SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

I am a Project Server and SharePoint consultant but my main focus currently is around Project Server. I have been working with Project Server for nearly five years since 2007 for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in the UK, I have also been awared with the Microsoft Community Contributor Award 2011. I am also a certified Prince2 Practitioner. This article has been cross posted from pwmather.wordpress.com (original article)

In part 6 of the getting started series we will look at creating a project plan template and a new project site template. This closely ties into the previous post on EPT’s:

http://bit.ly/1aCeU8q

Firstly we will look at creating a project plan template, this is done using Project Professional 2013. Launch Project Professional 2013 and connect to the Project Online instance. If you are unsure on how to connect Project Professional 2013 to the Project Online instance, see post 3 as we covered the required steps there. Once Project Professional is launched, a blank project (Project1) is loaded:

We will use this to create our project plan template. If you already have a project file (.mpp) that you wish to use as a template you can click File > Open to open this file and proceed to the steps where we save the template. Continuing with our blank Project1 file, we will create our plan structure, the details are not important for the purpose of this post so we will keep it simple. The following plan structure has been created:

Now click File > Save then click the Save button under Project Web App:

In the dialogue box, give the template a name and select Template from the Type menu:

Click Save then select the type of data you want to remove from the template:

Click Save. Now close the new template and click File > New > Enterprise and you will see the new template:

Selecting the template will launch a new project with the project plan schedule created in the previous steps. This is the project plan template created. We will now move on to the project site template, once they are both complete we will add them to the EPT.

The site template is a bit more involved than the project plan template. Firstly, launch your chosen browser and navigate to your Project Web App site:

We need to create a new site that will be modified to meet our requirements, this site will then be saved as a template. To create a new site click the settings cog in the top right hand corner then Site Contents:

Scroll down to subsites and click the + new subsite link:

Give the site a name and URL and select the template used to create your new site:

You will need to select Project Site so that Project Online recognises this as a valid project site. Scroll down and click create. You will then see the new site:

Now we have a site, we need to think about what we need to capture or see on this project site. For the purpose of this post we will just create one new example list and also modify the Issues list, that will give you the idea on how to customise the site as required. Firstly we will create the new list, this is going to be called “Marketing Ideas”. To create this list click the settings cog then Add an app:

Click Custom List then enter the list name:

Click Create and you will see the new list appear on the quick launch menu and the site contents page:

Now we need to think about the data we need to capture for each idea. For the purpose of this post we will keep it simple and have the following columns on the new list: Title, Marketing Area – this is choice field, Idea Description and Idea Cost Estimate. Before we create the new columns, there are several options here, create the columns locally (on the new list) or create them central and have the columns centrally managed. I know you would all prefer the centrally managed option so we will go with that! To make these centrally managed we will create the new columns as site columns on the Project Web App site. Navigate back to the Project Web App Site and click the settings cogs then site settings:

Click Site Columns under the Web Designer Galleries:

Click Create:

A new page will display:

Enter the column name, in this case it will be “Marketing Area” as Title will already exist on the list so we don’t need to create that. Change the type to Choice and scroll down to the group section, create a new group to hold all of the custom columns:

Now scroll down to the choice box and update the values as required:

Update other settings as required then click OK to create the new column and group. Click create again to create the other columns, type the name, choose the type and set it to the new custom group (select it from the list of existing groups), update any other settings and click OK. For this example I have three columns in the custom group:

That is the new site columns created for the new list, now we need to create a site content type to hold the new columns. Think of the content type as the container or wrapper. To create the content type click the Site Settings link on the settings cog menu then click Site Content Types under the Web Designer Galleries:

Click Create and complete the form:

Give the content type a name, selected the parent content type from as “List Content Type” then selected “Item” as the parent content type as we need this for list items. I also created a new group to hold this content type and any others i create. Click OK. The new content type will be created:

Click the Add from existing site columns link, we will now add the three columns created earlier. I changed the “Select columns from” menu to the custom site columns group so that only my custom columns are displayed then added the three columns:

