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Connect to Team Projects in Team Foundation Server

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To access the tools, features, and functions that Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 provides, you must connect a Team Foundation client to the server that is running Team Foundation Server and select a team project collection and team project to connect to. You can connect to only one server at a time.

From Team Explorer and Team Web Access, you can switch your team project focus by using the menu associated with the name of the team project currently displayed.  For more information about the features available from each client, see Working within Team Web Access and Working within Team Explorer.

Note

The following procedures describe how to connect to team projects by using Team Web Access or Team Explorer. For information about how to connect Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Project to Team Foundation Server, see Connect a Microsoft Office Document to Team Foundation Server.

In this topic

  • Connect to a team project from Team Explorer

  • Connect to a team project from Team Web Access

  • Resolve connection problems to Team Foundation Server

Required Permissions

To connect to a team project you must be a member of both the Team Foundation Valid Users security group and the Readers security group for the team project. If the necessary security permissions are set explicitly, you must have your View server-level information permission set to Allow and your View project-level information permission on the team project set to Allow. For more information, see Manage My Profile and View My Permissions.

Connect to a team project from Team Explorer

To connect, add, or remove a team project from your list

  1. On the menu bar, choose View, Team Explorer.

  2. In Team Explorer, choose the Context Menu Icon icon next to the team project name, and then choose Projects and My Teams, Connect to Team Projects.

    From the Projects and My Teams menu, you can choose a team project from your list, or choose Connect to Team Projects to add or remove team projects from the list.

    Connect to Team Explorer

    Optionally, in Visual Studio, choose Team, Connect to Team Foundation Server.

    Note

    If you do not see this option, you have not installed Team Explorer. You must install Team Explorer before you will have the option to connect to Team Foundation Server.

  3. In the Connect to Team Project dialog box, select from the Team Foundation Server list a server that is running Team Foundation Server.

    Note

    If the drop-down list is empty, choose the Servers button to manually enter the server connection settings as described in the next procedure.

  4. Choose the name of the project collection that contains the team project from the Directory list.

  5. To add or remove a team project from the list of team projects that you regularly connect to, select or deselect the check box for each team project from the Team Projects list.

    Team projects with a check mark next to them are added to the Projects and My Teams menu.

  6. Choose the Connect button.

To connect to an instance of Team Foundation Server for the first time

  1. In Visual Studio, choose the Team Explorer tab.

    Note

    If you don’t see these options, you haven’t installed Team Explorer. You must install Team Explorer before you will have the option to connect to Team Foundation Server. If you're running Visual Studio on the same machine on which you installed TFS, Visual Studio will recognize that server automatically, so you can skip steps 3-5.

    Connect to Team Foundation Server

  2. In Team Explorer, choose Connect to Team Foundation Server.

  3. In the Connect to Team Project dialog box, choose the Servers button.

  4. In the Add/Remove Team Foundation Server dialog box, choose the Add button.

  5. In the Add Team Foundation Server dialog box, type the name or URL for the server.

  6. When you type a server name, the Preview field automatically displays the URL format, for example:

    http://ServerName:Port/tfs

    ServerName is the name of the server that hosts Team Foundation Server.

    Port is the port that Team Foundation Server uses; the default value is 8080. If your server uses a different port number, you must specify it in the Port number box.

    tfs is the default path to the project collections that are stored on the server. If your team uses a different path, type it in the Path box.

    Contact your Team Foundation administrator or team project administrator to obtain the connection settings.

  7. Verify that the URL is correct, choose the OK button twice, and then choose the Close button.

  8. In the Connect to Team Project dialog box, under Team Project Collections, select the team project collection that hosts the team projects that you want to connect to. Then, under Team Projects, select the check box for each team project that you want to access, and then choose the Connect button.

To connect to a team project with different credentials

  1. In Team Explorer, choose the Context Menu Icon icon next to the team project name, and then choose Projects and My Teams, Connect to Team Project.

  2. In the Connect to Team Project dialog box, choose the Use Different Credentials link.

  3. In the Windows Security dialog box, provide the user credentials, and choose the OK button.

  4. Choose the Connect button.

  5. In the pop-up dialog box, choose the Yes button.

Connect to a team project from Team Web Access

To open Team Web Access from Team Explorer

  • In Team Explorer, choose the Home page for the team project that you want to open in Team Web Access, and then choose the Web Access link.

