In some TFS 2010 work items, there is a drop down that lists the automated builds that have been run. An example field would be the “Integrated in Build” field on the Task Work Item under the Implementation tab. Even when you delete a build, the build number still shows up in these drop downs.

While playing around with the TFS 2010 RC Power Tools, I came across the global list editor, and saw that all those build numbers I had been wanting to delete where listed. After deleting a few and going back to my work items, I confirmed that they no longer showed up.

To delete the build numbers from the work item drop down lists:

1.) Get the Power Tools

Install the TFS 2010 Power Tools for your version (RC or Beta2)

2.) Open the Global List

In Visual Studio, go to Tools\Process Editor\Global List\Open Global List from Server.

3.) Delete

• Expand the root folder, which should be named “Builds – ProjectName”.
• Right click on the build and then click delete. It looks like you have to select each item individually, but it goes pretty fast.
• When you have deleted everything you want, click OK.

Even if you delete the item from the list, if you have already selected the build in a work item, the value will remain for that work item.

This is my first attempt at editing a build template in Team Build 2010. Previously I have expressed a desire to see Team Build move away from cryptic XML files and go to a GUI. Well I got my wish, but instead of cryptic XML, we get a cryptic GUI in the form of Windows Workflow foundation. Now maybe I’m not supposed to go in a edit the default build template, but that’s how I learn. I start with what I know works and start tweaking stuff.

How bad is it? Well the entire workflow will not fit on my screen at 25% zoom. Here are a couple of screen shots.

Now to be fair, the default build template allows you to configure a lot of settings using a property grid like GUI so you never have to look at the WF diagram. It’s only when you need to add additional functionality that you have to go into the land of WF. I guess I, along with Microsoft are expecting the community to step up and provide some new build templates. I also found out that if you double click on the blocks in the WF designer view, you jump “into” the block and that’s all you see.

None the less, I set about the task of modifying the default build template to execute XUnit tests instead of MS Tests. Before I go into that, let me explain why I am setting myself up for this torture. My immediate alternatives are to use a different build server, such as Team City, or to use MSTest. If I use Team City, I loose the tight integration with TFS and I do not wish to explain to people about multiple tools. If I use MSTest, I’ll still have to edit the build template to get automated deployment working, as so far I haven't seen a MS Deploy activity. I’m not sure if this is the best solution. Maybe I’ll get some feedback, but more then likely, I’ll end up borrowing someone else's solution down the road.

So what do I have to start with? The default build template has an option to scan for assemblies that match a certain naming convention (**\*test*.dll) which does match my naming convention (this pattern is also configurable in the build definition GUI under Basic\Automated Tests\Test Assembly). Looking at the log file for the build, I can see that my two test assembly projects are loaded, but no tests are executed. Once I found where in the WF sequence this was occurring, I realized I had a pretty good starting point. 

Where to Start

First I had to find where I could switch out the call to MSTest with a call to Xunit using the list of test assemblies found. It’s buried pretty deep, so keep double clicking along the following path.

• Sequence
• Run On Agent
• Try Compile, Test, and Associate Changesets and Work items
• Sequence
• Compile, Test, and Associate Changesets and Work items
• Try Compile and Test
• Compile and test
• For Each Configuration in BuildSettings.PlatformConfigurations
• Compile and Test for Configuration
• If Not DisableTests
• Run Tests
• If Not TestSpecs Is Nothing
• For Each TestSpec in TestSpecs
• Try Run Tests
• If spec Is TestMetadataFileSpec
• Run MSTest for Test Assemblies
• If Test Assemblies Found (started inserting here)
• If testAssembly.HasTestSettingsFile (deleted)

Run XUnit on all test assemblies

Since I don’t have a test settings file with XUnit, I delete the check for HasTestSettingsFile and added an ForEach with an Invoke Process activity to use the xunit console runner. So my “If Test Assemblies Found” block now looks like:

The syntax to use the console runner is xunit.console Assembly.dll /nunit <filename>, which looks pretty easy to use. To get the Xunit console on my build server, I could either add it to source control, or put it in a known location on the build server. I opted for the later because it was the easiest.

To get the XUnitPath into the build template, I created a new Argument called XUnitPath and took the easy way out by specifying the default as where I had installed XUnit. I did this because I couldn’t figure out how to get it to show in the GUI initially. You need to check your build template in and re-open the build definition. After doing this, my new argument showed up under section 4. Misc.

I then went back to my Invoke Process activity and set the file name property to my argument “variable” XUnitPath.

For the arguments, I specified item, which is the ForEach variable for the assembly, as well as an option to output the results as an nUnit formatted xml file.

Before I attempt to merge the XML results file, I need to be able to trigger my build to fail if my tests fail. In the invoke process, you can grab the output using the stdOut variable, which I did. I then added an If statement to check for the text “Tests failed”, which the XUnit console outputs to when it encounters a failed test. Unfortunately, every line output fires off my If statement, so my build log file looks a little verbose. However, this works, and after fixing my tests, my build went from partially succeeded to succeeded. 

At this point, here is what my “If Test Assemblies Found” block looks like. The Assign blocks under Standard Output and Standard error assign BuildDetail.TestStatus to Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Client.BuildPhaseStatus.Failed.

Publish XUnit results to TFS

A couple of months ago I went about integrating XUnit tests and results into TFS 2008, so I figured that those same steps would work more or less. After going down that path initially, I decided it would be cleaner to just create a new XSLT template based on the NUnit4MSBuild template that takes an XUnit results file and transforms it into a MSTest trx file directly. This cuts out an extra step in my sequence, and eliminates the need for an external dependency on nxslt3. I wrote up a separate blog post on how to Transform XUnit to MSTest. Like the information presented in this post, it’s a work in progress.

