Tech Articles


Using PowerBuilder 2017 with TFS source control


This article is a guide to connect Powerbuilder 2017 with TFS. It is important to follow the steps in the order listed in the article.

The prerequisite includes

  • PB17 installed on a local machine.
  • TFS server running with access to the user. A collection is required where the code will be checked in. 

Next follow the below points:

  1. Team explorer 2013 : Yes the first thing needed is to install Visual studio team explorer. I know the first question pop ups in mind is if Visual studio needs to be installed on every machine !! Well the answer is NO. All you need is Team explorer 2013 to access the TFS. Second question is why 2013 ? Well there comes the 32 bit and 64 bit compatibility issues, moreover there is no standalone installer for Team explorer 2015. If you figured out a way to do it with later versions, then mention it in the comments. 

Follow link https://my.visualstudio.com/Downloads?q=team%20explorer%202013

You need a Microsoft account to download Visual studio Team explorer. It's a free account and free download, Install the DVD option if it asks. Online installation sometimes causes problems if your computer has pre requisite software missing. 

  1. MSSCCI: The way it works is that PB requires MSSCCI to connect with TFS. Use the below link to download and install it :

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=TFSPowerToolsTeam.MicrosoftVisualStudioTeamFoundationServer20132015M

Make suer it is 32 bit as PB17 is a 32 bit IDE. 

  1. Add project in Team Explorer:  Open Team explorer 2013 and add project/collection from your TFS server. 
  2. Configure Powerbuilder 2017: Open your workspace in powerbuilder. Go to properties of workspace >> Source Control.
    1. In the source control  system use Microsoft team foundation server. 
    2. Provide your windows login credentials in User ID.
    3. Click on the ellipse button beside Project:. It should automatically select the project you choose in step 3. If not so then do it manually by selecting the TFS server and then server path from the popup screen. 
  3. Add to source control:  Once the Powerbuilder shows in output that source control is ready, right click on the workspace and hit Add to source control. It will ask if if multiple files are to be checked in, press OK. 

You are done with the connection ! Put down the comments mates yes

Comments (18)
Thursday, Oct 19 2017

Nice article. Would this also be applicable to PB12.6 classic?

#42
0

Monday, Oct 23 2017

Yes, It should work for 12.6 classic version and 12.5 as well. 

#43
0

Friday, Oct 27 2017

Question I have is what TFS server version do we need to use, Corp office has TFS2010 and TFS2015. will ether of these work?

#44
0

Tuesday, Oct 31 2017

Frank, I am writing a similar document for PB 12.6 with TFS2017 (server), using VS2015. I hope to share it soon. My initial recommendation for you, is to create a folder for each PBL.

#45
0

Wednesday, Nov 01 2017

TFS2015 server will work as per my knowledge since MSSCCI and team explorer i tested was for TFS 2013, which worked for TFS 2017.  

For earlier versions of TFS you test and find MSSCCI, Team explorer which are compatible with that version. 

#46
0

Friday, Dec 15 2017

Worked perfectly!

#47
0

Saturday, Jul 14 2018

Another way to use PB 2017 with TFS is to switch the repository from the legacy TFVC to Git. With recent versions of TFS the default repository is actually Git, and Microsoft recently acquired GitHub. The advantage of switching is that PB 2017 natively interfaces with Git rather than using the legacy MSSCCI interface, which gets you support for more source control features and faster performance of source control operations.

#68
1

Friday, Aug 10 2018

MSSCCI dosn't works with TFS 2018 ! Any idea how to use tfs 2018 ?!

#87
0
Friday, Aug 10 2018

Is your team explorer connecting to TFS? which version of visual studio team explorer are you using ?

I would recommend you to move from TFVC to Git as recommended by Armeen Mazda in above comment.

#88
0
Wednesday, Aug 15 2018

I'm use VSTE 2017

#92
0
Wednesday, Nov 07 2018

It doesn't work with VS2017.
You need VS2013 or the free Team Explorer 2013.
Also configure your workspace in TFS as Server workspace!

0

Wednesday, Nov 07 2018

It works perfectly on Azure DevOps also!
But only with VS2013 or Team Explorer 2013.
TFS workspace must be configured as Server workspace.

0

Thursday, Jan 03 2019

As long as you only have vs2013 or TS2013 and NOT also VS 2015 / 2017 installed it "kinda" works with the MSSCCI interface. I don't recommend it, we've had lots of problems. Have not tried Armeen's solution yet, we've gone back to "good old" VSS 2005 and are waiting for Appeon to fully support TFS natively.

0

Find Articles by Tag

SQL Migration Text Database Profile OAuth PowerBuilder (Appeon) Database Table Schema CI/CD Windows OS Debugging MessageBox TortoiseGit Excel DataType Event Database Table Data Data RibbonBar Open Source CrypterObject Export JSON 64-bit XML External Functions PowerServer Mobile Azure Variable Database Object UI IDE Window Elevate Conference iOS RESTClient Service DragDrop RichTextEdit Control Deployment BLOB Validation Filter Automated Testing Testing UI Themes REST TreeView Encryption Source Code Sort Expression Configuration Menu Icon Graph Repository Resize ActiveX Interface HTTPClient PDF SqlExecutor Event Handling Error PowerScript (PS) 32-bit JSONParser Database RibbonBar Builder PowerBuilder PDFlib Source Control C# OrcaScript License WebBrowser Bug Outlook .NET DataStore ODBC Branch & Merge Messagging Transaction TLS/SSL Git Windows 10 Icons Oracle .NET Std Framework DataWindow Class Web Service Proxy SnapObjects Syntax Application Authentication Model Import UI Modernization PostgreSQL Database Painter SDK .NET Assembly Database Table Jenkins Android Stored Procedure Export Database Connection COM Charts TFS GhostScript Event Handler OLE SQL Server JSON Design Installation PowerBuilder Compiler PFC InfoMaker Debugger Import JSON WinAPI JSONGenerator Debug Trial SOAP Array SVN Platform PowerServer Web DevOps SqlModelMapper File DLL SnapDevelop Web API Authorization PBDOM Mobile Script NativePDF DataWindow JSON API Encoding OAuth 2.0 Performance CoderObject PostgreSQL ODBC driver Linux OS