Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider

[Michael Bulgrien]

Has the Scooter team made any progress in supporting this version control interface? Or do I need to register a copy of Dubbelbock TFS (http://www.benday.com/DisplayWebPage.aspx?itemId=43)?

[Craig]

It should work in the file viewer already. I'll try to finish up the directory viewer's menu for the next release.

[Craig]

Sorry, I lied. I forgot that BC has trouble with TFS and I thought you were asking about MSSCCI support in general. We don't have TFS available here; I'm going to download the trial over the weekend and I'll see if I can get it running next week.

[Michael Bulgrien]

I'm going to download the trial over the weekend and I'll see if I can get it running next week.

You're in for a rough week then. TFS can be a real bear to install. :(

[Craig]

Microsoft knows that. ;) They have a VirtualPC image that has the trial and it's dependencies installed and configured. Of course I've never used TFS before, so it may be a rough bit of effort anyway.

[Michael Bulgrien]

I installed TFS from scratch and am the TFS administrator on my team...
Let me know if you need some assistance.

[GreenMoose]

One solution if one wants to use the basics such as history/get etc. is to configure Open With to integrate with TF.exe (assumes the files are mapped in a workspace).
E.g. Open With -> TFS History
TF.EXE HISTORY "%f"

[Craig]

Well, looks like short-term you'll need to invest in Dubbelbock TFS.

I've tracked down the problem, and TFS's SCC implementation fails if we initialize COM using the multithreaded threading model. I don't think switching to the apartment threading model will work for Cirrus, so changing the behavior would require some extensive changes to the way we access the SCC functions. I'm waiting to hear back from the TFS guys about it; if they can't fix it in their DLL we're not going to support TFS until after v3 is released.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Fair enough. Thanks for looking into it.

[Craig]

I guess I spoke too soon. Someone from the TFS team responded and I have a workaround, so the next release should work correctly. It does involve some changes to our SCC support though, so the fix probably won't be back-ported to BC2.

[sitary]

Any further news on this? As it is I can't use Cirrus with TFS which is 90% of current use.

Simon

[Craig]

In case it isn't clear from the topic, Cirrus can be used as the diff/merge interface from TFS, it just won't show the checked-in/controlled/etc status and it can't call TFS's check-in/check-out commands.

Unfortunately, due to the way we're accessing we've implemented things the workaround the TFS team gave me will not work with Cirrus, and we won't be able to make it work without significantly reworking our SCC support. Since this currently only affects one version control system we can't justify the time to do this before v3 is released. If you really want check-in/check-out support from Cirrus you'll need to use the product Michael mentioned at the beginning of the thread.

[sitary]

Ah, I just assumed that since Cirrus was not working for me in TFS for differnces and merges that this topic was pertinent.

I'll start another topic pertaining to my issue.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Under Visual Studio choose:

Tools \ Options \ Source Control \ Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
Click the "Configure User Tools..." button

For the Compare operation, specify:

Extension: .*
Command: C:\Program Files\Cirrus\Cirrus.exe
Arguments: %1 %2 /title1=%6 /title2=%7 /solo

For the Merge operation, specify:

Extension: .*
Command: C:\Program Files\Cirrus\Cirrus.exe
Arguments: %1 %2 %3 %4 /title1=%6 /title2=%7 /title3=%8 /title4=%9 /solo

[sitary]

Thanks Michael. I was using the BC arguments and sometimes Cirrus threw an error. Problem solved.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Updated instructions as of BC3 Beta Build 452:

Under Visual Studio choose:

Tools \ Options \ Source Control \ Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
Click the "Configure User Tools..." button

For the Compare operation, specify:

Extension: .*
Command: C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 3\BComp.exe
Arguments: %1 %2 /title1=%6 /title2=%7 /solo

For the Merge operation, specify:

Extension: .*
Command: C:\Program Files\Beyond Compare 3\BComp.exe
Arguments: %1 %2 %3 %4 /title1=%6 /title2=%7 /title3=%8 /title4=%9 /solo

BC3 settings are now found in: %appdata%\Scooter Software\Beyond Compare 3\
BCPreferences.xml
BCFtpProfiles.xml
BCSessions.xml
BCCommands.xml
BCState.xml

[Craig]

Michael, thanks for updating your instructions. Just so you're aware, the /solo switch is completely optional now. If you like having it open in a new window you can continue to use it, but BComp.exe handles the wait correctly now. I posted the details in http://www.scootersoftware.com/beta3/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=89

[Craig]

The next release (463) should support Team Foundation's SCC interface.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Thanks Craig. Is that with TFS 2005, TFS 2003, or both?

