Archive
Project Server 2007 / 2010 scheduled tasks not running #PS2010 #ProjectServer #EPM #PS2007
Scheduled jobs such as the daily scheduled backup in project server not running but work when you run them manually? I have seen this at many clients and the resolution is usually simple.
All of the scheduled jobs in Project Server 2007 / 2010 run from a SharePoint Timer Job, if you look in Central Administration at the timer job definitions you will see your project server jobs. These include:
- Project Server Cube Admin Job
- Resource Capacity Job
- Scheduled Backup Job (one for each item)
These jobs are created in Central Administration when you set up the scheduled jobs in PWA. If you find that some of the scheduled jobs no longer run automatically, editing the time of the job will usually resolve the issue. So for example, if your daily Project backup that scheduled to run at 02:00 is not working automatically, try editing the time of the job to 03:00 and check the following day to confirm it has worked. To confirm it has run you can check the queue history and add in the “Success” job completion state. You can always set the job to run again at 02:00 for the following night and that should still work. You would need to repeat this for all of the scheduled jobs that were not running automatically.
Project Server 2010 Database Maintenance Plans #EPM #PS2010 #ProjectServer
Just a quick post to mention that Microsoft have now released documentation on the recommended SQL server database maintenance plans for Project Server 2010. SQL Server database plans are very important in keeping Project Server performing reliably and smoothly. Please see the link below for more information:
Microsoft Project Server 2010–Service Pack 1 released #in #SP2010 #SharePoint #MSProject #ProjectServer
And here is the SharePoint and Project Server 2010 Download and Detail Links.
Details:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2460047
Download: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26636
FireFox compatibility for Tasks and Timesheet entry – woo hoo!
I have a client desperate for this, so shall be testing tomorrow.
Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 released #in #SharePoint #SP2010 #MSProject #MSOffice #ProjectServer #PS2010
Quite a day for Microsoft today. Office 365 has been released!!! (This blog may be moving to Office 365 soon – you can see a preview here: http://ghamson.sharepoint.com)
It is expected that the SharePoint and Project Server 2010 updates will be released in a matter of minutes / hours.
And of course the Microsoft Office 2010 client suite service pack has just been released!
Download Links:
32-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26622
64-bit: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26617
I will post again with SharePoint 2010 / Project Server 2010 Service Pack details as soon as possible.
Project Server 2010 Project Site default fields
Getting synch errors in the Project Queue relating the Reporting WSS sync? Link to task functionality not working? Risks and issues not showing in the reminders web part on the PWA home page? If you have any of these issues then it is quite likely that you have either edited or deleted some of the default fields from the Project Site’s Risks or Issues lists. The Risks, Issues, Deliverables lists are integral to Project Server so the best advise is to leave the default fields alone and create new fields to meet your requirements. It is possible to hide the default fields if required.
One question I see quite a lot of the time is “How can we fix this issue once we have deleted or edited a default field from the Project Site?” The answer is simple but would mean data loss if you want to fix the issue on a Project Site that already had list items on the default Issues, Risks and Deliverables lists. If the issue exists in the current custom Project Site template then this can be resolved easily without any data loss. For both scenarios please see the steps below.
To fix the issue if it exists in your latest custom Project Site template, navigate to PWA and click Site Actions > New Site, select the latest custom template, add a name and URL and click create. Navigate to your new site and delete the default Risks, Issues and Deliverables lists by going to the list settings for each list / library and clicking “Delete this list”.
Click Site Actions > Site Settings > Manage Site Features, scroll down to the “Project Sites Collaboration lists”
Click “Deactivate” and click ok the the warning. Once complete the page will reload the site features, this time click “Activate” next to Project Sites Collaboration Lists.
Running through these steps will recreate the default Risks, Issues and Deliverables lists with all of the correct default fields, any custom fields or changes made to default fields will not be re-applied. Now create any custom fields / views needed on the Risks or Issues list but remember do not touch the default fields or views. Once the template is complete save the site as a template and set as the default site template in Project Server following the usual process. This would have fixed the issues mention above for new Project Sites that are created from the new custom template but the issues will still exist on current project sites.
To fix the issues on current project sites would mean that some data loss will occur. Any list items on the default Risk, Deliverables or Issues list will be lost and not recreated. To fix the issues on existing sites the same process applies as outline above but rather than creating a new site you will need to navigate to the Project site in question then delete the default Risks, Deliverables and Issues lists (remembering that the list items will be lost). If the list items are required, export the lists to Excel first, then you have a copy that can be used to create the items again manually once the lists are recreated. Once the default Risks, Deliverables and Issues lists have been deleted, click Site Actions > Site Settings > Manage Site Features. Deactivate the “Project Sites Collaboration Lists” feature then activate. As mentioned earlier this will recreate the default Risks, Deliverables and Issues lists with all of the default fields. This process will need to be repeated on all Project Sites where you want to resolve the issue and where you are happy to lose the existing Risks, Deliverables and Issues.
