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)

Microsoft have released Project Siena (Beta) to enable users to create Windows 8 apps. The tool is a Windows 8 app that can be downloaded here:

http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-gb/app/microsoft-project-siena/5ae47651-e8f3-4e41-aab7-e19ab1b80180

Details on Project Siena can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/projectsiena/default.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsiena/

I haven’t had much time to look at the tool but in this blog post I will walk through creating a very simple App that shows a list of projects and the percentage complete.

Once Project Siena is installed and loaded the first screen looks like this:

Click “Add a visual” and you will see all the options:

For this example, I am going to add a list box:

Now select the list box control and click “Items” from the bottom ribbon then click “Add Data Source”:

For this example, I have already got an Excel file that contains the projects and information I need using ODATA from my test Project Online tenant:

After clicking the add data source button you will see the following options:

For this simple example I am going to use Excel, the Excel file you can see above. As you can see,there are 5 options of data sources, but for the purpose of this post I will keep it simple and use Excel.

After adding the Excel file, you will need to select the table/s:

Then click “Import data”. You will then see the data appear:

Navigate back to the App screen and select the list box, click “Items” from the ribbon and select the table from Excel:

Once the Excel table is selected you can then chose what field appears in the list box:

In this case, it is the ProjectName field. The list box will update to display the projects from the Excel file:

Resize the List Box as required. Add a text box and a slider as displayed below:

I have updated the text and styling of the text in the text box. To updating the styling of the text, select the text box and click the “Design” button on the bottom ribbon, these options will appear:

Update as required.

The slider is used to visualise the % complete. This control needs to be linked to the data. To do this, select the slider and click the “Data” button, then “Default”. Click “Projects!Selected”:

Then click “ProjectPercentCompleted”:

The slider will now update to show the % complete for the selected project. That is it for this simple app, but gives you an idea.

You can preview the app by clicking the “Preview” button:

The preview looks like this:

The tooltip shows the % complete.

As mentioned, this is a simple app just to introduce you to Project Siena and demonstrate how easily anyone can create an App with no coding!

Have fun

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)

The Office 2013 December 2013 Cumulative Updates are now available, please see the links below:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2912738

***There is no Project Server 2013 Server Roll up package for December 2013 CU***
Project Server 2013 December 2013 CU:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2837668
Project 2013 December 2013 CU:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2837665 

Also worth noting, if you haven’t done so already, install the March 2013 Public update: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2768001 if installing the December 2013 CU.

The Office 2010 December 2013 Cumulative Updates are now available, please see the links below:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2911591

Project Server 2010 Server Roll up package December 2013 CU (Recommended):
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2849972
Project Server 2010 December 2013 CU (Included in the Server Roll up package):   
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2849978 & http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2849988
Project 2010 December 2013 CU:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2849984
Remember SP1 or SP2 is a pre-requisite for the Office 2010 December 2013 CUs.

As always, test these updates on a replica test environment before deploying to production.

For more details see:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/12/12/microsoft-project-server-2010-and-2013-december-cu-announcement.aspx

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)

I recently worked solely on a Project Online deployment from start to finish and wanted to share my thoughts and experiences with you. Just to be clear, this isn’t the first Project Online deployment I have worked on, I have been involved in many with CPS but this one I have seen through from the beginning to the end.

Overall the Project Online experience is very smooth and efficient. It was the perfect solution for this particular client I have just finished working for. They weren’t sure exactly what they needed or how long they were going to use the system for as another area of the business was already planning Project Server internally but these guys needed something now. Project Online was the perfect choice, no hardware needed, no internal IT involvement, no capital costs.

When working with Project Online, treat this as the separate product it is. Remember it is not Project Server online, it is Project Online. whilst these two products are similar they are different. Many of the features are very similar but you will also find some features not available in one or the other.

One of the key areas I would say you need ensure you fully understand, certainly if you have been working with Project Server for many years like myself, is the reporting side of things. Whilst the typical end user reporting in Project Online is very simple to use, you are limited by ODATA and don’t have the flexibility of the Reporting database access that we have all got used to. Remember, Project Online is a different product to Project Server 2013 on-premise, so don’t think of Project Online reporting as a limitation compared to Project Server on-premise.

For quick and simple deployments, for me, Project Online is the answer. The key advantages to consider with Project Online that can help form any business case needed are:

• The farm is maintained by Microsoft
• The farm is regularly patched with updates by Microsoft
• The system scalability is all handle by Microsoft
• The system continuity / back up is handled by Microsoft
• Any system issues are raised directly to Microsoft for resolution
• Project Online can be up and running within about 30 minutes
• No hardware required
• No capital costs

These aren’t all the advantages, just the key points i could think of at the time of writing.

Speak to your Gold PPM partner today for a free trial – you won’t be disappointed.

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)

Just a quick post to highlight a new app that CPS have released for Project 2013, this is the Task Auditor app and can be downloaded using the link below:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/store/task-auditor-WA104172076.aspx

The app can be seen below:

The home page gives a description of the app but also contains a check box to allow the use of Cookies – if you don’t allow the use of Cookies then the configuration settings will not be available and some of the checks might not be 100% accurate.

After checking the check box to allow Cookies, clicking on a task update the app to show the results for the particular task:

At this point also notice there are three tabs, Task, Configure and Help. If you don’t allow Cookies the Configure and Help Tabs will not be visible. The Task Tab displays the checks / tests results for the selected task. The Configure Tab allows the user the enter duration settings and date format:

This is to allow correct calculations for a couple of the checks. These settings are saved and only have to be updated once / as required.

The Help Tab gives details / support for the Configure Tab:

The tests carried out will depend on the type of task selected, Milestone, Summary Task, Work Task etc. The images below show a summary task selected and then a normal work task selected:

Summary Task:

Work Task:

Hovering over the checks, a tooltip gives more information on the check:

Take a look, its free