Oh TFS... OData Service for TFS v2 beta released (with a companion Windows 8 app too)

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Oh TFS... OData Service for TFS v2 beta released (with a companion Windows 8 app too)

Brian Keller - OData Service for Team Foundation Server v2

Today we are releasing the beta of the OData Service for Team Foundation Server v2 along with a sample Windows Store application

The purpose of this service is to help developers work with data from Team Foundation Server on multiple device types (such as smartphones and tablets) and operating systems. OData provides a great solution for this goal, and has been embraced by numerous developers for building great device-specific applications. OData is accessible from any device and application stack which supports HTTP requests.

The OData service interacts directly with the TFS client object model, and will work with CodePlex, Team Foundation Server 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2012.

TFS Dashboard for Windows Store
My colleague Nisha Singh built a Windows Store application – TFS Dashboard – using this OData Service. All of the source code is available for the application which can be downloaded alongside the OData Service. This is a sample which you can extend and customize yourself to learn more about how to consume the OData Service in your own applications. Nisha has more information about this application on her blog where she will be sharing additional information soon about how she implemented the Live tiles, Search and Share features supported by WinRT APIs.

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I should make it clear that this is not an official release from the TFS engineering team. The TFS engineering team has reviewed the service and approved of the approach we are taking, but there is no official support for this service. That said, all of the source code is provided for you, the license permits you to use it in production and extend it for your own purposes, and we are interested in (but not committed to) continuing to add capabilities over time.

Will this work with Team Foundation Service?
Not currently, although we are very excited about this possibility in the future. We are working on a release which work with Team Foundation Service but I do not have a timeline to share at the moment. More details will be posted as an update to this blog post when it is available.

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Microsoft Downloads - OData Service for Team Foundation Server v2 Beta

This sample allows you to expose an OData service for Team Foundation Server (2010 and 2012). This service can make it easier to build applications for a multitude of devices which consume or manipulate data stored in Team Foundation Server.

Version: 2.0 Beta
Date published: 1/7/2013

Language: English

ODataForTFS.V2.Beta.exe, 25.3 MB

TFSDashboardBeta.exe, 1.4 MB

The purpose of this project is to help developers work with data from Team Foundation Server (2010 and 2012) on multiple device types (such as smartphones and tablets) and operating systems. OData provides a great solution for this goal, and has been embraced by numerous developers for building great device-specific applications. OData is accessible from any device and application stack which supports HTTP requests. This OData service interacts directly with the TFS client object model. To get information about the OData service, please visit Brian Keller's blog.

The download also includes a Windows 8 Store App sample. TFS Dashboard is a sample Windows 8 Store App that connects to Team Foundation Server. The TFS Dashboard App currently implements the Live tiles, Search and Share features supported by WinRT APIs. This App is primarily built to get users thinking towards building great Windows 8 App Store Apps, and to provide as an example for how to consume the OData Service for Team Foundation Server. Please visit Nisha Singh's blog for more information about the App.