Using Git-TFS in Visual Studio 2013 Express
Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2013 Preview, and announced the availability of Git for Visual Studio and Team Foundation Service. Today, let’s go through the new experience of version control in VS 2013 Preview.
Account Creation
Microsoft provides Team Foundation Service Free Plan for up to 5 users. I’m using the service for demo in this article. If you don’t have an in-house TFS Server, you can also take advantage of it and sign up for an account here. If you need a TFS Hosting service with good customer service, you may check out Dynamsoft TFS Hosting plans.
After creating an account with Microsoft TFS Service, you will be directed to your TFS page like the one shown below. You can see two options for creating a team project. The account URL is located below “Getting started”.
Team Project Creation
Click “New team project + Git” to create a team project using Git as the source control provider.
Specify the project name and select Git for version control.
This is the page for my newly created team project. After creating the team project, we can then push the local repo to remote server.
Local Project Creation
Create a new project in Visual Studio, and do not forget to check “Add to source control”.
Choose Git as your source control system.
Now you will be able to view the changes of your source code.
Commit your code.
Right click a file in Team Explorer, you can compare version differences with syntax highlighting.
Also, checking repo history is convenient by right click.
Publish to Remote Repository
Switch to Commits.
Find Git URL on your TFS account.
Copy the URL to remote repository configuration, and click “Publish” to upload your local files to remote server.
Check commits information online.
Import Git from GitHub
Clone Git repo.
Download source code to local disk.
Double-click your repo and click “Open” to mount your project.
That’s all about how to simply use Git between Visual Studio 2013 Express and Git remote server.