Sometimes you need to get the latest successful build and get the download path for the artifact, for e.g. some 3 part tools or as an input for other build jobs.
Create TFS test environment from SQL backup
You should always have a realistic test environment where you can test updates and breaking changes. To make it as realistic as possible you need to update it regularly with data from the production environment. So why not use your normal SQL backup?
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TFS 2018 RC1 is out!
They are really speeding up at the TFS team. The TFS 2018 RC1 is out and its a go-live, meningen there are full support for production.
There will be major changes like deprecation of XAML build, Sharepoint integration and MTLM
Some of the new features are Maven Package support, Wiki support, New Release management layout, Git forks and so on.
Read the full info here: TFS2018RC1
TFS queries in Powershell
Sometimes you need to get the workitems from TFS directly into your favorite tool, Powershell.
When the workitems are available in PS, you have a lot of possibilities, like making custom reports, release notes papers, or just plain lists.
But instead of creating your own query in PS, why not use the queries already in TFS.
Automated test cleanup
Execution of test runs, either manuel or automatic, will create a bunch of diagnostic test data that can cause the the databse to crow quite rapid.
For vNext build /test jobs you define a retention policy, that will tell TFS how many days you want to keep the data (default 90 days). This job will run automatically every night.
But when using xaml based builds the retention policy is triggered on each build, so if you stop using a build definition, e.g. when you have relased and clone the definition, old builds and test data will be kept forever, until you trigger a build.
TFS and Sharepoint integration
The Sharepoint integration for TFS has long been a well discussed topic and the last couple of years we haven’t seen any news in that area. More of the functionality has been moved to web and Microsoft hasn’t updated the support matrix with support for Sharepoint 2016.
Now the TFS team has revealed the future, and it is not good for those of you who used the integration.
For the next version of TFS Sharepoint integration will no longer be supported.
See https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devops/2017/08/21/the-future-of-our-tfs-sharepoint-integration/
Sequential build
Currently there is no out-of-the-box way of making sequential builds in TFS, so I took a look at the REST API, that TFS provides.
