SSW TFS Smashing Barrier User Guide
In order to use the TFS Smashing Barrier control in your web application,
you need to add the references and the UserControl to your project and add
the configuration settings into the web.config,then putting/dragging onto
the page(usually the footer of the master page). Then you will be able to create new Work items (and see existing ones) from the right way around ie. the current page you are on.
Add the control into your site.master to use it on all of your pages and
begin using it to smash the barriers between your customers and your developers.
1.Setting it up 2.How
to add “SSW.Agile.URL” field for TFS 2010 project? 3.How
to use SSW TFS Smashing Barrier
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1. Create a new web project with Framework 3.5.
2. Unzip the project package.
3. Copy “References” and “UserControls” folders into the project root
folder and include them into the new project.
- a) Click “Show All Files” button in Solution Explorer.

Figure: Click Show All Files button in Solution Explorer
- b) Right click on the selected two new folders and click “Include In
Project”.

Figure: Include the two new folders into the new project
4. Add references to the listed assemblies
- Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Client.dll,
- Microsoft.TeamFoundation.WorkItemTracking.Client.dll
- Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Common.dll
- SSW.TFSSmashingBarrier.UserControls.TFSQuery.dll
5. Add the reference to the TFSQuery.ascx to the pages that you want to host this user control.
Tip: Most developers choose to put in the footer of the master page
- a) Register the user control at the top of the page (Under “ <%@ Page……”
line).
<%@ Register Namespace="SSW.TFSSmashingBarrier.UserControls"
Assembly="SSW.TFSSmashingBarrier.UserControls.TFSQuery"
TagPrefix="ssw" %> <%@ Register
src="UserControls/TfsQuery.ascx" tagname="TfsQuery"
tagprefix="ssw" %>
- b) Add the user control to the location you want to show it (referable
inside <div>).
Note: you need to include the Script Manager if you don’t
already have one on that page.
<asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1"
runat="server"></asp:ScriptManager> <ssw:TfsQuery
ID="TfsQuery1" runat="server" />
- c) Add the CSS file reference into the page Note: if you are using a Master
Page, it’s recommended to include this into your Master Page.
<link rel="Stylesheet"
href="UserControls/style/TFSQuery.css" />
6. Add the following keys to your web.config:
- Note: You are expected to change the configurations to fit to your
environment later.
<appSettings> <add key="TFSServer" value="[TFS
URL]"/> <add key="TeamProjectName" value="[Team Project
Name]"/> <add key="TFSWebAccess" value="[TFS Web Access
URL]"/> <add key="TFSUserName" value="[Username]"/>
<add key="TFSPassword" value="[Password]"/> <add
key="TFSDomain" value="[Domain]"/> </appSettings>
7. Configure the settings step by step:
- a) Replace the highlighted part to set the correct settings for your TFS.
<appSettings> <add key="TFSServer" value="http://sampledomain.com:8080/tfs"
/> <add key="TeamProjectName" value="Sample.SampleProject"/>
<add key="TFSWebAccess" value="http://sampledomain.com/tfs/web/
"/> <appSettings>
- b) Provide the credentials for your TFS,
Note: this account must have
[Project Contributor] permission on the Team Project.
<appSettings> <add key="TFSUserName" value=" username"/>
<add key="TFSPassword" value=" password"/>
<add key="TFSDomain" value="sampledomain"/>
<appSettings>
Now, you are ready to add the URL field into your TFS template.
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How to add “SSW.Agile.URL” field
for TFS 2010 project?
In order to use SSW TFS Smashing Barrier you need to add a custom field to the
Task work item type in TFS process template, so that we can
store the unique identifier of the form or webpage URL and look
it up later.
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1.Install TFS 2010 Power Tools
Before adding the new “SSW.Agile.URL” field, you need to make sure you have
TFS power tools for Visual Studio 2010 installed.
Figure: Make sure that the Power Tools are installed
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NOTE: You have to use VS 2010 (not VS2008) with TFS Power Tools to finish
the following steps, otherwise you will see the following error
message:

Figure: If you are using the wrong version of Visual Studio you will get an
error later when importing the changes to TFS
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2. Add URL field in to a TFS process template
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a) Open Visual Studio 2010 and select “Tools |Process Editor |Work Item
Types |Open WIT from Server”.
Figure: Open the Work Item from the server
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b) Select the team project you want to add the field to, and then select
Work Item Type “Task” and click “OK”.
Figure: Select the Task work item type to edit
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c) Visual Studio will open the “Task.wit” like below:
Figure: The Task would item type is open for editing
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d) Click “New” to add a new field “SSW.Agile.URL” like below, then click
“OK”:
Figure: Make sure you set “RefName” to “SSW.Agile.URL”
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e) Switch to the “Layout” tab, add a new control under Layout| Group |
Column| Group – Classification | Column:
Figure: On the layout tab you need to add a new control so the
field can be edited by someone filling out the Task
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f) Use “SSW.Agile.URL” field in the new control, choose “FieldName” and
input “Label” value
Figure: Set the “FieldName” to “SSW.Agile.Url” and input “Label”
value
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g) After completing the modification, click “Save” to update it to TFS:
Figure: Save the changes back to TFS
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h) Refresh team explorer to get the latest WIT types for the projects
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i) Open a work item type from the project to check the new “URL” field is
there:
Figure: Test that the changes have been saved
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3. Done
We now have a custom field in our Task work item type that can be used to
track web pages or form.
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How to use SSW TFS Smashing Barrier
1. Now you should be able to run the page successfully. Try to click “ Add
… “ to add a new task in TFS related to your current page:

Figure: click “Add..“ to create a new task in TFS Update the necessary
fields and save it in the new opened window
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2. Refresh the web page, you would be able to see the task in “Active
Tasks” area:

Figure: Active tasks in TFS relating to current page
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3. Find the task in Visual Studio and close it, go back and refresh the web
page again, you will see the “Closed” task in the “Completed
Tasks” area:

Figure: Completed tasks in TFS related to current page
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