Build - Colin's ALM Corner

Azure Pipeline Parameters

In a previous post, I did a deep dive into Azure Pipeline variables. That post turned out to be longer than I anticipated, so I left off the topic of parameters until this post. Type: AnyIf we look at the YML schema for variables

Testing

Executing JMeter Tests in an Azure Pipeline

Microsoft have deprecated Load Testing in Visual Studio. Along with this, they have also deprecated the cloud load testing capability in Azure/Azure DevOps. On the official alternatives document, several alternative load testing tools and platforms are mentioned, including JMeter. What is not clear

Build

Azure Pipeline Variables

I am a big fan of Azure Pipelines. Yes it’s YAML, but once you get over that it’s a fantastic way to represent pipelines as code. It would be tough to achieve any sort of sophistication in your pipelines without variables. There

Build

Azure DevOps Build and Test Reports using OData and REST in PowerBI

I have been playing with the Azure DevOps OData service recently to start creating some reports. Most of my fiddling has been with the Work Item and Work Item Board Snaphot entities, but I recently read a great post focused more on Build metrics

Docker

.NET Core Multi-Stage Dockerfile with Test and Code Coverage in Azure Pipelines

I read a great blogpost recently by my friend and fellow MVP Jakob Ehn. In this post he outlines how he created a multi-stage Dockerfile to run .NET Core tests. I've always been on the fence about running tests during a container build -

Release Management

Managing Config for .NET Core Web App Deployments with Tokenizer and ReplaceTokens Tasks

Last week I posted an end-to-end walkthrough about how to build and deploy web apps using Team Build and Release Management – including config management. The post certainly helps you if you’re on the .NET 4.x Framework – but what about deploying .NET Core

Release Management

End to End Walkthrough: Deploying Web Applications Using Team Build and Release Management

I’ve posted previously about deploying web applications using Team Build and Release Management (see Config Per Environment vs Tokenization in Release Management and WebDeploy, Configs and Web Release Management). However, reviewing those posts recently at customers I’ve been working with, I’ve

Build

DacPac Change Report Task for VSTS Builds

Most development requires working against some kind of database. Some teams choose to use Object Relational Mappers (ORMs) like Entity Framework. I think that should be the preferred method of dealing with databases (especially code-first), but there are times when you just have to

Docker

Running the New DotNet Core VSTS Agent in a Docker Container

This week I finally got around to updating my VSTS extension (which bundle x-plat VersionAssembly and ReplaceTokens tasks) to use the new vsts-task-lib, which is used by the new DotNet Core vsts-agent. One of the bonuses of the new agent is that it can

DevOps

Continuous Deployment of Service Fabric Apps using VSTS (or TFS)

Azure’s Service Fabric is breathtaking – the platform allows you to create truly “born in the cloud” apps that can really scale. The platform takes care of the plumbing for you so that you can concentrate on business value in your apps. If you’

Build

Building VS 2015 Setup Projects in Team Build

Remember when Visual Studio had a setup project template? And then it was removed? Then you moved to WiX and after learning it for 3 months and still being confused, you just moved to Web Apps? Well everyone complained about the missing setup project

DevOps

Config Per Environment vs Tokenization in Release Management

In my previous post I experimented with WebDeploy to Azure websites. My issue with the out-of-the-box Azure Web App Deploy task is that you can specify the WebDeploy zip file, but you can’t specify any environment variables other than connection strings. I showed

Release Management

WebDeploy, Configs and Web Release Management

It’s finally here – the new web-based Release Management (WebRM). At least, it’s here in preview on VSTS (formerly VSO) and should hopefully come to TFS 2015 in update 2. I’ve blogged frequently about Release Management, the “old” WPF tool that Microsoft

DevOps

Continuous Deployment with Docker and Build vNext

I really like the idea of Docker. If you’re unfamiliar with Docker, then I highly recommend Nigel Poulton’s Docker Deep Dive course on Pluralsight. Containers have been around for quite a while in the Linux world, but Microsoft is jumping on the

Build

Developing a Custom Build vNext Task: Part 1

I love the new build engine in VSO / TFS 2015. You can get pretty far with the out of the box tasks, but there are cases where a custom task improves the user experience. The “Microsoft” version of this is SonarQube integration – you can

Build

Developing a Custom Build vNext Task: Part 2

In part 1 I showed you how to scaffold a task using tfx-cli, how to customize the manifest and how to implement the PowerShell script for my VersionAssemblies task. In this post I’ll show you how I went about developing the Node version

Build

Build vNext and SonarQube Runner: Dynamic Version Script

SonarQube is a fantastic tool for tracking technical debt, and it’s starting to make some inroads into the .NET world as SonarSource collaborates with Microsoft. I’ve played around with it a little to start getting my hands dirty. Install GuidanceIf you’ve

Release Management

Release Management 2015 with Build vNext: Component to Artifact Name Matching and Other Fun Gotchas

I’ve been setting up a couple of VMs in Azure with a TFS demo. Part of the demo is release management, and I finally got to upgrade Release Management to the 2015 release. I wanted to test integrating with the new build vNext

Build

Why You Should Switch to Build VNext

Now that VNext builds are in Preview, you should be moving your build definitions over from the “old” XAML definitions to the new VNext definitions. Besides the fact that I suspect at some point that XAML builds will be deprecated, the VNext builds are

Build

Matching Binary Version to Build Number Version in TFS 2013 Builds

Jim Lamb wrote a post about how to use a custom activity to match the compiled versions of your assemblies to the TFS build number. This was not a trivial exercise (since you have to edit the workflow itself) but is the best solution

DevOps

Branch Is Not Equal to Environment: CODE-PROD Branching Strategy

Over the last couple of months I’ve done several implementations and upgrades of TFS 2013. Most organizations I work with are not developing boxed software – they’re developing websites or apps for business. The major difference is that boxed software often has more

Build

Enabling JavaScript Code Coverage Link in Builds

In a previous post I wrote about how to do JavaScript unit testing in VS 2012. The same procedure applies to VS 2013 – but the Chutzpah test adapter now allows you to run code coverage too. At the end of my post I link

Build

Error Handling Poor Man’s RunScript in 2012 Builds

Yesterday I posted about how to create script hooks in a 2012 build template. My colleague Tyler Doerksen commented and pointed out that there was no error handling in my solution. Returning Error Codes from PowerShellI knew that if I could get the script

Build

Build Script Hooks for TFS 2012 Builds

EDIT: My colleague Tyler Doerksen pointed out in his comments that my solution doesn’t do any error checking of the scripts. If your script fails, the build happily continues. I’ve added another post to show how to add error handling. One of

Build

TFS 2013 Default Build – The GetEnvironmentVariable<T> Activity

If you’ve upgraded to TFS 2013, then you’ll notice that there’s a new Default Build template. In fact, to support Git repositories, the product team moved the default template into a super-secret-database-backed-folder-you-can’t-get-hold-of-place in TFS. This means that you won’t