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Front Page News
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Tech Days 2010 starts next month Vancouver then makes it’s way around Canada. I’m a Session lead for a session on Build Automation . Here are dates and locations for a Tech Day near you. Vancouver Sep 14-15 Edmonton Oct 05-06 Toronto Oct 27-28 Halifax Nov 02-03 Ottawa Nov 09-10 Montreal Nov 23-24 Winnipeg Dec 07-08 Calgary Dec 14-15...
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In the past if you wanted to delete a TFS project it had to be done at the command line. Now you can do it right from the Admin console on the Server. “I am loving the TFS Admin console.“ For those of us who create projects just to play with features and then don’t want them hanging around anymore this is much easier....
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Did you know the TFS 2008 build agent can use MSBuild 4.0 to build VS 2010 solutions On the Team Foundation Build 2008 machine: Install .NET 4.0 Install Visual Studio 2010 (if you are running tests) Edit the TFSBuildService.exe.config file and set the MSBuildPath value to v4...
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As you have read on this blog and others, the TFS 2010 build process’ now utilizes Windows WorkFlow to define it’s process. This means you can define Arguments to allow an option to be set in the Build definition instead of being hard coded in the process. For example when you create a build definition the process tab allows you to set various options like Where to find unit tests , what is the build number format , should the build run Code Analysis ? These are all defined as arguments in the build process so they can be changed when creating the build definition or even when you queue the build. You can of course add your own arguments to a build process. Just to set the stage, lets say for example I wanted the build process to create a work item when the build completed. In the build toolbox there is an OpenWorkItem activity that I can use for this. We’ll have the build create a Task that...
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Microsoft has released a plug-in for Mozilla FireFox that allows you to record a action recording, a coded UI or web test in Internet Explorer 7 or 8 and play the same test back against FireFox. The current plug-in supports FireFox 3.5 and 3.6. The plug-in can be downloaded and installed on top of an existing 2010 install. Download here: Test Package for Mozilla FireFox Power Tool Note: after you download read the ReadMe file there is some configuration setup required before you can use this tool. Testa...
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Tonight at the Microsoft World Partner Conference MS Canada had a party for all the Canadians. It was wonderful. Food and drinks at the Hard Rock Cafe in Washington . They brought in Great Big Sea to play for us, and they were wonderful. Thanks MS Canada you know how to treat your partners....
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I arrived in Washington D.C. yesterday morning for the MS World Partner Conference. I have been to many PDC’s and TechEd type conferences but this is my first Partner Conference. Registration was very well done. Attendees just scan the bar code on a piece of paper they printed at home when they registered. Take that to a desk show ID and they hand you a card. it’s was literally 2 minutes. Very impressive. Went to a New Horizons/MS party last night that was fun. I met a bunch of people including a nice couple from Redmond. He works for MS and knows a few people I know from MS Canada. The last time I was in Washington it was a lot different then it is now. It’s very clean and there is lots of activity. I Found an Irish Pub on my way to the NH party yesterday, it was buzzing with people. Nice atmosphere. I am going to pack up now and get over to the Verizon Centre for Breakfast and the...
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TesTrek in Toronto is coming this October check out the website at this link for more information. Dave Lloyd and I are doing a workshop on October 20th at 11:00am - 12:30am Effectively Managing the Testing Process through Collaboration Debra Forsyth and Dave Lloyd , Object Sharp Consulting Communications is the key to the success or failure of any team, whether it’s a sports team or a software development team creating the next app. Without communication, the team members have no idea how best to direct their efforts. With communication, the team can overcome almost any challenge. Unfortunately, ensuring that the level of collaboration required in generating success can be a difficult goal to achieve. Solid development managers have a bag of tricks that they utilize to foster communications among the different roles. In this session, you will learn some of the tricks that can be used in...
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In my last blog there where questions about how to assign or unassigned test cases to test configurations (browsers, operating systems). How to manage test case/test configuration assignment: In the Plan Tab select a test suite then test case. In the Test Suite panel toolbar click on the Configurations button. The Select Test Configurations window opens where you can add and remove test configurations associated to a test case. Simply click button All configurations, all test configurations you have created are added to the test case. Next click in the test configuration cell to add or remove. Last, click the Apply Changes button. Whether you add test configurations before or after setting up Test Suites and Test Cases you can manage test case assignment by using the Test Suite | Test Case, Configurations button. Note: Test Suite/Test Cases are automatically assigned to all test configurations...