After getting the results file in a compatible format I still needed to get them published to TFS. You can use an Invoke activity to MSTest (which requires Visual Studio to be installed on your build server) to publish your results. The filename argument I used was:

"""" & System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ProgramFilesX86) & "\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe"""

and the arguments I used where:

"/publish:""" & BuildDetail.BuildServer.TeamProjectCollection.Uri.ToString() & """" & _
" /publishbuild:""" & BuildDetail.BuildNumber & """" & _
" /publishresultsfile:" & """" & item & "_XunitResults.trx" & """" & _
" /teamproject:""" & BuildDetail.TeamProject & """" & _
" /platform:""" & platformConfiguration.Platform & """" & _
" /flavor:""" & platformConfiguration.Configuration & """"

Final Thoughts and What’s Next

Well it works, but it’s what I consider to be a hack. However, I’m going to invoke YAGNI in that this is manageable given the number of projects, builds and workflow I am working with. I expect that I will have to work on this as my Greenfield project matures. I also expect that once TFS 2010 is released and more people start using it, there will be more community contributions. I would like to wrap this all up into an XUnit workflow activity, but it depends on how much extra time I have. Since this works, the next thing on my to do list is to get automated web deployments working using MS Deploy.

Right click and choose Save As:

This is part one of a two part series in how to get XUnit test results into Team Foundation Server 2010. Originally I had started out using the NUnit to MSTest transform that was part of NUnit4TeamBuild, but it left me with an extra step to perform in my build script. Since the XUnit console runner has support for adding new transform options, I figured I could write my own XSLT and eliminate the extra transform step in my build script. If I decided to move ahead with my XUnit WF activity idea, I could also reuse this custom transform for that.

Setup

First I created two test projects, one based on MSTest, the other on XUnit. From these two test projects, I can create the source (XUnit) and destination (MSTest) files and then work on an XSLT transformation. When using the XUnit console runner against assemblies compiled for .net 4.0, you have to add the following to it’s app.config file:

<startup>
  <requiredRuntime version="v4.0.20506" safemode="true"/>
</startup>

I also added a line under xunit\transforms to give me the option to use my new XSLT:

<add
        commandline="mstest"
        xslfile="MSTestXml.xslt"
        description="output results to MSTest-style XML file"/>

Transformation

I started out with the XSLT fom the NUnit4TeamBuild project, and began modifying it until the the output from it (transforming the Xunit sample results file) matched the output from my MSTest results file.

• Changes for TFS 2010
  • Updated Namespace to http://microsoft.com/schemas/VisualStudio/TeamTest/2010
  • Changed TestRunConfiguration element to TestSettings
  • Updated adapterTypeName
  • Removed CodeCoverage element
  • Added default text for computerName attribute (required to open in visual studio)
  • Removed leading \ from paths
• Changes for XUnit XML
  • Create $startDateTime variable to store start time in correct format
  • Update times element to use $startDateTime
  • Updated template secondsToDuration to show fractions of a second correctly
  • Change element references
    • /test-results to /assembly
    • /test-suit to /class
    • //test-case to //test
  • Change template getTestClassName to return className as AssemblyName.Class, AssemblyName
  • Remove template getTestName
  • Change totals to just use values in the XUnit assembly element. Executed = Total – Skipped, NotExecuted = Skip

What’s Missing

• Username: Hard coded to TeamBuildUser
• Computername: Hard coded to TeamBuildServer
• Correct Date/Time for certain attributes, like finishing times
• Stack trace info does not link on machines other then the build machine (not sure if it’s possible to fix this)
• I do not use the Name or DisplayName properties on the XUnit Fact attribute so I didn’t test or look into working with those.

What’s Next

Well, I skipped over the testing of the XSLT, which you can read about in my next post, where I modify the default build template in TFS 2010 to use XUnit instead of MS Test. I’m doing all this work for a Greenfield project, so I’m just getting things setup and working, and don’t have an extensive test library to try this out on yet.  I’m also kind of excited to take a stab at writing a WF activity for Team Build 2010 to wrap this all up into one neat little package.

The Template

Here is the template in all it’s glory. It works for my brand new project consisting of 3 tests spread across 2 assemblies which I created just for testing my build. So your mileage may very. Remember, credit for the original template which is mainly intact goes to NUnit4TeamBuild.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<xsl:transform version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
    <xsl:output indent="yes" />
    <xsl:variable name="guidStub">
        <xsl:call-template name="testRunGuid">
            <xsl:with-param name="date" select="/assembly/@run-date"/>
            <xsl:with-param name="time" select="/assembly/@run-time"/>
        </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:variable>

  <xsl:variable name="startDateTime">
    <xsl:value-of select="concat(/assembly/@run-date, 'T', /assembly/@run-time)"/>
  </xsl:variable>

  <!--Set computer name and userName once so we can re-use. Hard coded until we can get the values passed -->
  <xsl:variable name="computerName">
    <xsl:value-of select="'TeamBuildServer'"/>
  </xsl:variable>

  <xsl:variable name="userName">
    <xsl:value-of select="'TeamBuildUser'"/>
  </xsl:variable>

