Connect to and Access Team Projects in Team Foundation Server

  • Article

To access Team Foundation functions and data, you must connect the client to the appropriate server that is running Visual Studio Team Foundation Server and select the collection that hosts the team project. Team projects are stored in project collections. You can connect to only one server at a time. The number of team projects that you can access at the same time depends on the client application. When using Team Explorer, you can add and remove several team projects if all of them are stored in project collections that are hosted on the same server. From Team Web Access, Office Excel, and Office Project, you can access only one team project at a time. 

In Team Web Access, the name of the project collection and the team project that you are connected to always appears under the Team Web Access logo on the left side of the page. In Team Explorer, each team project that you select is listed under the name of the server that hosts Team Foundation Server to which you have connected. For information about supported Web browsers, see Managing Work Using Team Web Access.

The following procedures describe how to connect to team projects by using Team Web Access or Team Explorer. For information about how to connect Office Excel or Office Project to Team Foundation Server, seeConnect a Microsoft Office Document to Team Foundation Server. For information about how to connect earlier versions of Team Explorer to Team Foundation Server 2010 or connect Team Explorer to Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server, see Compatibility between Team Foundation Clients and Team Foundation Server.

Contact your Team Foundation or team project administrator to verify that your user account has the permissions described in the following section.

In this topic

  • Connecting to Team Projects By Using Team Web Access

  • Connecting to Team Projects By Using Team Explorer

  • Resolving Problems Connecting to Team Foundation Server

Required Permissions

To connect to a team project you must be a member of both the Team Foundation Valid Users security group and the Readers security group for the team project. If the necessary security permissions are set explicitly, you must have your View server-level information permission set to Allow and your View project-level information permission on the team project set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

Connecting to Team Projects By Using Team Web Access

To connect to a team project by using Team Web Access

  1. Open a browser window, and type a URL that uses the following form:

    http://ServerName:Port/tfs/Web

    • ServerName is the name of the server that hosts Team Foundation Server.

    • Port is the port that is used by Team Foundation Server; the default value is 8080. If your server uses a different port number, you must specify that port number in the URL.

  2. If you are connecting to your team project for the first time, the Select a Team Project to work with page appears.

    1. Under Project Collections, click the name of the project collection that you want to open.

    2. Under Projects, click the team project from the list.

  3. If the Connect to Team Foundation Server page appears, the Web site uses forms-based authentication, and you must follow these steps to provide your credentials:

    1. Type a URL that uses the following form where the same descriptions given in step 1 apply:

      http://ServerName:Port/tfs/Web

    2. Type your user name in Username.

    3. Type your password in Password.

    4. Select Remember me to cache your credentials.

    5. Click Connect.

      Note

      Subsequent logons to Team Web Access do not require that you supply credentials, providing that your first logon successfully accessed an existing project in Team Foundation Server and you selected Remember me.

To connect to a different project by using Team Web Access

  1. In Team Web Access, click the arrow next to the project collection or team project name and perform one of the following procedures:

    • If the name of team project that you want to open appears in the list, then click the team project name.

    • If the name of team project that you want to open does not appear in the list, click <Connect to a different project>.

  2. Under Team Foundation Server, type a URL that uses the following form:

    http://ServerName:Port/tfs/Web

  3. Click Connect.

  4. (Optional) To connect to a project in a different project collection, under Project Collections, click the name of the project collection that you want to open.

  5. Under Team Projects, click the team project from the list.

  6. Click OK.

Connecting to Team Projects By Using Team Explorer

To connect to an instance of Team Foundation Server for the first time

  1. In Visual Studio, on the Tools menu, click Connect to Team Foundation Server.

    Note

    If you do not see this option, you have not installed Team Explorer. You must install Team Explorer before you will have the option to connect to Team Foundation Server.

