Build Customization using Visual Studio 2010

 Visual Studio 2010 RTM released yesterday (April 12th) and we are excited about the new features it brings with it. In this article, we will explore the new features and functionality in Visual Studio 2010 for Build Management and Customization. Microsoft has provided lot of new features and functionality with Visual Studio 2010 for Build Management and Customization. Let me list some of those new features first.1.    The process uses workflow foundation based workflow as an engine to execute build. It has xaml based process templates. There is a graphical interface provided with which we can customize the existing process. There are 3 templates provided in the box, namely DefaultTemplate.xaml (normal process template), UpgradeTemplate.xaml (if you already have build definition created with Visual Studio 2005 or 2008) and LabDefaultTemplate.xaml (to be used for builds with lab management).2.    Using these templates, there can be multiple definitions created for builds. Each will defer upon various parameters like what is trigger for build, where to drop the build executables and log files, what items to build, which controller is responsible for build etc.3.    A trigger named ‘Gated Check-in’ is provided so as to avoid build failure because of a problem in code. In Gated Check-in, the pre-defined build gets executed at the time of every check-in and the check-in is successful only if that build is successful. This trigger can be normally incorporated as a part of agile methodology. In this methodology, an application feature is completed first and only then the check-in is done. So we can provide build for each check-in (continuous integration) and check whether the build is a failure or not.4.    As a part of the build report, we can get a list of impacted tests (the tests which need to be run again because of some change in code). This can avoid regression. 5.    We can see all the results of code coverage with the summary provided with build.The default workflow for build definition is as follows :

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