Posts

Interesting user too stupid error today whist adding some CodeUI tests to a Lab Management deployment scenario. I added the Test Case and associated it with Coded UI test in Visual Studio I made sure my deployment build had the tests selected I then ran my Lab Deployment build, but got the error Build directory of the test run is not specified or does not exist. This normally means the test VM cannot see the share containing the build. I checked the agent login on the test VM could view the drop location, that was OK, but when I looked for the assembly containing my coded UI tests was just not there. ...

I have been using the ExternalTestRunner 2010 Build activity I wrote. I realised that at least one of the parameters I need to set, the ProjectCollection used to publish the test results, was hard coded in my sample. It was set in the form http://myserver:8080/tfs/MyCollection This is not that sensible, as this value is available using the build API as BuildDetail.BuildServer.TeamProjectCollection.Uri.ToString() It makes no sense to hard code the name of the server if the build system already knows it. ...

Access MVP Ben Clothier has posted an article and video on Going beyond Web Macros: Using Event Receivers & .NET with Access Services. This takes some of the techniques I was proposing for .NET/Access integration and added to them using Ben’s extensive experience in the Access space. Well worth a look if you want to make Access a RAD front end to legacy systems.

Just spent a while battling a problem whilst install the TFS 2010 Test Controller. When I launched the install setup program off the .ISO I could select the Test Controller installer, but then a command prompt flashed up and exited with no obvious error. If I went into the TestControllers directory on the mounted .ISO and ran the setup from a command prompt I saw the error “program too big to fit in memory”. ...

I am very impressed with the iPlayer Media Center Plugin I found on the Australian Media Center Community, I like most people found it installed fine but that it failed to add itself to the start menu. However this was easily fixed using Media Center Studio once I got my head around the Media Center Studio’s user interface. The basic process is: Load Media Center Studio Go onto the Start Menu tab At the bottom of the screen look for the entry points section (needs expanding usually) In here you should find the iPlayer application (has a red’ish pay button logo) Drag it onto whichever part of the start menu you want, but be aware there are some limitation as to where it can go, Extensions worked fine for me Save the changes Restart Media Center Once this is done you should be able to view WMV based iPlayer content from within Media Center. I have seen it take a while to start buffering content, but other than that it seems to work well and certainly looks the part. ...

Another follow up post, this time to the one on MSDeploy. As I said in that post a better way to trigger the MSDeploy PowerShell script would be as part of the build workflow, as opposed to a post build action in the MSBuild phase. Doing it this way means if the build failed testing, after MSBuild complete, you can still choose not to run MSDeploy. I have implemented this using an InvokeProcess call in my build workflow, which I have placed just before Gated checking logic at the end of the process template. ...

I posted a while ago on using my Typemock TMockRunner Custom Activity for Team Build 2010. I left that post with the problem that if you wished to customise a template after you a had added the custom activity you had to use the somewhat complex branching model edit the XAML. If you just followed the process in my post to put the build template in a new team project and tried to edit the XAML you got the following errors, an import namespace error and the associated inability to render part of the workflow ...

The last of the recent batch of announcements is that of the first official release of the TFS Integration Platform. This provides tools to allow synchronisation between TFS 2010 and ….. TFS 2008 TFS 2010 ClearCase ClearQuest File System Again more details on Brian Harry’s blog.

Another recent announcement from Brian Harry’s blog was about the release of the Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010 MOSS Configuration Tool. I had a look at this tool during it’s beta testing and it certainly can help to get all the setting right to allow Excel Services to provide your charting for TFS projects, it worked for us.

In the VSLive! keynote Microsoft made announcements about Lab Management, it will be RTM’d later this month and best of all it will be included as part of the benefits of the Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN and Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 with MSDN SKUs. You can read more detail on Brian Keller’s blog I think this is a great move on licensing, we had expect it to be purchasable addition to Visual Studio. With this change it now is consistent with TFS i.e. if you have the right SKU of Visual Studio and MSDN you get the feature. This greatly removes the barrier to entry for this technology. ...