Where can I find detailed Information or a "How To" about connecting HelpStudio3 with TeamFoundationServer 2010? When I open the HelpStudio Options -> Source Control -> Connection and select "Generic MSSCCI Provider" the List MSCCI Provider is empty! I have already installed - Visual Studio Team Foundation Server MSSCCI Provider.msi (April 2010) and - tfpt.msi (PowerTools for TFS 2010)

 I see no one has replied to your request. I've always had to do some bit of maneuvering to get HelpStudio to agree with TFS. We recently moved to TFS 2010 and when I first opened HelpStudio, I was somewhat distressed thinking that it just wasn't going to work with TFS 2010.

I think I now have it talking to TFS 2010, though I haven't worked with it much. I have VS2008 installed on the machine that Help Studio is on. Before it would do anything with TFS 2010 I had to install the "Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010". You have to install this to get VS2008 working anyway.

Once I installed that, Help Studio seemed to connect to TFS 2010 (using the same url you have to use in VS2008) and was much happier. My projects were not connected any more (remember we came from TFS 2008). I basically had to remove them (using VS 2008, be careful TFS will delete your local copies) and add them back in (in Help Studio). Help Studio still complained and didn't connect the project up, although it did put it into source control. I ended up having to open the project from source control, after that everything seemed to work.

In retrospect, you might not have to delete the project and add it back in. You may be able to hook it up by opening it from source control, but I didn't think of that until after. Also, it might work fine if VS2010 is installed on the same machine, I didn't try that either.

Good Luck.

Bill

Thank you for your Information, but it doesn't help me much. If you read my previous entry carefully you will notice that the problem is one step before the one you described.

The problem is the lack of the right Source Control Provider. Before I can enter the Information about the TFS Server there should be the appropriate Source Control Provider in the list but it is not. There is only "Generic MSSCCI Provider". With this selected I can't type in any connectioninformation or there is nothing to select from the shown combobox.

When I install the MS Visual SourceSafe client I can selct MS VSS as a Source Control Provider and then there are textboxes and a combobox where I can enter the connection properties.

I have installed "VS2010 Ultimate" on the mashine, I installed "TFS 2010 Powertools" and "MS Team FoundationServer MSSCCI Provider April 2010".

But it doesn't help.

Sorry I was only trying to help. My bad. Perhaps if you install VS2008 the selection will be there. I don't think HelpStudio has been updated to be compatible with VS2010. I did install 2010 on that machine after my post, it didn't add anything to the source control providers. I don't know if the order that the items are installed matters, pretty sure I would have installed VS2008, then HelpStudio. Notice that I am talking about VS2008 being the key, not VS2010.

As I said I have it working. I answered your post because it was the only thing I found on HelpStudio and TFS2010. If you don't find it helpful, maybe someone else will.

Good luck.

Bill

Does this mean VS.NET 2008 needs to be installed, even though I am not using it (note: I am using VS.NET 2010)?

Question to Innovasys: when will it be possible to connect HS 3 to TFS2010 without the VS.NET 2008 overhead?

EDIT: I installed VS Team Explorer 2008 only, and then I was able to connect to TFS in HelpStudio.  

For me that wasn't a problem. I need VS2008 for several things still. Team Explorer seems like a good way around it.

Hopefully Innovasys is converting this help system to .net. Maybe 2010 integration will be in there. In the meantime we have a way to work around it. I can think of a lot of things that would be worse (like not working at all).

Later... Bill

I'm wondering why Innovasys haven't responded to this simple request

Could it be that Help Studio 3 doesn’t support TFS 2010 and the seamless integration they talk about in the literature is just marketing spin?

Come on Innovasys pull your finger out - first it was no support for SubVersion now it seems you don’t support Team Foundation Server

I might have to suggest our documentation team use a different solution

When is full compatibility with this product going to be available? MM/DD/YYYY

 

Adding direct support for TFS 2010 is not a trivial change and is something we will be adding to the next major version of HelpStudio which is currently in development. We don't have any release dates on that as yet - we'll be posting in the forums with more information as soon as practical.

In the meantime, the backward compat pack that Microsoft released enables integration with TFS 2010 from HelpStudio. The integration experience with the backward compat pack installed is the same as for TFS 2008 so is a good interim solution.

That sounds wonderful!

You mention 'the backward compat pack that Microsoft released' will solve all of our problems...

Could you perhaps provide a link, or a more detailed description?

(So I don't start thinking this is something you've just imagined!)

What I am referring to is what Bill mentioned in his earlier post - "Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010".

Current download and description url is http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=cf13ea45-d17b-4edc-8e6c-6c5b208ec54d&displaylang=en. Those kind of Microsoft urls have a habit of changing but if they do a google search should easily lead you to the download page.

That download is basically an addon for the Team Foundation Server 2008 Team Explorer client to enabling working against a TFS 2010 server. This enables the TFS 2008 support in HelpStudio to work with a TFS 2010 server.

So let me get this straight - Your solution is to install:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
  
• Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010

Even though this is a machine belonging to a member of the documentation team and they do not do development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visual Studio 2008 is *not* required and I don't think anyone has suggested that it is. Team Foundation Explorer 2008 (the client component of Team Foundation Server 2008) only is required.

Silly me - When I read on the download page

 

The Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is a required prerequisite to install this update. 

 

So just to clarify we neet to download the 387.4 MB ISO - mount and install:

 

Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Explorer

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=0ed12659-3d41-4420-bbb0-a46e51bfca86&displaylang=en

 

Then download

 

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (Installer)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=FBEE1648-7106-44A7-9649-6D9F6D58056E

 

And then

Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=cf13ea45-d17b-4edc-8e6c-6c5b208ec54d&displaylang=en

And that's it?

Yes, that's correct.