    Connect to Team Web Access

    A web browser opens and displays the home page for the team project.

To connect to a team project from a web browser

  1. Open a browser window, and type a URL that uses the following form where ServerName is the name of the application tier for Team Foundation Server, the default Port is 8080, and tfs is the default name of the directory for the web application.

    http://ServerName:Port/tfs/Web

    For example, to connect to the server named FabrikamPrime, you would type:http://FabrikamPrime:8080/tfs/.

    Note

    If your server uses a different port number or directory, you must specify that port number and directory in the URL.

    The Welcome to Team Foundation Server page appears.

  2. If it is your first time accessing the server, a Windows Identity dialog box will appear. Fill in your credentials and choose the OK button.

    Note

    Subsequent logons to Team Web Access do not require that you supply credentials, providing that your first logon successfully accessed an existing project in Team Foundation Server and you selected Remember me.

  3. Choose your team project and team from the set of available links, or choose Browse all to select from the list of team project collections, team projects, and teams that have been defined on the server.

    For more information, see Working within Team Web Access

To switch context to a different team project

  • In Team Web Access, choose the Context Menu Icon arrow icon next to the project collection or team project name in the upper-right corner of the page and perform one of the following procedures:

    • If the name of the team project that you want to open appears in the list, then choose the team project name.

      For example, the following menu of choices reflects the team projects and teams that Adam Barr has recently connected to.

      Switch context to another team

    • If the name of the team project that you want to open does not appear in the list, choose Browse All Pprojects.

To connect to a team project with different credentials

  1. In Team Web Access, choose the Context Menu Icon icon next to your user name in the upper-right corner of the page, and then choose Sign in As Different User.

  2. In the Windows Security dialog box, provide the user credentials and choose the OK button.

  3. Choose the Connect button.

  4. In the pop-up dialog box, choose the Yes button.

Resolve problems when you connect to Team Foundation Server

If you experience problems connecting to Team Foundation Server from Team Explorer or Team Web Access, Team Foundation Server might not be running, the network might have a problem, or you might not have sufficient permissions. Perform the following actions to resolve the connection issue.

  1. Verify whether you have sufficient permissions for the actions that you're performing. If the errors that you receive indicate read-only or blocked actions, you may not have permission to act on the data.

    For more information, see Manage My Profile and View My Permissions.

  2. If a red X icon appears on the Documents page in Team Explorer, Team Explorer has lost communication with SharePoint Products. You may also notice that the list of individual documents that appeared on the Documents page has disappeared. The following conditions can cause a loss of communication:

    • The local computer is not connected to the network. To resolve this issue, confirm that the local computer is plugged into the network and can access network resources.

    • The server that hosts SharePoint Products is offline, or the computer network is not operating. To resolve this issue, contact the administrator for SharePoint Products to confirm that the server is available on the network.

    • The permissions that are granted to your user account in SharePoint Products are not sufficient to access the team portal site. Contact the administrator for SharePoint Products and request that your user account be added to the Contributor group. Your project management may also be able to grant you the required permission.

  3. If a red X icon appears on the Reports node in Team Explorer, you might not have permissions to access the reports, or Team Explorer might have lost communication with the server that hosts SQL Server Reporting Services. In these instances, check with your project administrator to make sure that you have permissions to access the reports node and that the server that hosts Reporting Services is running.

    A red X icon appears next to the Reports page if both of the following conditions are true:

    • Team Explorer is running on the same computer as SQL Server Reporting Services.

    • You are not logged on as an administrator, or enhanced security is enabled for Internet Explorer.

    To correct these issues, log onto your computer as an administrator, or open Internet Explorer, open Internet Options, choose the Security tab, and clear the Enabled Protected Mode check box.

  4. Verify whether network connections on your computer are functioning correctly. Try to run other applications that also require network connections. If they also have problems, you probably have a network problem.

  5. Verify whether your team project has been moved to another team project collection in Team Foundation Server. If it has been moved, you must create a connection to the new server name.

See Also

Concepts

Working within Team Explorer

Working with Team Foundation Clients

Other Resources

Working within Team Web Access