BTW, if you are reading this on weblogs.asp.net – This will be my last post here - I’ll be making my home over at http://teamsystemrocks.com/blogs/chris_menegays_weblog/default.aspx

I taught a VSTS training class in Redmond a couple of months ago and was cleaning out my inbox today and stumbled across some answers I had gotten from the product team for the questions for that class. This was a large class (about 50 people) and a lot of Microsoft field people – so there were several very interesting questions. I apologize for taking so long on getting this posted – it’s no one’s fault but my own.

WHITEHORSE

Q: For the whitehorse tools, can I somehow automate extracting the JPGs into smartdocs in Word?

1                       DeploymentReport can be run as a macro as in :
DTE.ExecuteCommand("Diagram.GenerateDeploymentReport")

2                       There is a Copy Image command, as in: DTE.ExecuteCommand("Edit.CopyImage") that can be ran as a macro as well. 

3                       We cannot produce images from command line directly (i.e. without opening VS IDE), as we can’t “see” the images from the command line.  One could run devenv.exe “unattended” from a command line and execute a macro that will open the solution, produce the deployment report and images, but it needs to be on the machine with VSTA present. 

Q: Can you articulate the value of the System Diagram?
A: Keep configuration for multiple environments separate from the debug (VS) environment

TESTING

Q: If I have a signed assembly, how does that effect code coverage and instrumentation profiling -- what about Debugging in delayed sign mode - clr team person?
A: You add a resign key in the code coverage setup window (run config)

Q: How do i customize the Manual test template - and can it be Excel? How?
A: It’s in a folder on the local HD. Excel is not supported

Q: Can I run iterations for load tests rather than duration?
A: This feature is not directly supported by the load test, but can be achieved in two ways:

• Web Tests have a data binding feature to run each row in the test data exactly once. If the database has n rows, the test will run for n iterations.
• Users can do this through code. Load Tests have an extensibility point called the load test plugin. The plugin enables the user to hook various aspects of the test. The user could write a plugin that counted the number of iterations and stopped the test when the desired number was hit.

Q: How do I setup multiple user credentials for load tests?
A: For basic auth or NTLM auth: In a Web Test, click on the web test node. The user name and password properties can

be bound to a datasource containing the user names and passwords of the users you wish to emulate. Similarly, if the app uses forms auth, the username and password can be bound to the POST parameters on the form.

Q: Are the browser types in load testing extensible.
A: XML doc on my local HD

Q: What happens if I run testing/code coverage on an assembly without the source code?
A: You can see percent coverage, and publish those back, but you can’t see the code

TEAM FOUNDATION

Q: What reporting will be available for Team Build ?
A: The data is in the warehouse, this is reflected in several existing reports

Q: If a PM deletes a project task, how will that be handled in the work item system?  In beta 2 it seems to do nothing.
A: Nothing happens

Q: Can I prevent people from seeing workitems not assigned to then?  Can I limit the ability to create work item queries?
A: No – BUT, you can use project structure and classify work items and place permissions on the different structure elements.

Q: Can Team Foundation Groups be copied from project to project?
A: Maybe you can share that group into a new group in the new team project

Q: What is the recommended practice for items that are normally shared in VSS (can I have a shared AssemblyInfo)?
A: There are a couple options here, depending on the needs of the organization.

• Branch those items and propagate changes between the branches as appropriate using the merge command.  This is most appropriate for people who wish to be loosely coupled to the files they have shared.  Frequently, these teams have pinned their shared files in VSS so that they are isolated from changes to those files and can choose when they want to accept changes.  Merging is just a different way of accepting these changes.
• Move the files to a central location and use tool-level sharing mechanisms to reference these files from this location.  This is most appropriate for people who are tightly coupling the work of the various teams that have shared the files.

Q: Can I backup and restore smaller units than the entire SCC database.  For instance, a single file?
A: No

Q: Encryption of source code and who has access to the SQL database.  How is that controlled? A: Single user account (using role based security) for access to the DB – it’s not the individual user accounts. Files are stored compressed as patches in the SQL server, so there is no encryption.  We rely on SQL access control for this – only one account has access to the data tier (the account that the app tier runs as) and no other users should be able to get to the database.

Q: How do I lock SCC down to prevent network admins people from access the codebase?
A: You can do that with the access control lists (ACLs) in the repository by denying permissions to the network admins.  The permission model allows you to grant permissions at any level of the repository hierarchy and control how those permissions are inherited from containing folders.  It’s modeled after NTFS permissions, which most people are already familiar with.