How to deploy a winforms application into Azure DevOps

Question

I am looking for a step by step guidance to deploy a c++ winforms application into Azure DevOps.

I have a legacy application and its already into TFS server but now the team has planned to put it into Azure DevOps and automate the builds and release process.

I did some researches and tried something and it partly worked out. But, I cannot understand whether to go by GIT or TFVC (Team Foundation Version Control)?

As, the application is already into TFS, I believe it will be easier to create the repository and pipeline using TFVC. But, what if I want to do using GIT? What are the factors I should consider when using GIT?

NOTE: I do not have TFS server access but I do have Azure DevOps access.

What I have tried:

Created a demo project. Below are the details about the demo project:

<code>Project and Solution Name -> SampleApp
Solution file location -> "C:\SampleProj\SampleApp\SampleApp.sln"
Other project files location -> "C:\SampleProj\SampleApp\SampleApp"</code>

Tried to deploy the above sample project into Azure, using GIT. The steps I followed are given below:

<code>
1. Installed GIT.
2. Logged into dev.azure.com with my credentials.
3. Created a new project and copied the 1st link as provided in "Repos" section.
4. Created a ".gitignore" file from Visual Studio Team Explorer -> Settings -> Repository Settings.
5. Went to the project folder (C:\SampleProj\SampleApp\SampleApp\) and right-clicked and selected "GIT Bash Here". The GIT command prompt opened up and typed the following commands:

a. git init
b. git remote add origin [URL copied at step 3]
c. git add .
d. git commit
e. git push -u origin master
</code>

After these steps, the repos in Azure were holding all the files except the solution file (.sln) and when I created pipeline for builds, the builds started to failed as it was not getting the .sln file.

I cannot understand the below mentioned points:

<code>
1. For all projects, I cannot find Repository Settings in Team Explorer. Why so?
2. If I have a legacy application already in TFS, can't I make it done using TFVC instead of using GIT?
3. What are the correct steps being followed in the industry?
</code>

Answer 1

I did some researches and tried something and it partly worked out. But, I cannot understand whether to go by GIT or TFVC (Team Foundation Version Control)?

Git is distributed system while TFVC is centralized system. More into about their difference you can refer to this document.

But, what if I want to do using GIT?

About moving from TFVC to Git you can consider using git-tfs tool. More details check this guide.

Tried to deploy the above sample project into Azure, using GIT. The steps I followed are given below:

If you have a newly created project, you can easily add it into git source control in Visual Studio and then push it to Azure Devops Service project. Please check Share your code with Visual Studio 2017 and Azure Repos Git.

For all projects, I cannot find Repository Settings in Team Explorer. Why so?

You need to add the solution into source control in VS first, then you can find repository Settings in Team Explorer=>Settings=>Repository Settings.

Hope all above helps and it could be better to separate the different questions in your post into different threads.