PreEmptive Solutions added two capabilities to its Visual Studio integration that allow developers to analyze data collected from various Web, mobile and desktop applications, and automate filters to create work items in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.
PreEmptive Analytics for TFS adds on to the analytics capabilities already available through the integration, according to Sebastian Holst, chief marketing officer for PreEmptive Solutions.
He explained that there are several steps to sifting through the data received from applications as designated by the filters created by developers. Developers can determine what types of exceptions they want to be notified about, and whether or not certain exceptions are causes for work items to be created in Visual Studio.
Developers or project managers must inject an application with the analytics-gathering code. Any JavaScript, Java-based, .NET or native code-based applications can be injected with the monitoring capabilities.
These injections can be done automatically and do not require any coding knowledge, according to Holst. Then, the data is managed from all instances of an application.
Subscriptions, an addition to the product, can be managed to determine what application exceptions should be monitored and what types of reports should be generated. Developers, Holst said, can create an exception for any time an application’s streaming capability is unsupported, or they can create an exception in which, after the thousandth instance, they are notified.
Developers can designate exceptions to be separated by individual users, states or locations. The work items are automatically generated in Visual Studio and assigned to a team. Developers can have these items assigned according to their development cycle or have a constant cycle of work items created as they occur, according to Holst.
PreEmptive’s solution allows privacy forms to be customized and injected into applications. If developers have the rights to individual user information (in an in-house enterprise application for example), developers can also opt to have the contact information sent to them in reports to further customize the support capabilities.
Existing applications can also be injected with the capabilities, Holst said, in order to give a better picture of a company’s application portfolio. Stakeholders, he added, can also add exception filters, because the filters do not require knowledge of coding and the user interface for the analytics tool is accessible to all members of the project.
