<commit_before>#Using Tools for Apache Cordova with Visual Studio Online and Team Foundation Services 2015 (RTM)
**This article is intended for use with TFS 2015 RTM and Visual Studio Online. See [this alternate tutorial](./RC/TFS2015.md) for details on using TFS 2015 RC.**

The article is part of a is part of a [series of tutorials](./README.md) on building Visual Studio 2015 Tools for Apache Cordova projects in a Team / CI environment.

##Background
Tools for Apache Cordova is designed to work with a number of different team build systems since the projects it creates are standard [Apache Cordova Command Line interface](http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533773) (CLI) projects. Team Foundation Services 2015 provides a new [cross-platform agent](http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533789) and [Gulp](../tutorial-gulp) based build capabilities that enables TFS to build directly on Windows or OSX which is a critical capability Cordova based development. In addition, Gulp also enables you to easily add in a large number of "[plugins](http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533790)" to perform useful build tasks in environments that you do not control directly like Visual Studio Online.

For these reasons, this tutorial will focus on the use of the cross-platform agent and Gulp rather than MSBuild as the primary build language for Cordova apps. If you still need to use the legacy XAML / MSBuild based approach, see the [TFS 2013](./TFS2013.md) tutorial for details on setup. The instructions generally still apply to TFS 2015.

**Troubleshooting Tip:** Be aware that we recommend against adding the "platforms" folder or the following json files in the "plugins" folder into source control: android.json, ios.json, remote_ios.json, windows.json, and wp8.json. See "What to Add to Source Control" in the [general team build tutorial](./README.md) for additional details.

##Initial Setup
Since the build process we will describe here is not directly dependent on MSBuild or Visual Studio for Android, you have two options for installing pre-requisites on Windows:

1.  Install Visual Studio 2015 and select the Tools for Apache Cordova option and let it install the pre-requisites for you

2.  Manually install only the pre-requisites needed for the specific platforms you intend to build. For example, you do not need to install Visual Studio at all if you only intend to target Android. See "Installing Dependencies" in the [Building Cordova Apps in a Team / Continuous Integration Environment](./README.md) tutorial for details. 
<commit_msg>Added VSO issue advisory to TFS2015 tutorial<commit_after>#Using Tools for Apache Cordova with Visual Studio Online and Team Foundation Services 2015 (RTM)
**This article is intended for use with TFS 2015 RTM and Visual Studio Online. See [this alternate tutorial](./RC/TFS2015.md) for details on using TFS 2015 RC.**

The article is part of a is part of a [series of tutorials](./README.md) on building Visual Studio 2015 Tools for Apache Cordova projects in a Team / CI environment.

**Advisory: You may encoutner a "EPERM" error when executing these instructions in Visual Studio Online.** We are working with the VSO team to resolve a permissions issue with cache locations. Short term you can work around the issue adding a "Variable" to your build definition called "CORDOVA_CACHE" with a value of "C:\cordova-cache" and a variable of "GRADLE_USER_HOME" with a value of "c:\gradle". This will force the tools to be re-acquired instead of using the cached versions.

##Background
Tools for Apache Cordova is designed to work with a number of different team build systems since the projects it creates are standard [Apache Cordova Command Line interface](http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533773) (CLI) projects. Team Foundation Services 2015 provides a new [cross-platform agent](http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533789) and [Gulp](../tutorial-gulp) based build capabilities that enables TFS to build directly on Windows or OSX which is a critical capability Cordova based development. In addition, Gulp also enables you to easily add in a large number of "[plugins](http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=533790)" to perform useful build tasks in environments that you do not control directly like Visual Studio Online.

For these reasons, this tutorial will focus on the use of the cross-platform agent and Gulp rather than MSBuild as the primary build language for Cordova apps. If you still need to use the legacy XAML / MSBuild based approach, see the [TFS 2013](./TFS2013.md) tutorial for details on setup. The instructions generally still apply to TFS 2015.

**Troubleshooting Tip:** Be aware that we recommend against adding the "platforms" folder or the following json files in the "plugins" folder into source control: android.json, ios.json, remote_ios.json, windows.json, and wp8.json. See "What to Add to Source Control" in the [general team build tutorial](./README.md) for additional details.

##Initial Setup
Since the build process we will describe here is not directly dependent on MSBuild or Visual Studio for Android, you have two options for installing pre-requisites on Windows:

1.  Install Visual Studio 2015 and select the Tools for Apache Cordova option and let it install the pre-requisites for you

2.  Manually install only the pre-requisites needed for the specific platforms you intend to build. For example, you do not need to install Visual Studio at all if you only intend to target Android. See "Installing Dependencies" in the [Building Cordova Apps in a Team / Continuous Integration Environment](./README.md) tutorial for details. 

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