A Taste of Visual Studio 2005

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A Taste of Visual Studio 2005

• David Grey

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Introduction

• In this session we will introduce Visual Studio
  2005 and its features and examine those features
  that are most relevant to CS teaching
• Class Designer
• Object Test Bench
• Refactoring
• Unit testing, static analysis and code coverage
• Source control and Team Foundation Server

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Introducing Visual Studio 2005
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Overview

• Visual Studio 2005 comes in several different
  editions
• Express editions
• Standard
• Professional (supplied in MSDN AA)
• Similar feature set to Visual Studio .NET 2003,
  plus Class Designer and Object Test Bench
• Team System editions
• Team Architect Professional edition plus visual
  distributed application and SOA design tools
• Team Developer Professional edition plus unit
  testing, code coverage, static analysis,
  profiling
• Team Tester unit testing, code coverage, Web
  load testing, test management
• Team Suite (contains all of the Team System
  editions)
• Team Foundation Server Server back-end for
  Visual Studio which offers source control, bug
  tracking and work item management, automated
  build and test, collaborative working tools

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Visual Studio Express Editions

• Completely free, stripped-down version of one of
  the technologies in Visual Studio 2005
• Designed for hobbyists and teaching
• Ideal for introductory teaching
• Simpler user interface than Visual Studio
• Software is freely available to all
• Ships with wide range of sample starter
  applications
• Express editions available
• Visual C Express
• Visual Basic Express
• Visual C Express
• Visual J Express
• Web Developer Express - supports ASP .NET
  development

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Deploying Visual Studio 2005

• Visual Studio 2005 will co-exist with Visual
  Studio .NET 2003
• Occasional errors with plug-ins registered
  against one version not working in the other
• Visual Studio 2005 will co-exist with Visual
  Studio 2005 Express editions
• Can use Express editions for introductory
  programming courses and move to full version as
  confidence in the IDE grows

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Introductory Teaching Features
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Class Designer

• Not a UML modelling tool but supports graphical
  design of classes
• Each class represented by a shape
• Methods, properties, fields and events listed
• New members can be added directly to the diagram
• Tightly coupled to source code
• Adding new members to diagram generates source
  for them
• Modifying source updates the diagram
• Good for
• Understanding relationship between classes
• Performing class-level design inside the IDE

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demo

• Visual Studio 2005 IDE
• Using Class Designer
• Adding new classes
• Adding members to classes
• Source code integration

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Object Test Bench

• Designed for simple object-level testing
• Object Test Bench can be used for
• Teaching object-oriented programming concepts
  without going into language syntax.
• Testing simple classes and their methods.
• Providing a lightweight testing tool designed for
  use on small and simple projects.
• Discovering the behaviour of a library API
  quickly.

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demo

• Using Object Test Bench
• Creating object instances
• Invoking methods
• Using other object instances

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Refactoring

• Visual Studio supports several source-code
  refactorings
• Encapsulating a field as a property
• Promoting a local variable to a parameter
• Reordering method parameters
• Extracting a block as new method
• Extracting an interface from a class
• When performing a refactoring, all affected code
  is updated
• Benefits
• Simplifies refactoring for novice programmers
• Productivity improvements for experienced
  programmers
• Allows consideration of refactoring and design
  issues without requiring large amount of language
  experience

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demo

• Refactoring with the Visual Studio IDE

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Improving Coding Skills

• Static Analysis, Refactoring and Testing

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Static Analysis

• Static analysis for .NET was previously only
  available in a 3rd party open source tool FxCop
• FxCop integrated into IDE and build process in VS
  2005
• FxCop
• Extensible, rule driven static analysis tool
• Detects known security issues and poor
  programming practices
• Suggest ways to improve code and its performance
• Customisable with configurable rule sets and
  custom rules
• Pre-defined rules based on commercial best
  practice
• Useful tool for students
• Highlights limitations of their code
• Suggests common performance and maintainability
  improvements
• Helps improve coding standards by illustrating
  differences between student code and
  commercial-grade code

