Including support for Windows Live ID

Mar 26, 2010 10:33 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft’s repository of open source projects has evolved with the addition of new features, improving a range of aspects across CodePlex. The Redmond company wrapped up the deployment of its latest version of CodePlex on March 26th, 2010, delivering, among others, support for Windows Live ID accounts. According to Microsoft’s Matt Hawley, users will now be able to log in to CodePlex using their Windows Live ID accounts. Hawley indicated that support for Windows Live IDs had been the second most requested feature for the CodePlex team.

“The next time you visit the login screen, you’ll see a 'Sign In' button at the top. Once that button is clicked, you’ll be redirected to Windows Live ID to authenticate. Upon successfully authenticating, you’ll be redirected back to CodePlex. When you return to CodePlex, you’ll be prompted to login with your CodePlex credentials to associate your Windows Live ID account to your CodePlex account,” he stated.

However, despite the introduction of Windows Live ID support, CodePlex accounts will also be required in order for the authentication with the source control servers to be performed. In addition, neither TFS nor Mercurial will be accessible with Windows Live IDs. This because users are required by TFS and Mercurial to present Active Directory credentials in order for their identities to be verified. However, the evolution introduced by Microsoft means that CodePlex will associate Windows Live IDs with CodePlex accounts, and that this authentication will be performed automatically in the future.

The latest release of CodePlex also delivers changes to the advertisements that project owners can associate with their project pages via The Lounge. “With this release, we enabled a new feature that will dramatically increase the ad revenue for project owners to better support their project. When a user downloads any file from a release, they’ll be taken to a page displaying two 300 x 250 pixel ads while the file is downloading. This download page only applies to projects where the project owner has decided to include ads on their project,” Hawley explained.

CodePlex users will also be able to notice that, when entering queries in any project search textboxes, the website will display a Search Term Suggestions popup. All they need to do is write at least four letters of the search and additional suggestions will be offered. Another change involves syntax highlighting support for PowerShell scripts. According to Microsoft, PowerShell support has been introduced for the source code browser, wiki, but also the code syntax selection associated with discussion lists.

“In this release we have made a few minor changes to our Mercurial hosting. We upgraded the server software to version 1.5. We are always using canonical URLs for repositories. Fork clone URLs are displayed as clickable links. Downloading and browsing the latest source code will always use the most recent change set from the 'default' branch,” Hawley added.