I’m pleased to announce the availability of the MSBuild Extension Pack April 2013 release.

The April 2013 release contains

• version 3.5.13.0 for those using .Net 3.5
• version 4.0.7.0 for those using .Net 4.0 or 4.5

Updated online help is now live @ http://www.msbuildextensionpack.com and the Nuget package has been updated to 1.2.0

This release consolidates 100+ change sets and contains the following high level changes

• Around 5 new Tasks / TaskActions
• Around 22 improvements covering Documentation, new attributes and behaviour
• Around 10 bug fixes
• No backwards compatibility breaks

For full details of all changes please see the changesets listed on CodePlex and the Issues resolved with this release.

Once an ALM Rangers project gets signoff it needs to pass a final hurdle before getting the green-light to proceed. This involves presenting the project’s Vision, Epics, Delivery Artefacts, Milestones etc… and then hoping that fellow ALM Rangers will offer to join the project.

We had a phenomenal response and by late September a team of 14 or so members were up and running. This number of people was contrary to our plan to reduce teams to max 5 members, but we had a good mix of reviewers / contributors and a backlog where we could tackle two epics at once — again breaking some of our rules (sorry Willy/Brian!) — so I felt that the team could operate effectively and deliver on time.

Using Lync we had a weekly stand-up where we could all say good morning/afternoon/evening from our little spaces over the planet we call home or work (or perhaps on a mobile on the side of a freeway). Overall this was pretty successful and attendance was great. This, coupled with emails and Skype ensured we maintained a suitable momentum. I’ll be honest, we had a few hiccups where our burn down was not exactly going down, but we managed to re-evaluate and re-group as necessary to ensure that our final delivery met the expectations of our product owner and indeed our own vision; and on schedule. If you’re wondering, all our code and docs live in the cloud on the Team Foundation Service.

We worked through monthly sprints and delivered two internal BETAs, and then our RTM guide. Like many projects, we managed to get a large portion of our content nailed down fairly quickly, then getting that polished and the final content added took a whole bunch of effort. Here are a few fun facts from the project…

We hit various challenges in the project from bugs in our new documentation templates, bugs in Fakes, changes to Visual Studio (Update 1 and 2), day job and family pressures; but we’re all proud to have delivered the ALM Rangers first eBook and on a subject that just got a whole broader audience now that Microsoft Fakes will be included in Visual Studio Premium with Update 2.

Thanks to all those involved in making this a reality - Brian Blackman, Carsten Duellmann, Dan Marzolini, Darren Rich, David V. Corbin, Hamid Shahid, Hosam Kamel, Jakob Ehn, Joshua Weber, Mehmet Aras, Patricia Wagner, Peter Provost, Richard Albrecht, Richard Fennell, Rob Jarratt, Shawn Cicoria, Waldyr Felix, Willy-Peter Schaub

I encourage you to download the guide and see what Microsoft Fakes is all about.

Here’s a brief outline of what you will find in V1.

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1: A Brief Theory of Unit Testing

• Software testing
• The fine line between good and flawed unit testing

Chapter 2: Introducing Microsoft Fakes

• Stubs
• Shims
• Choosing between a stub and a shim

Chapter 3: Migrating to Microsoft Fakes

• Migrating from Moles to Microsoft Fakes
• Migrating from commercial and open source frameworks

Chapter 4: Miscellaneous Topics

• Targeting Microsoft .NET Framework 4
• Adopting Microsoft Fakes in a team
• You can’t Fake everything!
• Verbose logging
• Working with strong named assemblies
• Optimizing the generation of Fakes
• Looking under the covers
• Refactoring code under test
• Removing Fakes from a project
• Using Fakes with Team Foundation Version Control
• Using Microsoft Fakes with ASP.NET MVC

Chapter 5: Advanced Techniques

• Dealing with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service boundaries
• Dealing with non-deterministic calculations
• Gathering use-case and other analytical information
• Analyzing internal state
• Avoiding duplication of testing structures

Chapter 6: Hands-on Lab

• Exercise 1: Using Stubs to isolate database access (20 – 30 min)
• Exercise 2: Using Shims to isolate from file system and date (20 – 30 min)
• Exercise 3: Using Microsoft Fakes with SharePoint (20 – 30 min)
• Exercise 4: Bringing a complex codebase under test (20 – 30 min)

In Conclusion

Appendix

Mike

The contributors to this project have continued to pour their spare time into fixing bugs and adding new functionality. Today we are wrapping up all the recent changes and making the January 2013 release available.

