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Notion Solutions > Blog
Roadshow Q&A and Slides
We recently did a 9 city roadshow dedicated to the new testing practices that are facilitated with Visual Studio 2010. There were several questions presented that we needed to get information from Microsoft. Below are the questions and edited answers. Various team members at Microsoft assisted with this, and we appreciate their help.  The slides can be found at the following link:
 
 
Q&A
 
General
  • Can I put interfaces on a UML Class Diagram?
    • Yes.
  • Can I generate code from a UML Class Diagram?
    • A power tool will be made available to allow this.

IntelliTrace Related

  • Does IntelliTrace support multithreaded applications?
    • IntelliTrace collects data on currently active threads.
  • Can I turn on IntelliTrace from my code?  API???
    • Currently, there is no way to decorate a method for controlling IntelliTrace collections. You can, however, use the inclusion/exclusion list in VS or MTLM to decide what modules get instrumented, giving you some control over the amount of IntelliTrace data you collect.
  • Can I use release builds for IntelliTrace?
    • Yes.
  • What do I need to install to collect IntelliTrace data?
    • The lightest install is the Test Agent.
  • Do I have to use a debug build for IntelliTrace?
    • No, release builds are fine.

Testing Related

  • What is the plan for mobile device support for UI testing?
    • Currently no support, but under consideration for future releases.
  • Can I switch VMs running the tests on the fly?
    • Right now there is no support for running tests from more than one machine, which is defined in the test settings.
  • What permissions are needed for data collectors to run?
    • For anything but IntelliTrace and Test Impact collections, the agent can run under any user (local or domain user). For IntelliTrace and Test Impact you will need to have admin rights on the box so that the agent will be able to instrument the IIS/other app under test.
  • Can I capture full control library for automated UI tests? In other words, I just want the recorder to create references to controls in my app without me having to click on everything.
    • Not supported at this time, but under consideration for future releases.
  • How can I figure out in a coded UI test what test case work item I'm associated with?
    • Not supported at this time, but under consideration for future releases.
  • How does data-driven manual testing work?
    • You add parameters to the manual test and the data MUST be entered into the table inside the manual test. At this time, you cannot use an external data source.
Using Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 to Connect to Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 2

With the impending release of Team Foundation Server 2010, many teams are excited to move forward to take advantage of the new work tracking, build, and version control features. Team Foundation Server 2010 has a go-live license that allows teams to move forward immediately even though the Visual Studio 2010 tools will not be supported with Beta 2. For teams ready to take advantage of TFS 2010 but that aren't ready to move their development efforts to Visual Studio 2010, a common concern is how compatible are the previous versions of Visual Studio with the features and capabilities of Team Foundation Server 2010.

Microsoft does intend to provide a compatibility updatefor both Visual Studio 2005 and 2008, but with Beta 2, there will only be a compatibility update for Visual Studio 2008 (download here). That doesn't mean that Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 (without the compatibility update) won't work, it's just that there are a few issues you should to be aware of (listed in order of perceived criticality):

VS2005 with Team Explorer 2005 (without the forward compatibility update)
VS2008 with Team Explorer 2008 (
without the forward compatibility update

Renaming a file in Version Control can cause unexpected behavior.
A user cannot rename a file and then use the old filename until AFTER the renamed file has been checked in. Ideally - use Team Explorer 2010 to rename files in version control. 

Publishing Test Results does not work.
Use Team Explorer 2010 to publish test case results.

Microsoft Project Plan documents created using a Team Explorer 2010 client, break when opened from a Team Explorer 2008 or older client.
Do not port project plans to other Microsoft Project tools using older client add-ins

Work Item Tracking Queries with new functionality will not be editable and will not execute.
Place new queries with linking, grouping, categories, or field comparisons in a separate folder marked "New Clients Only" so customers using Team Explorer 2008 SP1 or older clients can distinguish those queries without these features. Use Team Explorer 2010 for running and editing these queries.

Team Explorer 2008 or older client users can create new build definitions but they will not be able to edit them or to edit other, existing build definitions.
Use Team Explorer 2010 Client to get the WF designer experience or to edit build definitions or use a text or XML editor to edit the build process template.

Navigation to Reports will not work.
Use a browser to navigate to the http://<reportserver>/reports then click on the "Team Foundation Server Reports" folder and the Team Project Collection folder for the appropriate collection that contains the Team Projects you are interested in.

Navigation to Documents, Project Portal, and Process Guidance locations is broken.
If the Shared Document, Project Portal and Process Guidance locations have been modified, URLs to the new locations can be sent to the customers with Team Explorer 2008 SP1 Clients or older clients.

Team Explorer 2008 or older client will not be able to manually queue a build without having the "View Build Resources" permissions.
Contact the Team Project Administrator to have the build permissions elevated for Team Explorer 2008 client users, if no build agents are visible in the Queue Build dialog in Team Explorer 2008.

Team Explorer 2008 or older clients can create confusion if using gated checkin
Users will be able to submit changes that affect gated build definitions, but they will not be prompted with the confirmation dialog and, if their check-in affects multiple gated definitions, it will fail. The customer can check the build explorer (just like a Team Explorer 2010 user would) or use the build notification applet (2008 power tools release rather than 2010 release).

The "Manage Build Agents" dialog box does not work.
Use Team Explorer 2010 to manage build resources.

VS2008 with the Team Explorer 2008 Forward Compatibility Update (GDR)

Microsoft Project Plans are not fully editable.
The 2008 client add-in can update values but not change link relationships like hierarchy and dependencies.

Work Item Tracking Queries with new functionality will not be editable and will not execute.
Use Team Explorer 2010 for running and editing these queries.

 

Welcome to the Notion ALM Blog

Notion Solutions has been providing ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) solutions to companies for almost 5 years and we've learned a lot and had a lot of fun. We've had many employees blogging for years, but we decided to start a corporate blog to share our thoughts on the industry, the tools and the ALM market in general. Some posts will be announcements of interesting happenings in the ALM community, or commentary on the latest trend. But we will also post on specific reference answers that we get asked repeatedly. We've got a lot of ideas in our head, but please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions, or ideas of topics you wish were more discoverable. We'll be exploring allowing comments as we determine the best way to manage this blog going forward. Thanks!

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