Use Microsoft's TFS cloud service to manage small projects

As a good development habit, for long-term development projects, even code written by a person should also be controlled by the source code manager, and Remote Disaster Tolerance should be done well, the benefits of doing so will not be explained.

Many source code control tools are available, and SVN and GIT are popular. TFS is the best integrated with Visual Studio. TFS itself is very powerful, not just a source code management, but it is generally mainly used for personal use.

In addition, Microsoft also launched a free TFS Express version for individual or small teams. Although it is free, it is also fully functional and mainly provides the following features:

1. Source code management
2. Work Item tracking
3. Automatic Generation
4. Agile task Edition

Compared With TFS, some of its limitations are:

1. Only five or more users are allowed.
2. Only supports SQL Server Express (if you do not have it, we will install it for you)
3. It can only be installed on one server (no configuration for multiple servers)
4. Includes agile task edition, but does not include sprint/backlog planning or feedback management.
5. The TFS proxy server and the new advanced analysis add-on are not included.
6. No Sharepoint integration, no reports

Among these restrictions, except for five users, this restriction is a little more severe (when there are more users, it is estimated that others will not buy the paid version O (others _ others) O ~), The others are quite good. As a free project management tool, it is still very powerful. It can also be upgraded to the Standard Edition without loss (of course, you need to pay ). If you are interested, you can download it through the following link: Click to download.

Although the TFS Express version is already very powerful, I do not like to enable many services on the machine. I was planning to install one in the virtual machine, however, it only supports systems of win7 and later versions. It is difficult to run such systems in virtual machines. In addition, it is not convenient to perform regular backup (Remote Disaster Recovery) if used in virtual machines ), give up.

Before that, I usually use turtle SVN to manage my projects, mainly because it can directly create a folder locally as a version library without starting the service process in the background. As a code management tool, it is still very good. During backup, you only need to package the local folder and drop it to skydrive, which is very convenient.

But today I found a better option on the Coolite Blog: directly using Microsoft's free online TFS Express service, address: https://tfs.visualstudio.com.

The usage method is very simple. You can directly apply for an address (no review is required and takes effect in real time). It seems that there are no restrictions on space, which is very powerful. You can use the powerful functions of TFS without installing TFS. The only drawback is that the network speed is not very good, but it is still unsatisfactory to use it. It is to pray that the principal of the party can show mercy and leave it a way to live.

Before Microsoft's TFS service, it also provided other TFS online services. For example, CodeProject can use the TFS service. However, it is troublesome to create a project (a TFS account can create any project). In addition, its code must be open-source and private projects cannot be deployed.

Looking down in the control panel, it seems that there is no way to publish the project. Only project members can access it. It seems that it is two lines with CodePlex.

For the use of TFS, I have found two introductory articles:

1. Source code control in TFS
2. Use Visual Studio Team Explorer to manage project source code

Microsoft's own MSDN is the ultimate textbook: http://msdn.microsoft.com/zh-cn/library/vstudio/hh5004?aspx.

Finally, it should be noted that if you delete a TFS project in the control panel, you actually just hide the project (maybe you are afraid of deleting it by mistake ). The TfsDeleteProject command must be used to completely delete the file:

TfsDeleteProject/q/collection: https://tianfang.visualstudio.com/DefaultCollection "Test (project name )"

Run this command as an administrator at the VS command line prompt. Replace the field marked red with your account and project.

Supplement:

Now it supports Git management. For details, refer to Git support.