I would recommend that this process is carried out on test environment prior to production so that you are happy with steps outlined above.
Project Server 2010 Grid issue
I would just like to share my findings with the behaviour of the Project Server 2010 grids. I was recently investigating an issue raised on one of the Project Server forums and thought I would blog the issue and workaround in case anyone comes across this in future. The issue is that the header rows don’t load correctly if you zoom your Internet Explorer window below 99%. Each grid behaves differently, the Project Centre grid will add an extra header row on the left hand side of the grid as shown below so that the Gantt row no longer aligns with the correct Project detail rows:
On the Tasks page, an extra row is added on both sides of the divider, but the rows are not level as seen below, Process Status and Mon 13/06 are positioned mid rows:
The Resource Centre also adds an extra header row as seen below:
This behaviour can be resolved by increasing the Internet Explorer zoom level to 99% or higher.
Hopefully that will help resolve this annoyance for anyone that has come across this issue 
Minimising JavaScript files for production #in #SharePoint #SP2010 #ProjectServer #PS2010
As per my previous post, in my current project we are starting to migrate the whole solution to live.
The project I am working on is a global solution with locations in UK, USA, India, China + others. As a result of this, like many global projects, we suffer from the available connections.
This is potentially very minor in helping, but as part of the production process we are minimising the JavaScript files.
To do this, I have used the Yahoo compressor which is a java applet where you can pass in the file and output the minimised version.
Download Link: http://yuilibrary.com/downloads/#yuicompressor
How To Documentation: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/compressor/#using
Example Command Line: java -jar yuicompressor-2.4.6.jar –nomunge –preserve-semi –disable-optimizations <input file> -o <output file>
Creating a SP2010 Farm with local accounts in Server Mode #in #SP2010 #SharePoint
So, it’s the weekend and I have decided to build myself a SharePoint 2010 / Project Server 2010 development environment so I can play with some ideas at home as well as update my CodePlex projects.
Now in MOSS 2007 you used to be able to create a server farm connecting to a full SQL Server on the same box by not choosing Standalone mode during the setup.
In SharePoint 2010, it would appear that this is not the case using the GUI setup or even stsadm as it will not accept local accounts during the setup wizard
However in PowerShell you can.
The following articles have been useful during my setup process:
Blog: From The Field – http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/blogs/fromthefield/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=112
MSDN Forums: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepoint2010setup/thread/574bb98b-7751-4b23-a71b-857c6664804b
As a basic overview (and as a reminder to myself):
- Install the pre-requisites
- Install the binaries
- Run the SharePoint 2010 Management Shall as the Server Administrator
- PS Command:New-SPConfigurationDatabase
Once you have done this, run the PSConfig GUI (Start > All Programs > Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products > SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration) and you will find that you are connected to the farm.
Do not disconnect and click next. The standard wizard will now run and setup Central Administration for you.
This is running for me at the moment, so if I find any further gotchas I shall update this post.
Calculated Column Formula: Probability and impact analysis for risks #SharePoint #SP2010 #ProjectServer #PS2010 #EPM #MSProject #in
Many project managers like to do risk analysis in terms of probability and impact, ultimately creating a heat map when data is rolled up at the project or programme level.
Further information about the methodology can be found here: http://www.expertprogrammanagement.com/2010/06/project-risk-management/
To aid in the creation of these roll up dashboards, we need to evaluate each risk as it is entered (and updated) and assess the probability of the risk occurring against the impact it has against the project (normally in terms of Cost, Resource or Time).
The following chart details this analysis:
NB: Numeric values have been assigned for the formulas listed below
To implement this in SharePoint (either standalone or as an extension to the standard Risks list in Project Server) we need to translate what the Project Manager / Team Members would like to state in words regarding probability & impact into a numeric value for sorting and analysis.
The following Choice columns are added to the Risk form.
User Interface Columns:
| Column | Type | Values |
| Probability of Risk | Choice | Very Low, Low, Medium, High, Very High |
| Impact of Risk | Choice | Very Low, Low, Medium, High, Very High |
Once we have the UI version of Probability and Impact, we need to use some hidden / calculated columns to convert these values in to numbers.
Once we have these values we then multiply them together:
Probability x Impact = Expected Outcome Value
Hidden Columns:
| Column | Type | Values |
| Risk Probability Value | Calculated Column | =IF([Probability of Risk]=”Very Low”,0.1,IF([Probability of Risk]=”Low”,0.3,IF([Probability of Risk]=”Medium”,0.5,IF([Probability of Risk]=”High”,0.7,IF([Probability of Risk]=”Very High”,0.9,0))))) |
| Risk Impact Value | Calculated Column | =IF([Impact of Risk]=”Very Low”,0.05,IF([Impact of Risk]=”Low”,0.1,IF([Impact of Risk]=”Medium”,0.2,IF([Impact of Risk]=”High”,0.4,IF([Impact of Risk]=”Very High”,0.8,0))))) |
| Expected Value Result | Calculated Column | =[Risk Probability Value]*[Risk Impact Value] |
Now that we have our Expected Outcome as a number, we can convert this back to a value the end user will understand, report and dashboard from.
