As TFS runs in the background, there is always a requirement to run scheduled jobs that perform a batch operation silently in the background. The TFS Background Job Agent is used to run certain tasks that can be hooked into the TFS system and that run automatically when scheduled.
Before getting started, create a library class and name it ScheduledJobs. We need to add a reference to the following files:
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.dlllocated atC:Program FilesMicrosoft Team Foundation Server 12.0Application TierWeb ServicesBinMicrosoft.TeamFoundation.Common.dlllocated atC:Program Files (x86)Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0Common7IDEReferenceAssembliesv2.0Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.WebApi.dlllocated atC:Program Files(x86)Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0Common7IDEReference Assembliesv4.5
Once the setup is ready, let's write the scheduler logic first and later hook it into the TFS system.
We also create a new .NET 4.5 library class called TFS.ScheduledJobs and add a reference to the following files:
Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.dlllocated atC:Program FilesMicrosoft Team Foundation Server 12.0Application TierWeb ServicesinMicrosoft. TeamFoundation.Common.dlllocated atC:Program Files (x86)Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0Common7IDEReferenceAssembliesv2.0Microsoft.VisualStudio.Services.WebApi.dlllocated atC:Program Files (x86) Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0Common7IDEReferenceAssembliesv4.5
We will be writing the ScheduledJob logic inside the library class and will later hook it to the main job project to run it.
Now let's create ScheduledJob inside TFS using these simple steps:
- Create a new class called
IdCheckJoband make it inherit variables fromITeamFoundationJobExtension. Then implement the interface. This should now give you the following code:using System; using Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server; namespace TFS.ScheduledJobs { public class IdCheckJob : ITeamFoundationJobExtension { public TeamFoundationJobExecutionResult Run(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, TeamFoundationJobDefinition jobDefinition, DateTime queueTime, out string resultMessage) { throw new NotImplementedException(); } } } - Now let's implement the
Runmethod, as shown in the following code. The idea is to check every work item and then check which work items have been updated:try { TfsTeamProjectCollection tfsServer = new TfsTeamProjectCollection(GetTFSUri(requestContext)); WorkItemStore workItemStore = tfsServer.GetService<WorkItemStore>(); List<WorkItem> changedWorkItems = new List<WorkItem>(); foreach (WorkItem workItem in workItemStore.Query("SELECT * FROM WorkItems")) { if (!workItem.Title.StartsWith("#" + workItem.Id + " - ")) { workItem.Title = "#" + workItem.Id + " - " + workItem.Title; changedWorkItems.Add(workItem); } } if (changedWorkItems.Count > 0) { workItemStore.BatchSave(changedWorkItems.ToArray()); resultMessage = changedWorkItems.Count + " work item titles updated."; } else { resultMessage = "no work item titles to update."; } return TeamFoundationJobExecutionResult.Succeeded; } catch (Exception ex) { resultMessage = "Job Failed: " + ex.ToString(); EventLog.WriteEntry("TFS Service", resultMessage,EventLogEntryType.Error); return TeamFoundationJobExecutionResult.Failed; }The code selects the updated work items and updates the database with a message.
You can see that the
resultMessagevariable is also updated so that we can see the job history. - Now compile the project and place the
.dlland.pdbfiles inC:Program FilesMicrosoft Team Foundation Server 12.0Application TierTFSJobAgentPlugins. - Once the file has been successfully placed, we need to register the TFS job. To register the job, we simply write a console application and run the following code:
var tfsUri = new Uri("http://localhost:8080/tfs"); var config = TfsConfigurationServerFactory.GetConfigurationServer(tfsUri); var jobService = config.GetService<ITeamFoundationJobService>(); var jobDefinition = new TeamFoundationJobDefinition("Check WorkItem Job", "TFS.ScheduledJobs.IdCheckJob"); jobDefinition.EnabledState = TeamFoundationJobEnabledState.Enabled; jobDefinition.Schedule.Add(new TeamFoundationJobSchedule(DateTime.Now,300)); jobService.UpdateJob(jobDefinition);The code will retrieve the job that has been added as a plugin to the TFS job agent and we call
UpdateJobto service the plugin. - Once the job is registered, you can verify it using the following SQL statement:
select * from Tfs_Configuration.dbo.tbl_JobDefinition where JobName = 'Check WorkItem Job'
If you see an entry that exists in the database, this means the job is running.
- You can copy
JobIdfrom the data and selectJobHistoryto verify how the scheduled job is working, as shown in the following code:select * from Tfs_Configuration.dbo.tbl_JobHistory WITH (NOLOCK) where JobId = '62FDDA25-4938-4BF7-A7C3- 6A9BF527A20C
For instance, in my case it gives the appropriate results.
- Finally, when you want to stop the scheduled job, you can easily write a console application again to delete the job. Let's take a look at the following code:
var tfsUri = new Uri("http://localhost:8080/tfs"); var config = TfsConfigurationServerFactory.GetConfigurationServer(tfsUri); var jobService = config.GetService<ITeamFoundationJobService>(); jobService.DeleteJob(new Guid("62FDDA25-4938-4BF7-A7C3- 6A9BF527A20C"));
Here, you can see that I used the Guid to identify the job rather than using the name. The DeleteJob method will de-register the job from the TFS job agent.
TFS is hosted using IIS. There is a specific TFS job agent associated with the TFS, which runs periodically in the background to perform some batch operations. The TFS provides a plugin model to integrate your own scheduled tasks so that when the jobs are being dispatched, it can also run the user code automatically.
Until and unless the job has been deregistered, the TFS automatically picks it up and performs the tasks assigned to it.
- To learn more about the TFS Background Job Agent, visit http://bit.ly/tfsbackgroundjob