Team Build notification tool

< this tool has been updated check out here >

As we go on developing the product we frequently feel strong about doing new things around our product either to increase customer value, easy of use, flexibility or just because it can be done. Most of these are either too late to be included in the product or does not meet the criteria. Either way they serve as great samples and keep us busy.

One great example would be RSS feed for Team Foundation version control checkin notifications. Check out https://blogs.msdn.com/jefflu/archive/2005/07/27/443900.aspx. So now in addition to getting emails, you can also subscribe for RSS feeds.

Similarly for Team Build I have written a tool that monitors Team Build events and shows notifications with link to the Web UI of the Build. Currently it has the following feature

• The tool can monitor any number of Team Foundation servers and is not tied to a single server.
• It works over web services and does not need any VS installation to run. So this can be installed on your home PC to monitor if the build you fired before leaving office succedded or failed.
• It has links to the Web UI, so you can also open the detailed report in the browser and see the status.
• Poling frequency can be changed at two levels. Polling for list of builds from server and polling individual builds.
• It shows cool Office 2003 like notification over the system tray and also animated icons in the tray.

I plan to add additional features like listing all builds on the server and allowing user to specify different user name to connect to the server (required if running from home PC).