So now you would like to link to these documents by creating a new link on the Quick Launch that will take you to the excel web view of the workbook. You do this by copying the shortcut (right click - copy shortcut) and pasting it as a new link on the quick launch.

But what if you don't want it to go to the excel web viewer and you just want the link to automatically open the workbook in excel? This is common due to limitations of the excel viewer around macros and protected sheets etc.

It is the difference in the link you use.

The following link ( copied shortcut) will open the workbook in excel viewer by default:

Http://epm/Pwa/layouts/xlviewer.aspx?id=/Pwa/shared%20documents/document1.xlsm&source=http%3a%2f%2fepm%2fpwa%2fshared%20documents%2fforms%2fallitems%2easpx&defaultitemopen=1 

However if you enter a simpler version of the link, it will open the workbook in excel by default:

Http://epm/Pwa/shared documents/document1.xlsm

So for workbooks that can display and refresh data successfully via the web viewer, just copy the shortcut to the document and paste as a link wherever you like. However if you have a more complex workbook with protected sheets, macros or to be saved locally by the user quickly, use the simpler version of the link above.

Problem

The best solution to be able to efficiently create 1 or more linked child list items from a parent list.

Solution 1

The blog below outlines how to achieve the above using workflows - (See link below).

http://ppm.griff-in.net/2011/10/creating-actions-from-issues-and-risks.html

E.g. A user will create an “Issue” item and use a workflow to create each linked “Action” items.

• Workflows can be set to auto run and create Action” items after creating an Issue item.
• Still requires a few clicks to create an “Action” item.

Solution 2

The blog below uses SharePoint Designer to essentially add a web part to show a custom list in the List Forms for another custom list (DispForm.aspx, EditForm.aspx, NewForm.aspx)

http://geekswithblogs.net/SoYouKnow/archive/2010/12/16/creating-a-sharepoint-parentchild-list-relationshipndash-sharepoint-2010-edition.aspx

E.g. A user can create and view linked “Action” items when viewing or editing an “Issue” item.

• A user can view and create “Action” items straight from an “Issue” items form
• Although the Issue ID textbox in the New actions form is pre-filled, a user can potentially change the Issue ID that does not exist which will create an error.
• Unable to create an “Action” item when create a new “Issue” item.

Referencing the above two solutions, here is the solution to create child list items from within a parent list.

E.g. Creating Action Items from Issue list.

Create the Parent-Child Custom Lists

• Create the parent custom list “Issues” and create the necessary columns. E.g. Description, Status

• Create the child custom list “Actions” and create the necessary columns. E.g. Description

 Create the Parent-Child Relationship

• Create the “Issue” column of field type “Lookup” that links the “Action” list to the “Issues” custom list using the ID.
• Check the tickbox “Enforce relationship behaviour”

Update the List Forms for Child List

• Go to the List > Edit List to edit the list using SharePoint Designer and select the DispForm.aspx in the forms panel
• Delete the existing WebPartPage.
• In the Insert ribbon click SharePoint > Custom List Form…
• Select the options as shown in screenshot. 

• Go to List > Edit List to edit the list using SharePoint Designer and select the EditForm.aspx in the forms panel
• Delete the existing WebPartPage.
• In the Insert ribbon click SharePoint > Custom List Form…
• Select the options as shown in screenshot. 

• Go to the List > Edit List to edit the list using SharePoint Designer and select the NewForm.aspx in the forms panel
• Delete the existing WebPartPage.
• In the Insert ribbon click SharePoint > Custom List Form…
• Select the options as shown in screenshot. 

• Select custom list form in DispForm.aspx  and go to “Options” ribbon.
• Add a new query string parameter by clicking “Parameters” and setting the options as screenshot.

• Update the Issues field to reference the new parameter created - “ThisIssueID”

• Select custom list form in EditForm.aspx  and go to “Options” ribbon.
• Add a new query string parameter by clicking “Parameters” and setting the options as screenshot.

• Update the “Issues” field to reference the new parameter created - “ThisIssueID”

• Select custom list form in NewForm.aspx  and go to “Options” ribbon.
• Add a new query string parameter by clicking “Parameters” and setting the options as screenshot.

