Reuse Solutions/Project UI Editor?

Question

We have a couple of out-of-band build scenarios where we need to build certain projects separately from the existing 'Project to Build' option in the default build template. In essence, we would like to be able to introduce new build meta-data parameters that use the exact same 'Solutions/Projects' window that's displayed when you click on the 'Projects to Build' elipsis.

I have found several posts by Jason Prickett that describe how to introduce custom types and type editors but would simply like to reuse what's already there; however, I don't know what type of parameter to use nor the UI editor name? Does anybody know if this is posisble or the parameter type that might automatically invoke the same UI editor? 

Answer 1

Hi Scott, 

Thanks for your post.

Do you mean that you want to create the another same Solution/Project UI window in Build Definition? So you want to know which parameters be defined in Solution/Project window?

Could you tell us why and where you want to reuse this Solution/Project window? It may help us provide
the better response. 

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John Qiao [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us

Answer 2

John,

We would like to introduce a couple of options into our customized build template that would allow the person requesting the build to essentially build other 'stuff' and, unfortunately, it has to occur at a specific point after the normal solutions are built; otherwise, we would have just added them to the existing list :) The workflow template now checks to see if those options are specified towards the end of the build and handle them accordingly.

I could very easily just make it a string and force people to copy/paste the TFS path (IE $/Project Name/) into the field but we wanted to take advantage of the UI Editor that Microsoft already developed to work with TFS. We were thinking that, perhaps, that editor might already be associated with a specific argument type and adding it to the meta-data collection would 'just work'; otherwise, we would simply define the UI Editor on the meta-data parameter itself.

The only problem, of course, is that we don't know if a special type might exist to achieve what we're looking for or the name of the UI Editor itself. I should also mention that these are all MSBuild compliant files; however, it would be ideal if you could choose any file type in TFS.

I'm not sure if we're along on this or not but we actually have a number of use-cases where the build definition needs to specify certain files that are stored in TFS. I know this is above and beyond what we're looking for but, in the future, I think the more ideal solution is to define some kind of 'root' TFS parameter and come up with a way where the build definition can specify relative paths to the root. At build time, those relative paths would then get transformed from TFS paths into the absolute/local paths. As you know, this is already being done in the default template...

The primary reason for wanting relative paths, of course, is to minimize the number of changes when dealing with multiple branches. In other words, you generally have few build definition differences between branches except their location in TFS. As long as the file structure is the same, there's very little work involved in creating new branches.

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Scott Parillo

Answer 3

The easiest way to see if there is a reusable typeeditor, would be to invoke it and use the debugger to ID it. If you have debug symols for the componetns involved it should work. I'd suggest you config the debugger to download symbols for VS and give it a try. If that doesn't help, consider opening a support case with us. Visit this link to see the various support options that are available to better meet your needs:  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=fh;en-us;offerprophone.

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Trevor Hancock (Microsoft)
Please remember to "Mark As Answer" the replies that help.

Answer 4

Trevor,

Actually, the easiest way would be to publish the list of editors. Is that really asking too much? I know there are times when you have to resort to using Spy and other similar tools to get things that weren't designed for public usage but these are all standard controls that ship with TFS 2010?!

I just stumbled across a website that not only describes precisely what I was looking for but it also disclosed a whole slew of other unpublished UITypeEditor classes.Anybody that has ever had a need to pick a folder or file from TFS and would like to avoid requiring folks to enter it into a plain textbox, have a look at this link. And BTW, he also references Jason Prickett's blogs on customizing types and editors.

http://pascoal.net/2011/08/team-foundation-build-enhancing-the-experience-with-built-in-custom-editors/

Regards,

Scott

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Scott Parillo