Hands-On LabGetting Started with Git using Team Foundation Server 2013Lab version: 12.0.30723.00 Update 3

Last updated: 9/10/2014

CONTENTS

OVERVIEW................................................................................................................................................. 3

EXERCISE 1: GETTING STARTED WITH GIT..........................................................................................4

EXERCISE 2: GIT BRANCHING AND MERGING....................................................................................22

Overview

In this lab, you’ll learn about Git support introduced in Team Foundation Server 2013 and Visual Studio 2013. Git is a distributed version control system. Git repositories can live locally (such as on a developer’s machine) and can now be hosted by Team Foundation Server. You will learn how to establish a local Git repository, which can easily be synchronized with a centralized Git repository in Team Foundation Server. In addition, you will learn about Git branching and merging support.

Prerequisites

In order to complete this lab you will need the Visual Studio 2013 virtual machine provided by Microsoft. For more information on acquiring and using this virtual machine, please see this blog post.

About the Fabrikam Fiber Scenario

This set of hands-on-labs uses a fictional company, Fabrikam Fiber, as a backdrop to the scenarios you are learning about. Fabrikam Fiber provides cable television and related services to the United States. They are growing rapidly and have embraced Windows Azure to scale their customer-facing web site directly to end-users to allow them to self-service tickets and track technicians. They also use an on-premises ASP.NET MVC application for their customer service representatives to administer customer orders.

In this set of hands-on labs, you will take part in a number of scenarios that involve the development and testing team at Fabrikam Fiber. The team, which consists of 8-10 people, has decided to use Visual Studio application lifecycle management tools to manage their source code, run their builds, test their web sites, and plan and track the project.

Change log

For Update 3:

Now creating the new website using the ASP.NET Web Application wizard

Added note about CodeLens features for Git

Screenshot updates as necessary, other minor edits

Exercises

This hands-on lab includes the following exercises:

1. Getting Started with Git

2. Git Branching and Merging

Estimated time to complete this lab: 30 minutes.

Exercise 1: Getting Started with Git

In this exercise, you will learn how to create, clone, and push commits to a Git repository with Team Foundation Server 2013.

1. Log in as Julia Ilyiana (VSALM\Julia). All user passwords are P2ssw0rd.

2. Launch Visual Studio 2013 from the taskbar and open Team Explorer. You should now be connected to the FabrikamFiber team project. If you are not automatically connected to the

FabrikamFiber project, select the Connect to Team Projects button ( ) to do so.

Figure 1Connecting to Team Explorer - Home

3. There are a few reasons why Fabrikam Fiber might want to use Git as their source control option within Team Foundation Server. One reason could be that they are collaborating with developers using a tool such as Xcode, which supports the Git protocol natively. Another reason could be that they have developers working offline (such as during a commute) who want to commit code locally when they are offline and check this code into Team Foundation Server

when they get into the office. Microsoft now offers teams the ability to utilize Git without sacrificing the integrated application lifecycle management capabilities offered by Team Foundation Server. Visual Studio 2013 also provides developers with a great experience for working with any Git repository – whether it’s hosted by Team Foundation Server, a local repository, or another Git provider.

4. Select File | New | Team Project from the main menu.

5. Name the new project “FabrikamCommunity” and then select the Next button.

Figure 2Creating new team project

6. Select the Next button to accept the default process template.

Figure 3Creating new team project

7. Select the option labeled “Do not configure a SharePoint site at this time” and then select the Next button.

Figure 4Creating a new team project

8. Select the Git version control system and then select the Finish button.

Figure 5Creating new team project backed by a Git repository

9. After the new Git team project has been created, select the Close button to return to Visual Studio.

10. Select the Connect to Team Projects button.

Figure 6Location of Connect button

11. Right-click on the FabrikamCommunity project node and then select the option to Clone.

Figure 7Cloning the repository

12. Accept the default endpoint and repository location and then select the Clone button.

Figure 8Clone repository to local folder

13. In Team Explorer – Home, select the Settings tile.

Figure 9Project settings

14. Select the Git Settings link.

Figure 10Git settings

15. Enter an email address for Julia (julia.ilyiana@vsalm) and then select the Update button.

Figure 11Setting email address

16. Select the Home button in Team Explorer.

Figure 12Navigating home

17. Create a new work item for the product backlog by selecting Team | New Work Item | Product Backlog Item from the main menu.

18. Enter a title of “Create new web site” and then select the Save Work Item button. Take note of the ID once the work item is saved.

Figure 13Creating new Product Backlog Item

19. In Team Explorer – Home, select the New… link underneath the Solutions section.

Figure 14Creating a new solution

20. In the New Project window, select the Visual C# | Web template node and then select the OK button.

Figure 15Creating new web site

21. Select the MVC template, de-select the option to “Host in the cloud”, and then select the OK button.

Figure 16Creating a new web site

22. In Team Explorer – Home, select the Changes tile.

Figure 17Viewing changes

23. Scroll down the list of included changes to the end and note that .gitattributes and .gitignore files were automatically added to the project. The .gitattributes file contains various settings to control Git behavior whereas the .gitignore file specifies patterns and extensions to ignore when detecting changes.