Click OK. You can then change the column order if required using the “Column Order” link:

That is our new example content type created, we are now ready to add this to the new Marketing Ideas list. Navigate back to your new site where the new list was created and click the Marketing Ideas list (or the name of your new list):

Click the list tab then list settings:

Click Advanced Settings:

Select Yes for the management of content types:

Click OK. Now scroll down and click the “Add from existing site content types” link:

Change “Select site content types from” menu to your custom group then add your custom content type:

Click OK. Now click the “Change new button order and default content type” link. Set the item content type to not visible and set the new content type position to 1:

Click OK. Now go back to the advanced settings option and turn off the management of content types:

Click OK. Now set up any views you want on the list, this is done at the bottom of the settings page. For the purpose of this post I have just updated the All Items view and added my new columns:

This new list is now complete. Clicking the new item button on the list shows my new columns:

Now we will look at modifying the Issues list. Firstly we need to activate a site feature so that the default Project Server / Project Online project site lists are created. From the new site click the settings cog then Site Settings:

Click Manage Site Features and scroll down to the “Project Web App Connectivity” feature and click Activate:

Navigate back to the site homepage and you will see three new links appear on the quick launch under the Recent heading:

Now we have the Issues list we can modify it. The Issues lists will contain columns already, I would avoid changing any of the default columns as this can break some functionality in Project Online. For the purpose of this post, we will just create a new additional column called “Highlight”, this will be a yes / no column. Like the Marketing Ideas list, this new column will also be created as a site column on the Project Web App site then added to a new site content type on the Project Web App site. I wont cover those steps again as it is the same process as before when we created the three marketing ideas columns. We also need to create a new site content type for holding the new column/s. Again, I won’t document this as the process is the same, create a new site content type and add the highlight site column. Continuing with the Issues list changes (assuming you have set up the required columns and content type), click the Issues list then click the List tab followed by the List settings. Click advanced settings and allow the management of content types:

Click OK. Now scroll down to “Add from exiting content types” link, update the “Select site content types from:” menu to the custom site content type group you created (saves you scrolling to find your new content type) then add the Issues content type:

Click OK. Now scroll down and click your new content type to load the settings:

Click the link “Add from existing site or list columns” and you will see the page below:

These are the default Issues list columns, add all of the columns:

Click OK. This has added all of the local Issue list columns to the new custom Issues content type on the Issues list:

Click the Settings link at the top of the page to go back to the list settings page. As before with the custom list, click the “Change new button order and default content type” link. Set the Project Site Issue content type to not visible and set the new content type position to 1:

Click OK. Now go back to the advanced settings option and turn off the management of content types:

Click OK. The last thing to do is update / create any views. For this example I will create a new view based on the default “All Items” view but filter for items that are highlighted. To do this, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Create view”. Under the “Start from an existing view”, click “All Items”:

Once the new view page loads, give it a name, in this case I will call it “Highlighted Issues”. Add the new Highlighted column to the view by checking the check box, update the position as required. Scroll down to the filter settings and select the Highlighted column  is equal to Yes as displayed below:

Click OK to save the new view.

That is my lists configured, well for the purpose of this post anyway. In reality you would probably make many more changes but that should give you a good idea / starting point. The next change that I will do to my site is update the navigate menu, currently it looks like this:

I want to change the order. To do this click the settings cog then Site Settings. Under the Look and Feel heading, click Navigation. Scroll down to the “Structural Navigation: Editing and Sorting” section and you will see something like the image below:

I want to move Issues, Risks, Deliverables and Marketing Ideas to the main part of the menu and remove them from the Recent heading. I will walkthrough updating the Issues link so you get the idea. Select Current Navigation:

Click the “Add Heading…” button and you will see a new pop-up:

Complete the details as required:

To add the correct URL if you are unsure, click Browse, then select the Issues list and click Insert:

Click OK and the new link will appear at the bottom:

With the new Issues link selected, click the “Move Up” button until the link is in the correct place:

