Project Server technical bits

Just a quickie... I've been interested in how MS have handled the "multiple PWA sites in a Content DB" thing since I read that this was their new approach.  Most of my reporting is via SSRS so i am reliant (still... in 2016) on DB queries rather than OData feeds (tsk) and this "querying a PWA DB with more than one PWA site in it is unsupported" quote was worrying me. So it looks like what is happening is this. When you create the first PWA site in a Content DB it hard-codes the SiteID into the _Userview view design elements.  This means that your first PWA Site is the default.  All the data for subsequent sites are still held in the tables against separate SiteID's but you cannot utilise the OOTB _Userview components (see below) SELECT        ProjectFields.... FROM            pjrep.MSP_TVF_EpmProject('FF19B767-CA6D-4C4C-B123-C0B5AE5354D6') AS MSP_EpmProject  LEFT OUTER JOIN         ...

Following on from my previous 2016 PWA Setup post, I am encountering an issue with PWA on the root of a HNSC with PWA in ProjectServer Permission Mode. Scenario  I want to create a pwa site on a HNSC at http://pwa.domain.com ,  I don’t PWA as a pathed web under the HNSC (‘/pwa’) and I would like to avoid using a Host Header on a separate webapp with PWA provisioned at ‘/’ if poss as its horrible and ikkie Method Create a web app on server name http://fe1 Create a root Site Collection on the web app Lock Content DB down Create new Content DB for the PWA site Create a HNSC called http://pwa.domain.com pointing to the above web app using the PWA#0 template etc New-spsite " http://pwa .domain.com " -hostheaderwebapplication " http://fe1 " -name "PWA" -Description "Project Web App" -owneralias "Domain\user" -language 1033 -template "PWA#0" Lock the content db down Enable PWASite features and all that jazz Swi...

** update 3 ** seems so far that creation of Root PWA sites doesn't work (sync issues in Project Permission mode).  I've written a post recently about this Also _userviews are back... but only apply to the first Site in any Content DB.  See post 8 June 2016 ** update 2 ** user sync issue is still happening on PWA.  not sure why as of yet.... ** update ** I encountered a failure in the user synchronisation job in PWA which i think was atributed to creating the PWA HNSC site prior to creating the web app root site. whoops  ** end ** Project Server 2016 RTM first looks........... Once you've installed SQL and SharePoint there are a few surprises for you under the hood of Project Server Getting going It is probably worth noting that the Project service is deemed "front end" in the miniroles for SP2016.  This is inline with my latter thinking on SP2013 and a welcome addition.  However i have gone Custom for my limited installation just for fl...

This post is going to ignore Project Online as I am still a little underwhelmed by the reporting capabilities of the Excel+ODATA Power-shennanigans.  Mostly I spend my BI days in SQL Reporting Services for our on-premise customers, and even our larger Project online customers are moving back to local BI storage and SQL RS. Anyway, rant over.   So SSRS has been my friend for some years now and I continue to find new and interesting ways to make it do the things i want.  However the real fun is down in the TSQL area.  Here is a little selection of things I've found that may help you optimise or improve your report outputs. Large datasets and the AssignmentByDay data We all know that the MSP_EPMAssignmentbyDay table is a beast and is the main limiting factor when we look at time by period reporting.  Yes it would be great if MS did an automatic aggregation to weekly periods as part of the publish job but that is never gonna happen.  However it is pos...

**Quick publish article.  Further tests follow** **Update:   Only appears to apply to on-premise installs.  Project Online is unaffected ** Issue:  When manually editing Baseline(0-10) timephased data via task usage in MS Project Client, data is not saved to database. Tested on:  SEPT 2015 PU (Server and Client) Prep: ------------------------------------------------------- Create a project with one task on it.   add a resource from pool and assign to the task at 100% Set Baseline (0) Publish plan Test:  Query DB and see timephased data populated correctly Issue 1 Repro ------------------------------------------------------- Edit Baseline Work values in Task Usage view Save and Publish Test:  Query DB and see timephased data is not changed Issue 2 Repro ------------------------------------------------------- Add Baseline 10 to task usage view Manually enter values into timephased cells for Baseline10 Save and Publish...

Just came across the joys of "enable/disable preview features" in office 365 SharePoint Admin. My users were reporting that they were unable to refresh published Project Online reports in their browser.  They received the following message:                       This workbook contains external data connections or BI features that are not supported. The issue was caused by a setting in the SharePoint Online Admin Portal (Admin | SharePoint | Settings).   Selecting Enable Preview Features (see below) allows users to refresh Project Online Reports using oData feeds in their browser.   As a reminder, the following two elements also need enabling if you haven't done so already: user group permissions: Site collection features:  

This post is the first of a series to highlight the apps available for Project Server and Project Online from the SharePoint store  ( https://store.office.com/search.aspx?productgroup=SharePoint&qu=tpg ) and direct via your local TPG office. The first of this series will look at the s imple plug-and-play apps that all users of Project Online can make use of quickly and easily.   T hese are: Risk Matrix  Milestone Trend Analysis (MTA) WBS Chart viewer Next we will focus on the challenge of  Resource Request Supply and Demand by demonstrating our more recent TeamLink and TeamManager apps. Team Manager App is a Resource Manager/Owner app for allocating resource supply to Projects and BAU activities and monitoring demands against commitments Team Link App is a PM tool for monitoring Project demands vs the supply provided by the Resource Managers  Finally I will highlight some of the benefits of our integration tools when used i...