Team System Power Tools : How to use tfpt.exe online

The following steps outline the workflow I used to demonstrate the use of the Team Foundation Power Tools tfpt online command.

Step 1.

Check in all of your code.

Step 2.

Close Visual Studio. (I am going home i.e. offline) If you don’t do this, you will have problems!

Step 3.

Go home. Oops, I forgot to check out my code. Mark all code as writeable. Visual Studio marks all checked-in files as read-only. This normally prevents you from editing files offline through Visual Studio.

Step 4.

Open Visual Studio (at home i.e. offline)

To simulate offline mode, I have stopped the Team Foundation Server web service:

Step 5.

Bang! This looks very ugly. Tell Visual Studio to "temporarily work uncontrolled" :)

Step 6.

Edit your files. I changed the message in Program.cs, and added a new class (Class1.cs)

Don't rename any files, as TFS cannot deal with renaming offline files. There is no way for TFS to distinguish between deletions and renames.

Step 7

I am leaving home. Close Visual Studio.

Step 8.

I am back at work. TFS is online. Simulate this by restarting the web service.

Step 9

Run tfpt online /deletes /adds. This will make sure that TFS understands the status of your files.

Note that Program.cs is flagged as edit whereas Class1.cs is flagged as delete.

Step 10

Open Visual Studio. Check your files in! It's been a hard night :(