RAG Outcome:
| Column | Type | Values |
| RAG | Calculated Column | =IF([Expected Value Result]<0.05,”Green”,IF([Expected Value Result]>0.14,”Red”,”Amber”)) |
For each risk in the list we will now have a RAG value.
Further customisations I end up doing in clients include adding a RAG indicator column showing a graphical representation of the risk using jQuery.
RAG Indicator:
| Column | Type | Values |
| RAG Indicator | Calculated Column | =”<div class=’convertToHTML’><img src=’/pwa/customisation/images/RAG” & [RAG] & “Sml.gif’ alt=”‘ & [RAG] & ‘” title=”‘ & [RAG] & ‘”></div>” |
The above formula expects three images:
- RAGGreenSml.gif
- RAGAmberSml.gif
- RAGRedSml.gif
Images in the formula are stored in a document library called:
- Customisation
with a folder inside called:
- images
Run the following jQuery function on the page with the list view on to convert the RAG Indicator calculated column string into rendered html:
Useful findings whilst learning Reporting Services with #SP2010 #SharePoint #PS2010 #ProjectServer
So the first phase of the project I have been on for the last year is starting to move into the closing phases. The information architecture is in place, most of the custom development is complete and mapped to the project lifecycle / business processes of my client.
The project takes data from multiple places including:
- SAP (Resource, cost rate, metadata and product contract information)
- Project Server 2010 (Timesheets, Plans, Project / Task / Assignment data)
- SharePoint 2010 (Risks, Issues, Actions, Documents etc.)
- Custom database (Snapshot data)
I’ve learnt a lot about SharePoint 2010 and Project Server 2010 since I started this project (pre public beta). So now that we have all this data, the time has come to bring it all together with Business Intelligence dashboards and UI design.
Once of the main tools we are using for this is Reporting Services in SharePoint Integration mode and although I have lead projects involving SSRS in the past, actually getting my hands dirty and creating reports myself is something of a novelty.
However, time and resource pressures have meant that I have had to setup the SSRS infrastructure, development environments and test reports to ensure that the data can be utilised in the required way. As part of this setup I am also training my client on the business intelligence studio interface and deployment of reports in to SharePoint environment.
So getting to the point of this post, below is a list of useful links, findings and discoveries I have made during this setup process this week to serve as a reminder to me and will hopefully help others too.
Reporting Services Web Part – Firefox Compatibility (Windows, Linux – 3.6.13)
- Turn off Asynchronous data (Edit Web Part Settings > View Section)
NB: If this setting is left to its default, the loading screen does not go away until you hit the refresh button on the Web Part toolbar.
SharePoint Integration Mode – Linking to pages within SharePoint
It would appear that the Reporting Services web part in SP2010 disables links where the target URL is within SharePoint itself (“/pages/default.aspx” for example).
This blog post suggested a useful workaround:
However the suggested approach was good if you had a definitive URL such as default.aspx, but if you wanted to add a query string parameter based on the data returned, adding as action directly to the image did not allow me to select the appropriate date.
To get round this, I added a calculated field to the data set using the same process suggested in the post:
NB: Since working this out, I have extended it to use a standard JavaScript function that is running from the Master Page to make links in the reports more generic.
Then for the action on the image I was able to select “Go to URL” and select my calculated field.
This doesn’t work in the designer preview (or any exports of the report), however it works a treat when you are using the report as part of a dashboard with drill down features.
Interactive Column Sorting
Another useful blog post:
Although the instructions are for SSRS 2005, it is still relevant today.
- Right click on the column header field
- Select Properties
- Interactive Sort Tab
- Select the appropriate sort field
- Click OK
Alternating Row Colours
Always a popular choice for tabular based reports.
Highlight the data row and under the properties pane for the background color, use the following expression:
MSDN Documentation Links
- Support Features for SharePoint Integration Mode: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326290(v=SQL.100).aspx
- Reporting Services Features: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159273(v=SQL.100).aspx
- Tutorials: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb522859(v=SQL.100).aspx
- Design Guidance: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159734(v=SQL.100).aspx
- Designing and Implementing Reports Using Report Designer: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159253(v=SQL.100).aspx
- Development Topics (High Level): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb522683(v=SQL.100).aspx
- Report Builder Information: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ff657833.aspx
- How to publish a report to a SharePoint Library: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb283155.aspx
NB: Although a lot of the above links are for SSRS 2008, there is an option at the top of the page to make the content relevant for SSRS 2008 R2 also.
SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans 
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