  <xsl:template match="/">
        <TestRun xmlns="http://microsoft.com/schemas/VisualStudio/TeamTest/2010">
            <xsl:attribute name="id">
                <xsl:value-of select="concat($guidStub,'30db1d215203')"/>
            </xsl:attribute>
            <xsl:attribute name="runUser">
                <xsl:value-of select="concat($computerName,'\',$userName)"/>
            </xsl:attribute>
            <xsl:attribute name="name">
                <xsl:value-of select="concat($userName,'@',$computerName,' ',$startDateTime)"/>
            </xsl:attribute>
            <TestSettings name="Local Test Run" id="c136642c-2e64-4f99-9ec3-30db1d215203">
                <Description>This is a default test run configuration for a local test run.</Description>
                <Deployment>
                    <xsl:attribute name="runDeploymentRoot">
                        <xsl:value-of select="//environment/@cwd" />
                    </xsl:attribute>
                    <DeploymentItem filename="C:\temp\powerlink\Trunk\Rhino\Rhino.Mocks.dll">
                        <xsl:attribute name="filename">
                            <xsl:value-of select="/assembly/@name"/>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                    </DeploymentItem>
                </Deployment>
            </TestSettings>
            <ResultSummary>
                <xsl:attribute name="outcome">
                    <xsl:choose>
                        <xsl:when test="/assembly/@failed &gt; 0">Failed</xsl:when>
                        <xsl:otherwise>Completed</xsl:otherwise>
                    </xsl:choose>
                </xsl:attribute>
                <Counters error="0" timeout="0" aborted="0" passedButRunAborted="0" notRunnable="0" disconnected="0" warning="0" completed="0" inProgress="0" pending="0">
                    <xsl:attribute name="total">
                        <xsl:value-of select="/assembly/@total"/>
                    </xsl:attribute>
                    <xsl:attribute name="executed">
                        <xsl:value-of select="/assembly/@total - /assembly/@skipped"/>
                    </xsl:attribute>
                    <xsl:attribute name="notExecuted">
                        <xsl:value-of select="/assembly/@skipped"/>
                    </xsl:attribute>
                    <xsl:attribute name="passed">
                        <xsl:value-of select="/assembly/@passed"/>
                    </xsl:attribute>
                    <xsl:attribute name="failed">
                        <xsl:value-of select="/assembly/@failed"/>
                    </xsl:attribute>
                    <xsl:attribute name="inconclusive">
                        <xsl:value-of select="'0'"/>
                    </xsl:attribute>
                </Counters>
                <RunInfos />
            </ResultSummary>
      <Times>
        <xsl:attribute name="creation">
          <xsl:value-of select="$startDateTime"/>
        </xsl:attribute>
        <xsl:attribute name="queuing">
          <xsl:value-of select="$startDateTime"/>
        </xsl:attribute>
        <xsl:attribute name="start">
          <xsl:value-of select="$startDateTime"/>
        </xsl:attribute>
        <xsl:attribute name="finish">
          <xsl:value-of select="$startDateTime"/>
        </xsl:attribute>
      </Times>
            <TestDefinitions>
                <xsl:for-each select="//test">
                    <xsl:variable name="pos" select="position()" />
                    <UnitTest>
                        <xsl:attribute name="name">
                            <xsl:value-of select="@method"/>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:attribute name="storage">
                            <xsl:value-of select="concat(//environment/@cwd,/assembly/@name)"/>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:attribute name="id">
                            <xsl:call-template name="testIdGuid">
                                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$pos"/>
                            </xsl:call-template>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <Css projectStructure="" iteration="" />
                        <xsl:if test="@description">
                            <Description><xsl:value-of select="@description" /></Description>
                        </xsl:if>
                        <Owners>
                            <Owner name="" />
                        </Owners>
                        <Execution>
                            <xsl:attribute name="id">
                                <xsl:call-template name="executionIdGuid">
                                    <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$pos"/>
                                </xsl:call-template>
                            </xsl:attribute>
                        </Execution>
                        <TestMethod adapterTypeName="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestTypes.Unit.UnitTestAdapter, Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.Tips.UnitTest.Adapter, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" >
                            <xsl:attribute name="name">
                                <xsl:value-of select="@method"/>
                            </xsl:attribute>
                            <xsl:attribute name="codeBase">
                                <xsl:value-of select="concat(//environment/@cwd,/assembly/@name)"/>
                            </xsl:attribute>
                            <xsl:attribute name="className">
                                <xsl:variable name="testClassName">
                                    <xsl:call-template name="getTestClassName">
                                        <xsl:with-param name="type" select="@type"/>
                                    </xsl:call-template>
                                </xsl:variable>
                                <xsl:value-of select="$testClassName" />
                            </xsl:attribute>
                        </TestMethod>
                    </UnitTest>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </TestDefinitions>
            <TestLists>
                <TestList name="Results Not in a List" id="8c84fa94-04c1-424b-9868-57a2d4851a1d" />
                <TestList name="All Loaded Results" id="19431567-8539-422a-85d7-44ee4e166bda" />
            </TestLists>
            <TestEntries>
                <xsl:for-each select="//test">
                    <xsl:variable name="pos" select="position()" />
                    <TestEntry testListId="8c84fa94-04c1-424b-9868-57a2d4851a1d">
                        <xsl:attribute name="testId">
                            <xsl:call-template name="testIdGuid">
                                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$pos"/>
                            </xsl:call-template>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:attribute name="executionId">
                            <xsl:call-template name="executionIdGuid">
                                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$pos"/>
                            </xsl:call-template>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                    </TestEntry>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </TestEntries>
            <Results>
                <xsl:for-each select="//test">
                    <xsl:variable name="pos" select="position()" />
                    <UnitTestResult testType="13cdc9d9-ddb5-4fa4-a97d-d965ccfc6d4b" testListId="8c84fa94-04c1-424b-9868-57a2d4851a1d">
            <xsl:attribute name="startTime">
              <xsl:value-of select="$startDateTime"/>
            </xsl:attribute>
            <xsl:attribute name="endTime">
              <xsl:value-of select="$startDateTime"/>
            </xsl:attribute>
            <xsl:attribute name="testName">
                            <xsl:value-of select="@method"/>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:attribute name="computerName">
                            <xsl:value-of select="$computerName"/>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:attribute name="duration">
                            <xsl:call-template name="secondsToDuration">
                                <xsl:with-param name="seconds" select="@time"/>
                            </xsl:call-template>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:attribute name="testId">
                            <xsl:call-template name="testIdGuid">
                                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$pos"/>
                            </xsl:call-template>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:attribute name="executionId">
                            <xsl:call-template name="executionIdGuid">
                                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$pos"/>
                            </xsl:call-template>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <xsl:attribute name="outcome">
                            <xsl:choose>
                <xsl:when test="@result='Pass'">
                  <xsl:value-of select="'Passed'"/>
                </xsl:when>
                <xsl:when test="@result='Fail'">
                                    <xsl:value-of select="'Failed'"/>
                </xsl:when>
                <xsl:otherwise>
                  <xsl:value-of select="'NotExecuted'"/>
                </xsl:otherwise>
                            </xsl:choose>
                        </xsl:attribute>
                        <Output>
                            <xsl:for-each select="./failure">
                                <ErrorInfo>
                                    <Message>
                                        <xsl:value-of select="./message"/>
                                    </Message>
                                    <StackTrace>
                                        <xsl:value-of select="./stack-trace"/>
                                    </StackTrace>
                                </ErrorInfo>
                            </xsl:for-each>
                        </Output>
                    </UnitTestResult>
                </xsl:for-each>
            </Results>
        </TestRun>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template name="substring-after-last">
        <xsl:param name="string" />
        <xsl:param name="delimiter" />
        <xsl:choose>
            <xsl:when test="contains($string, $delimiter)">
                <xsl:call-template name="substring-after-last">
                    <xsl:with-param name="string" select="substring-after($string, $delimiter)" />
                    <xsl:with-param name="delimiter" select="$delimiter" />
                </xsl:call-template>
            </xsl:when>
            <xsl:otherwise>
                <xsl:value-of select="$string" />
            </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template name="getTestClassName">
    <!--Takes type in the form of Assembly.Class and returns Assembly.ClassName, Assembly-->
        <xsl:param name="type" />
        <xsl:value-of select="concat($type, ', ', substring-before($type, '.'))" />
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template name="testIdGuid">
        <xsl:param name="value" />
        <xsl:variable name="id">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$value"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:value-of select="concat($guidStub,substring(concat('000000000000', $id),string-length($id) + 1, 12))"/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template name="executionIdGuid">
        <xsl:param name="value" />
        <xsl:variable name="id">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$value"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:value-of select="concat($guidStub,substring(concat('000000000000', $id),string-length($id) + 1, 12))"/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:template name="testRunGuid">
        <xsl:param name="date" />
        <xsl:param name="time" />
        <xsl:variable name="year">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring($date,1,4)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="month">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring($date,6,2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="day">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring($date,9,2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="hour">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring($time,1,2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="minute">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring($time,4,2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="second">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring($time,7,2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="hexYear">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$year"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="hexMonth">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$month"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="hexDay">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$day"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="hexHour">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$hour"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="hexMinute">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$minute"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="hexSecond">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="$second"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="padYear">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('0000', $hexYear),string-length($hexYear) + 1, 4)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="padMonth">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('00', $hexMonth),string-length($hexMonth) + 1, 2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="padDay">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('00', $hexDay),string-length($hexDay) + 1, 2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="padHour">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('00', $hexHour),string-length($hexHour) + 1, 2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="padMinute">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('00', $hexMinute),string-length($hexMinute) + 1, 2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="padSecond">
            <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('00', $hexSecond),string-length($hexSecond) + 1, 2)"/>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:value-of select="concat($padYear,$padMonth,$padDay,'-',$padHour,$padMinute,'-',$padSecond,'00-91c4-')"/>
    </xsl:template>

