What does TDS do?
TDS gives you the ability to keep track of all the Sitecore items in your project, and be able to see who changed what in a Source Code Management System. Using TDS, you will improve the control and overall performance of the team, by giving you all the features and functionality of any modern Source Code Management System.
Having everything in a Source Code Management System gives you one master repository for the project.The Source Code Management System becomes the master and central integration point of all the code and Sitecore items for a team. Even if you are a team of 1, using a Source Code Control system is the smart way to work, and provides many benefits, including:
- Complete accountability and audit trail for all changes to all Sitecore items and .NET code in a project.
- All of your Sitecore items and code are stored in a single repository, meaning backups are easy to do, making your work safe.
- Developers can work remotely or disconnected from the network and then sync and merge changes at a later date to the source code control system.
- You can easily compare versions of items and code.
- You can rollback to prior versions if there is a problem.
- You can easily merge changes.
- Branching and other advanced source code management techniques can be leveraged.
TDS helps new developers on a team get up to speed quickly by creating a new clean Sitecore environment, getting latest from the Source Code Management System and then deploying to Sitecore. They also have to ability to easily see what other team members have been doing by reviewing the check in comments.
Without TDS each developer is dependent on coordinating and then packaging up changes with the entire team. We have even seen partners go so far as design their projects so that developers each work in separate areas of a project to reduce possibilities for collision. This is not the optimal way to work.
We really believe that TDS will change the way the Sitecore projects are developed, and that TDS will become the standard Best Practices methodology for Sitecore development.
What are the Sitecore and system requirements?
Team Development for Sitecore has been fully tested with the following:
Visual Studio: 2008 or 2010
Source Code Control Systems: Team Foundation Server, and Subversion, but will also work with any Microsoft compliant source control system.
Sitecore: Version 6.0.1 and higher. The Update package feature in TDS 2.0 requires Sitecore 6.1 or higher.
How do I configure Team Development for Sitecore to connect to other Sitecore databases?
As of version 2.1 of Team Development for Sitecore, you can create a separate TDS project for each database you wish to connect to. Simple add a new TDS project to your solution, right click on the project name, select properties, and then on the General tab specify the Sitecore database you wish to connect to. By default, the Master database is selected.
What is the Hedgehog Development Sitecore Connector (HDSC)?
The Hedgehog Development Sitecore Connector (HDSC) is a custom web service designed by Hedgehog Development to allow Team Development for Sitecore to directly manipulate Sitecore Items. The connector uses a GUID to prevent undesired access to the service. The connector operates in two modes; Development and Deploy Only.
In Development mode, the connector is installed permanently in the Sitecore installation. This is done by CHECKING the Install Sitecore Connector checkbox on the Build tab of the property page. This allows the developer to use the Sitecore connector to sync with the Sitecore database and to browse item templates at any time.
In Deploy Only mode, the connector is installed at the start of a deployment and removed when the deployment completes. This is done by NOT CHECKING the Install Sitecore Connector checkbox on the Build tab of the property page. This allows only a small window where the connector is available on the server. Additionally, a new random GUID is chosen at the start of every deployment.
What are File Replacements?
File replacements allow the deployment of environment specific files when the TDS project is built. This is useful for files holding connection strings or application settings that may vary from environment to environment. The file replacement tab can push individual files or folders. The source location can be an absolute path or a path relative to the project selected as the web application project.
By allowing for file replacement during builds, TDS allows environment specific configuration files to be placed under Source Code Control.
What is the Recursive Deploy Action?
During deployment, TDS may find items in Sitecore that are not in the project. If TDS determines that those nodes do not belong in the Sitecore database (See Child Item Synchronization), TDS will use the Recursive Deploy Action to resolve the issue. There are 3 possible options:
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Ignore Sitecore Items not in the Project: This is the default when a project is created. When this is selected, TDS does nothing to the unknown items.
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Delete Sitecore Items not in the Project: TDS will delete nodes under an items marked for child synchronization (See Child Item Synchronization). They are permanently removed from the database.
