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Creating An Entire Team Project System
Looking For Team Foundation Server 2008 Tutorials? Go here.
Looking For TFS 2008/SQL Server Scripting? Go here.
Looking For TFS 2008 Deleting A Team Project? Go here.

Purpose
The purpose of this tutorial is to demonstrate how to create a Team Project System (Distributed Systems - System Design). Within that system (which represents a digital asset, in this case a website) we will include a few sections of that website (a forum section and a articles section) as separate application blocks; this is to allow each application, which may have many webpages, to be modified independantly of the other application(s) in the Team Project System (which is our website). Finally, I will demonstrate how simple it is to bind an external web service to one of the application blocks.

I will not be going into any type of detail with regard to application programming, (1) it is not needed in order to establish a working Team System with applications using Team Architect 2008, and, (2) the intent of Team Architect 2008 is more of a system management tool (hence "architect"), rather than a tool that programmers would use on a daily basis. The only exception to this is when I will show you how to have programming code automatically generated to serve as a starting point for programmers, when they become involved.

The Tutorial Example
Let's say you are presented with the visual chart shown in Figure 1 below and asked to get the ball rolling (you've got to create everything from scratch using Visual Studio 2008 / TFS 2008 / Team Suite 2008 / Team Architect 2008 and then get programmers involved). In the simplified example, you can see (1) two websites are involved, (2) your website (system) will be comprised of two separate applications, and, (3) the forum application will be connected to a web service external to your website, through the Internet to the other website.

Tutorial Example For Team Architect 2008 of Team Suite 2008 with Visual Studio 2008 and TFS 2008
Figure 1: Chart Scenario


Let's translate this simplified chart into a complete, interoperable system using Team Architect 2008, that can be passed on to programmers.

STEP 1

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  1. Under "File" select "New Team Project"
STEP 2

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  1. Specify an appropriate name for the project
  2. Click the "Next" button
STEP 3

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  1. Select process template to use
STEP 4

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  1. Specify a name for the team project. This will be visible in areas such as the Team Explorer and the Source Control Explorer
  2. Provide a concise description for the team project
STEP 5

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  1. Now that the team project has been created, the actual solution where our work will be done needs to be created
  2. Under "File" select "New Project..."
STEP 6

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  1. Under "Project Types:" select "Distributed Systems"
  2. Under "Templates:" select "System Design"
  3. IMPORTANT: Notice "Add To Source Control" is checked. This allows source control to be enforced.
STEP 7

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  1. Select the team project the solution will be filed under
STEP 8

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  1. At this point the solution will be created and you will see the system diagram
  2. To help keep things visually separate, I renamed the system title from "Test 3 System Design" to "WebsiteSystem"
  3. To add the forum web application, right click on the system diagram
  4. Click on "Add" from the popup menu
  5. Click on "Application" from the popup menu
  6. Click on "ASP.NETWebApplication" from the popup menu
STEP 9

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  1. Right-click on the box that appears
  2. Click on "Rename..." from the popup menu
STEP 10

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  1. Rename the member something intuitive
STEP 11

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  1. The member is renamed
  2. Notice the rename is reflected under "Applications" of the system view
STEP 12

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  1. Under the application design, right-click on the member
  2. In the popup menu select "Implement Application..."; you do not need to necessarily do this step now, but I do
STEP 13

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  1. You will see a confirmation stating some properties will become read-only basically (I've not yet experienced a scenario where this would be a problem)
  2. Click on the "OK" button for implementation to occur
STEP 14

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  1. Upon examination of the solution explorer, you will see that Visual Studio has automatically create the initial structure and base code (such as default.aspx) for you
  2. If you are more knowledgeable with .Net and building applications, you may want to add other .aspx pages at this time as needed
STEP 15

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  1. As you can see, an SDM is created for you as well
STEP 16

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  1. After switching back to the system diagram, right-click on it to bring up the popup menu so the second web application (articles) can be added
  2. From the popup menu select "Add"
  3. From the popup menu select "Application"
  4. From the popup menu select "ASP.NETWebApplication"
STEP 17

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  1. The web application is created with it's default title, which will be changed shortly
STEP 18

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  1. Right-click on the box
  2. From the popup menu select "Rename..."
STEP 19

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  1. In "Member Name:" enter the new name for the web application
  2. Click the "OK" button
STEP 20

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  1. You will notice that the web application has been renamed
STEP 21

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  1. Under the application design tab, right-click on the web application box
  2. From the popup menu select "Implement Application..."
STEP 22

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  1. As you had seen before (with the forum application), you will need to confirm that you want to complete the implementation process
STEP 23

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  1. Upon examination of the solution explorer, you will see that Visual Studio has automatically created the initial structure and base code (such as default.aspx) for you
  2. If you are more knowledgeable with .Net and building applications, you may want to add other .aspx pages at this time as needed
STEP 24

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  1. Now we'll focus on adding the external web service to the forum web application
  2. Under the system design tab, right-click in the area
  3. From the popup menu select "Add"
  4. From the popup menu select "Application"
  5. From the popup menu select "ExternalWebService"
STEP 25

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  1. You will see the "Add Web Reference" window
  2. In the URL area, provide the full path to the web service
  3. If the web service is recognized, a list of web service calls will become visible
  4. If you are satisfied, click on the button labeled "Add Reference"
STEP 26

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  1. The external web service box should now be added
  2. We will want to rename it (so from the solution view window, for instance, we can easily see it as an entity that belongs to something else)
STEP 27

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  1. Right-click on the external web service box
  2. From the popup menu select "Rename..."
STEP 28

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  1. Rename the external web service
  2. In this case, it was renamed to "Forum_WebService" to indicate that it was a web service, but also it could be assumed to be related to the forum application
STEP 29

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  1. We can do a "quick view" of what Visual Studio recognized from the web service by clicking on that little circle you see on the left side of the external web service box
  2. Below, in the "Web Service Details" box a list of expandable web service calls will be exposed
STEP 30

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  1. It is a very simple process to connect the external web service to the forum application (a connection needs to be made so that the forum application can interact with the external web service)
  2. To make the connection, click and hold on the circle and drag it to the forum application box and then release
  3. Notice (from looking at the solution explorer), Visual Studio will automatically setup the web service primitives into the forum application for you automatically; this includes generation of the .disco and .wsdl files
  4. Is that painless or what?
STEP 31

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  1. Now it's time to clean up and organize the application design window (you can see that it is a bit jumbled up)
STEP 32

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  1. Reorganize the content as you see fit
STEP 33

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  1. If you would like to re-orient the path of lines you can actually grab and drag individual lines forming a connection or you can left-click and hold over the forum application connection and drag it around the forum application box
STEP 34

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  1. Need to make sure you've got the most up-to-date data pertaining to that external web service? You can right-click on the external web service box here and from the popup menu select "Refresh External Web Service"
  2. Is that painless or what?
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