The January 2013 release contains

• VS2010 Activities(target .NET 4.0)
• VS2012 Activities (target .NET 4.5)
• Community TFS Build Manager VS2012

The Community TFS Build Manager can also be found in the Visual Studio Gallery where updates will first become available. A version supporting VS2010 is also available in the Gallery. Please note that we only intend to fix major bugs in the 2010 version and will concentrate our efforts on the 2012 version of the TFS Build Manager.

At a high level, the following Issues and Features have been addressed

Activities

11237    Add support for /project switch on VsDevEnv activity    Feature
11256    VsDenEnv : error if no DropLocation is specified    Issue
11136    NUnit Result Publishing    Issue
11423    NAnt activities    Task
11250    The CodeMetrics activity throws an exception if DropLocation isn’t set    Issue
11307    vb6 project compilation – add time out    Feature
11360    Statlight publish to TFS    Issue
10635    Allow additional parameters for StatLight activity    Issue
11212    StyleCop build activity doesn’t write true to Succeeded on success    Issue
11373    Issue with the TransformConfig-Activity    Issue
11544    Statlight does not work with VS2012    Issue

TFS Build Manager

11515    TFSBM – Don’t show deleted branches for Cloning    Issue
11113    Exception if no projects in collection    Issue
11226    Clone to branch with spaces in name throws BuildServerException    Issue
11309    TFSBM — Retain All Builds    Feature
11407    TFSBM – update icons and add to Team Explorer    Feature
11495    TFSBM – TE Navigation Link opens TFSBM in wrong VS instance    Issue
11114    Manage Build Resources Context Menu uses wrong icons    Issue
11241    No vertical scrollbar    Issue

Note: If you are using the Azure Activities in VS2010 you should continue to use the April release. We will release a new build of this activity once we resolve the current VS2012 dependency which has been introduced.

Thanks to the team for their continued efforts!

Mike

I’m pleased to announce the availability of the MSBuild Extension Pack October 2012 release.

The October 2012 release contains

• version 3.5.12.0 for those using .Net 3.5
• version 4.0.6.0 for those using .Net 4.0

  This release consolidates 40+ change sets and contains the following high level changes

• Around 40 new Tasks / TaskActions
• Around 11 improvements covering Documentation, new attributes and behaviour
• Around 7 bug fixes
• Zero backwards compatibility breaks

For full details of all changes please see the Change Sets listed on CodePlex.

On the 18th October 2012 we passed 100 000 downloads of the MSBuild Extension Pack. On the 18th October 2010 I blogged about us passing 50 000. Strange!

In the next few day’s 3.5.12.0 and 4.0.6.0 will ship and I’ll post details of what’s new in those releases.

Thanks for all the contributions and downloads since the first version shipped in October 2008!

Mike

Upgrading?

• If you haven’t run into this problem in TFS Build 2012 yet, you probably will — TFS 2012 – Cleaning up Workflow XAML files (AKA removing versioned namespaces)
• New MSDN guidance — Use Legacy Build Processes

Team Foundation Build Customization Guide v2 — ALM Rangers Build Customization Guide v2 has shipped

We just pushed out the August 2012 release of the TFS Build extensions. This wraps up over 90 change sets which address new features and bug fixes.

The August 2012 release contains

• VS2010 Activities(target .NET 4.0)
• VS2012 Activities (target .NET 4.5)
• Community TFS Build Manager VS2010
• Community TFS Build Manager VS2012

Both the Community TFS Build Managers can also be found in the Visual Studio Gallery here where updates will first become available. Please note that we only intend to fix major bugs in the 2010 version and will concentrate our efforts on the 2012 version of the TFS Build Manager.

At a high level, the following Issues and Features have been addressed

Activities

• 11088    VSDevEnv activity passes incorrect configuration to VS 2003    Issue
• 10560    Sync Build Number & File Version    Feature
• 10860    NUnit activity does not use TestTimeout argument.    Issue
• 10785    App Pool Name Cannot Be Specified with a Variable?    Feature
• 10996    VB6 activity fails if the build is set to not copy to drop    Issue
• 7695      Web Deployment Configuration Transform Activity    Feature
• 10623    Implement Sms Activity    Feature
• 10569    Custom Activity SQLExecute has code error in parsing parameters    Issue
• 10584    SqlExecute activity – public properties should be InArguments    Issue
• 10619    Add a Read action to AssemblyInfo activity to be able to read the current values.    Feature
• 10843    Internal number for dev11 is incorrect    Issue
• 10618    AssemblyInfo activity doesn’t support attribute name suffixes with Attribute    Issue

TFS Build Manager

• 10448    Functionality for managing build controllers and agents    Feature
• 11008    Bug: Enable Builds    Issue
• 10691    TFSBM – Set Triggers    Feature
• 10148    Feature: Build Notes    Task
• 10690    TFSBM – Edit Build Definition    Feature

Note: If you are using the Azure Activities in VS2010 you should continue to use the April release. We will release a new build of this activity once we resolve the current VS2012 dependency which has been introduced.

