Is there a way to see the GUI of a Windows Form Application from a code review request in TFS?

Question

We are a company that started using TFS 2015. My colleague has created a C# Windows Form application. He sends me a Code Review request from TFS. I was able to get his request and accept it as well.

The problem I am facing is that I am not able to see the GUI itself but only the code. Clicking on form, display the code but not the designer.

I tried an alternative way asking him to shelve his changes but I am not able to unshelve his changes until he's doing a check-in which is contrary to our internal policy.

What is the way to review the GUI using Code Review feature in TFS?

Adding Screenshots:

What's your TFS version? The pending changes in code-review is already stored as shevleset. You should see "View Shevleset" option in the code review. — Eddie Chen - MSFT, Oct 25 '17 at 02:55
Updated post with TFS version. Anyway, cannot see the form as well — ehh, Oct 25 '17 at 04:58
How do you open the code view? Are you the reviewer for that code review request? — Eddie Chen - MSFT, Oct 25 '17 at 06:19
@Eddie-MSFT, I've added snapshots last week, do you need further information? — ehh, Oct 25 '17 at 06:52

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 19 '17 at 08:39

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"Open" (double click) in TFS tabs will open form in code view.

You can press SHIFT+F7 to execute View.ViewDesigner command to switch from code view into designer.

answered Oct 19 '17 at 08:39

Sinatr

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There is no such option in this mode, this is exactly the issue I am facing. I have added screenshots – ehh Oct 19 '17 at 09:02
I see what you are doing. It's read-only comparison, there is no comparison-mode for designer. You will need to get files somehow before you can view them in designer. I think name of **code**-review implicitly tells you about such limitation. – Sinatr Oct 19 '17 at 09:13
Is there another way using TFS/VS2015 feature to make the code review viewing the Forms in a proper way without to have to get the files somehow? The only way I can think on is to check-in the code. Shouldn't it be such feature for code review? – ehh Oct 19 '17 at 09:18

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 06 '18 at 18:59

The forms designer actually instantiates an instance of the form object, so it needs more than just the diff presented by TFS to load. Say, for example, that the form uses third party controls. In that case it would really need to load the entire project to ensure it gets the proper assembly references, etc.

While you may not be able to do this from the code review itself, TFS does create a shelveset behind the scenes that goes with the review. You can unshelve that onto your machine, which gives you the full project/solution complete with changes made for the submitted review. With that, you can do anything you would normally do. Not the most convenient, but it works.

Is there a way to see the GUI of a Windows Form Application from a code review request in TFS?

2 Answers2