Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 is Here!

  • Article

Yep, it’s here (maybe the timing had something to do with //Build?)!

I’ll let you get all the tasty details via the official post, but here are my personal top highlights (and if you’re using VSO, you may have seen some of these already):

Work Item Tagging updates

Work Item Tagging allows users to further organize and categorize work items without having to do any customization (like custom fields/values, or custom queries).

For this update, we’ve rounded out this functionality by allowing you to now:

  • View and edit tags from within Visual Studio/Team Explorer
  • View and edit tags from within Excel
  • Include tags in Work Item queries

New CodeLens Indicator: “Incoming Changes”

A new indicator for CodeLens shows code changes taking place to related code in another branch.  This provides a great “heads up” to the developer that some merging may be just around the corner.

Git Improvements

The list is impressive!

  • Use the Annotate feature (aka blame) with Git
  • Amend recent local commits using Visual Studio (similar to the command line: “git amend”), as long as the commits have not yet been pushed to the TFS repository
  • Push to or pull from a selected remote repository in Team Explorer without having to use the command line
  • Roll back a commit to undo a check-in more easily
  • Monitor or cancel long-running Git operations
  • Use Ant or Maven on the build controller to build Java code managed in a Git repository (requires Team Explorer Everywhere (TEE) Update 1)

Web-based Test Case Management: Exporting Artifacts and Shared Parameters

We’ve added new capabilities to the “Test” area of TFS Web Access, allowing you to:

  • Export test plans, suites, and cases into HTML format.
  • Sharing of test case parameters

There are several other notable improvements, including:

  • Configurable Cumulative Flow Diagram start dates (on Kanban boards)
  • Updated team home page in TFS Web Access
  • Work Item Charting: Home Page Pinning and Color Customization
In addition to the official post, check out this KB article for a full list of changes.

Enjoy!