  2. In the Connect to Team Project dialog box, click Servers.

  3. In the Add/Remove Team Foundation Server dialog box, click Add.

  4. In the Add Team Foundation Server dialog box, type the name or URL for the server.

  5. When you type a server name, the Preview field automatically displays the URL format, for example:

    http://ServerName:Port/tfs

    ServerName is the name of the server that hosts Team Foundation Server.

    Port is the port that Team Foundation Server uses; the default value is 8080. If your server uses a different port number, you must specify that port number in the URL.

    tfs is the default path to the project collections that are stored on the server. If your team uses a different path, type it in the Path box.

  6. Verify that the URL is correct, click OK two times, and then click Close.

  7. In the Connect to Team Project dialog box, under Team Project, click the check box for each team project that you want to access, and then click Connect.

To connect and add team projects to Team Explorer

  1. In Visual Studio, on the Tools menu, click Connect to Team Foundation Server.

    Note

    If you do not see this option, you have not installed Team Explorer. You must install Team Explorer before you will have the option to connect to Team Foundation Server.

  2. In the Connect to Team Project dialog box, select from the Team Foundation Server list a server that is running Team Foundation Server.

    Note

    If the drop-down list is empty, click the Servers button to manually enter the server connection settings. Contact your Team Foundation administrator or team project administrator to obtain the connection settings.

  3. Click the name of the project collection that contains the team project from the Directory list.

  4. Select one or more team projects from the Team Projects list.

    Team projects with a check mark next to them are added to Team Explorer.

  5. Click Connect.

To remove a team project from Team Explorer

  1. In Team Explorer, right-click the team project that you want to remove, and then click Remove.

  2. When the confirmation message appears, click OK.

Resolving Problems Connecting to Team Foundation Server

If you experience problems connecting to Team Foundation Server from Team Explorer, Team Foundation Server may not be running, the network might have a problem, or you may not have sufficient permissions. Perform the following actions to resolve the connection issue.

  1. Verify whether you have sufficient permissions for the actions that you are performing. If the errors that you receive indicate read-only or blocked actions, you may not have permission to act on the data.

    For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

  2. If a red X icon Lost connection icon appears on the Documents node in Team Explorer, Team Explorer has lost communication with SharePoint Products. You may also notice that the list of individual documents that appeared under the Documents node has disappeared. The following conditions can cause a loss of communication:

    • The local computer is not connected to the network. To resolve this issue, confirm that the local computer is plugged into the network and can access network resources.

    • The server that hosts SharePoint Products is offline, or the computer network is not operating. To resolve this issue, contact the administrator for SharePoint Products to confirm that the server is available on the network.

    • The permissions that are granted to your user account in SharePoint Products are not sufficient to access the team portal site. Contact the administrator for SharePoint Products and request that that your user account be added to the Contributor group. Your project management may also be able to grant you the required permission.

  3. If a red X icon appears on the Reports node in Team Explorer, you might not have permissions to access the reports, or Team Explorer might have lost communication with the server that hosts SQL Server Reporting Services. In these instances, check with your project administrator to make sure that you have permissions to access the reports node and that the server that hosts Reporting Services is running.

    A red X icon appears next to the Reports node if both of the following conditions are true:

    • Team Explorer is running on the same computer as SQL Server Reporting Services.

    • You are not logged on as an administrator, or enhanced security is enabled for Internet Explorer.

    To correct these issues, log onto your computer as an administrator, or open Internet Explorer, open Internet Options, click the Security tab, and clear the Enabled Protected Mode check box.

  4. Verify whether network connections on your computer are functioning correctly. Try to run other applications that also require network connections. If they also have problems, you probably have a network problem.

  5. Verify whether your team project has been moved to another team project collection in Team Foundation Server. If it has been moved, you must create a connection to the new server name.

See Also

Tasks

Access Frequently Used or Recently Viewed Work Items, Queries, and Reports

Connect a Microsoft Office Document to Team Foundation Server

Concepts

Compatibility between Team Foundation Clients and Team Foundation Server

Working with Team Foundation Clients

Other Resources

Managing Work Using Team Web Access