Can Visual Studio 2008 work with Team System 2005?

Question

I would like to upgrade my team from VS2005 to VS2008 without touching the version of Team Server which is 2005.

Is that possible?

And if so, how do I tell VS to recognize TFS ? Currently in my VS2008 options menu, I don't have any source control to choose from...

Answer 1

Yes, you can... (We're doing that here too)

• Tools -> Connect To Team Foundation Server
• "Add..."
• Enter IP / hostname

Answer 2

Yes, that works fine. If you install the Team Foundation Client from the TFS 2008 DVD on your VS machine, you can connect to both TFS 2005 and TFS 2008 servers. If you don't have access to a TFS 2008 DVD (note that the trial should be fine), installing the 2005 client on VS 2008 should also work, but I've never personally tried that.

Answer 3

@Grad van Horck: Thank you. But I don't have "Connect To Team Foundation Serve" in my Tools options... What could be the cause of that?

Answer 4

Do you have the Team Foundation Client installed?

If you have the Team Version it should be residing in the TFC folder on your installation DVD. (I don't know why it isn't an option in the installer)

It is also possible to download the TFC from Microsoft (for free), there is an SP1 version on Microsoft Downloads.

Answer 5

@Grad van Horck: Thanks a lot. I'll look for it (I must have the client because our VS2005 is attached to team system)

Answer 6

VS 2008 works fine with TFS 2005. There are a couple of exceptions in the Team Build area (which changed massively between 2005 and 2008) but otherwise you will be able to do everything you need to do from the Visual Studio 2008 client.

You need to ensure that you have the 2008 version of the Team Explorer installed to add TFS functionality into Visual Studio. The 2005 version only installs into Visual Studio 2005. To download the 2008 version see the following link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0ed12659-3d41-4420-bbb0-a46e51bfca86

Note that if you have previously applied SP1 of Visual Studio 2008, then you will need to run it again once installing Team Explorer.

For what it is worth, I would encourage you to upgrade to TFS 2008 on the server side as soon as you can. TFS 2008 works fine with client connecting from Visual Studio 2005 machine but it has some significant performance improvements and the Team Build functionality is much improved.

Good luck,

Martin.