    <xsl:variable name="hex_digits" select="'0123456789ABCDEF'" />

    <xsl:template name="dec_to_hex">
        <xsl:param name="value" />
        <xsl:if test="$value >= 16">
            <xsl:call-template name="dec_to_hex">
                <xsl:with-param name="value" select="floor($value div 16)" />
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:if>
        <xsl:value-of select="substring($hex_digits, ($value mod 16) + 1, 1)" />
    </xsl:template>
    <xsl:template name="secondsToDuration">
        <xsl:param name="seconds" />
        <xsl:variable name="duration">
            <xsl:choose>
                <xsl:when test="$seconds">
                    <xsl:variable name="hours" select="floor($seconds div 3600)" />
                    <xsl:variable name="mins" select="floor(($seconds - ($hours * 3600)) div 60)" />
                    <xsl:variable name="secs" select="floor($seconds - ($hours * 3600) - ($mins * 60))" />
                    <xsl:variable name="frac" select="substring($seconds - floor($seconds), 3, 7)" />

                    <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('00', $hours), string-length($hours) + 1, 2)" />
                    <xsl:text>:</xsl:text>
                    <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('00', $mins) ,string-length($mins) + 1, 2)" />
                    <xsl:text>:</xsl:text>
                    <xsl:value-of select="substring(concat('00', $secs), string-length($secs) + 1, 2)" />
          <xsl:if test="$frac > 0">
            <xsl:value-of select="concat('.', $frac)" />
          </xsl:if>
                </xsl:when>
                <xsl:otherwise>00:00:00.0000000</xsl:otherwise>
            </xsl:choose>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:value-of select="$duration" />
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:transform>

With the release of the VS2010 Release Candidate, I went about uninstalling VS2010 beta 2 and ran into an issue. I started out by going to Add/Remove programs to uninstall VS2010 Ultimate Beta 2, but during the uninstall process, it hung at the point of running VSTestConfig_UnInstall_def. At the same time, my network adapter was set to disabled, and could not be enabled. I ended up having to do a hard reset on the machine. Upon reboot, the entry for Visual Studio was not in Add/Remove programs, however, running the setup off the Beta 2 ISO allowed me to pick up where I left off.