• Change the Format for “Issues” field to TextBox
• Update the “Issues” field to reference the new parameter created - “ThisIssueID”

Update the List Forms for Parent List

• Go to List >Edit List to edit the list using SharePoint Designer and select the DispForm.aspx in the forms panel
• Insert a related item view below the list form by going to Insert > Related Item View > Action Issues

• Go to List > Form Web Parts > Default Display Form
• Add a content editor web part to input a link and javascript function as shown in screenshot

• Go to List > Edit List to edit the list using SharePoint Designer and select the EditForm.aspx in the forms panel
• Insert a related item view below the list form by going to Insert > Related Item View > Action Issues

• Go to List > Form Web Parts > Default Edit Form
• Add a content editor web part to input a link and javascript function as shown in screenshot

Display Form for Parent List

Edit Form for Parent List

There is in fact a long list which I have included below (forgive me copyright gods in MS!), to use one of these icons, just update the image URL under Server Settings –> Enterprise Project Types, for example to update the default Sample Proposal with any of the icons below, simply modify the image URL under:

For a Master Project icon (taken from the image below), replace the URL above with the following:

/_layouts/inc/pwa/images/CenterMasterProject.png

Full list of icons (16×16 size only):

Enjoy!

The key benefits of this web part include:

• The ability to create a ‘One stop shop’ for Project Managers

The project manager doesn’t have to keep opening the project site to modify project artefacts, then swap back to the project information and schedule in Project Centre. It can all be accessed via the same interface

• The ability to hide/display important artefacts relevant to the workflow stage

You may store document templates in the document libraries ready for the PM to use, however with the PWLV you can display these documents by linking the library to a Project Detail page that is displayed at certain points of the workflow!

• The ability to display any type of information

There is no limit to the amount of custom information that you can display for project managers. All you need to do is create the content on the Project Site template.

Examples of how you can use the PWLV include:

• Displaying the Risks and Issues lists
• Displaying the Deliverables list
• Displaying project document libraries
• Displaying team discussion board
• Displaying custom lists designed for:
  • Change Requests
  • Actions
  • Decisions
  • Dependencies
  • Financial Information
  • Report Libraries
  • Status Updates
  • Document templates
  • Requirements log
  • Test Cases
  • Post Implementation Surveys
  • Wiki Pages
  • And so on….

• To understand its potential, begin by downloading the solution starters and deploy the PWLV to your Project Server 2010 environment.
• Create your Project Site lists and content that you wish to display (recommend deploying via Project Site templates)
• It all begins with Project Detail Pages, another great new feature of Project Server 2010 as they allow us to now organise our Project Custom fields in a better presentation than ever before:

Providing the Project Manager with all of their project information and artefacts at their fingertips is important. To do this, we can create Project Detail Pages to display key project information, status update information and project contacts by adding the Project Fields web part to project detail pages.

• However we can also display key project artefacts from the Project site once we have deployed the PWLV solution starter by adding this web part:

• Once it is added to a project detail page, select to Edit Web Part from the web part drop down

• Provide the name of the list that you wish to display from the Project Site, you must enter the name exactly how it appears on the site:

You can also rename the web part so that it is relevant to the list you are displaying, e.g. Project Risks

• Select OK on the Edit Web part dialog, and Stop Editing on the SharePoint ribbon

Make sure you also name your Project Detail Page something relevant to the list you are displaying

• Then you just need to add the Project Detail pages to the relevant Workflow Stages and Enterprise Project Types as required

Then bingo! Any project that has this detail page and a project site will be able to see the list data from their Project Detail Pages.

Be creative and enjoy this new feature, I bet you won’t deploy Project Server without it!

Problem:

When attempting to disable BCM mode from Server Settings in a migrated Project Server 2010 environment, unchecking the BCM mode option leads to corruption in multiple project schedules when opened in MS Project 2010.

The following message is displayed:

An unexpected problem occurred while opening the file.

The file may be damaged. Try using a backup copy.