Thanks again to the team of contributors for making this release happen.

Mike

The trip over the Atlantic, Canada and into Seattle was fairly uneventful, though it took two landing attempts to touch down in Calgary, and I managed to make my connection with around 5 minutes to spare. Changing from a Boeing 777-300 to a Bombardier CRJ100 was a little unnerving.

This was my first trip to the West Coast in the summer time and the campus certainly looked a lot different to the snow that met me in February!

Some views from B41 above and some scenery along the short walk to the office.

I spent three and half days on campus meeting with various members in the developer division and working on some new ALM Ranger tooling and Ruck guidance and one and a half days at Tech Ready. My home on campus during this time was Bijan Javidi’s (Principal Architect, Visual Studio ALM Ranger Lead) office in Building 41, as he was at Tech Ready all week.

I don’t know what these plants are but they are odd as some parts grow from water and some from soil.

It was a great working environment and so much more productive than an open-plan office, though I was disturbed briefly one morning by @MrHinsh… who ate most of Bijan’s chocolates.

After an early start at campus on Monday morning I headed downtown to the Washington State Convention Center to meet Willy-Peter Schaub and other ALM Rangers for a combined session where we got to present a general showcase of all the Dev11 wave of projects we’ve spent the last year working on and which are now mostly shipping.

It was a fun session and great to finally meet many characters whom many of us had only spoken to via email or Lync meetings at odd hours of the day and night!

An interesting bit of feedback we got on the Rangers guidance is that with some guides running into the hundreds of pages, it is too much to consume. Additional feedback was that some of the guidance posters were too simplified. I think these messages were coming from different audience member types. The sheer size of some guidance projects is a well known issue to us and rest assured that we understand this and are taking steps to address the issues we have heard.

After a healthy bit of conversation there was one more important thing to do, and that was to get a beer and a bite to eat. Thankfully Christian Nielsen (lead for the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Upgrade Guide) knew of a good place nearby, I forget the name, and recommended a lovely Copperhead Pale Ale. After dinner myself and Willy caught a bus back across to Redmond. Public transport in Seattle seems to work pretty well.

Tuesday I was back on campus and met with a few testers in the TFS and Windows teams to discuss improving the ALM Rangers tooling processes as well as spending time wrapping up the final prep for my two sessions at Tech Ready on Wednesday. After another long day it was great to relax over a meal with Willy who had spent another day in sessions at Tech Ready.

Wednesday was another early start and what better to get you going than a healthy breakfast…

Hey it had blueberries in so how bad can it be!

In the first session of the day I presented the Visual Studio Coded UI Microsoft Word Add-in solution with Tapas Sahoo. We got some great feedback and ideas for future development.

After that I sat in on the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Branching and Merging Guide session. After lunch (just a coffee as the pancake breakfast was still fuelling me) I presented the Team Foundation Build Customization Guide session with William Bartholomew (Bijan came along to support us).

In the final session of the day I attended a combined talk on the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Upgrade Guide and  Visual Studio Team Foundation Server Planning Guide presented by Willy and Christian.

This session also had three programme managers (Ed Holloway, Greg Boer, Mario Rodriguez)  in for a mini-panel session, which was weighted towards the Team Foundation Service. As all of Tech Ready is NDA, I can’t go into any of the fun stuff raised in the Q&A sessions, but there are certainly exciting times ahead.

Overall it was an exciting and successful day, ended by a lovely dinner hosted at Martin Hinshelwood’s house.

Thursday I was back on campus working on the tooling and Ruck guidance and also met with Larry Guger to chat about Providing full ALM end to end labs and guidance that include bug resolution using IntelliTrace (vote it up if you want to influence the 2012 Ranger projects) and Bill Essary about some TFS futures and guidance for improving the ALM Rangers deliveries. I managed to pop out to lunch with Sayed Hashimi, and again chose the healthy option.

Hey it had gherkins!

Thursday evening myself, Martin and Willy decided to make the most of the Seattle sunshine and put on our own BBQ, which turned out to be somewhat of a MacGyver episode, but we managed to have a great evening talking a little shop and general world conquering ideas.

The steak in the middle was actually dessert. . Christian, next time you see Willy you’ll have to ask him why there is a cork inside the bottle and a corkscrew sitting next to it.

