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In my post on using TFS WebParts in Sharepoint I provided a proof of concept set of source to allow work items to be viewed and edited within 32bit SharePoint 2007. However I hit a problem that our live SharePoint is running 64bit and the TFS API is only available for 32bit, so the WebParts could not be loaded. To get round this problem I have built a version of the WebParts that move all the 32bit TFS API calls into a separate web service. This allows the web service to be hosted on a 32bit box whilst the WebParts are still run within the 64bit SharePoint environment. ...

The next meeting of the extreme programming club is going to be held on the Thursday the 10th of January 2008 at the Victoria Hotel, at 7.00pm, Leeds. I believe the session is on CRAP (Change Risk Analyzer and Predictor) code metrics but this still has to be confirmed. This is your chance to discuss the future for the user group as I mentioned in my previous post

I have just had pointed out to me there is a great video about Google’s use of Scrum. It is a presentation done by Jeff Sutherland one of the founders of Scrum. Take a look it is well worth it.

Times are a’changing for the Yorkshire Extreme Programming and Agile Methods Club, our local user group. There are plans to put the organisation on a more formal structure including a organising committee with the key aim to extend the groups appeal. In the past it has really been driven by the good works of the staff of Erudine, thanks to them for all the work thus far. To facilitate these changes a new organiser Daniel Drozdzewski from Eurdine has put up a survey to find out what people want and is keen to hear ideas via the forum as he says we “want to bring more interesting speakers and topics, make it more organised and appealing to wider audience.” ...

If you try to install the Team Foundation 2008 SharePoint extensions on a 64bit farm you get a ‘SharePoint must be installed’ error; I guess the installer is looking in the wrong directory for something to confirm SharePoint is there. However, it seems the MSI is only installing some features that are not 32/64bit specific. So you can try a manual install of these features. The notes on http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/aa718901.aspx give a basic guide, but these were written for the previous SharePoint so you have to alter a few paths, mostly 6.0 to 12.0 in the paths to the Web Server Extensions EXEs, and the templates have moved in Team System to [Program Files]Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation ServerToolsTemplates ...

If you see ‘TF215085 local build agent not authorized to communicate with team foundation server’ when you queue a new build via Visual Studio, you would assume you just have to add the TFSBuild user to the team projects build group as the rest of the message suggests (right click in team explorer for the project and look at the group membership). However this is not enough it seems if you are running a workgroup edition of Team Foundation server. You also have to make sure the TFSBuild user is in the licensed users group for the team server (right click the server itself in the team explorer). ...

Don’t make the mistake I did with Team Foundation Server 2008 media on MSDN downloads. The MSDN file en_visual_studio_team_system_2008_team_foundation_server_workgroup_x86_x64wow_dvd_X14-29253.iso is the workgroup edition, as the file name suggests. The problem is that you cannot upgraded it to a full edition. TFS documentation says that a trial or workgroup edition can be upgraded by entering a valid CD-key when in Add remove programs, maintenance mode; however this option is greyed out if you install from this media. I checked with Microsoft and there is no way round this for this ISO image. ...

I have been trying to get a simple means for our clients to log faults into our TFS system whilst inside our MOSS2007 based customer portal. I had been suffering from two major problems as my previous posts mentioned. However, I now have some solutions or at least workarounds: Historically all users who connected to the TFS server needed a Team Foundation Client CAL - this issue has been addressed by changes in licensing for TFS by Microsoft; basically it is now free to look at work items and add bugs The way the SharePoint and TFS APIs handle user identity (SPUser & ICreditial) do not match, and are not improbable. There is no way round the user having to reenter their user credentials for each system - so my web part logs into TFS as a user set via it’s parameters, this is not the same user as the credentials used to authenticate into SharePoint, it is in effect a proxy user for accessing TFS So where does this leave us? ...

I also submitted a session for SQLBits II in Birmingham on using Visual Studio to manage the life cycle of DB projects. The voting for this community conference I assume opens in the new year as submissions close this weekend. It will be interesting to see if this more central location (well central to England not the UK) attracts more attendees than Reading. Again vote early and often.

And I may be speaking at Developer Day Scotland - it is all down to you; like other DDD style events the attendees get a chance to select what they would like to see. So keep an eye on the possible agenda and please vote as soon at submission close.