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demo

• Examining code with FxCop static analysis
• Configuring FxCop
• Integrating into the build process

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Testing in Visual Studio 2005

• Visual Studio 2005 has extensive testing tools
• Team Tester version aimed solely at testers
• Unit testing tool and code coverage integrated
  directly into the IDE
• Code generation support for tests
• Other testing tools exist in VS but probably less
  relevant to general-purpose CS teaching

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Unit Testing

• Easy to generate unit tests for code by right
  clicking the class or method
• Generates one test case per method
• Attempts to write sensible basic test as prelude
  to developer writing the test properly
• Auto-generates all code required to access
  private members
• Promotes writing of tests after writing code
• Doesnt fit well with test driven approaches
• Possible to write tests manually before code to
  be tested is written but less IDE support for this

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demo

• Creating unit tests
• Test View and running unit tests

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Code Coverage Analysis

• Code coverage statistics can be generated during
  unit testing
• Configured through project properties
• Detailed statistics shown in test results
• Tested/untested code paths highlighted directly
  in source code view
• Clear visualization of what has and has not been
  tested

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demo

• Code coverage

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Team Foundation Server

• Visual Studio for Group Working

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What is Team Foundation Server?

• TFS is the server back-end for Visual Studio 2005
  which provides
• Source control and check-in policies
• Bug tracking and work item management
• Automated building and testing
• Project portal and reporting
• Customizable software methodology templates
• Supports collaborative working for software
  development teams
• Team Foundation features accessed through
• Team Explorer add-on client for VS 2005
• Sharepoint portal for each project
• Standard Office tools (e.g. Excel, Project, etc)
• Team Foundation Server releases Q1 2006
• Not available in MSDN AA

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Team Foundation Source Control

• Tight integration with IDE
• Based on SQL Server database
• Significant improvement over SourceSafe, though
  SourceSafe can still be used
• Supports complex branching and merging,
  concurrent check-out, code shelving
• Enables customisable check-in policies to be
  enforced
• e.g. code must pass FxCop analysis, defined set
  of unit tests must be passed, code reviews
  performed, etc
• Association of check-ins with work items and bug
  tracking

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Work Item Management

• Team Foundation Server enables
• Definition of work items
• Assignment of tasks to team members
• Monitoring progress on tasks
• Bug tracking, and assignment of tasks to resolve
  bugs
• Sophisticated reporting tools provided which
  provide a range of software development metrics
  and predications
• e.g. bug rates, predicted completion dates,
  overall progress and quality

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Project Portal

• TFS creates a Sharepoint portal for each project
• Accessible only to team members
• Provides access to a range of reports and
  intelligence
• e.g. remaining work, daily bug rates, overall
  quality, outcomes of automated building and
  testing
• Document libraries and other data repositories
  for information sharing and communication between
  team members
• Guidance on chosen development methodology

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demo

• Team Explorer client
• Creating a Team Project
• Assigning team members and setting permissions
• Using Team Foundation source control
• Project portal site
• Team Foundation reports

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Team Foundation and Group Working

• TFS seems ideally suited to student group
  projects
• Source control means they can adopt proper
  working practices and access source code from
  anywhere
• Work item assignment ideally suited for assigning
  tasks to group members and management of group
  projects
• Project portal and reports allow teaching staff
  to transparently monitor activity and progress on
  the project
• Portal document libraries can be used for storage
  and assessment of project documentation (e.g.
  requirements, design diagrams, etc)
• Ability to plug Web parts in to portal means it
  can be customised to any project process
• Process template can be customised to specific
  group project processes, practices (and learning
  outcomes?)

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Summary

• In this presentation we have introduced the
  various versions of Visual Studio 2005 and have
  examined
• Class Designer
• Object Test Bench
• Refactoring
• Unit testing, static analysis and code coverage
• Source control
• Team Foundation Server

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Reading and Resources

• Reading
• Hundhausen, Working with Microsoft Visual Studio
  2005 Team System, Microsoft Press, 2006