Visual Studio Online. What is it and what does it eat with?

    Visual Studio Online, based on the capabilities of Team Foundation Server, is an online space for your development projects. Quickly set up your cloud infrastructure without having to install or configure any servers.

    What IDEs can I use with?
    - Visual Studio Online connects to Visual Studio, Eclipse, Xcode, and other Git clients, which allows for support for cross-platform development.

    Each Visual Studio Online account provides free five users. As the group grows or needs grow, connect and match user plans and resources to give each user exactly what he needs. Visual Studio subscribers with MSDN can join projects in accounts with up to five free users.



    Host code in the cloud
    Host code in the cloud to access it anytime, anywhere. Use Team Foundation Version Control, a traditional centralized version control system, or use the Git repositories if you prefer a distributed approach.



    Create private source code repositories in the cloud
    No matter how many developers you need to support (3-5 people or several thousand), you can manage the source code in the cloud using advanced branching, federation and visualization technologies.

    Choose source control using Git or TFVC
    Use the source control model that suits you best: a distributed version control system using Git, or a centralized version control system using TFVC. The choice is yours.



    Discuss code changes with colleagues.
    Create comments and respond to the comments of your employees created in the places of code change.

    Manage work in one place
    Manage your project in the cloud. Quickly plan, monitor and track all your backlogs and teams with simple and fully integrated tools for flexible planning and portfolio management.



    Report backlogs and work with sprints.
    Create hierarchically ordered backlogs at each level of fragmentation to quickly identify, prioritize, and assign jobs. Use tags to quickly categorize and filter.

    Track requirements, tasks, and errors with work items
    Use work items to assign tasks and errors to a group, track status, and coordinate work within a group. Link work items to code changes and link work items together.



    Track the progress of work with the Kanban board and the responsive development task board
    Track the overall progress of the work on the Kanban board during a group of existing tasks and track the progress of work for sprints using the Scrum-based task board.

    Build applications in the cloud
    Build and manage build processes that automatically compile and test your applications in the cloud, on demand or as part of an automated continuous integration strategy.

    Unload assemblies
    Use the cloud-based build controller and the monthly allotted amount of free build minutes to distribute the resource-intensive tasks of building a project in the cloud.



    Automate the build process
    Automate the build in the cloud to perform it at night or after each return to ensure that the code is built and ready for deployment.

    Track build status over time.
    View up-to-date build results on the project home page and set up notifications.

    Learn more about application structure
    Visual Studio Online Application Insights is a new cloud service (the Preview version is currently available) that collects a lot of data about operations, performance and client use from client and device applications, as well as server applications, regardless whether they are running locally, in Microsoft Azure, in a third-party cloud service, or using a combination of these methods.

    Use functionally rich dashboards and dynamic reports that contain information about the application.
    Dashboards provide information about the operation of applications and allow you to create custom views. Dynamic reports provide a summary of various aspects of your application.

    Track usage of your application.
    Learn all about your application by exploring interactive data, such as users' geographic location and preferred browsers. This information can then be used to make informed decisions about the application.

    Conclusion: Visual Studio Online is functional and almost free (up to 5 users)an alternative to Team Foundation Server. If you are a small development team, then this is just for you.

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