TFS Online 2012 / How to Deploy Custom Check-In Policies - visual-studio-2012

I am going to create a custom check-in policy and I'm using TFS Online and VS2012. I could find a video describing this procedure but it's rather old documentation. I've tried to find clear documentation on how to accomplish this in my specific environment to no avail.
Are any new ways of accomplishing this in the environment I'm working on TFS Online / VS2012.
Is there any gotcas I should be aware of?
Should I consider looking into TFS PowerTools?

Related

TFS 2015 Integration with SharePoint 2016

Is TFS 2015 is compatible with SharePoint 2016? Google search shows it is not compatible but didn't find any updated reference.
It's probably not compatible. The TFS integration with sharepoint is, at this point, more or less abandoned in favor of more flexible built-in dashboards, graphing, and reporting capabilities. You can still use Sharepoint for document management without having it explicitly integrated with an instance of TFS. I always recommend examining what you're using Sharepoint for in the context of TFS. I think you'll find that it's unnecessary to have it integrated.

How to create a comment in TFS for releases?

Is there a way or a tool to force users to write a comment to TFS every time a release of a project is created?
I am searching for something similar to the comments that are input when a file has been checked in to TFS, only for releases instead.
We are having a hard time keeping track of the changes made each time a new release is deployed and I imagine this would be a huge help in keeping track. I am currently using Visual Studio 2012.
What you're looking for is a release management solution, so you can automate and track your software as it's delivered through a pipeline from your dev environments up through to production environments.
You didn't specify what version of TFS you're using, but if you're using TFS 2013 or earlier, you can use the Release Management server. This software is being deprecated, however, so I wouldn't recommend starting out with it now unless you have absolutely no other choice.
In TFS 2015 Update 2, there is a fully integrated release management hub in TFS. This would be the recommended approach.

Both TFS and VSS on a Single Project

We are a small development team working mostly on Visual Studio. Until recently, I was working from Office and we were using VSS for version control. Now, as I had to move to my native place, I am hundreds of miles apart from my team and I am using TFS Online to collaborate with the team. As the team is still working on VSS, there is always a problem when merging the codes from two different sources.
So, what I wanted to know is, what do you suggest for us.
Is there any tool that can help us achieve this?
Is it possible for us to use both TFS and VSS as version controls on a single machine for the project, so that a member can get the latest from VSS and checkin into TFS Online and vice-versa ?
Sorry for the naive question if it is, I am a noob.
P.S: Bosses dont want to spend on TFS Online licenses. :)
No it's not possible for the same Project / Solution to have different source control connection.
you could open 2 different solutions . i.e. the original on VSS and the copy on VSOnline and then manualy try and keep both solutions inline, but it would be a MANUAL Process.
As VSS is no longer supported in any way you should use the built in TFS tools to migrate all of your data to TFS on-premises.
Once there you can put TFS on http or https and access if just like VSO.

TFS Build - Publish specific build from drop folder

We currently use TFS to deploy builds to our servers in different environments such as QA, PreProd and Prod. In the current method, the build agent gets all latest from TFS, builds and publishes to whichever environment specified.
I know that you can actually just publish just to a drop folder where it creates PublishedWebsites folder, but how can you publish to servers from drop folder mentioning specific build? For example, there may be build #7, which our QA team has certified. We want to make sure that that is the build that is going to production and not latest content which might have some check ins from other team members.
Any help would be appreciated. I referred this link, but it is mentioning about overriding OutputRoot directory in publish.proj file, which is not created in the solution that we created using Visual Studio 2012.
http://www.asp.net/web-forms/tutorials/deployment/configuring-team-foundation-server-for-web-deployment/deploying-a-specific-build
You have multiple way of solving the needs.
The best option is to use LabManagement; it will take care of computing the correct Drop folder. See Using a Lab Environment for Your Application Lifecycle for details. The idea is to use the build-deploy-test workflow to deploy and run tests on a group of machines running Test Agent.
You can setup a more sophisticated process using Release Management, a new feature of TFS 2013 that you can add to 2012 as well. It offers to design your promotion process and control who authorizes deployments.
You should neither use Build or Lab Management to do deployments. Both are poor solutions for this as this is not what they were designed for.
Microsoft added a dedicated release management tool with visual studio 2013. I have configured and used it with both 2012 & 2013.
http://nakedalm.com/building-release-pipeline-release-management-visual-studio-2013/
This will be much easier than either of the other tools.

VS2005 Setup and Deployment with Sharepoint

i have project in C#, ASP.Net and SharePoint. i want to deploy it usung VS2005 Setup and Deployment tool (As i am not allowed to use any otther software). Can i deploy the Sharepoint part like webparts in VS2005. please tell me what steps i have to take for sharepoint.
All Suggestions are welcome.
Thanks in advance
In short using the VS2005 Setup & Deployment for deploying items to SharePoint is not recommended or not supported.
SharePoint by itself has it well know deployment way called SharePoint Solutions or WSP file. Almost all the items you will want to deployed to SharePoint can be done using WSP(this includes WebPart as well, not only webpart it will allow to add a safe control entry to WebConfig as well). As per your question you are not allowed to use any other tool. To create WSP solution you will not need any extra tool. You can create a WSP file just with notepad (ddf file) & makecab.exe (its avaliable in most of the windows OS).
If you want to make it life simpler try out WSPBuilder and to install the WSP to sharepoint you can use the STSADM command or SharePointInstaller I have been using these tools for past 3 years and they work like charm.
You also have another option of doing it in the Visual Studio just by installing this template VSeWSS version 1.2!

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