Professional Team Foundation Server

3.1. Team Foundation Build Overview

In conjunction with Team Foundation Server and Team Explorer, Team Foundation Build server allows you to create an end-to-end build process. You can retrieve code from Team Foundation Source Control, compile it, run tests against the compiled code, release the builds onto a file server, update work items accordingly, and publish build reports of the information. Moreover, you can do all of this using a five-step wizard.

Team Foundation Build (or Team Build as it is sometimes referred to) uses a build engine called MSBuild. MSBuild is the new XML-based build engine of the .NET Framework 2.0, and is distributed as part of the framework. You can make use of MSBuild using Visual Studio or the command line, it's your choice. MSBuild uses XML files to help configure the build process. Team Foundation Build is a build automation tool. It follows a series of tasks to complete a build, utilizing MSBuild where appropriate to help with the process.

Let's look at the architecture that makes up Team Foundation Build, and then drill down into how we configure and run these builds, and how we can view the results.

3.1.1. Architecture

Team Foundation Build is designed to be used in conjunction with Team Foundation Server and its associated components. It's easiest to think of the Team Foundation Build architecture as broken into four distinct parts, as shown in Figure 3-1:

Figure 3.1. Figure 3-1

• Team Explorer/Team Editions—You use Team Explorer, running ...