Preview version of Visual Studio 2013 Update 2

Dear friends, we are pleased to inform you that yesterday the second preliminary version of Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 was released. Compared with the first update, it includes a number of functional innovations. The release of this update will take place very soon, the preliminary version can be downloaded right now. It should be borne in mind that this update does not have the status of "go-live" and some additions and changes are possible. The most interesting updates will be discussed below.

The preliminary version of the update includes a lot of changes. You can find the full list at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2927432 . They cover almost all aspects of working with the Visual Studio environment and collaboration. The development team paid particular attention to innovations that gained a sufficiently large number of votes on the UserVoice website.

Work Item Tags

In TFS 2012.2, the tagging mechanism was included, which makes it easy to enter categories and quickly find the necessary work items. The development team received good feedback on this feature and a number of requests for the expansion of these functions. This preliminary version includes new features, such as:

• Requests for tags. You can create queries and save them for reuse. Just as for work item queries, the use of OR and AND conditions is permissible. It goes without saying that it is now possible to create diagrams based on such queries.
• Work with tags directly from Visual Studio. Prior to this update, tag operations were possible only from the TFS web interface. Now you can easily assign tags to work items directly from Visual Studio and the Eclipse plug-in.
• Work and edit with tags from Excel. Now you can include a tag column when working with lists of work items.
• TFS REST API extension for working with tags.

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Managing the list of tasks and requirements

The development team has included in this update a number of improvements related to managing the list of jobs and tasks.

• Performance improvements. Navigation between sprints, groups of works. Previously, these operations in the web interface led to large requests, now the pages are updated much faster.
• Non-working days. Starting with Update 2, it will be possible to set non-working days (weekends, holidays) and they will be excluded from the calculations of the main schedules, such as the burn down chart.
• Configurable start dates for work diagrams. Now graphs and charts will show accurate data.

Graphs and Charts

Visual Studio 2013 includes new features for quickly building graphs and charts. Update 2 also includes the following changes:

• The ability to place any chart on the project’s home page, so that progress can be seen more clearly.
• Customize color charts for a more visual presentation of important data.

Export Test Plans to HTML

Now you can export your test plans to HTML format, for example, for printing, discussions with people involved in the project but who do not have access to TFS. You can select the level of detail when exporting.

Improvements when working with the Git version control system

Visual Studio development team pays a lot of attention to the level of integration with the Git version control system. The team is working on a number of improvements, some of which are already in Update 2. Including this:

• Support for such well-known commands as git blame, git amend directly from the Visual Studio environment.
• Submission of changes to several git repositories. Team Explorer now understands that there may be several “receiver” repositories and do pull / push.
• Undo commit changes. Now you can undo changes (revert) if these changes were made, for example, by mistake.
• Display the progress of operations with Git. Now it is possible to more clearly observe the percentage of the operation performed with the repository, and, if necessary, its cancellation.
• Also a few bugs were fixed.

In addition to the changes related to collaboration, this update also adds new features to Visual Studio, including those related to web development.

New element and type of project SASS

LESS support has been added to Visual Studio 2013, SASS support will also be included in update 2. SASS has IntelliSence, coloring, commenting, tagging information, syntactic validation, transition to definition, and other important functions that make working with this language in Visual Studio simple and effective.

New element and editor for JSON files

JSON format has been added to the type of supported project elements. It supports parsing, color coloring, convolution of blocks, and other options.

Option to create remote Azure resources for web projects

When creating web projects, you can specify the “Create remote resources” option. By ticking this checkbox, you can set the necessary configuration options and publish your project immediately ready for use in conjunction with Azure.

Changes in the MVC template for "one-page" web projects

Visual Studio 2013 comes with a so-called “single page” (SPA) type of web project. It adds support for two-factor authentication using Microsoft.AspNet.Identity 2.0-beta1 . Also, this template simplifies cumbersome AJAX authentication mechanisms.

Extended Intellisence Support for Knockout

Support for non-standard Knockout extensions, based on the syntax “ko-vs-editor viewModel:”, has been added to Visual Studio Editor. This mechanism will simplify the linking of view models on a page.


Also, there is support for nested view models, which allows you to track their hierarchy when working with properties.

URL Selection Tool for HTML, Razor, CSS, LESS, and SASS Pages

In Visual Studio 2013, there was no URL selection tool when working with various types of project elements. Now you have the opportunity to more accurately specify the URL and allow fewer errors:

Supports ASP.NET MVC 5.1.1, ASP.NET Web API 2.1.1 and ASP.NET Web Pages 3.1.1

TP2 update includes support for new versions of the main ASP.NET web technologies and fixes a number of errors of previous versions.

Conclusion

The above list is not final, and it is possible that a number of new functions will be included in the release. For a complete current list of innovations and fixes, please visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2927432 . We hope that the new features will appeal to many developers, and make your work easier and more efficient. We remind you that you can now download Visual Studio , familiarize yourself with the possibilities from the documentation and register with Visual Studio Online.