Sharepoint - Project Web Access - Team Foundation Server - sharepoint

So, my client wants a customer dashboard integrating all information related to a project in a common sharepoint site.
So we have something like this
http://tdg-srv-006/ <------- Sharepoint site (SP)
http://tdg-srv-006/PWA/ <--- Project Web Access site (PWA)
http://tdg-srv-tfs2/ <------ Team foundation Server (TFS)
He wants the following requirements:
Burn down Chart: this one is located in the TFS server inside the company.
Total count of bugs: this one is located in TFS too
Open Issues and Risks: This one is located in PWA
Team names and roles: this one in TFS.
My question is, how do I communicate Sharepoint with TFS database and with PWA information? any comments, suggestions or clues?

There are two ways to do this. Use the project dashboard site created from Project Server, or the one created by Team Foundation Server.
Project Server
The standard way of setting up such a dashboard with Project Server is to enable project workspaces. This means that when a project is first published it would have a URL such as http://tdg-srv-006/PWA/My%20Project. This is where the project 'dashboard' site will reside, containing both your integration with Project Server and with TFS.
These workspaces are created from templates. They can be extended with your own design and web parts so they will always be created exactly as you'd like. For example, integration with Reporting Services reports that query the Project Server reporting database or Team Foundation Server is a popular idea.
Note that project workspaces already come out of the box with risks and issues. (These can also be linked to tasks and other risks and issues for a richer experience.)
For aggregation, within Project Web Access it is possible to create a view which sums the risks and issues from across all project workspaces and displays them in Project Center. When connecting to PWA, users are also prompted with the risks and issues outstanding that are assigned to them.
Team Foundation Server
Team Foundation Server also creates its own SharePoint site which you may prefer to use. This article on SharePoint Magazine should give you all you need to know. Again, you can set up Reporting Services reports that point to a TFS data source and display the results in your workspace. It just depends on whether you prefer to start with a TFS workspace or a Project Server workspace.
Caution
Both Project Server and TFS only install the free Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) by default. This means functionality such as the content query web part provided in SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) is not there. You can add SharePoint 2007 without any issues but it will cost you more.
The template approach that Project Server uses to create workspaces (and perhaps TFS as well) has problems. Firstly, Project Server will allow you to change columns and fields on the Risks and Issues lists but this will cause errors. There is a safe method outlined in the link earlier on my blog. Secondly, assuming you decide to change the template you will need to programmatically update every workspace within Project Server, including the template to make the changes. Not a big deal but a hassle nonetheless.
Other integration
Finally add the Project Server / Team Foundation Server connector into the mix. This will ensure work item data in TFS is kept in sync with project plan data in Project Server. Note that it has nothing to do with creating a dashboard/workspace.

Related

developing web part for sharepoint online with visual studio without local sharepoint server

Iam trying to develop webpart for firm website on SharePoint with visual studio, the problem is that there is no solution for SharePoint online - Visual web part. When i try to create SharePoint 2013 - visual web part, I get an
error message.
The only thing there is for Sharepoint online is Apps for Sharepoint and that isn't a web part, or atleast I haven't found a way to use it as such.
When I talk to my supervisor about the error, he tells me that they can't create a virtual server for me to install the SharePoint server on and I have to code it through the Sharepoint online.
Is there any way for me to develop and deploy the webpart with an online Sharepoint server instead of local one or to atleast create it through the apps for Sharepoint?
You can use App Parts, those are Web Parts that display content from an installed App, you can add them at any page of your site as normal Web Parts, App Parts are deployed in the same package as your App, so you can have everything in the same solution.
There are plenty of resources that will help you to develop Apps and to include App Parts also, just look for the right concept in google and you will find it.
There are two kinds of SharePoint Apps (or Add-ins which is the new name), the first one is SharePoint Hosted App and the second one is SharePoint Provider Hosted App, the one you need will depend on the functionality you want to achieve, but as a general reference you can think on the data source that you want to consume in your solution, e.g. if the data to be used by the App is in the SP Site where you are going to install it, then all you need is a SharePoint Hosted App, however if the data is in an external location like databases stored in local servers, then you will need SharePoint Provider Hosted App. Of course this is just a very basic view of this topic, there are other reasons to use one or the other but its pointless to make a full list here. This is a wide topic and you can find tons of articles and guides about this.
If all you need is a simple webpart to display some content with a nice look or roll up some content and provide an output based on it, then you can use a SharePoint Hosted App, which is the easiest to develop and deploy, with this kind of app you can use JavaScript get the data from your site, and then you can display your output in an App Part.
I'm sorry to not provide specific pages to read, but that's just because it's better to look for the guides that be easier for you to understand and that may vary from person to person, all you need to know is the concepts and topics to search for.
If you want me to help you with this please send me a message (my profile).