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Move Sitecore Items not in the Project to the Sitecore Recycle Bin: TDS will move nodes under an items marked for child synchronization to the recycle bin (See Child Item Synchronization).
What is the Child Item Synchronization property on the Item property page?
This property controls how items are handled during a Sync operation and a Deployment. There are possible values for this property. They are NoChildSynchronization, KeepAllChildrenSynchronized and KeepDirectDescendantsSynchronized.
During Synchronization the property values work as follows:
NoChildSynchronization: Only the current item is checked for changes. This is the default when adding single items to the project.
KeepAllChildrenSynchronized: All descendants under the current items are checked on Sitecore. If there are items on Sitecore not in the project, those nodes are added to the sync window automatically as children of the current items. The user will have the option of adding them to the project. This is the default when a node is added recursively to the project.
KeepDirectDescendantsSynchronized: Works like KeepAllChildrenSynchronized, but only the direct descendants of the item are checked.
During Deployment the property values work as follows:
NoChildSynchronization: Only the current item is deploy to Sitecore
KeepAllChildrenSynchronized: When the node is deployed to Sitecore, the deployment process checks for child nodes in Sitecore which are NOT in the project. If nodes are found, the Recursive Deploy Action setting is used to determine the desired course of action.
KeepDirectDescendantsSynchronized: This behaves the same as KeepAllChildrenSynchronized, except that child nodes are not checked.
What is the Item Deployment property on the Item property page?
This property controls how items are pushed to Sitecore during a deployment. The two possible settings for this property are DeployOnce and AlwaysUpdate.
AlwaysUpdate: The contents Item in the project will always overwrite the values in Sitecore. This is the default. This is typically used on Items that are not considered to be content.
DeployOnce: The Item will be created if it doesn’t exist on Sitecore. If the Item exists in Sitecore, it will not be changed. DeployOnce is typically used to help setup the initial content tree, but once users begin entering and altering content, those nodes are left alone.
How do I work with multiple TDS projects in a single solution pointing at the same Sitecore server?
To do this in the development environment, the Sitecore Web URL, Sitecore Deploy Folder and Sitecore Access GUID must be the same across all TDS projects. Also, Install Sitecore Connector must be checked for all projects. All of these values can be set for each project in the Build property page.
If you change the value of the Sitecore Access GUID for any project, you must change all projects to match the new value. After the property pages are saved, you must right-click on a TDS project in the solution explorer (It doesn’t matter which one) and choose Install Sitecore Connector. This will update the connector with the new GUID, which will allow all TDS projects to communicate with Sitecore.
In the production environment, the Install Sitecore Connector can be left un-checked, since this environment is deploy only. When the deploy runs for each TDS project a new GUID will be chosen for each deployment.
How does Sitecore talk to Visual Studio?
Sitecore and Visual Studio communicate with each other via the Sitecore Connector. See the question: What is the Hedgehog Development Sitecore Connector (HDSC)? above for more details on the Sitecore Connector.
How do I get all of my Sitecore items into Visual Studio and source control?
Can I use TDS to bring my content into Source Control?
This is something we strongly discourage as it isn't what TDS was meant for. TDS was meant to handle developer controlled items, not content. Sitecore is designed to manage the content including revision history. With that said, content is like any other item, and therefore can be brought into your SC system using the sync with Sitecore functionality.
Can I exclude items that are in TDS when deploying, for example some test content that I have?
Yes. There are two ways of doing this.
First way:
- In the TDS project explorer select the item that you want to exclude. Right click, and choose properties, or alternatively press F4.
- In the property window, click on the Exclude Item From property; press the dropdown button in the right-most portion of the property value area for Exclude Item From.
- Click the check box next to the configuration name you wish to exclude the item
Second Way:
- In the TDS project explorer select the item that you want to exclude. Right click, and choose Deployment Property Manager (DPM)
- The DPM shows the Sitecore item you selected along with all items under the selected item. In the Current Config column, there will be two values: Include or Exclude.