Time flies and on Friday, my last day on campus, I met with Ben Amodio to further discuss improvements to the Rangers deliveries and challenges Microsoft face in continuously delivering updates to the Team Foundation Service. I also met with Rob Mensching to talk about the installer space. This 30 minute session turned into 90 and it was great to see what is coming and discuss the current pains in the installer space and where the ALM Rangers may be able to help.

I was going to head downtown for some sightseeing and dinner with Sayed and some of his colleagues but the weather wasn’t great, I needed to finish a bunch of stuff and to be honest, I was shattered! so I skipped that and pressed on on campus.

Saturday I took a morning walk and then early afternoon headed to the airport to catch this flying lawnmower to Vancouver, a 32 minute flight, to catch my connection home.

It was a lovely flight up the west coast at low altitude. It seems that if you want to make the most out of the area you probably need a boat and a decent fishing rod.

Given that I made my last connection with minutes to spare I was a bit worried as this time my connection time was even shorter, however thanks to a stroke of splendid luck, my flight home was delayed by four hours. The plane came in late from Hong Kong.

Vancouver has a lovely airport with free Wi-Fi, so the delay wasn’t too much of a problem and gave me time to continue with a bit of Rangers work. A 3am finish the night before ensured I slept pretty well on the plane and I was soon back in the UK experiencing a true welcome home…

It was great week away and a special thanks to Willy, Bijan, Amy and Jeff Beehler for making it happen!

Mike

If you have read v1 and are eager to only see the new bits, below is a snippet from the guide outlining the new parts.

What’s New in the 2^nd Edition

This is the 2^nd major release of the ALM Rangers Build Customization Guide. In this release we have addressed many reader feedback issues, included guidance for integration with other technologies and updated the guidance posters and Hands-on Labs throughout so that they are compatible with the latest version of Team Foundation Server, Team Foundation Server 2012.

To assist those who have read the first publication of this guidance, the major new sections included in this second edition are

• What’s new in Team Foundation Build 2012 – page 23
• Running Unit Tests within the Build Process – page 32
• Working Effectively with Build Triggers – page 53
• The Team Foundation Build API – page 93
• Using Team Foundation Build in Heterogeneous Environments – page 114
• Integrating with NuGet – page 199
• Integrating with Windows Azure – page 204
• Deploying SharePoint Packages – page 223
• Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM with Team Foundation Build – page 231
• Using ClickOnce with Team Foundation Build – page 232

In addition to these new sections we have provided two new Hands-on Labs

• HOL – What’s new in Team Foundation Build 2012
• HOL – Team Foundation Build integration with Windows Azure

We appreciate that there is a lot to read and while you may be tempted to jump to the sections highlighted, we see value in spending time reading the guidance in full. You may encounter information you missed before or identify guidance which you feel needs clarification. We would love to hear from you!

This adventure started a year ago and it’s a big relief to see this project and many of the other ALM Ranger projects shipping on the eve of the Visual Studio 2012 launch.

I’d like to thank all those involved with this release, whose commitment and drive ensured we could maintain momentum for a very lengthy time and deliver on schedule. Below are the people who made this release happen

André Dias, Bijan Javidi, Brandon Hawbaker, Carsten Duellmann, Jakob Ehn, Fabio Stawinski, Jahangeer Mohammed, Jens Suessmeyer, Jim Lamb, John Jacob, John Spinella, Mark Nichols, Matthew Wilson, Mike Douglas, Mike Fourie, Petr Moravek, Richard Fennell, Tiago Pascoal, Tony Feissle, William Bartholomew, Willy-Peter Schaub

Thanks so much guys and I look forward to our FY13 adventures.

Mike

Unfortunately, that trip and the opportunity to present at an internal Microsoft conference was cruelly cut short by illness and I found myself back home much sooner than anticipated. On the plus side I was humbled by the response from those at Microsoft hosting me, and that coupled by the opportunity to meet and liaise with the team responsible for the biggest change in the Visual Studio IDE ever, makes me still look back on the experience as worthwhile and rewarding.

I got value from the trip, I provided valuable feedback to the UE team, but my other objectives were cut short, so the contribution I could make to improving the ALM Rangers community was limited.

I’ll be honest and sum up that sabbatical as Mike : 1/2, Microsoft  : 1/2, ALM Rangers : 0

Amazingly I find myself around 48 hours away from being back in the air on my way back to Building 41, the team who looked after me so graciously and the opportunity to present again, not once, but twice at an in internal Microsoft conference. With a great set of objectives in place and lot of preparation I’m hoping that I can report back from a successful sabbatical in a week or so time, having left Seattle happy with a much better scorecard for the Microsoft Visual Studio teams I’ll engage and the ALM Rangers community who I will be championing for.

Mike