Upload, download, and delete process templates for a team project collection
You can manage all your process templates with the Process Template Manager, available from the Team menu in Visual Studio or Team Explorer. You use a process template to create a team project and all its artifacts. For a comparison of the default process templates that Visual Studio Team Foundation Server provides, see Work with team project artifacts, choose a process template.
You can upload, download, and delete process templates for a team project collection. Also, you can mark a template to appear as the default in the New Team Project Wizard.
Tip
To access the latest versions of these process templates, install Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 (TFS).
You can access the latest versions of the default process templates installed on TFS here: %programfiles%/Microsoft Team Foundation Server 12.0/Tools/Deploy/ProcessTemplateManagerFiles/1033. To learn more about the files and folders that comprise a process template, see Overview of process template files.
The first step in customizing a process template is to download a copy of the source files for that template. After you customize the process template, you must upload the new version to the team project collection. For an overview of how to customize process templates, see Customize a process template.
To manage a process template
Open Visual Studio 2013 or Team Explorer 2013.
If you aren’t a member of the Project Collection Administrators group, get added as one.
Choose Team, Team Project Collection Settings, Process Template Manager.
The Process Template Manager lists each process template that has been uploaded to the team project collection.
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Select the process template that you want to work with.
Choose one of the following buttons or links to perform the corresponding action:
Button or link
Action
Upload
Upload a process template.
In the Upload Process Template dialog box, choose the folder that contains the root file, ProcessTemplate.xml, for the process template that you want to upload. See also Process template restrictions and validation checks.
Choose Upload.
Download
To download the process template to a local computer.
In the Download Process Template dialog box, select a folder where the process template will be downloaded.
Choose Save.
Make Default
To cause the selected process template to appear as the default selection in the New Team Project Wizard.
Delete
To permanently remove the selected process template from the collection.
Choose Close to close the Process Template Manager.
Process template restrictions and validation checks
The following restrictions and validation checks are performed when you upload a process template:
Keep the name of your process template to 256 Unicode characters or less.
Give your process template a unique name. If you upload a template with the same name as an existing template, the existing template will be overwritten.
Do not add any .exe files in any of the process template folders. If you do, the project creation will fail, even though the updated process template uploads successfully.
Restrict the total size of your process template to 2 GB or less, or project creation will fail.
The upload process performs a partial verification check to make sure that the XML of each process template XML file is valid. If you receive any errors when you try to upload the process template, review the XML to determine the cause of the error. Note that duplicate tags in an XML file can cause errors. If there is no error in the XML, check to make sure all the appropriate files are included in your process template in the correct folder locations.
Important
The schema definition for process templates uses a mix of camel-case and all capitalized elements. If you encounter errors when validating your type definition files, check the case structure of your elements. Also, the case structure of opening and closing tags must match according to the rules for XML syntax. See Process template plug-ins: Index to XML element definitions
If you receive an error message that states that you do not have access to the folder where your process template is located, make sure that the path name is typed correctly.
Prospective names in WarehouseSchema.xml cannot contain the following characters:
. , ; ' ` : / \ * | ? " & % $ ! + = ( ) [ ] { } < >
For more information about naming restrictions, see Naming restrictions in Team Foundation.
Q & A
Q: Are there compatibility issues when managing process templates?
A: Yes. To create a team project or download and upload process templates, your client version must match the server version. For example, you must connect to TFS 2013 from Visual Studio 2013 or Team Explorer 2013.
For more information, see Compatibility between Team Foundation clients and Team Foundation Server.
Q: Where can I get the process template that supports the Scaled Agile Framework?
A: Go to Team Foundation Server 2013 Process Template Samples - Support for Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). These process templates contain the customizations described in this white paper: Scaled Agile Framework: Using TFS to support epics, release trains, and multiple backlogs.
Q: How do I update a process template to support new features?
A: See Update a customized process template to access new features. When TFS is upgraded from an earlier version, the latest default process templates are automatically added to the set available for a team project collection. To use the most recent features that are available with the updated templates and to access customizations that you made previously, you must add select updates to your customized process templates.
Q: How do I create a team project?
A: See Create a team project. You create a team project by using the New Team Project Wizard. This wizard runs the set of instructions that are provided in the process template files to configure initial settings and upload artifacts and template files.