Hi everybody,

I need to know how we can connect VWD 2005 express to Team foundation server. Can we download team explorer separately somewhere and install it in VWD or is there an express edition of the team suite somewhere or something else? Any help is greatly appriciated.

devmetz

There is no "Express" edition of the Team Foundation Client. You can download the Team Client 2005 from http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/a/d/2ad44873-8ccb-4a1b-9c0d-23224b3ba34c/VSTFClient.img and Team Client 2008 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0ED12659-3D41-4420-BBB0-A46E51BFCA86&displaylang=en. I don't think that it will integrate with the VWD Express.  However, you will still need a client access license to access TFS.

I tried it yesterday and it didn't work. Client access license? wow !!!

VWD Express is primarily intended for personal or small project use. It does not support TFS integration. For serious team work you either need TFS client license and/or full version of VS.

Actually, we were just trying to enable one of our testers to check in, check out web test files (Selenium) from TFS. She doesn't need full blown VS just to do that. That would be waste of available resources. So, we were trying to do this as cost effectively as possible. Fortunately, we had a CAL. We are using that with source control explorer to check in check out files now. Any better cost effective way? would really appriciate other valuable suggestions.  

Actually, that's perfect ... all she needs is the Team Foundation Client. That should be with the CAL - and it is on the Visual Studio 2008 Team Edition DVD's. The client will allow her to use source control as well as create and update work items (bugs) ... both in the Team Foundation Client and in Excel. TFC will have the Visual Studio shell, but it's the shell only ... none of the developer tools. You don't have to install any of the Express editions to use it.

There is also the option of using the web client, but I think it'll be somewhat slower when it comes to downloading the latest version.