A new version of Automated Build Studio, our build and release management system, has just been released. We’ve been working hard on this version and are happy to finally deliver it to you. Below is a brief overview of new features and improvements you will find in Automated Build Studio 6.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Support
Automated Build Studio 6 supports the most recent release of Microsoft Visual Studio — Visual Studio 2010.
•Special operations for compiling projects and solutions created with Visual Studio 2010.
•Integration into Visual Studio 2010 IDE.
•A lot of new operations for working with the Team Foundation Version Control of Visual Studio 2010: managing shelvesets, rolling back changes in changesets, configuring proxy for source control and much more.

Integration with Team Build
With version 6, you can override build targets with Automated Build Studio macros that will execute custom series of actions during the build run. All the actions are performed visually, no coding is needed. Automated Build Studio supports integration into Team Build 2005, 2008 and 2010.

Support for Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010
Version 6 supports Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010 and includes three new operations that let you compile Delphi and C++Builder projects and project groups created with this version of IDE.

Single-Lined Scripts
Now you can use single-line VBScript, JScript or DelphiScript expressions to specify values of operation properties in the Operation Properties wizard. The Build Studio engine will evaluate these expressions during the run and assign the appropriate values to the properties.

The scripting line can contain mathematical expressions, intrinsic functions of the scripting languages and references to script functions and objects provided by Automated Build Studio.

To indicate that a property value is specified by a scripting expression, place the Script: prefix before it, for example, Script:Variables.FileCount + 1. The scripting language is determined automatically.

Better Support for Multiprocessor Computers
New version of Automated Build Studio provides better support for multithreaded macros. If a macro has several operation groups that are executed concurrently in separate threads, and your computer has a multi-core CPU, Build Studio automatically selects the CPU on which each thread will run.

Debugging Scripts
In earlier versions, you could debug macros and execute them operation-by-operation, but was unable to step through individual code statements of the Script operation. Version 6 includes a built-in script debugger that supports all modern debugging features like breakpoints, watches and stepping through script lines. Using this debugger you will be able to find and fix problems in script code faster and easier.

Support for New Tools
We modified existing Automated Build Studio operations and added about 100 new operations to provide support for the products that have not been supported in previous versions, and to enhance the support for the products that have been supported.

Using the new operations you can easily —
•Enable or disable tasks, trigger and blockers from your macros
•Concatenate files
•Call web service methods
•Manage SharePoint services
•Work with 64-bit registry
•Read Unicode files
•Create and execute complex queries to databases via ADO
•Read assembly attributes and much more

Automated Build Studio 6 supports the following new products:
•Microsoft Visual Studio and Team Foundation 2010
•Embarcadero RAD Studio 2010
•Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008
•Araxis Merge
•AutomatedQA’s upcoming TestComplete 8, TestExecute 8
•Mercurial
•Serena Dimension
•Many other tools including:
■Localization utilities (Multilizer, Passolo, Sizuliser)
■Installation builders (MS Merge Module Project, DeployMaster Builder)
■Help compilers (Document! X, RoboHelp HTML, HyperText Studio)
■Archivers (J2EE Packager, MHT Archiver)

Extended Macro Configuration Support
Now you can specify what operations in your macros support configurations and set their properties separately for each configuration. For the rest of the operations you can disable configuration support. In this case their properties will be shared among configurations.

UI Improvements
The Automated Build Studio UI sports several improvements:
•The search tool of the Operations panel highlights the matching text in found operation names
•The new Start page makes it easier for novice users to start working with the product.
•The Automated Build Studio Web Interface now supports auto-login.
•Now it is easier to specify the variable and constant names in operation properties. Automated Build Studio uses auto-completion for this: after you entered % and started typing the variable name, Build Studio will display the drop-down list with possible input items.

http://www.automatedqa.com/blogs/