The VS2010 RC Readme contains instructions for uninstalling the RC, and a link to the VS 2010 B2 readme for the uninstall instructions for that version. So after uninstalling VS 2010 Ultimate, I uninstalled the remaining components in the following order:

1. Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime Beta 2
2. The .NET Framework version 4 Language Pack
   1. This was not present on my computer but included in the uninstall instructions
3. The .NET Framework version 4 Extended
   1. This removed 2 “.Net Framework 4” items from the list
   2. I was prompted to reboot and did so
4. The .NET Framework version 4 Client
   1. I was prompted to reboot and did so

At this point, I felt that I had uninstalled everything I needed to, so I proceeded to mount the RC .iso and proceed with the installation. It looks like we’ll be getting the premium edition at work when it RTM’s, so I went with that edition for the Release Candidate. I figured there is no sense in playing around with features that I won’t have in a couple of months. 

After a quick reboot during the install (happens after .Net 4 is installed), the rest of the installation went flawlessly. I fired up Visual Studio, and it did open noticeably faster for my small solution. My TDD.Net plugin for XUnit was still fully functional which I was not expecting. All unit tests passed for my Windows Service application I’ve been working on.

On the web side of things, just about everything is working, and all tests pass on my Asp.Net MVC application. The one exception is the client side Asp.Net MVC validation on my logon page. The other pages that have the client side validation work fine. I’ve tried updating the .js files from a newly created MVC project, as well as trying the Microsoft Ajax script files instead of the JQuery files. At this point I’m not going to waste any more time on it.

Next up, TFS 2010 RC install.

I just started my 3rd week of training (week 6 on my training plan) and am starting to feel fully recovered from my ruptured appendix incident. My power and endurance is still not where it was before my hospital stay, but I’m on a definite upward trend. I suffered a running injury around the area of my right knee, due to going out to long too soon. This has prevented me from doing my running workouts. I’ve been substituting in the elliptical trainer to at least get the cardio aspect. I think I’m making some good progress though, as the pain is showing up less and less, and some activities that used to bring the pain on, no longer do. We’ll see how Friday’s run goes.

As I mentioned in my year in review post, I’m training with a Powertap this year. Last year I had an iBike iAero, but was not very happy with it. The iBike power meters don’t measure power directly (and I guess the Powertap doesn’t either, but it’s a lot closer), rather it calculates all of the opposing forces working against you (wind, gravity, etc). I was never happy with the numbers I got out of it until they released a major firmware update. maybe I didn’t do the calibration correct early in the season, but I don’t have to second guess my self with the Powertap.

So what does training with power give me? It allows me to set specific goals, track progress and adjust my workouts based on the power data collected. I’m currently reading thru “Training and Racing with a Power Meter” by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan, which is the book that is always recommended on the forums. I came across another book that is supposed to be targeted towards triathletes who are training with power, and will probably take a look at that. The Allen/Coggan book has a lot of references to road racing which don’t translate directly to triathlon.

One of the first rides I did with my new Powertap was to do a Functional Threshold Power (FTP) test. I used the testing protocol in the Allen/Coggan book on my Kurt Kinetic Trainer. My result, an abysmal 190 watts. While I didn’t have the Powertap pre appendix rupture, I did have some ride files with my average speed on the KK trainer. Based on this I can tell that I dropped almost 30 watts due to my appendix, surgery and hospital stay. I’ve been hoping that I get some of this back for “free”, and with a jump in FTP of 4 watts in just one week, I think I will get some of it back for “free”. With around 7 months of training left, I’m not all that concerned right now. I know what I was able to do last year, and I’m already exceeding my weekly training volume from last year and it’s only February.

Last week I had about 12.5 hours of training, and this week I should be closer to 14, even with a busted swim session thanks to a little kid throwing up in the pool. I’d like to bump up the bike hours a bit on my training plan, and I’m working in some VO2max and threshold workouts to help make up for my current FTP. I have a very ambitious goal of raising my FTP to 275 before Ironman. I don’t know if this is a realistic goal, but you need to have something to shoot for. I will re-evaluate this goal once I can get riding outside once again.

With the power tap purchase, I’m pretty well set on all the big ticket items. I want to get a wheel cover for my rear wheel, and will probably look to rent an aero wheel for the front. I’ll go thru a couple of pairs of shoes I’m guessing, and could stand a new set of bike shoes and pedals. I may trade in the Garmin Forerunner 305 for a 310xt. The increased battery life and the ability to record power data is very nice.

I’ll also be trying various nutritional products to satisfy my race day fueling needs.  My plan is to try to be able to hit 300 calories an hour on the bike using a highly concentrated “sports” drink supplemented by gel. I’d like to be able to get 6 hours worth of calories into a single 24oz bottle, but I’m not sure it can be done. I think the long bike rides are as much about figuring out your race day nutrition as it is for fitness.

Until next time.

Scenario

Locally developed Asp.Net MVC 2 application which needs to be deployed to a remote web server. The web server, running IIS 7.5 is hosted by a 3rd party, but we have full administrative access (Virtual Machine). In order to meet our deployment needs, we will install and configure MSDeploy. MSDeploy is a new add-on for IIS 6 and above which enables the package and installation of web applications, and optionally remote deployment and administration. You can also use it to synchronize settings between web servers, for example in a Web Farm. It is the remote deployment that we are most interested in, which is built upon the packaging and installation piece. For this post I will be assuming a deployment source of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. MSDeploy ships with an API which can be used to do the deployment from say a build task on a Build Server (stay tuned for a follow-up post on that).