- Clicking on a value under Current Config will allow you to change that value.
- Selecting a different configuration in the Solutions Configuration dropdown will change the Include/Exclude values under Current Config to match the selected configuration.
Note:
- Excluding an item from a configuration will exclude all children of that item.
- Including an item in a configuration will include all parents of that item.
- A solution configuration may use a project configuration with a name that is different than the solution configuration. Please use the Configuration Manager window to manage this.
If I exclude items for a configuration that creates an update package, will those items be in the update package created by that configuration?
No. This allows developers to create update packages for specific environments, where different items are included in each package.
I installed TDS but do not see TDS Project project type when creating a new project?
By default TDS wants to install the project templates (TDS Project.zip) in the My Documents folder on your c: drive.
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Templates\ProjectTemplates
The My Documents folder redirection seems to be something that Visual Studio has a problem with. When the My Documents folder is moved, the visual studio paths do not get updated. Ben Hall a UK C# developer wrote an interesting blog post on this
If you have installed it in a different direct, you should make sure that the Visual Studio User Project Template Location setting in Visual Studio is pointing to the desired location.
- In visual studio go to Tools>>Options
- Under the Projects and Solutions highlight the General settings
- Locate the Visual Studio user project template location: verify that this path is correct. It should be
- Path to directory\Visual Studio 2008\Templates\ProjectTemplates
- Click okay when you are done and now you should see the TDS Project Template when you try to create a new project.
Also, please note that if you are running Visual Studio in Safe Mode, none of your add-ins will load.
Does TDS support renaming, deleting and adding items in Sitecore?
Yes. TDS has full support for the renaming, deleting and adding of items in your Sitecore project.
There are some limitations when syncing items where the items has been moved and/or renamed. A sync point must be chosen that contains the original position of the item and the new position of the item as subfolders. e.g. given the following folder structure:
If ItemToBeMoved was moved to Folder 2, you must choose to sync from ParentFolder. If you choose to sync from either Folder 1 or Folder 2 TDS will think the item has been either added or deleted (Depending on the folder you choose), and will not treat the operation as a rename.
How do I include extra files in an update package?
You can leverage the "File Replacement" features of TDS. This feature will allow for you to configure individual files as well as entire directories to be included in the package.
Please see attached sample project.
Does TDS support items with duplicate names in Sitecore?
No. Duplicate item names are not currently supported by TDS. The reason for this lays in the basic difference in the way Sitecore stores items, and the way the Windows file system stores names. Sitecore stores items based on a GUID. Every item has a unique ID, and therefore the name is irrelevant to Sitecore. The windows file system on the other hand stores items on the name, and therefore cannot support having two items with the same name in the same folder.
I am getting this error message: Exception The maximum message size quota for incoming messages (16000000) has been exceeded. To increase the quota, use the MaxReceivedMessageSize property on the appropriate binding element. (CommunicationException)
You are probably trying to bring large file size content into your source control system. This is something that we discourage. If you have to do it, you can modify the maxBufferSize values in this file:
(64 bit system)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Hedgehog Development\Team Development for Sitecore\HedgehogDevelopment.SitecoreProject.VSIP.dll.config
(32 bit system)
C:\Program Files\Hedgehog Development\Team Development for Sitecore\HedgehogDevelopment.SitecoreProject.VSIP.dll.config
What does this exception mean:An exception occurred while updating the Sitecore item /sitecore/path. The maximum size of data has been exceeded. Current data size: 2,739,200 bytes. Limit according to license: -7,455,744 bytes. Emptying the Recycle bin might help.
This means that your Sitecore License is expired or missing.
I have created a second TDS project to handle my CORE database. How should I set up the deployment settings?
For the 2nd TDS project you should do the following:
- If you are using a .user file for the 1st project, then copy that to the 2nd TDS project's location.
- The "Source Web Project" setting should be left blank. This will prevent building twice and allow you to leave the "Deploy" folder blank.
- The settings in the configuration manager can be the same.