Connect to Cloud Team Foundation Server using Visual Studio 2010 IDE

Introduction:

In this article we are going to see how to use the Cloud Team Foundation Server by connecting using a desktop client. Team Foundation Server can be connected to using a number of clients as we saw in our earlier article. In this article specifically we are going to connect to the Cloud Team Foundation Server using Visual Studio 2010 IDE.

Overview:

Team Foundation Server on the Cloud (Azure) released at Build Conference, which is in the preview stage for developers to work on the product. In our earlier article we have seen how to register and start with the Team Foundation Server Preview on the cloud. Refer to the previous article to get some light on the registration and getting connected using the web interface for the Team Foundation Server. Here in this article we will see how to make use of Visual Studio 2010 as a client to connect to the Cloud Team Foundation Server and do some basic steps.

Steps:

Once we registered with the Cloud TFS, we can see nice interface withthe list of options as shown in the screen below. Since we already donewith the Step 1 and Step 2, now we will move forward and do the step 3 (Downloading the required client software) as shown in the screen below.

Clicking on download software will open a new browser pointing to a blog listing down the list of software's that can be used as a client toconnect to Team Foundation Server as shown in the screen below. Since we are going to connect using the Visual Studio 2010 IDE, we need to first check if SP1 is available and installed correctly. Once we identified that SP1 is installed correctly we need to download a Hotfix KB2581206 using the download link from the blog

Clicking on download the Hotfix we will get a popup to install the Hotfix as shown in the screen below. Just make a confirmation of the Hotfix number and click on Save File to save it locally.

Now run the Hotfix which is saved locally and we can see the installation wizard as shown in the screen below. Click Next to proceed further with the installation.

Clicking on Next button, we can see the file are verified and the installation is started with installing the SP1 Hotfix as shown in the screen below.

Once the installation is completed we can see the success message as shown in the screen below. Click on Finish to close the wizard and proceed further.

Now open Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate version and we can see the nice looking splash screen opening as shown in the screen below.

Now click on File –> Open –> Team Project from the Visual Studio 2010 IDE to connect to the cloud TFS as shown in the screen below.

Clicking on the Open Team Project will open a window as shown in the screen below. This windows is used to select the server and do the necessary steps to connect to the Cloud TFS Server. Now click on Serversbutton from the Connect to Team Project window as highlighted in the screen below.

Now we can see a pop up window requesting for the Name or URL of the Team Foundation Server and the Connection details as shown in the screen below.

Now go back to the web interface of the team foundation server and copy the TFS url as highlighted in the screen below.

Paste the copied Cloud TFS URL (https://f5debug.tfspreview.com) and paste it to the Name or URL of Team foundation server input box and click on OK button as shown in the screen below.

Now we can see an authentication screen to sign in to the Team Foundation Server Cloud as shown in the screen below. Provide the valid credentials (Provided at time of TFS registration) .

Now enter the Username and Password(Live ID) and click on Sign in as shown in the screen below.

Now we can see that the Cloud Team Foundation Server is added to the list as highlighted in the screen below.

Now we can see that the team projects are getting added to the list and we can see the progress bar running as shown in the screen below(To go to this screen click on Close button).

Once the loading is completed we can see our Project F5Debug listted in the Team Projects section as highlighted in the screen below.

Now select our project (Click on the Checkbox) and click on Connect button as highlighted in the screen below. If at all we need to provide different credentials use the Use Different Credentials link at the bottom of the screen to provide the credentials.

Clicking on Connect will go back to the main interface of the Visual Studio IDE and we can see the team Explorer showing the status "Connecting to F5debug.tfspreview.com\DefaultCollection…" as shown in the screen below.

Once the Cloud TFS is connected successfully we can see the Work Items, Builds, Source Control folders are getting synched from the Cloudserver as shown in the screen below.

Once the Download is completed we can see the list of the items as shown in the screen below.

Now click on the each item and we can see the list downloaded from the cloud TFS available over here. Just Select the respective section and do the changes appropriately to build the new versions and to uploadback to the Cloud Team Foundation Server.

Conclusion:

So in this article we have seen the different options available to use as a client to connect to the Cloud Team Foundation Server and we have seen the first option of Connecting it using the Visual Studio 2010Ultimate version. In our next article we will see how to connect using the Visual Studio 11 Developer preview version and the Visual Studio 11 Test manager preview.