Willy-Peter Schaub's Cave of Chamomile Simplicity

VSTS/TFS2008 Service Pack 1 - Nugget #3 (Source Explorer Enhancements)

Continued from http://dotnet.org.za/willy/archive/2008/08/15/vsts-tfs2008-service-pack-1-nugget-2-office-ribbon.aspx and http://dotnet.org.za/willy/archive/2008/08/15/vsts-tfs-2008-service-pack-1-nugget-1.aspx.

The enhancements in the source explorer are immense ... let's look at some of the new features as mentioned in Brian's Blog here.

Drag&Drop

You can now drag stuff from the Windows Explorer to the Source Control Explorer, which simplifies the addition of new source code umpteenth times. It even moves the stuff to your working folder for you ...

Version Control of Unbound Files

Editing files in Visual Studio that are not part of a solution used to be one of the confusing headaches. No more. First dialog shows us dropping a cs source file that is not part of any solution. Second dialog shows the "lock" on the file and on the right highlights that the file belongs to no-one. When we start typing in the source, the lock vanishes and the pending changes suddenly includes the file being changed. All files are therefore now first class citizens, whether they belong to a solution or not.

Simpler working folder mappings

Spot the "remove mapping" item. You can now click on mapped working unmap them, re-map them. More and more of the control is available in the source control explorer, which hides and thus simplifies the workspace administration.

Checkin date/time column

My colleague Martin has a nice post on this one here.

Local path ... now a link

The local path header is now a link ... click it and wooosshh you are off to Windows Explorer. Cool!

Editable source location

For those that remember the paths and structure of workspaces, you now have the ability to change the path by typing, instead of having to navigate up|down a tree view. Another "cool" and productive feature.

At this stage we have covered two nuggets and the standing is currently:

1. GOLD: Source Explorer Enhancements
2. SILVER: Send Selection in Mail
3. BRONZE: Office Team Ribbon

What is important to mention is, that all features and nuggets we discussed so far are part of Team Explorer and we have not yet updated our Team Foundation Server. In other words, these nuggets are available to you if you upgrade your Team Explorer to 2008 SP1.

See you soon for more nuggets.