Forward Compatibility Update

Imagine a hell where you’re forced to use VS 2008 in 2011. Such is my life right now. It’s not all bad, however, because we’re implementing TFS 2010. I discovered some nuances getting Team Explorer 2008 to work with TFS 2010.

The standard steps are these:

1. 1. Install Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (VS 2008 SP1)
2. 2. Install the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010 (Installer)

Easy enough. Here are the nuances.

Unable to connect to this Team Foundation Server

To connect to TFS, you have to use the full URL as the server name. If you don’t and you just use the server name, you’ll get this:

TFS31002: Unable to connect to this Team Foundation Server.

Possible reasons for failure include:
- The Team Foundation Server name , port number or protocol is incorrect.
- The Team Foundation Server is offline
- Password is expired or incorrect

Solution

So, instead of using “SERVERNAME” as the server name, include the full URL which by default would be:

http://SERVERNAME:8080/tfs and you should be able to connect with no problem.

Unable to switch servers at this time. The Team Explorer is busy.

In addition to this annoying error (you’ll get it for each Team Project you choose), work items are not available in Team Explorer. WTF! This happens when you include a "/” at the end of your URL.

Solution

Remove the forward slash from your server’s URL and badda bing, it work’s like a champ. A big thinks to “Uglybugger” for posting this fix here.

Works: http://SERVERNAME:8080/tfs

Doesn’t work: http://SERVERNAME:8080/tfs/

Hopefully this helps someone, although I can’t imagine there are many people left on this planet still using VS 2008.

Happy Coding,

Tom Hundley