Figure 18Included changes

24. Enter a commit message of “initial MVC site for work item #247”. If the Product Backlog Item that you saved has a different ID, use that number instead. Typing ‘#’ followed by the work item ID will automatically link the commit to the work item when pushed to the server.

Figure 19Entering a commit message

25. Commit the changes by selecting the Commit button. Note that the commit is persisted locally and is not shared with the server.

Figure 20Committing changes locally

26. Let’s make a small change to the web site. In Solution Explorer, open the _Layout.cshtml file from the Views | Shared folder.

Figure 21Opening _Layout.cshtml

27. Modify the title as shown in the following screenshot (from “My ASP.NET Application” to “Community”).

Figure 22Modifying markup

28. In Team Explorer – Changes, enter a commit message and then select the Commit button. Save changes to files when prompted.

Figure 23Entering a commit message

29. Navigate to the commits view by selecting the Unsynced Commits link.

Figure 24Navigating to commits view

30. The Team Explorer – Unsynced Commits view shows both incoming and outgoing commits. Here we can see the two local commits that are ready to be pushed to the server.

Figure 25Outgoing commits

31. Select the Sync button to perform both a pull and a push to ensure we have the latest source before pushing our updates.

Figure 26Synchronizing with the server

Figure 27Synchronizing with the server

32. Finally, let’s take a quick peek at what these commits look like in the web portal. In Team Explorer – Home, select the Web Portal link.

Figure 28Launching web portal

33. Select the Code tab in the web portal.

Figure 29Navigating to Code

34. Select the Commits tab to see the two commits. Note that the relative size of the commits (in terms of number of modified files) can be determined by viewing the size of the circles rendered to the left of the commits.

Figure 30Commits view

Note: It may take a few moments after pushing a commit before the commit size indicators show up. You can refresh the page if necessary.

35. Select the link associated with the first commit.

Figure 31Selecting the first commit

36. Note that the “Create new web site” work item is linked to the commit. Select the link to open the work item.

Note: It may take a few minutes before the work item gets linked to the commit. In the event that the link has not been made yet, go ahead and continue on with the rest of the lab.

Figure 32Viewing linked work item

Figure 33Viewing linked work item

Exercise 2: Git Branching and Merging

In this exercise, you will learn about Git branching and merging support in Visual Studio 2013. In general, branching is often used to help switch development contexts and to isolate risk. Git branching is no different in that regard. Create a Git branch is a lightweight (and therefore fast) operation, as you are

simply creating a new reference to an existing commit. This is very different from Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) branching where the entire source tree needs to be duplicated server-side. We will also take a quick look at the merging support for Git projects.

1. Return to Visual Studio and open Team Explorer – Home.

2. Select the Branches tile.

Figure 34Branches tile

3. Let’s say that we would like to create a new branch to do some development work on the web site. Select the New Branch dropdown, enter a name of “Development”, and then select the Create Branch button. In this case, the new branch will be based off the master branch.

Figure 35Creating new branch

4. Note that the new branch was created locally and has not been published to the server. You can create as many branches as you want locally, and you do not have to be online with TFS in order to do this.

Figure 36New local branch

5. In Solution Explorer, open the HomeController.cs file from the Controllers folder (if not already open).

6. Modify the About method as shown in the following screenshot.

Note: Update 3 now provides CodeLens support for Git repositories. This provides author, change and work item indicators that work very similarly to their Team Foundation Version Control counterparts. Unlike the CodeLens support for TFVC, CodeLens for Git is computed solely on the client side. This means that you can use the feature for any Git repository, whether it is local, cloned from TFS Git, for even cloned from GitHub or another Git source.

Figure 37Modifying source code from new branch

7. Select the Changes link in Team Explorer - Branches.

Figure 38Changes link from the Team Explorer - Branches view

8. Enter a commit message of “dev version” and then select the Commit button. Save changes when prompted.

Figure 39Commit changes

9. At this point, the changes have been committed locally. In the Team Explorer – Changes window, select the Branch dropdown and then select the master branch.

Figure 40Switching between branches

10. After switching to the master branch, note that original version of the HomeController.cs file is automatically shown in the code editor window.

Figure 41Switching between branches

11. You don’t have to publish the branch to the server yet if you want to continue working locally. As you saw in the previous exercise, you can continue to work locally and add additional commits to the new branch. In Team Explorer – Branches, right-click on the Development branch and select View History.

Figure 42Viewing history for local branch

Figure 43Source history for selected branch

12. When you are ready, you can delete the branch, merge it back into your master branch, or push it to the server-side repository so that teammates can access it. Let’s go ahead and publish the branch by right-clicking the Development branch and selecting the Publish Branch option.

