News
TFS Now Integrated with Git
In addition, kanban support has been added for workflow control.
Microsoft is adding a new Team Foundation Server project to the popular code repository Git.
Called "Git-tf", the offering merges centralized repository functionality with the collaborative nature of TFS. Microsoft announced Git-tf in a blog entry today by Team Foundation Server technical fellow Brian Harry. Git-tf is a set of command-line tools that "make it easy to clone sources from TFS, fetch updates from TFS, and to update TFS with changes committed locally in Git," according to a press release.
One key aspect of the new project is that it's cross-platform. Harry acknowledged that a similar project, called Git-tfs, has existed for some time. The difference is that Git-tfs is a Windows-only solution, while Git-tf is Java-powered and works on Windows, Mac and Linux. (Harry mentioned that Microsoft talked to the owner of Git-tfs, to make sure they weren't going to step on any toes. Apparently, Git-tfs has no designs to expand beyond Windows, so Microsoft felt there was a need that it could address.)
The current version of Git-tf is available only for Team Foundation Server, the on-premises implementation. Harry said that support for the cloud-based version of TFS, with the slightly modified name of Team Foundation Services, will be coming soon. The compatible versions of TFS include 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Git-tf, a small download at just over 12 MB, is available in the Microsoft download center.
In related TFS news, Microsoft announced a new kanban board for Team Foundation Service.
Kanban is a process management technology that adds visualization to project backlogs in TFS. It's similar to Scrum, but Microsoft touts it as a complement to Scrum -- a way to visualize Scrum backlog items.
Harry, who also wrote the blog about kanban, demonstrated how it can alert developers to issues with functions like a cumulative flow diagram, which allows drilling down on various projects' status. The kanban board, in this iteration, has four "states": New, Approved, Committed and Done. All four states are tracked, and warnings (such as header color changing to red) for items that are getting behind.
Much like Git-tf, kanban is in the developmental stages, Harry reports. "...in the spirit of Build-Measure-Learn, we want to know what enhancements you want to see." He notes, for example, that the ability to add, change and remove states has been deleted. But not to fear: customizable states are coming, Harry states.
You can sign up for a kanban account here.
About the Author
Keith Ward is the editor in chief of Virtualization & Cloud Review. Follow him on Twitter @VirtReviewKeith.