Set up TFS for ALI

For full support of TFS 2013 or 2015 as the Build Server and as the SCM Repository, the HPE ALI TFS Services must be installed on the TFS Server.

HPE ALI TFS Services installation

You must install the ALI TFS Services Installer .msi file on the TFS server. This installer file provides the server environment with all the necessary validation. The installer is part of the ALI bundle.

Caution: The ALI TFS SCM agent download contains separate bundles for TFS 2013 and 2015. Choose the bundle that supports the TFS version you are using.

After installation, HPE ALI exposes the following services:

Line Count service

Counts changed lines within commits.

Using the Line Count service with TFS

In order to configure the Line Count service to work with TFS, you need to make additional modifications.

The ALI SCM agent download for working with Microsoft TFS includes the Line Count service. The Line Count service is an extra ALI service used by the ALI-Microsoft TFS integration. This service allows ALI to get information about the number of modified lines within commits (check-ins). Without this service, ALI is unable to report on the number of changes performed. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to install this service.

After installing the services, you must configure the location of the Line Count service file (LineCountService.svc). In the Agile Manager Configuration area, navigate to the relevant SCM repository and configure the Line count service URL parameter.

For details, see the readme.txt file included in the download.
Commit Message Validation service

Ensures that commit messages are aligned with the format configured for ALI on a specific SCM repository.

In addition to the basic commit message validation service, you can optionally install the HPE ALI Visual Studio extension for Visual Studio 2013 or 2015 to validate commit messages. The extension must be enabled on the TFS project and installed on all developer machines being used to commit.
Build service

Exposes build information.

Build requirements for systems using TFS Servers

In order for your build to have full TFS support, your build job must meet the following criteria:

  • The build must have a Drop Folder defined.

  • The build must clean the workspace at the beginning of the build and all code changes must be checked out.

  • Results of the test and code coverage frameworks that were used must be stored as attachments in the *.trx and *.coverage files, respectively.

Full TFS support enables you to get the test result and code coverage results provided by ALI for your builds.

The TFS Build provider does not support the PUSH mechanism.