Cause:

After much investigation it seems that the enterprise custom fields configured as “Workflow Controlled” are at fault here, it seems that when disabling BCM mode some (not necessarily all!) projects which have values set in custom fields that are workflow controlled will become corrupt according to MS Project 2010. No service patch or cumulative update (as yet: Dec/2011) helps, but clearly something in the configuration of those fields gets messed up when BCM is switched off.

For Google and those into debugging WinProj, the internal error is:

The error occurs because the following error is returned when NonCoreProjectData is read.

The queried PID is Bad_PID, and the call winproj!TBkndPropCntr::GetAccessInfoPid cannot get Access information.

Solution:

Fortunately there is one, although a hotfix might come in the future, for my customer(s) working with MS we were able to find a procedure to fix the corruption.

Firstly when you disable BCM (by unchecking Enable Project 2007 Compatibility Mode in Server Settings – Additional Server Settings) the following SQL query can be used to identify any projects that may fail:

select distinct PROJ.PROJ_NAME from MSP_PROJECTS as PROJ

inner join MSP_PROJ_CUSTOM_FIELD_VALUES as PROJCF

on PROJ.PROJ_UID = PROJCF.PROJ_UID

inner join MSP_CUSTOM_FIELDS CF

on CF.MD_PROP_ID = PROJCF.MD_PROP_ID

where MD_PROP_IS_WORKFLOW_CONTROLLED = 1

order by PROJ.PROJ_NAME

In my recent case it was just about every project! But regardless of how many the following steps will correct the issue for those identified projects:

1. Backup your 4 x Project Server and 1 x      SharePoint databases!
2. Copy Workflow Stage configuration from Server      Settings - Workflow Stages. Copy Grid data to Excel, the columns required      most are; Stage Name, Required Custom Fields and Read Only Custom Fields.      (You’ll need this info later!)
3. Copy Enterprise Custom Field configuration from      Server Settings - Enterprise Custom Fields. Copy Grid to Excel. (Again      this is for later reference)
4. Open each Workflow Controlled custom field      from Server Settings and uncheck “Workflow Controlled” then save, this      removes every field from every workflow stage configuration.
1. Note: For each field this       will REMOVE the Read Only and Required configuration from each       workflow stage where this field is used! (Make sure you have your backup       from step #1!)
5. If required Force Check in all checked out projects,      check queue to ensure all jobs complete before continuing.
6. From Server Setting - Additional Server      Settings - Uncheck "Enable Project 2007 Compatibility Mode"
1. Restart MS Project
7. Open each affected project, save and publish      them. (Note a full publish from MS Project is required – nope bulk publish      using ProjTool doesn’t help!)
8. Now to correct the custom field and workflow      configuration, re-open each custom field previously changed and recheck      the “Workflow Controlled” setting. (Using the information backed up in      step #3)
9. Now Reconfigure the required custom fields and      read-only custom fields for ALL workflow stages. (Using the information      backed up in step #2)
10. Re-test affected projects.

The process effectively removes the “corruption” caused by the Workflow Controlled attribute in those projects, and fortunately if you are stuck after unchecking the BCM box without a backup using these steps (minus step 6) still should work!

I hope if you have this issue that you are seeing it only in Dev, as there is no better test of a DR procedure than unchecking that one little check box! :)

Hope that helps someone else out there.

(Assumption: in your SSRS, thee is a Parameter for the “Project Name” that comes from a dataset that queries all the projects that are in the Reporting Database)

• Create a new data source, under ‘Embedded connection:’ Type: choose “Microsoft SharePoint List”

• Under Connection string, click on (fx) then type in your PWA site address between quotations for example “http://server/pwa/“ the a + sign then from parameters select Project Name Parameter

• This will set the right data source for you, however not very useful to build the query when you build the data set, so what I do I actually create a new data source for an existing site, to build my data set, so create a new data source following the same instructions as above, but instead on clicking on the (fx) for your connection string, just type in the address, like http://server/pwa/project1 , let’s say that we call this data source is “TestChanges”

• Then create a new dataset, choose ‘Use a dataset embedded in my report. , from Data source list choose the one you created for the existing site (i.e. TestChanges in my example here).

