I'm trying to set up a basic setup for Visual Studio online. I'm interested in two features: Version control (which I have working) and simple ticketing with assignment (think Bugzilla). I'm a company of 1. I don't need to overcomplicate the process with an unnecessary approval processes, team boards, etc. at this stage. I just need a way of tracking features and bugs in a KISS manner. How would I set this up?
Visual Studio Online is now Visual Studio Team Services, and some links have changed too. Here's the latest docs:
Step 1: Sign up for Team Services
Step 2: Connect to Team Services to share code in Git or TFVC from Visual Studio, Eclipse, or Xcode
Step 3: Create your backlog
I would suggest all the close votes are because you haven't told us what you've tried so far or why the defaults don't work for you.
I'll make it really easy:
Step 1. Create an account at https://www.visualstudio.com/en-au/products/what-is-visual-studio-online-vs
Step 2. Read and follow the instructions at https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/get-started/setup/connect-to-visual-studio-online-vs
Step 3. Read https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/get-started/work/create-your-backlog-vs and manage your work (features and bugs) as instructed. Ignore the Portfolio backlog stuff since you don't need it.
Related
I want to implement Team Foundation Server (now known as Azure DevOps Server) for source control and issue tracking. I have only used the on-premises solution previously. For this particular use case, it would be beneficial to have it hosted in the cloud.
I have deployed a VSTS/Azure DevOps Services cloud solution (as opposed to an on-premises TFS/Azure DevOps Server solution), and it seems to have all of the functionality I am used to with the web portal, except there seems to be no direct integration/plugin for Visual Studio.
I can connect Team Explorer to it and query the work items for a basic listing (as shown in the screenshot below) - but if I double click a work item, or if I click New Work Item, it opens in the web browser, not within Visual Studio.
Is this expected behaviour for VSTS/DevOps Services? Do I need an on-premises installation just to get Visual Studio integration or am I missing something? I would like to use their cloud solution as it has a lot of benefits for this particular use-case.
Which opens this:
Instead of this (below screenshot taken from the web):
Any help is much appreciated! I am hoping to get something up and running ASAP, and would rather not have to install & configure a full on-premises solution in the cloud myself. Letting Microsoft handle it is perfect.
It seems odd that there's no Visual Studio support/integration. I have tried on 2 different machines. I have connected one machine which is running Visual Studio 2017 Professional and the other has VS 2019 Professional. Both open and create work items in the web browser instead of within VS. But VSTS/DevOps Services does seem to have all of the other features of TFS/DevOps Server, as far as I can see.
The web portal is great for other stakeholders, but as a developer I like working directly within Visual Studio. In an on-premises installation you get both. Is there any way to do this on a cloud installation?
We need set the Work Items experience in Visual Studio, then we can create new work item in the visual studio.
Steps:
Tools->work items->General->change the option Landing page.
Result:
I am customizing a bug template in Visual Studio Team Services (was TFS Online), and I would like to add a new field called Required Information. but I would like it to be a drop down of the users that I can assign a TFS task to.
So I want a copy of the assign to dropdown.
Can this be done?
It can be done easily in on-premise TFS by modifying the process template. In VS Team Services, although you can customize work items, you cannot modify the process template directly.
Using identity (e.g. a user list) or custom pick-lists are not yet supported. The work to support those features is on-going and is targeted for the first half of 2016, per this blog.
Is it possible to publish bug reports directly to Visual Studio Online without having a Visual Studio Online account?
My idea would be that, when a crash of the application happens, the "fail" screen shows an option to send the bug report. I would like this bug report to be automatically added to Visual Studio Online.
I can't seem to find a good up-to-date information about APIs for Visual Studio Online.
I'm also a bit lost about what a "user" of Visual Studio Online is. Is there a way to create "a work-item only user"? In the "standard" TFS those users usually don't need a CAL to access TFS.
If not, it means that all my app testers will use a license for Visual Studio Online, meaning that after the 5 free users, I'll have to pay ~40 USD for someone who will just input bugs/work items?
