Visual Studio Tools for Git - You can't have your cake and eat it too!

Sometime last month, Microsoft released its Visual Studio Tools for Git. The tool is an extension for Visual Studio that allows source control integration with Git. It enables you to integrate Visual Studio with local Git repositories and provides tools to work with remote repositories as well.

I've recently become a big fan of Git and have begun using it to see how I can enhance my personal development workflow and see what else I can get out of it. So after hearing about the Git extension I was eager to try it out.

I had an existing project of some code samples with a git repo on my local machine. This project was also on my clients on-premises TFS 2010 server. After installing the extension, the project was immediately recognized as a Git team project and it appeared that all was well. I quickly switched to another task with the intent of orienting my self to the extension later. When I went to show the code samples from the project, I noticed that all the files were marked as read-only and VS kept prompting me to save the files with another name after making changes. Thinking the source code was still being managed by TFS, I checked the Source Control -> Environment -> Checked-in items -> Editing settings, to ensure it was set to 'Check out automatically'. To my surprise, the Environment and Visual Studio TFS settings were missing!? I realized then, there was more to it and continued with my demo by  un-checking the read-only property for each file, to save the changes before running the examples.

When I had some time to look into what had happened, I noticed that the project had been un-bound from TFS source control. After looking thru the Q&A on the extension download site I found out that you can't create a project on an on-premises TFS server that is a git repository. Apparently, a project can only be a traditional Team Foundation Version Control (TFSVC) team project, or a Git team project -- you can't have both. Which makes sense, since distributed version control is so different then centralized version control. Right now, Git team projects can only be created on Visual Studio's cloud service, tfs.visualstudio.com. The next major release of on-premises TFS will include support for Git team projects, but they are not available in TFS 2005-2012.

This is somewhat of a disappointment as I was hoping to maintain a local git repo that I could manage locally and/or remotely, while having it managed as a traditional team project simultaneously; didn't necessarily want a Git team project.

To fix it, I disabled the extension and then changed the source control using the Change Source Control command 'Bind' function. This allows a user to reestablish a source control link between a solution/project and the version store. Previous attempts with the extension enabled resulted in an error.



Start by disabling the extension and then restarting Visual Studio.



Open the project that has the git repo. You will be asked if you want to permanently remove the source control bindings from the project. Selecting either 'Yes' or 'No' does not seem to matter.



After the solution opens, you should notice that the solution is no longer under source control in Solution Explorer and Team Explorer should indicate that TFS is not the current source control provider. Also note that the Source Control menu under the File is missing. To enable the Change Source Control command you will first need to set TFS as the source control provider by either clicking on 'Change Plug-in' in Team Explorer or going to Tools -> Options -> Source Control settings.



Select Visual Studio TFS as the source control provider.



You should now see the Source Control option under the File menu. Click 'Change Source Control'



The project should be unbound. Select each Solution/Project and click Bind. Your project should now be connected.



You may be prompted by Visual Studio to check out your project from TFS.



Your files should now show that they are under source control in Solution Explorer.

For now, I'll continue using Git for Windows to manage my local repos and push/pull from GitHub. And if the project is a traditional team project on TFS, then I'll commit my changes (on TFS) and be done with it.

Professional Development of Software Developers

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As software developers, how do we get professional development? Who's responsibility is it to ensure we receive professional development?

There are many ways to get professional development. For example, you can subscribe to a video training provider like Pluralsight or get free content from Microsoft thru Channel9 or many of the training videos they offer thru their technology focused sites, like ASP.NET. There's a lot of free stuff out on the web you can search for as well. Product documentation, such as information on MSDN, books and blogs are all great sources for professional development. User group meetings, meetups, lunch-n-learns, round-tables, group discussions and mentorships are also valuable ways of getting professional development. So there's tons of ways to get professional development you just got to go out there and get it.

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold up..."just got to go out there and get it". Seriously?!

That's wrong! Well not completely. As an individual, you should express some degree of personal responsibility and ensure you are getting some sort of professional development. But the buck does not stop there. If you work for someone else or are part of a team where you have leaders above you, such as senior devs, lead developers, team managers, etc, then they have a responsibility as well, to ensure you are getting some professional development. If they're not, then they are wrong too! Bottom line here is you and your leaders share responsibility in making sure you are getting professional development.

Individual responsibilities:

• Set your professional development goals for the year. Don't just focus on technology oriented development either. Career, productivity, work-life balance are good ones too.


• Build a repository of training content; either on your computer, an external drive or thru a training provider and schedule some time throughout the month to watch them


• Join a user group or find a meetup


• Find several blogs (personal and product specific) and read them daily, if not weekly


• Attend at least one conference throughout the year


• Maintain some kind of frequency. The more you do these activities the more likely you are continue doing them

Leader responsibilities:

• Make time for your subordinates to get professional development on company time. Put it on a schedule


• Allow them to experiment and explore on thier own during work hours


• Have your subordinates show case their work on a regular basis


• Get them access to books and training material


• Host lunch-n-learns


• Have your juniors lead discussions or give talks


• Bring someone in from the outside if you don't have the knowledge and skills in house


• Start a mentorship program

I'm sure there are other things that can be done for professional development. These are the most obvious ones to me. How do you all do it? Is there a process you can share? Let me know, I'd love to here about it.