Microsoft puts its stamp on cross-platform link to ALM server

Microsoft is offering its own version of technology acquired last year that offers cross-platform access to the Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Team Foundation Server (TFS) application lifecycle management (ALM) platform.

The beta technology, based on the Teamprise software Microsoft bought from SourceGear in 2009, is called Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer 2010, said S. Somasegar, senior vice president of the Microsoft developer division, in a Thursday evening blog post.

Teamprise has enabled TFS to serve as an ALM server for multiple software platforms, including Java, Eclipse, Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X.

“This release includes the Team Foundation Server Plugin for Eclipse as well as the Team Foundation Server Cross Platform Command Line Client,” Somasegar said. “It works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and multiple flavors of Unix, providing access to the same source control, work item tracking, build automation, and reporting features that Visual Studio customers have benefitted from.”

Microsoft detailed plans to acquire Teamprise assets last year and at that time expressed intentions to update Teamprise Client Suite to work with Visual Studio 2010, the company’s software development platform upgrade due next month.

“The Teamprise products have been very popular with TFS customers who were developing applications across Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms.  Often customers want to standardize on a single enterprise-wide solution for ALM because of the cost savings and increased transparency this provides. The Teamprise technology is key in enabling cross-platform TFS access,” Somasegar said.

Code-named “Eaglestone,” the Team Explorer 2010 beta is available for download.

In the blog, Somasegar showed a TFS user story work item in the Eclipse SDK, featuring a story implementation, pending changes, work item queries organized into folders, and the Eclipse import wizard connecting to TFS to import Java source code.