Why would I want to install SharePoint with TFS

I'm looking at upgrading my current TFS instance and planning to copy and restore databases as per Microsofts Advanced Upgrade which means I am pretty much installing the new product from scratch and restoring the databases then running a migration tool.
I see in the installation notes that you can integrate SharePoint with it as an optional extra. Why would I do this? Is the idea to store project documentation in a SharePoint Document library per project and be able to link to that content rather than as an attachment to the Backlog Items and Bugs in TFS?
I'm having trouble finding any documentation of team workflows with SharePoint and TFS and I suspect that its because no one really does it.
More importantly would SharePoint integration impede future product upgrades or moving to Visual Studio Online?
In my eyes, SharePoint as a TFS portal has become much less desirable due to the improvements in Team Web Access (eg Charting) but it still has some uses.
With the integration enabled, you will see a Documents tab in Team Explorer which will take you to the dedicated SharePoint Portal (created when you create the TFS Team Project) where all your documentation can be stored. Of course without SharePoint integration you can still happily link Work Items to documents in SharePoint, you just don't have a dedicated portal created for you.
If you are using one of the MSF process templates then some useful documents are created for you on SharePoint when you create the Team Project (xlsx reports etc). However, if you are using the much better VS Scrum template then no documents are created even if you have SharePoint integration enabled.
If you are using the Enterprise edition of SharePoint then you get some good dashboards (bugs, code quality etc.) and you can also publish your custom excel reports easily. This functionality requires Excel Services and so is not available in the standard edition (there are some dashboards created but they aren't that useful).
Share information using the project portal
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms242883.aspx
Your team can use the SharePoint portal to share information in the following ways:
Share data contained in reports or dashboards
Share team progress using predefined or customized dashboards.
Share documents, files, images.
Share team knowledge and processes using the SharePoint wiki.
Reference process guidance for select team project artifacts.
If you want to add a portal to an existing project:
Configure or add a project portal
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms242865.aspx

TFS 2013 error TF218017 when attempting to create new team project with SharePoint 2013 Integration

Problem summary:
I have just built a new TFS 2013 environment for my organization. On my first attempt\test creating a new team project using Visual Studio 2013, I receive the following error at the final stage (Finish button):
"TF218017: A SharePoint site could not be created for use as the team project portal. The following error ocured: Server was unable to process request. ---> The user does not exist or is not unique.---> The user does not exist or is not unique."
I have found several other posts with folks encountering this same error but the proposed solution seems to always be to change the authentication mode in SharePoint to classic which is not available in SharePoint 2013.
The error message implies that this is permissions related. However, it is a little baffling due the fact that when I created a new TFS Project collection using the TFS Admin console it created a new site collection in SharePoint with no issues. I don't understand how my permissions would allow me to create a site collection but not place sites under the site collection.
Here are some details about my setup:
TFS 2013 running on Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise
SharePoint 2013 Foundation (separate server within same domain as TFS
server)
TFS Service account is a Site collection admin on the SharePoint site
collection
My AD account is a Site Collection admin on the SharePoint site
Collection
TFS Service account is a Farm Admin in SharePoint
My AD account is a Farm Admin in SharePoint
The TFS2013 Server is also a Farm Admin in SharePoint
No problems were encountered during installation of TFS 2013
TFS Server is used solely for TFS - nothing else is hosted here.
TFS Extensions For SharePoint have been installed on all servers in
the SharePoint 2013 Farm
TFS Server fully updated as of 1/17/2014
workstation fully updated as of 1/17/2014
Details on what I have attempted/researched so far:
Confirmed with my networking staff that there are no firewall\blocked ports
issues between TFS Server and SharePoint Servers
For the time period in which I was trying to create the new team
project there are no errors\warnings in the event viewer on my local
machine, SharePoint servers, or the TFS Server
When running Fiddler on the TFS server while trying to create the new
Team Project - I am seeing no traffic at all between the TFS server
and the SharePoint server.
my workstation has no open connections to any of the servers in question when trying to create the Team project
Cleared cache on my workstation at: C:\Users\username(Team Explorer user name)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Team Foundation\4.0\Cache and C:\Users\username(Team Explorer user name)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Team Foundation\5.0\Cache
Verified nothing in cache on TFS Server at: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Team Foundation\Web Access\Cache_v12.0
Performed IIS reset on TFS Server
Re-start on TFS Server
Team Foundation Server Best Practices Analyzer (it says "SharePoint products is not installed", I'm suspecting this is because SharePoint is installed on another server)
Installed Visual Studio 2013 Update 1.
I apologize if this is in bad form but I have also posted this on the msdn forum: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/0758f52d-bf03-44e4-96aa-b60468395914/tf218017-cannot-create-sharepoint-2013-site-from-tfs-2013?forum=tfsgeneral
I am reaching the bounds of my skill set on this one. Any help\ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Update:
Well, unfortunately I had to break down and call tech support from an un-named large tech company for assistance on this. Some changes were made to our SharePoint environment in the process which coincided with the SharePoint farm "going down". I am not sure if the problem on the farm was a coincidence or related to my changes but the end result is that my SharePoint people are now skeptical of my TFS integration etc... so I was forced to do a default install of SharePoint on the TFS box. I will leave this post up for others with similar issues to discuss unless that is in bad form. Thanks to all who tried to help with this.
Here are some additional items I would check:
Make sure you start VS 2013 elevated (Right-click when opening and choose 'Run As Administrator') when creating a team project.
If possible, see what happens if you try from a different computer or the server itself using Team Explorer.
Ensure that the user that you are attempting to create the team project with has enough permissions in SharePoint (you can make the account a site collection admin on the site collection in question).
The user should be a TFS Server Administrator or Team Project Collection Administrator.
Make sure that user account has Content Manager rights in the related Reporting Services folder as well, just in case.
Go to the your SharePoint site collection and attempt to create a site in it manually as the account that you are trying to create the Team Project with; when you perform this, make sure you create it with one of the team site templates that TFS installed (like the Agile or CMMI); If you encounter errors this way it may help you narrow down the problem.
Don't forget to review the event logs on the machines involved.
Okay, I finally go to take another crack at this against my SharePoint enterprise environment and got it to work: The key was to simply remove Anonymous Authentication from the SharePoint web application and it worked!
Access the SharePoint web site collection (for example server/site/DefaultCollection) and add your user or group on Site Collection Administrator.

