Just published a new VSTS extension with a couple of tasks in it. The aim to to help formalise the end of a release process. The tasks Allow you to set the retension ‘keep forever’ flag on a build (or all builds linked to a release) Update increment a build variable e.g. all or part of a version number, in a build (or …

I have been using Visual Studio Code for PowerShell development, but got a bit behind on reading release notes. Today I just realised I can make my Integrated Terminal a Code a PowerShell instance. In File > Preferences > user Settings (settings.json) enter the following 1// Place your settings in this file to …

I recently posted on my development process for VSTS Extensions, it has been specifically PowerShell based build ones I have been working on. During this development I have come across a few more gotcha’s that I think are worth mentioning 32/64 bit The VSTS build agent launches PowerShell 64bit (as does the PowerShell …

I wanted to add some level of static analysis to our Typescript projects, TSLint being the obvious choice. To make sure it got run as part of our build release process I wanted to wire it into our SonarQube system, this meant using the community TSLintPlugin, which is still pre-release (0.6 preview at the time of …

I thought I had a problem with our TFS Lab Manager setup, 80% of our environments had disappeared. I wondered if it was rights, was it just showing environments I owned? No it was not that. Turns our the issue was a UX/Scrollbar issue. I had MTM full screen in ‘Test Center’ mode, with a long list of test suites, so …

Background I am finding myself writing a lot of PowerShell at present, mostly for VSTS build extensions. Here I hit a problem (or is it an opportunity for choice?) as to what development environment to use? PowerShell ISE is the ‘best’ experience for debugging a script, but has no source control integration – and it is …

This is a copy of the guest post done on the Microsoft UK web site published on the 7th June 2016 This is a revised version of a post originally published in August 2014. In this revision I have updated version numbers and links for tools used and added a discussion of adapting the process to support VSTS. The code for …

Microsoft asked my to revise my August 2014 article on ‘Migrating a TFS TFVC team project to a Git team project’, this revised version is now live on their web site. The changes in the revision are updated links for tools, and information on how to use the technique with VSTS now some work item customisation is …

Background Most projects will have a range of tests Unit tests (maybe using a mocking framework) running inside the build process Integration/UX and load tests run as part of a release pipeline and finally manual tests In a recent project we were using WebTests to provide some integration tests (in addition to …

Struggling to manage those DevTest VM in Azure? Finding it hard to standardise your VMs and get the right things installed? Burning through your Azure credit too fast because you forgot to switch things off? Well Azure DevTest Labs has just been released for general availability, might will just be the thing to help, …