Adventures in Team System.

Auto Deploying your Database during automated builds

One of the cool features of the Database edition is the ability to automatically deploy database updates during the build process to faciliate automatic testing.

To enable this do the following.

1. Create a solution configuration type called TeamBuild.  Different paths such as database connection strings are used when you develop locally and when the build server builds remotely.  The TeamBuild config will be the solution configuration the build server will use.  We will set this in the build script.  To create the TeamBuild configuration right click the solution node and select Configuration Manager.  In Configuration manager, drop down "Active solution configuration" and select <New...>.  Now create a new configuration like the picture below.

2. Now we need to set the connection strings to deploy our database right before automated testing begins.  Select your test project node and a new option will appear in the test menu called Database Test Configuration.  I'm assuming you already have database project, a data generation plan, and at least on database unit test in your test project.  Click Test->Database Test Configuration 

3. Set the connection strings that will work when you deploy the database from the build server during an automated build.

4. Create a folder under your Test Project called "Config" and copy the app.config you just edited in the previous step to the "Config" folder and rename it to app.teambuild.config.  In your build script create a target override "AfterGet" that uses copy tasks to overwrite the app.config with the app.teambuild.config from the Config folder.  Affectively your are replacing the app.config, which works on your local machine, with a configuration that contains connection strings that will work on the build server.

5. Now all you need to do is edit your build defintion to use the TeamBuild configuration that we created in the first step.

Dallas VSTS October Edition

The October meeting of the Dallas VSTS UG will cover Visual Studio 2008 Database Edition. see below for details:

Database development with DBPro as part of your application's lifecycle – D. Omar Villarreal
 
Note: Visual Studio 2008 Team Edition for Dtabase Developers, aka DBPro, is now part of the Developer edition (see the "Better together" section here for details)  so if you own the Developer Edition and you are not using DBPro, this is your opportunity to jump-start your database development using DBPro.
 
We will discuss how you can take advantage of the database development tools included in Visual Studio Team System to better manage your database changes. Topics include:
 
Declarative database development
Efficient version control of your database
Refactoring
Unit Testing Stored Procedures
Deploying your database
Features from the upcoming DBPro GDR (General Distribution Release)
And more...

Which build was that bug in???

One problem software teams have is determining which build a tester found a bug in.  Often bugs are communicated through screenshots.  Wouldn't it be nice if we could easily determine the build under test by simply looking at the screenshot?

With Team Build, making this a reality with web applications is easy by embedding the build number in the URL of the website.

At a high level need to:

1. Download the SDCTasks installer from codeplex that includes addition Team Build tasks that we will use to automatically create virtual directories during the deploy step of the build process.

2. Configure our build script to use the SDCTasks CreateVirtualDirectory task to create a virtual directory that has the buildnumber as it's name.

3. Give the testers of the website the URL to begin testing.  Each time they find a bug they can take a screenshot to attach to a bug workitem.  This screenshot will have the address bar displaying the virtual directory that happens to be the same as the build number.

Here is how to do it:

1. Download SDCTasks here http://www.codeplex.com/sdctasks

2. unzip the files to your MSBuild folder C:\Program Files\MSBuild\SDCTasks

3. Create a build script to build your website and add an import statement for the SDCTasks you downloaded

4. Add a target override at the end of your build script.  Notice the virtual directory name and path to the website files use an environment variable so that each build creates a unique path that corresponds to the build.  We'll need to create a new WebSite in IIS called TestSite and set the ASP.net version appropriately.

5.  Now we run the build.  Since the Build Number is also a label the build can be downloaded and reproduced at a later time.  You can also easily support concurrent test releases of the website.  Notice the build number in the build report.

6. Looking over to IIS we can see our TestSite has a new virtual directory.  We can browse to the site.  When we enter 2+3 and get a result of 4, we have an error in our application.  Now a test can take a screenshot of the error and the exact build number in is the URL so the developers fixing the bug has more information to perform the fix.

Dallas VSTS September Edition

I will be speaking about Requirements management with TFS at the DallasVSTS UG (dallasvsts.com) for the September meeting.  see below for details:

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 @ 6 PM
 
Requirements Management – Chris Tullier
 
We will discuss how TFS and partner tools that integrate with TFS can help your software development team discover software requirements and ensure that these requirements are properly built into the end product.  Our discussion will include both Agile and non-Agile techniques.
 
We will provide answers to the following questions among others:
 
·         What level of granularity should our requirements have?
·         How do I document or represent a requirement?
·         How does TFS support defining and managing requirements?
·         How can I use visual models like use cases or storyboards with TFS?
·         How can I use tests to ensure requirements are complete?

Testing requirements by identifying and executing related test cases

When testers begin to validate requirements they often review and execute test cases created by other people on the team.  It is important for testers to be able to search for all the test cases that test the requirement they are trying to validate.  To accomplish this, all we need to do it place the work item ID for a requirement in the properties of the test case.

In Visual Studio Team System, all tests have the ability to have 1 or more work items associated with a test case.

Here's how you associate a requirement with a test case.

First open a solution that has a test project in it.  Then goto Test->Windows->Test View

Next right click the test case in test window and click properties.

Now in the properties find the Associated Work Item properties and enter the Work Item ID of the requirement that is tested by this test case.  If you don't know the ID you can do a query for the work item by clicking the elipsis button.  Notice in the picture below that all this process is doing is creating attribute on the unit test that indicates the work item ID.  This works with any test type including manual, generic, unit, load and web tests.

Now when a tester is ready to validate a requirement they can search the test cases by the work item ID.  To search goto the test window and type the Work Item ID into the search text box.  This will limit the test window to only display the test cases that are related to the requirement the tester is validating.

Dallas VSTS August Edition

The Dallas VSTS UG is meeting again at the Improving office on August 5th at 6pm.  See dallasvsts.com for details.  Here is the abstract:

Managing Software Quality – Trent Nix
 
Code coverage statistics, code churn data, cyclomatic complexity, maintainability indices, and build reports are but a few of the many tools used to analyze the quality of a software project.  But what do they all mean and how can they be used effectively?  Whether you are a one-person shop or a part of a massive application development team, code quality matters and can be improved.  This presentation will focus on how to assess and improve software quality using both software development best practices and the features available in Visual Studio Team System.

First Post and Dallas VSTS User Group July Edition

This is the start of a new blog focused on Visual Studio Team System Test Edition.  I'm planning to post at least once a month on a topic that isn't being talked about on other blogs. 

Announcement:  With that said the Dallas VSTS User Group is having our next meeting at a new location so visit dallasvsts.com for details.  The session will cover MS build.  Here is the abstract:

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 @ 6 PM
Team Build 2008 – Ed Blankenship

Agenda:

• New Features for Team Build 2008
• Fun Stuff around Builds at Infragistics
• Build Notification Power Tool
• Building Java applications using Team Build & TeamPrise - (This blows people's minds away)
• Building Installers using Wix
• New Changes in TFS 2008 Service Pack 1 for Team Build
• If time, Extensibility with the Team Build API