there is a large set of those rules included with Visual Studio grouped into different categorized targeting specific coding issues like security, design, Interoperability, globalizations and others.

Static here means analyzing the source code without executing it and this type of analysis can be performed through automated tools (like Visual Studio 2013 Code Analysis Tool) or manually through Code Review which already supported in Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 (check Using Code Review to Improve Quality video on Channel9)

There is also Dynamic analysis which performed on executing programs using software testing techniques such as Code Coverage for example.

When to use?

Running Code analysis tool at regular intervals during your development process can enhance the quality of your software, examines your code for a set of common defects and violations is always a good programming practice.

Adding that Code analysis can also find defects in your code that are difficult to discover through testing allowing you to achieve first level quality gate for you application during development phase before you release it to the testing team.

Supported platforms

• .NET Framework, native (C and C++)
• Database applications.

Support Visual Studio versions

• All version of Visual Studio starting Visual Studio 2013 (except Visual Studio Test Professional) check Feature comparisons
• Create and modify a custom rule set required Visual Studio Premium or Ultimate.

How to use?

Code Analysis can be run manually at any time from within the Visual Studio IDE, or even setup to automatically run as part of a Team Build or check-in policy for Team Foundation Server.

Run Code Analysis Manually

• To run code analysis manually on a project, on the Analyze menu, click Run Code Analysis on your project or simply right click on the project name on the Solution Explorer choose Run Code Analysis from the context menu

Run Code Analysis Automatically

• To run code analysis each time that you build a project, you select Enable Code Analysis on Build on the project's Property Page

Run Code Analysis while check-in source code to TFS version control (TFSVC)

• Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) provides a way for organizations to enforce practices that lead to better code and more efficient group development through Check-in policies which are rules that are set at the team project level and enforced on developer computers before code is allowed to be checked in. (This is available only if you're using Team Foundation Server)
• Require permissions on Team Foundation Server: you must have the Edit project-level information permission set to Allow typically your account must be part of Project Administrators, Project Collection Administrators, for more information about Team Foundation permissions check https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms252587(v=vs.120).aspx
• In Team Explorer, right-click the team project name, point to Team Project Settings, and then click Source Control.
• In the Source Control dialog box, select the Check-in Policy tab.
• Click Add to create a new check-in policy.
• Double-click the existing Code Analysis item in the Policy Type list to change the policy.

• Check or Uncheck the policy option based on the configurations you need to perform as illustrated below:

• Enforce check-in to only contain files that are part of current solution: code analysis can run only on files specified in solution and project configuration files. This policy guarantees that all code that is part of a solution is analyzed.
• Enforce C/C++ Code Analysis (/analyze): Requires that all C or C++ projects be built with the /analyze compiler option to run code analysis before they can be checked in.
• Enforce Code Analysis for Managed Code: Requires that all managed projects run code analysis and build before they can be checked in.

Check Code analysis rule set reference on MSDN

• What is Rule Set? Rule Set is a group of code analysis rules like the example below where Microsoft.Design is the rule set name where "Do not declare static members on generic types" is the code analysis rule

• Once you configured the Analysis rule the policy will be enabled for all the team member in this project whenever a team member check-in any source code to the TFSVC the policy section will highlight the Code Analysis policy as below

• TFS is a very extensible platform so you can simply implement your own custom Code Analysis Check-in policy, check this link for more details https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd492668.aspx but you have to be aware also about compatibility between different TFS versions check https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb907157.aspx

Run Code Analysis as part of Team Build

• With Team Foundation Build (TFBuild), you can create and manage build processes that automatically compile and test your applications, and perform other important functions.
• Code Analysis can be enabled in the Build Definition file by selecting the correct value for the build process parameter "Perform Code Analysis"

• Once configure, Kick-off your build definition to queue a new build, Code Analysis will run as part of build workflow and you will be able to see code analysis warning as part of build report

Understand the Code Analysis results & learn how to fix them

Now after you went through Code Analysis configurations and the different ways of running it, we will go through the Code Analysis result how to understand them and how to resolve them.

Code Analysis window in Visual Studio will show all the analysis results based on the rule sets you configured in the project file properties, let's dig deep into what each result item contains:

Visual Studio makes it very easy to fix Code analysis warning, all you have to do is clicking on the Check Id hyperlink if you are not aware how to fix the warring and you'll be directed to MSDN online or local copy based on the configuration you did while installing Visual Studio and you will find all the information about the warring including how to fix it.

Create a Custom Code Analysis Rule Set

• The Microsoft standard rule sets provide groups of rules that are organized by function and depth. For example, the Microsoft Basic Design Guidelines Rules and the Microsoft Extended Design Guidelines Rules contain rules that focus on usability and maintainability issues, with added emphasis on naming rules in the Extended rule set, you can create and modify a custom rule set to meet specific project needs associated with code analysis. To create a custom rule set, you open one or more standard rule sets in the rule set editor.
• Create and modify a custom rule set required Visual Studio Premium or Ultimate.
• You can check How to: Create a Custom Rule Set on MSDN for more details https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd264974.aspx

Q & A

• Visual Studio static code analysis vs. FxCop vs. StyleCpp https://www.excella.com/blog/stylecop-vs-fxcop-difference-between-code-analysis-tools/
• Code Analysis for SharePoint Apps and SPDisposeCheck? This post lists some of the rule set you can run specifically for SharePoint applications and how to integrate SPDisposeCheck as well.
• Can I use Code Analysis to find dead code in my application (Thanks Adel for the comment)? Yes Code Analysis can discover the dead code in your application by just enabling the right rules below, Habib Heydarian has a good post around that https://blogs.msdn.com/b/habibh/archive/2009/07/31/discover-dead-code-in-your-application-using-code-analysis.aspx
• Private methods that are not called from any other code (CA1811)
• Unused local variables (CA1804)
• Unused private fields (CA1823)
• Unused parameters (CA1801)
• Internal classes that are not instantiated from any other code (CA1812)
• Can code analysis detect the duplicate code in my application? Visual Studio 2012 and 2013 has a new feature allow you to detect the duplicate code in your application called “Code Clone Detection” https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh205279.aspx
• Code Analysis for SQL Server Database Projects? This post illustrate how to run static code analysis on T-SQL through SSDT
• ReSharper 8 vs. Visual Studio 2013? This document lists some of the features that are provided by ReSharper 8 but are missing or not as fully implemented in Visual Studio 2013.

