TFS Build email alerts to the [Requested By] user

Question

Is this possible? Me and one of my co-worker are looking for this kind of solution for a while now and we can't find anything similar on Google.

The thing is simple. We want to automatically alert the [Requested By] user by email when he or she break the build on TFS 2010. How can we do this, there must be a solution, Microsoft can't had forgotten one of the simplest feature that can be added...

Thanks for your answers. If you need more clarifications about my question, please ask!

Answer 1

You can do this, but you have to customise the build process or use web services, I've done this by customising our build process. I used a list of users from associatedChangesets instead of requested by.

1. Get the TFS Build Extenstions.
2. Open your build process template (guides here and here).
3. Navigate to the "If a Compilation Exception Occurred" section.
4. Drag on the "Email" activity from the "TFS Build Extensions".
5. In the "To" field enter the following VB.Net:

To:

New String() { _
    DirectCast(
        New System.DirectoryServices.DirectorySearcher( _
        String.Format("(&(objectClass=user)(|{0}))", BuildDetail.RequestedBy)) _
        .FindOne(), SearchResult) _
        .Properties("mail")(0).ToString() _
}

6: Complete the rest of the fields in the Email activity.

Answer 2

Yes - you will be able to do this with the next version of Team Foundation Server. I have an example of it here on my blog post: http://www.edsquared.com/2012/02/09/Creating+EMail+Alerts+For+Team+Members+In+TFS.aspx

Answer 3

You could install the TFS power tools and use the alerts explorer to set up email alerts. It's not perfect as I think each Developer needs to set up their own alert but if it's just the 2 of you that shouldn't be a problem