Figure 44Publishing branch

Figure 45Successful publication

13. You can easily switch between branches by double-clicking on the branch nodes in Team Explorer – Branches. Go ahead and switch back to the Development branch (double-click on branch).

Figure 46Switching between branches

14. Now let’s say that another team member makes a modification to the HomeController.cs file and commits that change to the master branch, before Julia has a chance to merge in her development changes.

15. Switch users and log in as Adam Barr (VSALM\Adam). All user passwords are P2ssw0rd.

16. Launch Visual Studio 2013 from the taskbar.

17. Select the Connect to Team Projects button from Team Explorer – Home.

Figure 47Connect to team project

18. Select the Select Team Projects… link.

Figure 48Connect to team project

19. Select the FabrikamCommunity team project and then select the Connect button.

Figure 49Connect to team project

20. Double-click on the FabrikamCommunity project shown in Team Explorer - Connect. Note that the Git project has a special icon.

Figure 50Connect to team project

21. Clone the repository using default options as you did in the first exercise.

22. Open the Git Settings from Team Explorer – Settings as you did in the first exercise and add an email address for Adam. The email address that you use does not matter for the purposes of this demonstration.

Figure 51Setting up Git email

23. Double-click on the MvcApplication1.sln solution shown in Team Explorer – Home.

Figure 52Open solution

24. Modify the same HomeController.cs file that Julia did, but this time change the text to be something different.

Figure 53Modifying web page title

25. In Team Explorer – Changes, enter a commit message of “Adam’s version” and then select the Commit button. Save changes when prompted. Note that Adam has committed changes to the master branch.

Figure 54Commit changes

26. Select the Sync link.

Figure 55Sync changes with server

27. Select the Sync button.

Figure 56Sync button

28. Switch users once again to log in as Julia.

29. From Julia’s perspective, she has so far created a local branch based off the master, made a change to a file, and then published that branch. Julia would like to go ahead and merge her Development branch back into the master branch.

30. In Team Explorer – Branches, select the Merge dropdown.

Figure 57Merging Git branches

31. Select Development as the source and Master as the target. Select the Merge button to start the merge process.

Figure 58Merging Git branches

32. Note that the Master repository is currently selected and that HomeController.cs shows the development version of the text. The merge was performed locally by updating the Master branch to point to the latest commit of the Development branch.

Figure 59Merge completed locally

33. Right-click on the Master branch in Team Explorer – Branches and select the View History… option. The history view should look identical to the one you saw earlier, except this time both the Development and Master branch designators (in red) point to the same commit.

Figure 60Merge completed locally

34. Still unaware of Adam’s change that he pushed to the Main branch earlier, Julia will now attempt to push her commit. Select the Unsynced Commits link.

Figure 61Navigating to Unsynced Commits view

35. Select the Sync button to attempt a pull and a push with the server.

Figure 62Synchronizing with server repository

36. Visual Studio reports that we can’t push our commit yet due to a conflict.

Figure 63Conflict between two different commits

37. Select the Resolve the Conflicts link.

Figure 64Resolving conflicts

38. In the Team Explorer – Resolve Conflicts view, select the HomeController.cs file listed under the Conflicts section.

Figure 65Resolving conflicts

39. Select the Merge button.

Figure 66Starting manual merge process

40. The Merge window used for Git conflict resolution is very similar to the one used with Team Foundation Version Control. We will go ahead and assume that Julia’s change is correct, so check the box shown in the top-right pane.

Figure 67Merge window

41. Select the Accept Merge button.

Figure 68Merge window

42. Select the Commit Merge button.

Figure 69Commit the resolved merge

43. In the Team Explorer – Changes view, note that conflicts have been resolved but the merge still needs to be committed. Enter a message and then select the Commit button. Save changes when prompted.

Figure 70Commit the resolved merge

44. Select the Unsynced Commits link.

Figure 71Unsynced Commits

45. Select the Sync button to finish the merge process.

Figure 72Syncing with server

46. Select the Web Portal link in Team Explorer – Home.

Figure 73Opening the Fabrikam Fiber web portal

47. Select the Code tab.

Figure 74Navigating to Code view

48. Select the Commits tab to view all commits pushed to the repository.

Figure 75Commits view

49. Select the Branches tab to view all branches published to the repository.

Figure 76Branches view

50. Finally, let’s take a quick peek at managing security and permissions for Git repositories hosted in Team Foundation Server. Select the FabrikamCommunity dropdown and then select the Manage Repositories link.

Figure 77Managing repositories

51. The first thing to note is that you can create additional Git repositories within the same team project.

Figure 78Option to create additional Git repositories

52. Select the FabrikamCommunity repository node.

Figure 79Navigating to repository node

53. You can manage repository level security here for your users and security groups.

Figure 80

Managing repository security

54. Select the Master branch node. Security level settings that affect only the currently selected branch can be made here, providing fine-grained control for your repository if needed.

Figure 81Managing branch security

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