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Duplication of tests for configurations does have a flow that you need to be aware of … Test Configurations have to be set to active and selected in the Test Plan properties. Test Configurations set up prior to creating test cases are automatically duplicated for each configuration assigned to the test plan. Note: you have no ability to indicate which configurations affect which test cases. Therefore you will have to use the test case run status of “blocked”. If you leave “active” a tester would be able to run. Adding a new test configurations to an existing Test Plan will not affect any existing Test Suites. ( I believe this is a bug and have reported it to Microsoft) However, if I add a new test suite and associate existing or new test cases to that suite all the Test Plan test configurations are used. When I get an answer on whether this the correct behaviour or if there is a work around...
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Recently, I have been installing and configuring a lot of TFS 2010 environments. Really, a lot of TFS 2010 (production, test, proof-of-concept) servers. Occasionally, I anger TFS "gods", so TFS installer throws an error and complain that certain TFS components does not have enough memory complete the install. It turns out that SharePoint component of TFS environment requires minimum of 1Gb of memory to operate. So does, TFS Build server… Otherwise, you'll end with this error in the installer log: " TF255157: The amount of RAM available on this computer is not sufficient to complete this process. You must have the following amount of RAM available: 1024 MB…" Usually adding more memory to the servers hosting TFS components solves the problem, but if you can't wait to start playing with awesome TFS 2010, here is how you can override TFS 2010 installer behaviour: Create new environmental variable...
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If you need to test against different test configurations you are going to love Microsoft Test Manager. Test Configurations are different setups that any application requires testing against. Example: Microsoft Test Manager would have been tested against different operating systems like XP, Vista, or Windows7. A web application may require testing against different browsers like IE7, IE8, Fire Fox, Chrome or Safari. The ability to set up test configurations is only limited to your needs. One of the best features is the ability of Microsoft Test Manager to simulate a duplication of test cases for test configurations assigned to a test plan for test runs only. It does require management to some extend however; it does save your team time in creating duplicate test cases or excel spreadsheets of what configurations will or have been tested. it is only really one instance of the test case so...
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Learn about Web Performance Tests authoring & debugging with Visual Studio 2010. Ed Glas is the Load Test product team manger at Microsoft and has posted some very good reading material on the subject of web tests. Web Test Authoring and Debugging Techniques for Visual Studio 2010 Great reading Ed … Testa ...
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When attempting to paste (using Ctrl-V) data from the clipboard into a parameter within an Iteration you must use the spacebar or manually click into the field that you are populating. If you don't have a cursor blinking even thought the box is highlighted (has focus) using Ctrl-V creates another Iteration instead of pasting the copy data. This bug has been report to Microsoft and should be address in a future update. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Created a Shared Step that has 37 parameters. We added the Shared Step to a Test Case and loaded the data for one iteration. We then decided to remove two parameters. In the Shared Steps we deleted the two parameters and removed the steps. Saved and Closed. We then opened the Test Case expected the two parameters to be gone, they are not. We have also had issues with changing the data in...
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Shared steps can have parameters however, before adding iterations of data there are considerations you need to take into account. If you consider logically how this works, adding a bunch of parameters and data to a Shared Step will have that step repeat running through the data you added. Then once all iterations of the shared step complete your next test case step would run. Make sense. What if I want the Shared Step parameters to run with other parameters in my Test Case? What if I want to add data to my Test Case Shared Step parameters months later? The cleanest and most flexible way I believe and have found is to add data (iterations) to my Shared Step parameters from within the Test Case. Remember a Shared Step can be used in any Test Case and therefore needs to be flexible. Example: A Shared Step with Parameters > no data (iteration) added. Shared Step with Parameters (userid &...
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This is a very cool feature and a big test effort time saver. In your test plan you have set up more then one configuration. Maybe you need to test in different browser types, or different operating systems, even different languages. You create one test case to test a feature/requirement and attach it to a test suite, setting suite state to In Progress. When you go to the tab Test and open Run Tests there is an instance of your one test case for every configuration assigned to the Test Plan. For very large applications or web sites that require testing in many different configurations this feature not only saves time in the creation of many test cases but it creates a marker that the testing has been done. Feature Highlight: Many Test Configurations – One Test Case – Instance of Test Case for every Test Configuration....
