Professional Team Foundation Server

3.2. Common Build Scenarios

We spoke earlier in this chapter on the different ways projects can be built. Some organizations use nightly builds, some weekly, and some even implement a process called continuous integration, where the application is built multiple times during the day and night.

In this section, we are going to look at these scenarios, and examine some ways we can use Team Foundation Server, as well as other tools, to implement them.

3.2.1. Typical Builds

When we refer to a typical build, we are talking about kicking off a build type from within Team Explorer. We discussed how to do this earlier in the chapter. Just right-click the Team Builds folder in Team Explorer, and select Build <Team Project>. You always have the option of starting a build whenever the mood strikes you, by using either Team Explorer or the command-line tools.

For a more structured approach to building your apps, you will need to use the command-line tools, as well as the Windows Scheduler, as the next section shows.

It's worth pointing out here why you might be interested in different builds. You may want to run a build every hour that does compilations only, but no testing. This would help ensure that only code that compiles is being entered into the repository. You may then want a nightly build that, besides running the compile, does some basic testing. Finally, you may want to have a weekly build that does all of the above, but with more extensive testing.

3.2.2. Nightly Builds

A nightly ...