Connecting C# to TFS Cube/Warehouse

Question

I've been tasked with a POC piece, and I'm running into a few road blocks since I've never used a few of the concepts I'm seeing. The concept is that the client has a database on SQL Server, and a Warehouse/Cube (I'm not sure if there's a difference) on TFS.

They want me to create a site for them that will access both databases so that they can correlate some test plans they've written with data in the SQL database.

Connecting to SQL, got it. Connecting to TFS... not so sure.

It seems like it shouldn't be a big problem, but I don't see a lot of actual 'How to' guides.

A few links that I've found that I thought should/will be useful

• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb286958(v=vs.110).aspx
  How to connect to TFS through a console application.
• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb130146(v=vs.110).aspx/
  Extending Team Foundation Server: This guide definitely makes it look possible, including a namespace...
• https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.teamfoundation.warehouse(v=vs.110).aspx
  My problem here is that when I have 'using Microsoft.TF.Warehouse', I only have 'WarehousePermissions' and 'WarehouseSecurity' available for me. When checking for a reference, the only options are listed here. So I feel like I'm missing something here that could solve my problems.

Between those, I feel like this has to be a possible thing to do. If you guys could just help me find the missing piece, I would forever be grateful.

Answer 1

If you are going to build these reports on top of SQL Server Report Server, then you may want to look at the TFS Practical Reporting Guide Warehouse, add their own database as a 3rd data store and simply start building your combined reports in the Report Builder. There is ample documentation available to start creating your own report on MSDN as well.

If you need to build a tool that is going to be more interactive than a simple report, you will need to query the databases directly. The TFS Warehouse is a standard SQL Server relational database and a standard SQL Server Analysis Server Cube. Connecting to it is done through the System.Data.SqlClient for the relational database (default database TFS_Warehouse) and ADOMD.NET for the Cube (default database: TFS_Analysis) and doesn't use any TFS specific libraries or code.

Should you need to correlate against data in the TFS operational databases (not all data in the operational stores is available in the Warehouse and Cube), then you may need to use the TFS Client Object Model and rely on the VersionControlClient, WorkItemStore and similar classes to get data on VersionControl, Work Items, Builds, Tests etc.