Bring back the view all pending changes window (VS11)
I really like the new Team Explorer view that allows me to focuse on one project at a time. But I also need the ability to see not only the pending changes for the current project but for all projects.
In our company we have several collections that have 100+ projects in them and I work in a lot of them. Being able to see ALL the files I have check out (pending) at a single glance is really helpfull.
Blane Nelson
shared this idea
29 comments
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Andreas Warberg
commented
I fully agree that the VS2010 Pending Changes window is far superior to the new one.
In addition, for developer teams switching from VS2010 to VS2012 (with TFS) I've noticed that they have a hard time noticing and reacting to conflicts. As a result they end up doing long development sessions with unresolved conflicts in the background, leading to various odd behavior in compilation and developer confusion.
Usually they do Get Latest on the Solution Node in the Solution Explorer tab. In case of a conflict focus is not automatically switched to Team Explorer > Pending Changes (which seems to be the only place from where you can see there is a conflict). Although conflicts are printed on a line in the Output Window it is easy to miss and the developer might have set focus on the Error List or other, hiding the conflict message entirely.
We are losing precious time because VS2012 doesn't bring conflicts to attention.
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Quyen Nguyen
commented
I have to go back to VS2010 when it goes to the Pending changes and Shelves/Unshelves.
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Morden Kain
commented
Like the others here, I too am wondering why you, Microsoft, decided to change something that was very usable, and quick, into something as atrocious as the Team Explorer tab/window. When I check something in, I should not be given a big ugly error because I missed adding a comment.
We should be able to use either style, the old VS2010 or the new VS2012. Not stuck to something completely en-cumbersome as this new TFS interface you plastered into VS 2012. Seriously, what were you thinking (if you were doing so at all).
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Borislav Ivanov commented
Besides TeamPilgrim (which development is stopped), 'tf checkin' command can be used to show the old pending changes dialog. The solution is not ideal, but is the best one I have found so far:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12204845/vs2012-return-to-a-normal-tfs-checkin-window/14234794#14234794 -
Dave de Vos
commented
Install TeamPilgrim which is an extension to VS 2012, available in the the visual studio extension gallery:
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/79e9baa7-ea8b-4335-86ba-ae929bf67222
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Luis
commented
The new dialog is an unfortunate improvement.
Change is typically resisted by most individuals but if the change makes the process more difficult then be assured it will not sit well.
Overall VS2012 is not very pleasing to the eye and even with theme changes it can still be distracting and disconcerting.
Specifically about the team explorer dialog, it is now so 'squeezed in' by the use of collapsing trees that one has to do a lot of steps to achieve the same that could be done easily before.
It is pretty unfriendly.For TFS tasks, I've decided to keep VS2010 installed and do that there.
If nothing else, the VS team should give users the ability to choose between the old and the new way. You may actually find valuable feedback doing that.
Microsoft seems to be going to way of not allowing the end user to choose. -
Michael Bunney
commented
The new Pending Changes vertical U.I. is unusable and seriously hampers productivity. Among other things, it forces you to view all changes sorted by folder name only -- you can no longer sort by file name or change type. Please return the old 2010 version.
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Anonymous
commented
I also think this is unusable for all the reasons specified in the comments above
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Jimbo
commented
Any news on reverting this short-sighted UI design back to how it was in VS2010 so we can finally be productive in 2012 dev-studio?
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Steve
commented
How is it possible that this version got through to RTM!?! No fix in update one. What were you thinking VS team?
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D.B.
commented
I don't think it's full replacement for Check In dialog and probably even not of Pending Changes window. Please at least allow us to use old windows from GUI directly and not only through tf command. When I was checking in major breaking changes across several solutions today, it was almost impossible to review changes in several hundred files and make sure I'm not including some **** unintentionally.
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Mark
commented
I would go so far as to say, this (along with the other VS2012 f-ups) is making me consider abandoning .Net and looking at alternative languages.
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SamCPP
commented
Using VS2012 as my main development platform and I really am finding this to be the most painful part of the experience. You can get used to the icon colours and layouts but as far as productivity goes, Pending Changes is a backward step. It isn't simple. It might look a bit more elegant but it is just horrible to use. Flicking amongst shelvesets is painful. And so on.
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Anonymous
commented
Here is my list of problems with the new pending changes "feature":
* Forced Drag and drop instead of much simpler checkboxes for including/excluding files is a Bad Thing. Checkboxes can be handled via keyboard or mouse. Drag-and-drop requires the mouse.
* Re-use of an existing (mostly unused) window for doing check-ins is a Bad Thing. Most of us keep the Team Explorer in a very narrow sidebar. It is fine there - until you need to do a check-in with VS2012. To do a check-in now, I have to pull it off the sidebar and into the main view so I can see what I'm checking in and when I'm done, put it back. This essentially means that VS2012 is forcing me to manually handle making the check-in window popup.
* Inability to use column headers to sort the changes is a Bad Thing. I don't always want to sort the changes by location. I might want to sort them by the type of edit, the change date on the file, or the file type. None of that is possible with the static folder-structure view.
* When you are doing a check-in you should know that what you are doing is a critical step that should take careful review and is an important process. Burying the check-in functionality in a pre-existing window minimizes this gateway feeling, likely leading to much higher rates of accidentally checking in files that you didn't intend to. This is critical in a source control solution for teams of almost any size.
* You can no longer right-click to undo changes! You can only undo changes from the new "Pending Changes" view. This is now much more painful than it needs to be. This makes exploratory changes a royal pain to roll back when they don't work out.Please, please, bring back the old VS2010 check-in window, and add back the ability to right-click to undo changes to a file.
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SamCPP
commented
Agreed. The VS2010 interface is much much more productive and usable.
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Arvind Sedha commented
The first thing i get annoyed of !!! Really don't want to use vs2012 until Microsoft find some solution to this problem. Extra work for developer :( NO Way !!!
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Nathan
commented
As noted in the following feedback item, if changes are made in this area, it would be great to separate the various sub-windows within Team Explorer so they can be rearranged within Visual Studio's docking framework.
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Anonymous
commented
I don't know what happened to VS team... I've been using visual studio for more than 10 years, and each new version of the tool was better -- in terms of usability. Now, I'm trying to use VS2012 and just cannot... Pending changes window is useless, the low-contrast gray theme makes my eyes sick...
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Bjorn Smith
commented
I would also like the old style grid back.
I try to use my mouse as little as possible in my daily work, since it requires less of you to use keyboard shortcuts and the keyboard in general, instead of having to release the keyboard and grab your mouse to do regular tasks.
I would like to be able to use my keyboard to check the items in the pending changes window.
Just like you can in VS 2010, you can select all items and press space and they are all checked.
Or you can use the up/down arrows to navigate and press space on the files you want to have included.This new way of where you have to drag items to the "included" list is bad, Right clicking to include is even worse, since it requires two clicks.
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Ted
commented
I'm disappointed in the direction that Microsoft has taken here. This thin left side pane is absolutely atrocious. I thought that I would be able to move up to VS11, but this is an absolute showstopper in terms of usability. Did anyone that was involved in the design actually try to use this monstrosity?
