MadCap Software Forums

We're in the process of converting from a homegrown legacy tool to Flare. Our development team uses Team Foundation Server and we're trying to figure out how to integrate the doc team with source control. I've only used Subversion previously and I have no idea how Team Foundation Server differs, so I'm going to have to learn. There's documentation in the Flare Help for binding, check in/check out and that sort of thing, but no guidance for implementation.

What I need to know is, what level of TFS licensing does the doc team need? I found an old (2009) thread (http://forums.madcapsoftware.com/viewto ... =68&t=8195) that says "the key feature of the Flare integration is that you can check files in or out of the source control directly within Flare (so you don't have to use the source control client software)." But I suspect that no matter which client I'm using, I still need a license for Team Foundation Server to be able to access it (and when I called MC Support today the person I spoke to said they'd "guess" I'd need a TFS license).

We had a meeting today with a couple of the development managers, and they were trying to figure out if we just needed a TFS license, or if we'd need Visual Studio too? I can't see why the writers would need Visual Studio, but this is Microsoft we're talking about... And Googling doesn't seem to be much help, as it looks like TFS licensing is pretty complex. And they're usually talking about licensing for developers.

So, anyone out there using TFS with Flare who can tell me what Microsoft licenses you needed to get things up and running?

You definitely do not need VisualStudio and I am almost sure that you do not need any additional licenses for TFS either. All that Flare does is act as another client to the TFS. So unless the license to TFS is based on concurrent connections or the number of users and you are likely to exceed that then no further action is needed other than creating accounts for the QA team so that they can access the TFS. The TFS admin probably wants to set up the rights and folders for QA beforehand, that should not differ in any way as bringing another developer online.

Just to come back with a follow up on what we ended up doing.

We ran into problems with the fact that the Engineering team is on a different domain from the doc team. Our TFS manager has given us access via a Web interface. We don't have to install the Team Foundation Server client or Visual Studio in order to access TFS. We're using Client Access Licenses (CALs) and just log into the TFS URL.

I've been testing the Flare/TFS integration pretty heavily for about a day and a half now, and so far I'm pretty pleased with how nicely everything works. There are a few places where it doesn't behave quite the way I expected, but that's the whole point of messing around with a test project before I have our TFS manager wipe out my folder and start over with my actual projects.

You do want to install the Team client, because the TFS web portal just sucks.

HeraTech,

Can you provide any additional information on how everything turned out. Was it a smooth transition once everything was set up properly and have you had any problems with the TFS integrating with Flare 8 (assuming you're on 8 )? We are also looking for a source control interface to use and I have been trying to gather information on TFS so anything you can provide would be helpful.

Thanks.