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Creating or editing a Test Case in Visual Studio: If you create a Test Case in Visual Studio you cannot enter steps, first enter a Title and save, then click the Open for edit button. Test Manager opens with the test case open ready for you to enter steps. You can add links, file attachments and/or add to the summary from within Visual Studio. Opening for edit a test case in Visual Studio does not allow you to edit the steps. Again you have to click Open for edit which opens the test case in Test Manager. Creating or editing Shared Steps in Visual Studio works the same way as the Test Case....
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When manual testing using MS Test Manager you may want to change the test settings to include Video Recording. This will capture a video of the test session so the developer can’t say “Tell me exactly what you did to create this bug.” To get video recording to work you may have to install the Windows Media Encoder and a support update. You can find the details and download links here ....
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A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at the Canadian Technology Triangle .NET Users Group. CTTDNUG ASP.NET MVC View more presentations from Barry Gervin . We had a great crowd of over 60 people eager to learn more about ASP.NET MVC. I was able to do a mix of Visual Studio 2008 and 2010 demos, as well as showcase a production application, a crowd-sourced translation dictionary for First Nation Languages, currently supporting Maliseet and Mi’kmaw languages ( www.sayitfirst.ca ). A question came up in the talk about content management systems and ASP.NET MVC. There was one in particular that intrigued me, but I couldn’t remember the name. After doing some digging it was www.n2cms.com . The interesting angle of N2 is that it is very lightweight, and not meant to be the shell of your entire site, but rather works within your application to serve up content where appropriate....
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Will your code blend? : Toronto Code Camp 2010 : Barry Gervin View more presentations from Barry Gervin . This past weekend I gave a talk on “Blendability”; The ability to maintain and leverage blend design time compatibility with your WPF and Silverlight projects. Thanks to everybody who came out to the talk, we had some good discussions despite the oppressive heat in the room. You’ll find my slides above. As some of you have requested, here you can find my demos including the MVVM template that was used in the Blend 4 previews that demonstrates the behavior technique for calling methods on your view models....
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This is just a quick follow up post from my demo at the Toronto Code Camp last weekend. Thanks for everybody who came out. Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Architecture Experience : Toronto Code Camp 2010 : Barry Gervin View more presentations from bgervin . In addition to my slides, here ere are a few resources that will help you learn more about the architecture tools in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition: The .NET Pet Shop that I used as a sample is available for download . Walkthrough: MSDN How-To’s on Modeling in 2010 Blogs: Cameron Skinner , Peter Provost and last but not least Chris Lovett who has some most awesome video demos and tips for dealing with large diagrams. He also provides some samples for those that are interested in learning more about Directed Graph Markup Language for creating their own diagram generators. The Patterns and Practices Team has released a set of templated...
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/accordionguy/ / CC BY 2.0 I had the privilege to open up the 2010 Toronto Code Camp last week. It’s hard to know what to talk about to such a broad audience getting ready to kick off a great event with so many different sessions and tracks. A topic that is near and dear to my heart is about trying to figure out what makes software relevant. Ultimately it is about knowing your customer, very intimately so you can build the best experience for them. With that said, I decided to step outside the world of software development to compare to successful invention/design stories and how they differed in their approach to “knowing their customer”. Ron Popeil the famous pitchman and inventor of the Infomercial. Malcom Gladwell wrote an interesting article/biography Ron and his fellow pitchman. There is a lot to learn about Ron’s successes, but specifically how he focused...
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I just finished my two presentations at this year’s Toronto Code Camp. As is my standard, I have put my slides on Slideshare.net. They can be found at: OData - http://bit.ly/akPCcH Silverlight 4 Out of Browser - http://bit.ly/91xQwp As well, the sample code for the Silverlight 4 talk can be downloaded here ....
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Website Not Invented Here had a great comic worth sharing....
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The MTM Tests Suites are how you organize your test cases. There are three test suites to select from they are, Requirement query-based, the q uery-based, or the s tatic based. The two query based test suites will automatically add new test cases to a suite if they meet the query criteria. When would we use the different test suites? 1. Requirement query-based is pretty straight forward. For each requirement you have at least one if not more test cases. 2. Query-based has to include a test case category condition which guarantees only test cases are added then you can query by any field in the work item. Area Path of requirement work item Project Iterations By work item ranking or priority 3. Static test suites are multi functional. You either add test cases to the suite manually or you add query based test suites to the static test suite. This...
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