How to create an adapter for the TFS Integration Platform - Part I: Introduction
Note: This post is part of a series, and you can find the rest of the parts in the series index.
Since September 2009, I have been engaged in an ALM Rangers project—the TFS Integration Platform. It is:
The TFS Integration Platform is a project developed by the Team Foundation Server (TFS) product group and the Visual Studio ALM Rangers to facilitate the development of tools that integrate TFS with other systems. Currently, the scope of this project is to enable TFS to integrate with other version control and work-item/bug-tracking systems, but the eventual goal is to enable integration with a broader range of tools/systems (e.g., build). This platform enables the development of two major classifications of tools: those that move data unidirectionally into TFS, and those that synchronize data bidirectionally.
So, in short, it is an integration system, like BizTalk or SSIS—but specially built for version control and work items. I haven’t said "TFS" here because it can work to migrate between other source control and work-item systems provided adapters exist. Adapters are the logic that allows the TFS platform to connect to a variety of technologies, and my goal has been to build two of them—one for SharePoint lists and one for SharePoint document libraries.
You may have noticed that SharePoint isn’t a version control or work-item system, so why integrate? Well, lots of companies do use it for ALM-related items, such as lists for tracking work items and document libraries to store content that should be in a source-control system. This is the first post in a series that will give you an idea of what’s involved in building adapters, show you what to avoid, and—hopefully—give you a few laughs at my expense.
Now, I want to be clear: this series will not cover the usage of the platform or any of its core concepts. For those, see the links below—particularly Willy-Peter’s blog. You do need to understand a bit about how the platform works before attempting to build your own adapter.
As all my work was done for the ALM Rangers, the source code for my adapters is included in the code, which can be obtained from the CodePlex site.
To help you along, let’s list a few key links:
- MSDN home page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/bb840033.aspx
- CodePlex Project home page: http://tfsintegration.codeplex.com
- Willy-Peter Schaub’s blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/willy-peter_schaub/
- MSDN Forums for the Platform: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/tfsintegration