News
Team Foundation Server 2017 Update 1 RC Gets Personal
TFS 2017 Update 1 RC is a "go live" version, which means it's about five nines ready as it'll ever be, with more personalization features and version control, build, and cross-platform improvements across the board.
- By Michael Domingo
- 01/26/2017
Team Foundation Server 2017 Update 1 RC is released in a "go live" version, which is akin to a release-to-Web as one might expect. In a blog, Microsoft's Brian Harry highlights a number of improvements to this RC in the areas of version control, release management, and cross-platform capabilities, to name a few.
If you're keeping track of Visual Studio Team Services, it's like a parallel universe of features, as lots of what goes into VSTS is also incorporated and tested for use in TFS 2017 as those features make sense in an on-premises scenario. VSTS Sprints 110 and 111 was rolled out at the beginning of this year, and a comparison of the release notes for it are mirrored somewhat in the release notes for TFS 2017 U1 RC. Here are the highlights:
Account page: Projects, Favorites, Work, and Pull Requests now front and center; can add identity to a project; can start a project by cloning, pushing, importing, or initializing a repository
- Version control: Git repos can be imported from GitHub, Bitbucket, or Gitlab and others; pull requests now have a cherry-pick (for porting changes) and revert (for backing out changes) command, and a Restart merge option; Markdown can be used in PR descriptions
- Build, Package Management: Build definitions can be rolled back; build and release definition tasks can be versioned; Package Management supports npm and adds new release view
- Cross-platform: Able to use xcpretty formatting for xcodebuild output; new commands for testing and publishing Jenkins test and code coverage results; Xcode 8 automatic signing can be used to build Xcode projects
Harry notes that this release is available in English only, with localized versions to be made available when the code is finalized. He also notes that there will be one more VSTS sprint, numbered 112, which will contain features to be tested and rolled out before those features get incorporated into the finalized TFS 2017 U1.
About the Author
Michael Domingo is a long-time software publishing veteran, having started up and managed several developer publications for the Clipper compiler, Microsoft Access, and Visual Basic. He's also managed IT pubs for 1105 Media, including Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine and Virtualization Review before landing his current gig as Visual Studio Magazine Editor in Chief. Besides his publishing life, he's a professional photographer, whose work can be found by Googling domingophoto.