TFS Error after migration - TF250016 on Reports Site in Sharepoint

Good day all,
We recently migrated from TFS2008 to TFS2010. We migrated our TFS_name databases and our WSS databases. We followed the migration steps and our upgrade was successful, except for a single piece regarding the project sites.
Whenever I go into a team project portal, I receive the following error when trying to access the "Reports" site.
TF250016: No access rights have been granted for the following site: http://<tfsserver>/Sites/<project portal site>. You must grant access rights between the SharePoint Web application and Team Foundation Server. You must also associate this site with reports and dashboards for a specific project in Team Foundation Server. For more information, see the Microsoft Web site (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=147580).
I have gone through the TFS upgrade steps and made sure we followed every step and we are running of ideas. Can anyone point me in the right direction? We didn't notice this error as we are not using reports at this time, but it's something we would like to implement in the future.
Thank you
Edit
(to read in the comments)
You did a move from one server to another and upgrade your TFS Server.
It's most likely you didn't follow the "how to move a TFS from one hardware configuration to another" procedure, then you'r SQL Report Server is down or incorrectly configured (the SQL Connection strings in the Data Sources configuration are incorrect).
Follow the procedure I gave you for the SQS Server Resport Service part and you should be fine.

Get TFS URL in Portal Site

I have created a Team Project in TFS 2010 and the Project Portal in SharePoint 2010.
Now I need to create a WebPart to deploy in the SharePoint Site (Project portal) that connects to the TFS to get some information.
Where I can get the TFS Url that is associated with the Project Portal in SharePoint?
Any clues?
Thanks in advance.
The url of TFS is not stored in the Project Portal. It is the other way round. In TFS the WSS url is stored.
TfsRedirect can be used to determine the TFS Web Access URL from within SharePoint. Although it's not exactly what you want, and it's a little hacky - you can pass the parameter tf:Test=1 to get the TFS team project that is associated with the site that your web part is being displayed on.
See John Socha-Leialoha's blog post on Using TfsRedirect to Display Reports in TFS 2010 Dashboards
What is TfsRedirect?
Here’s the scenario. You had TFS create a dashboard site in SharePoint
when you created your team project (or you added it later as described
here). There are several items on this dashboard that point to other
locations that are potentially on other servers:
Team Web Access
Process Guidance
Reports shown on the dashboard pages
TFS itself know where to find these assets. And the locations can
change if, for example, the TFS administrator moves the reports to a
different server.
Rather than hard-code the locations of these assets into the
dashboard, the TFS team created a web page called TfsRedirect.aspx
that knows where these different assets are located, and will redirect
to that page.
Shouldn't you be able to go in to TFS2010 -> Team Explorer -> Right-Click on your Team Project -> Portal Settings?

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