Hedgehog TDS 5.1.0.9 and Sitecore 8 Update 3

Older versions of TDS have issues with Sitecore 8 Update 3, and they can manifest in a few different ways.

When installing a package that was generated using an older version of TDS, you might encounter an error about the following error...

Exception Could not find file 'C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\GasTest\Website\_DEV\DeployedItems.xml'.

In the installation screen on the Update Installation Wizard it would look like...

Or on the results screen...

Also, when you are using Visual Studios or a TFS build server to generate the package, the build might fail with the very descriptive error...

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\HedgehogDevelopment\SitecoreProject\v9.0\HedgehogDevelopment.SitecoreProject.targets (165): The package builder failed. Please see the build output log for more details.

Digging into the logs would give you the stack trace...

Building .\bin\TestCM-SC8\..\Package_TestCM-SC8\TDS.Master.scitems.update
Inner Exception Object reference not set to an instance of an object.(System.NullReferenceException):
at Sitecore.Update.Utils.ConfigurationUtils.GetConfiguration(ConfigReader reader)
at Sitecore.Update.Utils.ConfigurationUtils.GetConfigNodes(String xpath, ConfigReader reader)
at Sitecore.Update.Configuration.Factory.ReloadSettings()
at Sitecore.Update.Commands.BaseFileCommand.Serialize(XmlWriter writer, SerializationContext context)
at Sitecore.Update.Commands.SerializationCommandFactory.SerializeCommand(ICommand command, XmlWriter writer, SerializationContext context)
at Sitecore.Update.Installer.CommandToEntryConverter.ConvertFileOperationCommand(BaseFileCommand entry, Stream file)
at Sitecore.Update.Installer.CommandToEntryConverter.Convert(ICommand entry)
at Sitecore.Update.Installer.CommandToEntryConverter.InternalConvert(ICommand entry, IProcessingContext context)
at Sitecore.Install.Framework.BaseConverter`1.Convert(T entry, IProcessingContext context)
at Sitecore.Install.Framework.BaseSource`1.InternalSink.Put(T entry)
at Sitecore.Install.Framework.FilteringSink`1.Put(T entry)
at Sitecore.Update.Installer.CommandSource.InternalPopulate(ISink`1 sink)
at Sitecore.Install.Framework.BaseSource`1.Populate(ISink`1 sink)
at Sitecore.Install.PackageProject.InternalPopulate(ISink`1 sink)
at Sitecore.Install.Framework.BaseSource`1.Populate(ISink`1 sink)
at Sitecore.Install.Utils.EntrySorter.Populate(ISink`1 sink)
at Sitecore.Install.PackageGenerator.GeneratePackage(PackageProject solution, ISink`1 writer)
at Sitecore.Update.Engine.PackageGenerator.GeneratePackage(DiffInfo diff, String licenseFile, String outputPath)
Exception Cannot generate package: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.(System.Exception):
at Sitecore.Update.Engine.PackageGenerator.GeneratePackage(DiffInfo diff, String licenseFile, String outputPath)
at HedgehogDevelopment.SitecoreProject.PackageBuilder.PackageBuilder.g(g ?)
at HedgehogDevelopment.SitecoreProject.PackageBuilder.l.g(String[] ?)
5>C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\HedgehogDevelopment\SitecoreProject\v9.0\HedgehogDevelopment.SitecoreProject.targets(165,5): error : The package builder failed. Please see the build output log for more details.

Fixing this error is as easy as downloading the latest version of TDS. This issue was fixed as of 5.1.0.9. More specifics about this can be found in the following links...

http://www.hhogdev.com/blog/2015/may/sitecore-update-installation-wizard-error-in-sitecore-8-update-3.aspx

http://jockstothecore.com/packaging-with-tds-and-sitecore-8-update-3/