Bottom line up front: Create a ‘root’ branch directly under the source control branch associated with a new Team Project.
I see this all the time… Someone creates a new source control branch in TFS and starts creating solutions underneath the default project branch. In other words, they end up with this:
$/ProjectName
/SolutionName1
/ProjectName1
/ProjectName2
/SolutionName2
/ProjectName3
/ProjectName4
Now, the difficult comes when the shop needs to create a second version of the application. Code branches directly under the root (i.e., $/ProjectName) can only be created when a new Team Project is created. If, in the above example, SolutionName1 and SolutionName2 both belong to the current version of the application, then creating a new version of the application will require either the creation of a new team project (with a branch from the $/ProjectName), or a wildly unweildly structure where each solution is branched, resulting in something like:
$/ProjectName
/SolutionName1
/ProjectName1
/ProjectName2
/SolutionName2
/ProjectName3
/ProjectName4
/SolutionName1_v2
/ProjectName1
/ProjectName2
/SolutionName2_v2
/ProjectName3
/ProjectName4
A MUCH cleaner approach is so simple, yet requires a bit of forethought. Immediately after creating the Team Project, simply go in an create a new directory called ‘root’ (or ‘edge’ or whatever you’2013-08-28 13:42:11’d like). You can then create a full branch of the V1 off the application by simply branching ‘root’. This allows This resulting in the following structure, even after creating a v2 of the project.
$/ProjectName
/root <– Create this branch!
/SolutionName1
/ProjectName1
/ProjectName2
/SolutionName2
/ProjectName3
/ProjectName4
/ProjectName_v2 <– This is the branch of ‘root’
/SolutionName1
/ProjectName1
/ProjectName2
/SolutionName2
/ProjectName3
/ProjectName4
Now, whether you should have your projects under your solution directories… that’s for another post…
