Batch file for remotely re-starting a service

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Mike

In our recent QA automation efforts we had the requirement to stop some Windows services before performing a task in our scripts. The scripts need to pause until these services return to a started state. The approach we took to this was to write some batch files that would stop, start or restart the services using Microsofts SysInternal tools, specifically psservice. PSService is a component of SysInternals that allows a user (typically an administrative user) to start, stop or restart a service from a remote location. Very handy for automation testing. Once the loop ended (service finished starting), the cmd line would write out a “Finished.txt” file that the script watched for and cleaned up before moving on. Continue reading →

Posted in Automation | Leave a comment

Build to Build Change History using Visual Build Pro and Team Foundation Server 2010

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Mike

I was recently asked to include build by build change history in our build notification messages by a Senior Developer and the QA Supervisor. Some things to note ahead of time is that the company I work for is on the small side and we do not have a Configuration Manager so everyone shares the responsibility in Development and Quality Assurance. My company boasts around 30 separate applications written in a variety of languages. The source control tree looks somewhat like a tumbleweed due to dependencies between application common components.

Checklist of steps used

  1. Query for and store the current Date and Time in Visual Build Pro.
  2. Split the current Date and Time into string format that is usable in TFS.
    1. I accomplished this using VBP’s VBScripting.
  3. Query history on TFS using the last known build date and time and the current time.
  4. Once a build succeeds, update the last known build date and save the VBP project.

Continue reading →

Posted in Team Foundation Server, Visual Build Professional | Leave a comment

LinkMyPosts WordPress plugin version 1.0

Posted on March 20, 2011 by Mike

I have been on and off working on this plugin for over a year now and am glad to finally see the first version finished. Glad in many ways, actually. It took so long to complete that I began to despair I never would finish it! I hope anyone that uses it will find it useful and will provide me with any feedback on how to improve it!

This plugin allows you as a WordPress author, to create links that act like page numbers to related posts. These links will be displayed to readers in a link bar so they can intuitively progress through a story.

LinkMyPost plugin
LinkMyPosts Documentation

Posted in LinkMyPosts | 1 Comment