Team Foundation Server

Which UIEditors are available for Team Build by default

Jesse Houwing

Jan 16, 2013 • 3 min read

| |
| Types inheriting from UITypeEditor |

Recently I was asked to extend a Build Template for Team Build. There were a few fancy things which were required for this template, including picking files and folders in Source Control, selecting Work Items etc. I looked around the documentation on msdn.microsoft.com, but the information on the available editors is scarce and incomplete (or I didn't look good enough).

I decided to fire up NDepend to find the types I was interested in and from there I used good old .NET Reflector to look for the return type of each of them. Using this I found a few gems. All nicely marked Internal and thus hidden from view. I'm guessing this means these Editors come without support and may change without warning, but if that doesn't deter you, then read on for the complete list

First, add your Argument to the Build workflow like this:

Then open the Metadata section:

Finally, set the Editor. Use the "Name, Assembly" format, you don't need to provide a strong name key or version. That should ensure that when you need to upgrade, the Build Agent will still be able to load your Editor. For example, to get a BuildAgentSelectionEditor set the Editor value to: "Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Controls.BuildAgentSelectionEditor, Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Controls".

I'm still hoping to find an editor that allows me to select a Work Item Query, a specific Work Item, and a few others, but it looks like these use a different form of integration into Visual Studio. When I've found them I'll update this post.

Ohh and don't forget, you can use any of the existing UITypeEditors which come with Windows Forms by default!


internal
 
class
 
BuildAgentSelectionEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns string


internal
 
sealed
 
class
 
BuildNumberFormatEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns string


internal
 
class
 
BuildProjectListEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns StringList


internal
 
class
 
BuildSettingsEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns BuildSettings


internal
 
class
 
EnumPropertyEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns EnumValue


internal
 
class
 
PlatformConfigurationListEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns PlatformConfigurationList


internal
 
class
 
ServerFileBrowserEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns String


internal
 
class
 
ServerFolderBrowserEditor
 : UITypeEditor

This editor shows a folder browser for picking a folder in SourceControl.
Returns string


internal
 
class
 
TagsEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns List


internal
 
class
 
TestMetadataFileBrowserEditor
 : ServerFileBrowserEditor

Returns string


internal
 
class
 
TestSettingsFileBrowserEditor
 : ServerFileBrowserEditor

Return string


internal
 
class
 
TestSpecEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns TestSpec


internal
 
class
 
TestSpecListEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns TestSpecList


internal
 
class
 
WorkItemTypeSelectionEditor
 : UITypeEditor

Returns string