References

• A Few Billion Lines of Code Later: Using Static Analysis to Find Bugs in the Real World https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/2/69354-a-few-billion-lines-of-code-later/fulltext
• What is New in Code Analysis for Visual Studio 2013 https://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2013/07/03/what-is-new-in-code-analysis-for-visual-studio-2013.aspx
• Analyze the code quality of Windows Store apps using Visual Studio static code analysis https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh441471.aspx
• [Hands-on-lab] Using Code Analysis with Visual Studio 2012 to Improve Code Quality https://download.microsoft.com/download/A/9/2/A9253B14-5F23-4BC8-9C7E-F5199DB5F831/Using%20Code%20Analysis%20with%20Visual%20Studio%202012%20to%20Improve%20Code%20Quality.docx

PL/SQL Developer is an IDE that is specifically targeted at the development of stored program units for Oracle Databases, we  want to provide a native Source Control experience from within this tool to support the team adapting Team Foundation Server Source Control first and them embracing the whole Application Lifecycle practices and features.

Looking into what options the tools support to integrate version control, MSSCCI always jump to my head whenever the discussion is around integrate legacy tools.

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 MSSCCI Provider enables integrated use of Team Foundation Version Control with products that do not support Team Explorer integration.

Hereunder a step by step guide on how to integrate the Oracle PL/SQL Developer with Team Foundation Server Source Control:

1. Download and Install Version Control Interface plug-in (Oracle PL/SQL Developer plug-in) from here https://www.allroundautomations.com/download/vcs124.zip
2. Download and Install Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2013 from here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39314
3. Download and Install Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 MSSCCI Provider 32-bit from here https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/06c8e056-7f77-4a5c-9b8b-49318c143df8
4. Open Oracle PL/SQL Developer Tool you should have a new menu for version control called VCS
5. Click on VCS –> Open Project.
6. Provide the following parameters in the dialog
1. System: choose the source control provider in our case Microsoft Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider
2. Project: click on the folder icon to connect to Team Foundation Server and then pick the project you’d like to source control the objects to.
3. User: By default TFS connection will add the workspace owner once you picked the project from TFS projects list.
4. Local Path: By default TFS connection will add the workspace folder mapping.
5. Aux Path: By default TFS connection will add the project URL on TFS.

Once done, you’ll get the Version Control options available for use and anytime you need to open Team Explorer you can do that from the same tool through “Run Team Foundation…” menu item for stuff like work items and collaboration.

In closing:

• You can natively have version control options from PL/SQL Developer tool using MSSCCI provider.
• For collaboration and other team activities that Team Foundation Server provide for the developers (away from any platform dependency) you can use Team Foundation Server Explorer to manage that.

We tried to get a story line around an individual developer having to grow to a team configuration and using the service as they learn about ALM concepts.

Thursday, September 12, 2013 | 8:00AM – 9:30AM (PDT, Redmond Time)

Are you interested in the future of Visual Studio LightSwitch? Come see what we’ve been working on and ask questions in this live public meeting. Joe Binder and the rest of the LightSwitch Team will be here to discuss the LightSwitch roadmap and discuss the product direction. We’ll start with a demonstration of the new features in Visual Studio 2013 and then we’ll open the floor to questions. 

If you have burning questions or topics you'd like to discuss, it would be a great help if you post them to this thread in advance so we can provide more complete answers.  Of course, you're more than welcome to ask live too.

Add to Calendar: https://bit.ly/15y2Qj5

Join Online Meeting:

https://join.microsoft.com/meet/allenli/L88J2M0Q

Join by Phone:

+14257063500    

+18883203585      

Find a local number: https://join.microsoft.com/dialin

Conference ID: 143610907

Please note that the meeting capacity is 250 participants. If you are unable to join, a recording will be available.

More details and an interesting discussion can be accessed here

The Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 Preview image enables MSDN subscribers to quickly create a development environment for either Web and SQL development or SharePoint 2013 development on Windows Azure. The image includes a complete installation of Visual Studio 2013 Ultimate preview (by using it you agree to Microsoft Supplemental Software License Terms for Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 Product Family Preview which can be found on the image desktop), SharePoint 2013 Trial and SQL Server 2012 Express. The image also contains scripts to configure the virtual machine for either Web and SQL development or for SharePoint development which can be found on c:\ConfigureDeveloperDesktop. The image can also be provisioned remotely through PowerShell scripts which are also included in this download.

Download the configuration files https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39346

• An application-tier for Team Foundation Server

• The extensions for SharePoint Products

• Team Foundation Build

• Visual Studio Lab Management

Required Permissions

• You must be a member of the local Administrators group on the server where you want to open the console.
• And either a member of the Team Foundation Administrators group or your Edit Server-Level Information permission must be set to Allow.

More information

• Understanding Administrative Concepts and Tools

• Team Foundation Server Permissions.

• The Team Foundation Administration Console

• Administering Team Foundation Server

Apply now, Send your application to atlc-contacts@microsoft.com