Each user who needs to login to a Visual Studio Online account will need to have a user plan associated to them (including the free Basic plan allotments) or an MSDN subscription to access the account. We don't have the ability to have anonymous users login to a Visual Studio Online account (or for Team Foundation Server either).
You are right that there is a difference today between Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Online which allows a "work item only view" on-premises that isn't matched in Visual Studio Online. That access level is called Limited for TFS on-premises instead of Standard. The Standard access level does require a TFS CAL. It's something we are currently exploring now.
Update
Visual Studio Online (and Team Foundation Server Update 4) now allows an unlimited number of stakeholders to have full access to work item tracking for free. This stakeholder license replaces and expands the original Work Item Only View capabilities.
For your testers, the best option for them would actually be Visual Studio Test Professional with MSDN or the new MSDN Platforms offering. This provides them the ability to access Microsoft Test Manager (in the first case) and the web test case management capabilities (in both cases) and allows you to file rich actionable bugs reports.
Update
Visual Studio Online has also been updated to provide the ability to execute test cases as part of the Basic license now. This will be most useful for user acceptance testers who aren't participating in test planning & test authoring but have been assigned a set of test cases to execute.
For your question about up-to-date API information for Visual Studio Online - it is the same documentation as the the TFS SDK at the moment. You can use the TFS SDK to build extensions for both Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Online.
Is there any way to move custom queries I've setup in my company's locally hosted TFS server to my instance of TFS on visualstudio.com? I've Googled/Binged/Yahoo'd and even DuckDuckGo'ed around and asked other devs using the service but none of them had any saved queries they wanted to move, so no one had done any researching yet. After a few fruitless searches I've turned to the experts here on SO. Anyone find anything about this they can share?
The usual suspects when it comes to TFS Migration (namely the TFS Integration Platform) does not support moving project or personal queries. Depending on the quantity of queries, a manual recreation is obviously possible. However, if there are a significant number, then another option is to use the TFS SDK (Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client and Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client). Within there, you can access the "My Queries" and project queries, including their folder hierarchy.
One example of this is available on Mike Poulson's blog where he shows going from a TFS 2010 -> TFS 2012 server. While this example is targeting on-prem, the same holds true for a move from TFS on-prem to Visual Studio Online.
Some of the queries may need "translation" in the migration process (naming differences, etc), using the SDK can also help in that process. So at the end of the day, it's a tradeoff between a manual recreation vs effort to code/debug/test a solution with the SDK.
I have been thoroughly confused by CodePlex and the TFS services it offers or doesn't offer. I am going to soon begin working on on open source project with a few friends using Visual Studio 2010 Professional. Because VS is so nicely tied in with TFS, we would prefer to use TFS.
However, we do not have the money to purchase TFS ourselves, so we were looking at CodePlex as an alternative. Does CodePlex offer free TFS hosting? I believed it did, until I came across this which led me to believe it only offers part of the TFS feature set.
(This is my first experience with version/source control, so please be light on the terminology.)
CodePlex offers free TFS hosting with a feature set aimed at hosting open-source projects. Its version control offerings are complete, but Team Foundation Server is a platform with many feature areas, so let's look at those:
Version Control: CodePlex supports the entire feature set of TFS Version Control. In fact, CodePlex pioneered some version control tools for TFS like their SVNBridge.
Work Item Tracking: Team Foundation Server allows for a customizable work item tracking template and ships several out-of-the box to suit development processes ranging from CMMI to Agile. CodePlex, however, provides a single work item tracking template that is suitable for open source projects and does not allow customization.
Continuous Integration: CodePlex does not support automated builds at this time. You can set up your own continuous integration builds against a CodePlex endpoint for source code, though.
Document Repository: There is no SharePoint document repository available in CodePlex.
Reports: SQL Reporting Services are not available in CodePlex.
I would argue that for a small open-source project, none of these are deal-breakers. For a very large project, however, some or all of these features may be desirable, though.
If you want to use TFS and you are looking for a cost-effective solution for a small project, you may also want to look into Team Foundation Service, which is currently free while it is in its preview state. (Future pricing has not yet been announced.)