Installation

First you need to download MSDeploy to your remote web server and install it. Here is the direct link for the 64 bit version of MSDeploy. Other version can be downloaded from the MSDeploy website. Once downloaded, run the MSI installer and select the custom option. You need to select the IIS 6 Deployment Hanlder to get the remote deployment feature. I also select the UI Module and Management Service Delegation UI (See screen shot below). After selecting the desire components, hit next, then install.

Configuration Overview

If you had IIS Manager open during the installation, you will need to restart it. Once restarted, you can right click on the Default Web Site and you should see a deploy option listed.

Next we will be configuring some accounts and permissions for our remote deployment, following the instructions provided by Microsoft, which can be viewed in their entirety here. Following these rules we will be able to create a specific account for our application which limits our external exposure. I’m happy to see we can use the new IIS Users/Management feature instead of having to create a local or domain windows account. Here is an overview of the steps we will be doing:

1. Create an IIS Manager user account for the customer.

2. Give the WMSvc account access to the customer’s directory.

3. Configure delegation for the customer.

4. Add delegation rules for the customer.

5. Restart the Web Management Service.

6. Test the Web Deployment Handler.

Step 1 – Create an IIS Manager User

In IIS manager, select the root server level (this is usually named after the name of the computer IIS is running on, it’s the node just below Start Page). Once selected scroll down in the middle pane to the Management section and select IIS Manager Users.

• Double click on IIS Manger Users
• Click Add User from the actions list on the far right side
• Enter a username, and a strong password
• Click OK

I used the naming convention, [AppName]User, and a randomly generated password from KeePass. Once created you get additional options for managing the user, like Change Password, and Disable.

Step 2 – Grant the WMSvc account access to our directory

The Service name (as shown in the Services MMC) is Web Management Service, and is not started by default. Using the Services MMC, start the Web Management Service and set it’s start-up type to Automatic, or Automatic-Delayed.

Note the user account that the service is running under. By default it runs as Local Service. You will need to Grant the Local Service account full permissions to the targeted deployment directory. Since I’d like to look into running the Web Management Service as a lower privileged account in the future, I took the extra steps to create a local user group called MSDeplyUsers, added Local Service to it, and granted permissions to the group. This will allow me to more easily switch accounts in the future.

Before proceeding, you may need to make an additional change to your IIS server configuration. By default, the Management Service is not configured to accept remote connections. While the Web Management Service is stopped, in IIS Manager, click your top level server node on the left, and then select Management Service under Management in the center pane.

Check the box for Enable remote connections, and select a SSL certificate. I’m using a self signed SSL cert for now. I also added IP restrictions to restrict remote deployments from my office only. You can use www.whatismyip.com to determine you IP, but unless you have a static IP, you may have to come back and change this often. You will also need to add the port specified to your allow section in your firewall rules.

Step 3 – Configure Delegation

In order for our user account we created in Step 1 to have access to their folder, we need to grant permissions on the folder (or site). You can only set folder level permissions if the folder is setup as an Application.

Once you have selected the level (using the navigation tree on the left) at which to grant permissions, you can select the IIS Manger Permissions option in the central pane.

• Click on IIS Manger Permissions
• Click on Allow User on the far right pane
• Select IIS User and then select the user you created in Step 1

Step 4 – Add delegation rules

We now need to grant some specific rights to our user so they can deploy. This is done using the Management tools at the server level.

• Double click on Management Service Delegation
• Click on Add rule on the actions pane
• Select the Deploy Content Only Template (I, as an administrator will handle the configuration of the application directory and advanced configuration).
• Accept all default
  • Providers: contentPath
  • Actions: *
  • Path Type: Path Prefix
  • Path: {userScope}
  • Run As: Current User
• When you click OK, you will be asked to provide the name of a user to add to the rule. This is where you specify your user you created in Step 1.

The steps for IIS 7.5 may differ from IIS 7.

Step 6 – Restart Web Management Service

Pretty self explanatory, using the Services restart, or start the Web Management Service.

Step 7 – Test

In visual study, you need to publish your web application to your newly configured remote server. Right click on your web project and choose Publish. In the screen that comes up, select MSDeploy Publish as your Publish Method and fill in the settings to match what we did in Steps 1 – 6.

Assuming everything is setup correctly, you should be able to publish you application to your remote server. Based on the rules we setup in Step 4, this will only publish content. It will not deploy database scripts, or create the application for you (mark the folder as an application). You can follow the more detailed instructions to set this up, but I wanted to keep this simple for now.

Trouble Shooting

Nothing ever works right on the first time does it? It took me a couple of tries (by couple I mean hundreds) to get all the configuration setup on the client and server. Here are some of the errors I got and what I did to fix them:

Connection Timeout

Could not complete the request to remote agent URL 'https://Server:8172/msdeploy.axd?site=<site>'.
Unable to connect to the remote server
A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond <Server>:8172

If you get connection timeouts, make sure you can browse to the Service URL entered above in the publish web screen. If you can’t, you hosting provider may be blocking port 8172. You should at least get prompted for credentials when using a Web Browser. If using a self signed cert, you will also get a certificate warning in the browser. Finally, you should see you attempt in the Log Files for the Management Service. The default path for the log files is: %SystemDrive%\Inetpub\logs\WMSvc

Error 400 Bad Request

Remote agent (URL https://Server:8172/MsDeploy.axd:8172/msdeploy.axd?site=<site>) could not be contacted.  Make sure the remote agent service is installed and started on the target computer.
An unsupported response was received. The response header 'MSDeploy.Response' was '' but 'v1' was expected.
The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request.

