Chapter 16. Customizing the Build Process

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

  • Getting to know Windows Workflow Foundation

  • Creating custom process parameters

  • Reviewing standard workflow activities

  • Reviewing standard Team Foundation Server activities

  • Creating custom activities

  • Reviewing other extensibility options

As you learned in Chapter 15, Team Foundation Server includes a rich set of features for automated builds that are based on the Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 technology included in the .NET Framework. The main functionality for an automated build is included in the default build process template that is available in the standard process templates. More than likely, however, you will find yourself needing to customize that functionality, or add actions for your build process.

In this chapter, you will learn the fundamentals for working with Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0 and how to customize the build process template using the workflow designer tools available in Visual Studio 2010. Additionally, you will learn how to create custom build workflow activities that can be deployed to build machines and used by your automated builds.

INTRODUCTION TO WINDOWS WORKFLOW FOUNDATION

Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) is a framework that is included in the .NET Framework to assist with managing workflows in applications. Your team can even use it to manage workflows in your custom applications. Thankfully, a lot of the normal heavy lifting has been done by the Team Foundation Server Build developers. So, ...

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