February CTP for Visual Studio Update 2

Visual Studio Updates are a mechanism we are using to provide ongoing value throughout the year to our Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server customers. These updates will provide features to support the latest software trends in the market, and also offer an easy way to deploy bug fixes.  In Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 we are focusing on Modern Application Lifecycle and Modern App Development. 

The CTP Can be downloaded here:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=273878

Please let us know if you have any issues!

ALM Features in this CTP:

• Fakes now available in Visual Studio Premium
• Coded user interface testing support for Internet Explorer 10 on Windows 7
• The ability to clone test cases in Microsoft Test Manager
• Visual Studio HTML and JavaScript profiler
• Enable adding attachments to test outcomes in web based test case management
• Enable pausing and resuming test execution in web based test case management

Microsoft Fakes help you isolate the code you are testing by replacing other parts of the application with stubs or shims. These are small pieces of code that are under the control of your tests. By isolating your code for testing, you know that if the test fails, the cause is there and not somewhere else. Stubs and shims also let you test your code even if other parts of your application are not working yet.  Starting with Visual Studio Update 2 Microsoft Fakes are now part of Visual Studio 2012 Premium as well as Visual Studio 2012 Ultimate.

For more information

The ability to easily recreate a collection of test cases and their organization has been an oft requested feature-and one that we have added in the Visual Studio Update 2 February CTP.  This feature should be useful in several scenarios such as reusing test cases from sprint to sprint for agile teams or ensuring there are no regressions in servicing efforts.

This HTML and JavaScript UI Responsiveness tool (available via “Debug->Visual Profiler” in the update #2 CTP released today) is a new tool in update 2  that enables developers solve issues with UI responsiveness and latency in visual updates. The HTML and JavaScript Visual Profiler does this by presenting a holistic set of “events” (logical categorization of CPU utilization) that occurred during a period of time, which includes both application logic as well as platform behavior that occurred on behalf of your application (e.g. layout, GC, network request, image decoding time).

Web based test case management was introduced with the January CTP; the ability to pause test case execution and resume it later (even days/weeks, after reboots and even on a different machine!) was added in this latest  Visual Studio Update 2 CTP.  Another nicety of the pause and resume test case feature is if you edit a test case while paused the test case will remember and resume the version that was initially paused  - not resume the updated definition. 

Web based test case management works without install anything on the machine being tested; in Visual Studio Update 2 February CTP introduces the ability to save attachments of helpful diagnostic information from the machine being tested that will help with the fixing of discovered issues(such as screen shots).

ALM Features included in the January CTP:

1. Web based Test Case Management
2. Code Map Debugger Integration and Responsiveness Improvements
3. TDD for Windows Phone Unit Tests
4. Test Explorer group tests by Class
5. Web based version controlExplore and Compare
6. Send work items in email
7. Email work items from backlogs
8. Web version control Improvements
9. New Team Explorer Connectiondialog display multiple servers, TPCs and projects
10. Advanced SharePoint 2010 Load Testing
11. Team Foundation Server Work Item Tagging
12. Extended cross browser support in Coded UI Testing
13. Microsoft SharePoint 2013 support in Coded UI Testing
14. Test Explorer test details improvements for Coded UI Tests
15. Improvements in Windows Store Applications Unit Testing
16. Test Explorer test playlists
17. Symbol Loading improvements for IntelliTrace and Profiler
18. While not technically part of Update 2: Git as version control on Team Foundation Service