Two of the major benefits of the local workspaces are that the disconnected, offline work scenario is greatly improved, and it is much easier to use external tools to work with files in source control. To demonstrate both of these benefits in action, let’s proceed by stopping the Team Foundation Server site in IIS. This will simulate a scenario where you are working offline, such as writing code from the beach. In a real-world scenario, you would never write code from the beach - you would be enjoying your vacation. Launch Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager from the taskbar. In IIS Manager, expand the VSALM server node and the Sites node to find and select the Team Foundation Server site. In the Actions pane, click Stop. Figure Stopping Team Foundation Server Return to Visual Studio, load the Source Control Explorer window, and click the refresh button. Note that the window is now in a disconnected state. Figure Source Control Explorer in disconnected state Even though we are now in a disconnected state with Team Foundation Server, we can continue to do work. Right-click the Content folder in Solution Explorer and select the Open Folder in File Explorer option. Figure Location of option to open folder in Explorer Add a new file into the Content folder by right-clicking in a blank area of the view and selecting New | Text Document from the context menu. Accept the default name. Note: We will use this file in a demonstration a little later – the contents are not important and can be left blank. Figure
Two of the major benefits of the local workspaces are that the disconnected, offline work scenario is greatly improved, and it is much easier to use external tools to work with files in source control. To demonstrate both of these benefits in action, let’s proceed by stopping the Team Foundation Server site in IIS. This will simulate a scenario where you are working offline, such as writing code from the beach. In a real-world scenario, you would never write code from the beach - you would be enjoying your vacation. Launch Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager from the taskbar. In IIS Manager, expand the VSALM server node and the Sites node to find and select the Team Foundation Server site. In the Actions pane, click Stop. Figure Stopping Team Foundation Server Return to Visual Studio, load the Source Control Explorer window, and click the refresh button. Note that the window is now in a disconnected state. Figure Source Control Explorer in disconnected state Even though we are now in a disconnected state with Team Foundation Server, we can continue to do work. Right-click the Content folder in Solution Explorer and select the Open Folder in File Explorer option. Figure Location of option to open folder in Explorer Add a new file into the Content folder by right-clicking in a blank area of the view and selecting New | Text Document from the context menu. Accept the default name. Note: We will use this file in a demonstration a little later – the contents are not important and can be left blank. Figure