This one was driving me nuts, and the fix/cause is absolutely ridiculous. Notice the two /MsDeploy.axd, one pascal cased, and the other all lower case. Now take a look at the following screen shot and compare have I have in the ServiceUrl and the example service URL provided in the same dialog.

Looks like it should work right? Nope, doesn’t work. What fixed it, changing it so that the /MsDeploy was all lower case as in https://Server:8172/msdeploy.axd. This got rid of the first MsDeploy.axd.

Error 401  

Remote agent (URL https://Server:8172/msdeploy.axd?site=Default Web Site) could not be contacted.  Make sure the remote agent service is installed and started on the target computer.
An unsupported response was received. The response header 'MSDeploy.Response' was '' but 'v1' was expected.
The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized.

The first question I had was, is the site “Default Web Site” correct? I was worried about the spaces in the name, but after reviewing the log files, the correct escape characters for a space where present. The full result code was a 401.2. I saw that my user account I created in Step 1 was being passed thru, and assumed that it had something to do with that.

I changed my credentials to an Windows Administrative account and gave that a go, and it worked. This means the service itself works, but either my authentication or authorization for the IIS user account is incorrect. If you are having problems with an administrative account, you need to make sure that you have the option enabled for Administrators to bypass rules. This is under Management Service Delegate, Edit Features. If you change this setting, you need to restart the Management Service.

When I had the Allow Administrators to bypass rules box unchecked, I got a different error message, one that said I was unauthorized to perform an action, not a 401. This led me to believe that my IIS User was suffering from an Authentication issue, not authorization.

Since the IIS Users are for management, I decided to try connecting to my Application using the IIS Management tool. Running this as a non-administrator you presented with a “empty” view. Right clicking on clicking on Start Page allows you to Connect to a Server, Web Site or Application. Selecting Application, and entering my credentials left me with a 401 Unauthorized error, confirming my belief that its a problem with the IIS User and not MSDeploy.

After playing around with the IIS settings, the IIS User account started working when connecting via IIS Manager, but not via VS. I do not believe I changed anything (without changing it back) to explain why it started working in IIS manager. The result codes when it was failing was the same 401.2 as I was getting when connecting via IIS.

For now I have to leave this as an open issue, and maybe try again on a local server.

UPDATE:

I got it working more or less. Check out the comments for what I had to do.

IIS 7 introduced the concept of the Application Pool Identity, but it was not used by default. This was changed in IIS 7.5, and it is a change I fully endorse. The Application Pool Identity is a special account that is created per application pool which adds additional process isolation between your application pools.

The tricky thing is granting permissions to this special account. The account has a fully qualified name of “IIS AppPool\ApplicationPoolName”. However I was unable to get this account to be added via the GUI. I needed to resort to the command line tool icacls, which has a grant syntax of:

icacls path /grant “IIS AppPool\ApplicationPoolName”:RX

This will add the user with “special permissions” for reading. After you do this, the account shows up in the GUI and you can go in and just check the standard boxes for read rights (Read & Execute, List Folder contents, Read). Once you check these boxes the special read permissions that were initially set are removed, and everything looks like it usually does.

For network access, the AppPoolIdentity accesses the network using the machine’s domain account which is DomainName\MachineName$. The article says that this is how NetworkService worked, and that this makes it easy to add ACLs by just granting them to the Machine Account. Maybe I am unnecessarily paranoid, but I would prefer to grant access to network resource on a per app pool basis, which most likely requires a separate domain account. However, since I do not need network access right now, I will proceed with the AppPool Identity and write a follow-up post when I need to go down the domain account path.

You can read more about the AppPool Identity here: http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/624/application-pool-identities/

I have been meaning to write this for a couple of weeks now, my year in review and what's in store for 2010. Unfortunately I ended up in the hospital with a ruptured appendix and a minor complication that kept me there for 8 days.

Year in Review
2009 was a pretty good year for me. I started competing in the sport of Triathlon, finishing well in 2 half iron distance and 2 Olympic distance events.

• Capital View Olympic Distance
• Sprit of Racine Half Ironman
• Pigman Half Ironman
• Peregrine Charities Olympic Distance

My 2009 race schedule was to get some experience before attempting Ironman Wisconsin in 2010. I am pretty set on gear, with all my major purchases completed last year, and the last big one (Power meter) I just took care of. I picked up a used Argon 18 E-114, Kurt Kinetic Indoor trainer, Nineteen Frequency Wetsuit, Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS and just ordered a Powertap SL+ system. I gained a lot of valuable experience during my 09 races, and I am excited to see how much I can improve over last year. The biggest thing I learned was that my bike volume was not high enough to support the bike effort I was attempting on race day.

On the professional side of things, I finally got off the side lines and presented at the Madison .Net User group on Sharepoint 2010. For my first presentation, I think I did an ok job and the feedback I got was mainly positive. I still need to get my free copy of resharper so I can give it one more try. Also on the professional side, I accepted a new position as a Software Engineer with a new startup called Madison Research Technologies (MRT). MRT is working on developing a technical solution to a costly problem in the health care industry. I'll be able to talk about it more once we launch the product. I can tell you that I’m using a Microsoft Stack (what else would I be using) consisting of Asp.Net MVC and SQL Server.

To end my year right, and to get me psyched for Ironman training, my body thought it would fun to put me in the hospital for a week with a ruptured appendix and a pretty serious case of Ileus. I got the NG tube passed up the nose (while awake) and didn’t get any food for almost a week. By the time I got home, I had lost 7 pounds, and no it wasn’t water weight, seeing as I was on an IV continuously.

