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build-process

Breakdown of TFS2010 Default Build Template

Can anyone provide links to any resources that break down the default template for the TFS2010 build process (DefaultTemplate.xaml) into it's constituent components and what they do. I know how to navigate around the workflow designer in VS2010 but to be honest it just reminds me of a huge VB6 procedural function - amazingly difficult to learn / follow when you're just starting out.

Solution

  • Paul - The "Customize your build process" section on MSDN is probably the most informative source for learning about the components of the build template. The build default template consists of activities that can be found in the Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Workflow assembly, thus you can also learn about the activities and their properties on MSDN.

    I agree that the build default template is humongous and the learning curve is quite steep. For now, one of our developers who actually has worked with customizing the build process a lot offered the following suggestions to improve the experience (#1 and #3 should help you directly in working with the default template):

    1. Apply the hotfix
    2. Refactor your process template into custom activities to reduce the size of the workflow file
    3. Use tfpt buildprocesstemplate /clean to remove the designer “junk” from the XAML to make diff easier.