• Click on ‘Query Designer’ , and the magic will happen .. a list of all your SharePoint lists on that site appears, you can then select from these lists, expand the one (or the ones) you want to report on and select the fields you want to show in the report. You can also ‘Run Query’ to see the results. Then click Ok (only ONCE)

• Before clicking Ok again, make sure that you copy the Query to somewhere, you can then cancel if you don’t want to keep this data set

• Then Create a new data set, choose ‘Use a dataset embedded in my report. , from Data source list choose the one you created initially (i.e. the one with Parameter) then paste the query into the query area

• Before you click ok, click on ‘Fields’ and map manually to your fields that come from the query

• Click Ok and you are done!! You can then use this data set anywhere in your SSRS ‘Project Status Report’

The following error can appear in MS Project. In my case it was when I was attempting to insert sub projects into a Master Schedule. It may also appear in regards to modifying resource custom fields such as the RBS.

Cause:

It seems that MS Project is unable to handle custom lookup fields that have a selected value longer than 128 characters. Particularly when using ‘multi-value custom fields’ there is little to no restriction on the length of values that are selected.

The look up table itself will not allow you to create values that are too long, but when selecting multiple values the end result can be longer than 128 characters. These values can be selected in Project Web Access (PWA) when editing project properties but when trying to insert the project as a sub project of another, we receive the above error.

To identify which field is causing the issue:

- Right click and insert all of the project level custom fields that could be the culprit.

The problem field will be the one without a value at the project summary task level. This is the cause of the error message.

Workaround:

There a few possible workarounds that could resolve this error:

- Modify the custom field lookup table to utilise the description field for lengthy values

- Modify the custom field lookup table to be considerably abbreviated/shortened in text

- Create multiple custom fields that only allow single values to be selected

- Request users to manually type values into a free text field

As you can see the workarounds are not desirable, however depending on your reporting requirements they may well resolve the immediate issue.

Copied from Christophe’s Blog:
I’m thrilled to announce the release of the following two white papers which provide step by step guidance on surfacing key Project Portfolio Management data into insightful reports and dashboards:

• Microsoft Project Server 2010 Reporting with Excel Services written by Jean-Francois LeSaux and Steven Haden from Microsoft Consulting Services.
• Creating Dashboards for Microsoft Project Server 2010 written Blaise Novakovic, Jean-Francois LeSaux, Steven Haden, Microsoft Consulting Services

For additional information on Microsoft Project Server 2010 business intelligence & reporting please check out Business Intelligence in Project Server 2010.

Microsoft Project Server 2010 Reporting with Excel Services, 71 pages

Creating Dashboards for Microsoft Project Server 2010, 115 pages

Well Microsoft has posted a nice series of videos that are very helpful to get the idea across

Here is the link http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-server-help/video-series-how-security-permissions-work-in-project-server-HA101872154.aspx 

Enjoy :) 

The following VB function removes unwanted HTML content from data retrieved from the Project Server Reporting database that is managed originally within a multiple-Line field on a Project Detail Page (PDP).\

• Start Microsoft Visual Studio (BIDS) and open your Report Project.
• Right-click on the report canvas and select “Report Properties”.
• Select the “Code” tab.
• Paste into the Code textbox the following code:

Public FUNCTION RemoveHtml(ByVal Text As String) AS String
IF Text IsNot Nothing Then     

Dim objRegExp AS NEW System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex("<(.|\n)+?>")       

Text = Replace(Text,"&#160;", vbcrlf)       

Text = Replace(Text,"&#39;", "'")     

Text = Replace(Text,"&amp;", "&")       

Text = Replace(Text,"&quot;", """")       

Text = Replace(Text,"&lt;", "<")     

Text = Replace(Text,"&gt;", ">")     

Text = Replace(Text,"&copy;", "")       

RETURN objRegExp.Replace(Text, "")

END IF
END Function

• Click OK when done
• Now back within your report, right-click your form field that you need to remove HTML from and select “Expression”.
• Add the desired field from your dataset and then wrap it within the following function call.=code.RemoveHTML(Fields!Your_HTML_Content_Field.value)