2010

The biggest thing I have going in 2010 is my first Ironman, Ironman Wisconsin, on September 12th. I just had my first full week of training the last week in January. Since that was an “off” week, it was a good week to start back up after my little appendix issue. My FTP is down 25-30 watts, running speed is down 1 mph, swim speed is down, heart rate is up, and endurance is shot. The good news is, I know what I need to do to get back into shape. I know what I’m capable of with the mediocre training schedule i had last year, so with all the hours I’m scheduled to put in this year, I should be back on track in no time. Be sure to keep an eye on my fitness category if you want to know how I’m doing.

My new job at MRT is going very well. It’s nice to be doing a little more programming, especially with Asp.Net MVC on the web side of things. It’s a bit of a change from Terso, what with averaging 1 e-mail/day over the last 3 weeks, and I think I was the first person to schedule a meeting in Outlook. If Terso was small with 20 people, MRT is really small with only 6. Speaking of Terso, if you check out the front page of the Terso Corporate Website, you can see my wife demoing the new Terso TS032 Intelligent Cabinet. I always wanted to be married to a Model ;)

I wanted to put more effort into this post, but since it’s February already, it’s outdated already before I even post it. I hope to make up for this with some additional posts in the near future.

From time to time I have a need for a virtual com port, com port splitter, com port redirector (local and tcp),but most solutions I have found cost too much money. I’ve been able to get by using the named pipes redirection in Hyper-V for some of my projects. Yesterday I came across VSPE by Eterlogic, which offers every feature you could possible need, for FREE! There is a catch though, the 64-bit support costs $24.95, which they say is to cover the cost of the digital signing certificate required to sign their drivers for 64-bit Windows versions. I was able to try the software out on a 32 bit workstation, and it works as advertised. The next time I need something like this, and I’m developing on a 64-bit work station, I will not hesitate to purchase a license, even if it’s just for my home projects.

I’m doing a little shopping for a virtual dedicated or cloud hosting provider. I need RDP access to install what ever I need, so Azure is out for the time being. The Amazon pricing page and model was giving me a headache, but after taking a break and coming back, I figured out the correct order to click thru the various information screens and have figured it out. Bandwidth, storage and performance needs are also quite small for the time being, but I wouldn’t consider running with anything less then 2GB of ram for Server 2008, and 2 virtual CPUs is nice.

Minimum Feature Set:

• 2GB ram
• RDP connection

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is all the rage, but its still in its infancy. As such, features are missing and things are still a little rough around the edges. For true elastic computing, Amazon is the way to go (remember, I was not looking at Azure for this comparison). The reason for this is that you can not stop your instances on GoGrid without deleting them. I’m not even sure if I would consider GoGrid a cloud provider without the ability to stop running instances, they are more like an on-demand virtual dedicated provider. GoGrid does offer some advantages over Amazon. They have free inbound data transfer and hybrid hosting. Hybrid hosting allows you to use their “cloud” offering for your web front end, while you can setup a managed dedicated server with some serious hardware for your backend database.

One downside to both services is that you can’t change the specs of an instance after it is created. Since both services let you create your own images (which you have to pay to store), once you get a base machine setup, you can create an image of it and then create new instances from your own image which would cut down on time to deploy. Hopefully the ability to reconfigure an instance is a feature on the roadmaps for both services. If you are going to be doing anything more then single server setups/testing, I would recommend storing your data on the Amazon ESB or GoGrid’s CloudStorage which offers non-instance persisted storage. GoGrid gives you 10GB free, while for the same space, Amazon would charge $1/month. Remember, the ESB or CloudStorage is where you keep your images as well, so it will fill up fast if you storing Windows Server 2008 Images (which clock in around 10GB).

While for the most part, ram is ram, the compute definitions differ between Amazon and GoGrid. Amazon offers standard and hi-compute units, while GoGrid just offers more virtual cpu’s with the larger instances (more ram). In my pricing comparison, I was using standard compute size instances from Amazon, which are the equivalent of 1.0-1.2 Ghz Opterons or Xeons. On the GoGrid side, they claim that 1 compute = a P4 2.0 Ghz, so there is a bit of a difference there.

If you have a lot of variation in your load, then Amazon will beat out GoGrid just because you don’t have to run around deleting instances, you can just shut them down. If you have a constant known load, then Amazon still beats out GoGrid, as you can take advantage of Amazon Reserved pricing. Reserved pricing requires you to pay a fee up front, but you get lower per hour rates for the duration of the term, 1 or 3 years. However, I like the GoGrid management UI better then the Amazon Control Panel.

Amazon:

• 2 Small (1.7 GB, 1 compute) Front end web servers
• 1 Small (1.7 GB, 1 compute) App Server
• 1 Large (7.5 GB, 2 VCPU @ 2 compute) Database server
• Load Balancer (Costs extra) + 25 GB of traffic (didn’t increase cost)
• 25 GB inbound
• 100 GB outbound
• Price: $706

Amazon with Reserved

• Same as above but using their reserved pricing option for a 1 year term. There is a upfront cost of $1538, but I divided by 12 and added to the other monthly fee for comparison
• Price: 377.67

GoGrid

• 2 2GB (1 compute) Front end web servers
• 1 2GB (1 compute) App server
• 1 4GB (3 compute) Database server
• Load Balancer (Free)
• Free Inbound
• 100GB outbound
• Price: $652

Conclusion

I’m going to give the Small Instance a try at Amazon, just to see how it works, but will probably end up going with one of the OrcsWeb virtual dedicated servers. For what I currently need, the OrcsWeb provides an economical, and probably more important, simple solution.