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Manage your builds in Build Explorer

In most cases, the Builds page in Team Explorer provides the best way to manage your builds during your day-to-day work. However, you can use Build Explorer to access deep and customized build data. You can query for older builds and builds requested by other team members, and restrict results to specific status or quality values.

Required Permissions

To perform this procedure, your View builds, View build definition, and View build resources permissions must be set to Allow. For more information, see Pernission reference for Team Foundation Server.

To view information about queued, ongoing, and completed builds in Build Explorer

  1. If you are not already connected to the team project that you want to work in, then connect to the team project.

  2. Choose Home icon Home, and then choose Builds Icon Builds.

  3. On the Builds page, choose Actions, Manage Queue.

  1. To view the in-progress builds, choose the Queued tab.

    The toolbar includes the following filters to filter the in-progress builds:

    • Build Definition

      Choose a build definition name in the list to filter the in-progress builds on a build definition. All the build definitions that belong to the team project are listed.

    • Status Filter

      Choose a status in the list to filter the in-progress builds by status. You can specify Any Status, Queued, In Progress, or Postponed.

    • Controller Filter

      Choose a build controller in the list to filter the in-progress builds by build agent. You can specify a particular build controller or Any Build Controller. For more information about build controllers, see Deploy and configure build agents.

    The following table describes the summary data shown for queued builds.

    Column

    Description

    Reason

    The trigger for the build. For more information, see Specify build triggers and reasons.

    Status

    Displays an updated status as the build proceeds. The values for the status icons include the following:

    • In Progress

    • Succeeded

    • Partially Succeeded

    • Stopped

    • Postponed

    • Failed

    • Queued

    ID

    A unique identifier for the build.

    Build Definition

    Displays the build definition name.

    Build Name

    Displays the name of the build. For more information on how this data is created and stored, see Use build numbers to give meaningful names to completed builds.

    Priority

    Indicates the current build priority. You can modify the priority of a queued build by selecting it, opening its shortcut menu, and then choosing Set Priority.

    Date Queued

    Displays the date on which the build was queued.

    Requested By

    Displays the name of the user who requested this build. The name appears in the Domain\User or Workgroup\User format. Only the user name appears if the domain of the current user is the same as the domain of the user who requested the build.

    Build Controller

    Displays the name of the build controller that serves this build.

  2. To view the completed builds, choose the Completed tab.

    The toolbar includes the following filters to filter the completed builds:

    • Build Definition

      Choose a build definition name in the list to filter the completed builds on a build definition. All the build definitions that belong to the team project are listed.

    • Quality Filter

      Choose a build quality in the list to filter the completed builds by build quality. You can specify any previously added or specified build quality values. You can show all build quality values by choosing <Any Build Quality>.

    • Date Filter

      Choose a date filter in the list to filter the completed builds by the date on which they completed.

      Note

      Choose the column headers to sort the columns alpha-numerically.

    The following table describes the summary data shown for completed builds.

    Column

    Description

    Retained Indefinitely

    Displays whether the build will be retained indefinitely. To change this value, select a build, open its shortcut menu, and choose Retain Indefinitely.

    Reason

    The trigger for the build. For more information, see Specify build triggers and reasons.

    Status

    Displays the build status at completion. The values for the icons include the following:

    • Succeeded

    • Partially Succeeded

    • Stopped

    • Failed

    Name

    Displays the name of the build. For more information on how this data is created and stored, see Use build numbers to give meaningful names to completed builds.

    Build Definition

    Displays the build definition name.

    Build Quality

    Indicates the current build quality. To edit this value, select a build, open its shortcut menu, and then choose Edit Build Quality. Then, choose a value from the menu that appears.

    Date Completed

    Displays the date and time when the build completed. By default, the completed builds are sorted by this column.

    Requested By

    Displays the name of the user who requested this build. The name appears in the Domain\User or Workgroup\User format. Only the user name appears if the domain of the current user is the same as the domain of the user who requested the build.

  3. To get more information about a build, double-click it (or open its shortcut menu and choose Open).