TFS CI Build Chain

Question

In an effort to introduce reusable code at my new employer I've elected to create a class library that will be referenced by 200+ existing small applications. This library contains logging, dbconnection logic, etc.

Is there a way to setup TFS online's build service to automatically determine which projects have referenced this common library as a nuget package? I'd like them to build after (or part of) the CI build for the common library runs.

The projects that will depend on the nuget package do exist in the same TFS Team Project, but are not in the same branches, each application has its own set of branches.

Answer 1

Not really, and I'd say that what you want to do kind of defeats the purpose of NuGet.

You have 200 applications consuming this common library. The common library presumably works. Awesome. When you release a new production-stable version of the package, you should bump its version number and let everything that's using the old version continue to do so.

It should be the responsibility of the consumer of that library to choose whether to update it or not when a newer version is made available. The team responsible for each application should be able to make a conscious decision to upgrade the component.

Also, keep the single responsibility principle in mind. Having a "god assembly" that contains logging, database logic, and other totally unrelated stuff sounds like a really bad idea, especially if these things are going to continue to evolve over time. You'll bump into a situation where an application needs New Feature X in the database piece, but unfortunately someone made Unrelated Breaking Change Y in the logger logic a few weeks ago. Now you have to integrate Unrelated Breaking Change Y into your application even if you don't want or need it.