[Craig]

Should be both, and recent versions of VSS, but the demo expired so I haven't explicitly tested it. Based on my contact with TFS's devs I know why it was failing and made a change to work around the issue. There was another SCC implementation (TamTam SVN) with a similar issue and I was able to confirm that it fixed that one.

463 also (finally) reintroduces the directory compare's Source Control menu.

[gstrader]

I saw today in the changelog released today for v3.0.3.8845, that TFS integration is fixed. I upgraded to this version. When I was going to Tools->Source Control Integration..., it would say "No Providers Detected". It took me awhile to figure out that I had to download the "Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider" and install it. Once I did that, I was able to successfully add the association to my TFS project.

The thing I am wondering about now is: why can't I check out files from the folder view? I can do it from the file comparison view, but that seems a little awkward to have to open each file and do it from there. Ideally I could check out an entire folder and it would recursively check out the files in it without having to open them.

Thanks for fixing this feature!

[Craig]

There should be a "Source Control" submenu towards the bottom of the context and Action menus in the directory compare. If you haven't yet, try restarting BC.

[outbred]

How do I get BC3 to recognize TFS as my source control provider? I have dubblebock installed (which doesn't work, I've pinged them as well).

I'm running on Windows Vista 64-bit with VS2008 Team Suite edition.

[Michael Bulgrien]

I am not suprised that dubblebock doesn't work in 64-bit Vista. You don't need dubbelbock if you are using BC3 with the Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider.

For Windows Vista, you will need the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=FAEB7636-644E-451A-90D4-7947217DA0E7&displaylang=en) instead of the MSSCCI Provider that came with Visual Studio 2005.

[John Boncek]

I saw today in the changelog released today for v3.0.3.8845, that TFS integration is fixed. I upgraded to this version. When I was going to Tools->Source Control Integration..., it would say "No Providers Detected". It took me awhile to figure out that I had to download the "Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider" and install it. Once I did that, I was able to successfully add the association to my TFS project.

I have BC3.1.11 working as the Compare tool under Visual Studio 2010 Premium with Team Foundation Server on Windows XP Pro. That works great! I would like to enable Source Control Integration for check-in as described above but it doesn't recognize Team Foundation Server as a source control provider. There is a 2010 version of the MSSCCI Provider. Is that the correct one to use and is it known to work for this? Thanks for your attention.

[John Boncek]

I installed the 2010 MSSCCI Provider and BC now recognizes Team Foundation Server as a source control provider in Source Control Integration. I added an "association" to the disk folder used by my TFS workspace but there is no menu item for check-in or any other source control operations.

[Aaron]

Hi John,

Are you pointed to a root folder, or a subfolder within the project?

Were there any error messages when adding the folder using the Tools menu -> Source Control Integration?

[John Boncek]

Hi, Aaron,

I have two associations. Each is to the root folder of a project. There were no errors displayed. I removed them and recreated them today to make sure of that.

And, just to make sure I'm looking in the right place and not missing it, where would the Check In or other source control commands appear if it was working?

John

[Aaron]

Yes.

I just tested this with TFS2010, VS2010, and the msscci I found for 2010.
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/bce06506-be38-47a1-9f29-d3937d3d88d6

If the base folder is the same as the folder added to the Tools menu -> Source Control, you should see a new menu near the bottom of the right click menu called Source Control (right above Explorer), with the options to Check-In, Check Out, Show History, etc.

For my previous question, my concern was if you had set the source control to point straight at a drive letter (e:\) or at a folder within (e:\myProject), and if your Folder Compare's base folder was also set (e:\myProject). Sorry for not stating that clearer.

[John Boncek]

It's working. I didn't guess to look in the right-click menu (not sure if I even knew there was one there). Another detail -- it's in the right-click menu only in the right pane. Thanks for the assistance.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Is the right pane the pane defined in the Tools menu -> Source Control Integration dialog?

[John Boncek]

Hi, Aaron,

No, I meant the right source pane (when using side-by-side layout) as shown in the attachment. If you click in the left source pane, the items below Explorer aren't there.

John

[darkfader]

"I wrote a small cmd script to update BC3 source control mappings from TFS.
You need the Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider of course.
Close Beyond Compare before running because it updates the xml configuration file.
I hope this is useful to someone."


http://www.scootersoftware.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=28761#post28761
DL: http://www.scootersoftware.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=752&d=1299150311
There were only 7 views including me. I guess there are not many TFS+BC3 users? I don't think BC3 has this feature built-in already.