Now select the original Issues links under the Recent heading and click “Delete”. Repeat these steps for the other lists / navigation links. Once complete it will look similar to the links below:

Once the links are all updated click OK on the navigation settings page. You will now see the quick launch menu updated:

There are two more changes that I want to do to this site before it is ready to save as a template, the next is to update the homepage. I want to remove the large “Get started..” web part and add my own. Firstly lets edit the page to remove the current “Get started…” web part. Click the settings cog then Edit Page, the page will now be in edit mode:

Click the drop down menu next the to “Get started..” web part and select Delete:

Click OK and the web part will be removed. Now I want to add my own tiles to the homepage. Firstly I need to create another custom lists called the “Promoted Links”. Lets stop editing the page, click the Page tab followed by Stop Editing:

Click the settings cog then Add an app. Scroll down the list and click “Promoted Links”:

Give the list a name such as Site Links and click create. You will now see the new list:

Click the list then click the “All Promoted Links” link and add your links. The links I have added are below:

Notice the use of relative links, don’t use absolute (full) URLs.

I have linked to my Issues, Risks and Marketing Ideas lists. The images are stored in the site collection image library so that they are centrally managed and can be updated easily. Now the list has been created we need to add the web part to the homepage. Navigate back to the site homepage and click the settings cog then Edit Page. Click the Add web part link:

You will then see the web part gallery at the top of the page:

In the Apps category you will see the name of the custom list you just created, in my case I see Site Links:

Select the app and click the Add button. You will now see the tiles (links) appear on the page. Move the web part to the correct web part zone as required. Just drag the web part to the desired zone. I have moved this below the Project Summary:

Click the Page tab followed by Stop Editing:

One last thing, you will notice I now has the “Site Links” under the Recent heading:

I want to remove this. Click the settings cog then Site Settings. Under the Look and Feel heading clicking Navigation. Scroll down to the “Structural Navigation: Editing and Sorting” section , select the link under the Recent heading and click Delete. Click OK then navigate back to the site homepage and it will look something like the image below (if you have been following):

I don’t want to see the Site Links title, so I will edit the web part,click Page then Edit Page or use the Edit Page option on the settings cog menu:

Click the “Edit Web Part” link on the drop down menu for the web part:

Expand the appearance section and change the Chrome to None:

Click Apply then click OK. Now click the Stop Editing link on the ribbon. The homepage will now look like this:

Finally I want to update the theme, to do this click the settings cog then “Change the look” and the following page will load:

Click the current design (or chose a different) then choose the updated theme using the controls on the left:

I went for the following:

Click “Try it out” then “Yes, keep it” if you are happy. Now the site will have updated:

That’s it my site is ready to be saved as a template. To so this, click the settings cog then Site Settings. Click “Save site as a template” under the Site Actions menu. Give the template a title and name. Also check the box to include content:

As we are including content make sure no lists or libraries have any data as this data will then be created on all sites created from this template. The only list on my site that will have data is the “Site Links” list, this is fine. Other lists or libraries are fine to have data too but as long as you are aware this data will get created on all sites that are created from this template. We have to include content for two reasons, one so our tiles on the homepage work and two so that the “Change the look” functionality works on new sites. If you don’t include content you will not have the tiles on the homepage and you will have an issue with the themes, the themes issue is described here. Click OK to save the template. After a short while you will see the success message:

Click OK. The template is now ready and available to use. The final steps is to add the project plan template and the site template to the new EPT. To do this navigate back to the Project Web App site and click the settings cog then PWA Settings. Under the Workflow and Project Detail Pages heading click Enterprise Project Types. Click your new EPT, mine is called “Product Design”, this will load the EPT settings. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Project Plan Template section. On the drop down menu select the project plan template. For the purpose of this post mine is called “Project Design Template”:

Scroll down to the last setting, the Site Template section and select the site template. Mine is called “Project Design Template v0.1”:

Click Save to apply the changes.

That comes to the end of this post, next up we look at getting data into the system, this includes populating our resource pool, giving users access and a guide on creating projects.