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Visual Studio Online Extensibility and Marketplace

5 posts · Feb 2013 – Oct 2022

What this trail covers

This thread tracks the evolution of Visual Studio Online (VSO) and Team Foundation Server (TFS) extensibility and marketplace capabilities. It covers the development of client libraries for .NET and Node.js, an extensibility model for the web experience, and tools for jumpstarting extension development. Recent updates include the release of a Yeoman generator for VSTS extensions, which simplifies the creation of project-level web hubs, actions, build/release tasks, dashboard widgets, and service hooks. This post announces the release of Team Explorer Everywhere (TEE) 14.0.3, which includes open-sourcing the project and joining the Eclipse Foundation, multi-factor interactive authentication for the command-line client, improved browsing of projects and repositories, and added feedback support.

All Microsoft trails
  1. Publishing extensions to Marketplace issue resolvedThe post resolves an issue where publishing extensions to the Visual Studio Marketplace required a global PAT, which could be restricted by administrator policies. The publishing process has been updated to accept any PAT with a 'Publish' scope, regardless of the global PAT restriction policy. This allows users to publish extensions even when global PAT creation is disabled.
  2. Known issue with publishing extensions: “Your ability to create global personal access tokens (PATs) is restricted by your organization.”This post details a known issue where publishing Azure DevOps or Visual Studio extensions to the Visual Studio Marketplace via the tfx-cli is blocked if an administrator has enabled a policy to restrict the creation of global Personal Access Tokens (PATs). It explains that a global PAT is currently required for CLI publishing and that the new security feature prevents this. Workarounds include asking an administrator to add the user to an allowlist for the policy or disabling the policy altogether. A long-term solution is being worked on.
  3. The fastest path to a new VSTS extensionThis post introduces the Yeoman generator for VSTS extensions, a tool that automates the creation of new VSTS extension projects. It details the prerequisites (Node.js, Yeoman, generator-team-services-extension) and the process of using the generator to create extensions that contribute web hubs, actions, tasks, widgets, or service hooks consumers. It also outlines the generated project structure, including TypeScript, NPM, and Webpack configurations, and provides abbreviated steps for publishing an extension to the Visual Studio Marketplace.
  4. Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) IntelliJ plugin now included with JetBrains Rider IDE releasesAnnounces the integration of the VSTS/TFS IntelliJ plugin into JetBrains Rider IDE releases, providing out-of-the-box support for VSTS and TFS features. The plugin is now a unified effort between JetBrains and Microsoft, with Microsoft as the provider and supporter. It offers Git and TFVC repository support, pull request creation, work item association, and build status monitoring within the IDE. The plugin is open-source and compatible with other JetBrains IDEs.
  5. Authoring VS Team Services extension with Build/Release TasksThis post provides a step-by-step guide on authoring and packaging Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) extensions that include custom build and release tasks. It details modifying existing tasks (e.g., Azure PowerShell task to support inline scripts), updating task metadata (task.json), creating extension manifests (vss-extension.json), and packaging/publishing extensions to the VSTS marketplace. The process involves modifying task execution logic (e.g., PowerShell scripts), defining task inputs and UI elements in task.json, and referencing these tasks within the extension manifest.
  7. Visual Studio Team Services announces the newest release of our Eclipse Plugin: Team Explorer Everywhere (TEE) 14.0.3This post announces the release of Team Explorer Everywhere (TEE) 14.0.3. Key contributions include the open-sourcing of TEE and its joining of the Eclipse Foundation, the introduction of multi-factor interactive authentication for the cross-platform command line client (CLC), improved browsing of all projects and source code repositories (for both VSTS and on-premises TFS), and the addition of feedback support. Other notable improvements include enhanced credential management, better debug/error logging, and fixes for issues on Linux preventing multiple users of TEE/CLC on the same workstation, and an SDK issue leaking TFS Connections.
  8. Visual Studio Online Extensibility and MarketplaceThis post announces the launch of Extensions and the upcoming Marketplace for Visual Studio Online. Extensions enable publishers to create first-class, integrated experiences within VSO by contributing to UI elements such as context menus, toolbar actions, and custom user experiences within account, collection, or project hubs. The Marketplace, launching in the fall, will allow customers to discover and acquire these extensions, evolving from the current Visual Studio Gallery and supporting IDE extensions, VSO/TFS extensions, and third-party integrations. Initial support will be for VSO, with TFS support planned for a 2015 Update. The Marketplace will also introduce commerce capabilities for publishers.
  9. Visual Studio Online Supports True Cross-Platform DevelopmentThis post introduces Visual Studio Online (VSO) as a platform supporting cross-platform development, emphasizing its openness and integration capabilities. It highlights unlimited private Git repositories, cloud-hosted code reviews with inline comments, traceability between source code and work items using agile planning and bug tracking tools, and continuous integration (CI) builds triggered by commits and code reviews. The post also details the open-source VSO build agent written in Node.js that runs on multiple OS (including Mac OS X) and supports building various languages (Xcode, C++, Java). It further mentions seamless integration with existing tools via service hooks and REST APIs, and the Team Explorer Everywhere (TEE) plugin for Eclipse. Specific features like Xcode and other Git tools connecting to VSO Git repositories, editing source files from the browser, and automating backend web services are also mentioned.
  10. Extensions for Visual Studio Online, REST APIs for TFS 2015 RC, and more from Build 2015This post announces the early preview of a new extensibility model for Visual Studio Online (VSO) called extensions, enabling integrations within the VSO web experience, context menus, toolbars, and new hubs. It also highlights the availability of REST APIs for TFS 2015 RC, allowing for cross-platform and cross-environment application development, and the availability of service hooks in TFS 2015 RC for integrating with external services. A MSDN API Sandbox is introduced for trying out VSO REST APIs with C# code samples.
  11. Testing devices made easier with Perfecto Mobile's MobileCloud™ platform and Team Foundation ServerThis post details the integration of Perfecto Mobile's MobileCloud™ platform with Team Foundation Server (TFS) to address challenges in mobile ALM. It enables development and testing on a wide variety of real devices across carriers and geographies, extending existing ALM investments to the mobile space, and facilitating efficient mobile test automation. The solution allows teams to manage Windows 8, Android, and iOS applications within TFS and test them on real devices in the MobileCloud. Benefits include continuous integration, device-agnostic testing with ScriptOnce™, exploratory testing on real devices, and scalable cloud-based unit testing. It also emphasizes collaboration, offshoring, and rich media reporting.