We have had several customers report that they no longer have the ability to add the Summary Task field to the Resource Assignments View in 2010 like they could in 2007.  Unfortunately, this is a byproduct of switching the view from Active X to Ajax.  Unfortunately, this feature did not make it into the new view.  We are able to workaround this, however, by using a macro to automate the population of a Custom Field which can be added to the view.

This workaround create an Application ProjectBeforeSave Event that will populate a Task level Text Custom Field every time the use saves the project.  You can then add the Custom Field to a Resource Assignment view to show the Summary Task.  It does require that you enable VBA in Microsoft Project to have this work so you should evaluate your organizational security requirements before deciding to deploy this into production.  If there are concerns, you can mitigate this by signing the VBA Project.

Below is a code sample of how you might implement this as well as directions for setting it.

Warning:  This is sample code that is provided “as-is” and there is no warranty provided or implied.  Please note that this has not been tested in your environment with your data.  As such, it is possible that it could incorrectly change data so you will need to thoroughly test this before placing this code into production. 

Note:  This should cover scenarios where the last WBS level is 999 or less.

1. Take a copy of your production database and create a new test PWA site to test the functionality before deploying into production.
2. Create a new Task Text Custom Field on the server and make sure to set the Calculations for Assignment Rows to Roll down, unless manually specified.
3. Open Project Professional, click the View tab, Click the down arrow under Macros and then select Macro Security on the drop menu.
4. Select Disable all macros with notification, click the OK button and then close Project Professional.
5. In PWA, open the Enterprise Global in Server Settings->Enterprise Global and click the Configure Project Professional button.
6. In Project Professional, click the View tab, Click the down arrow under Macros and then select Visual Basic on the drop menu.
7. In the Project Explorer, in the top left corner by default, double click ThisProject under VBAProject(Checked Out Enterprise Global)->Microsoft Project Objects.
8. Copy the code from the ThisProject Code Segment below into the ThisProject Window.
9. On the Menu Bar click Insert and then Class Module.
10. In the Project Explorer, in the top left corner by default, double click Class1 under VBAProject(Checked Out Enterprise Global)->Microsoft Project Objects->Class Modules.
11. In the Properties Windows, select the (Name) field and enter in “NewSaveEvent”
12. Copy the code from the Class Module Code Segment below into the NewSaveEvent Window.
13. In the NewSaveEvent Window find the line below and change the value of the strCustomFieldName variable to the name of the Custom Field you create in step 2.
14. Save and Check In the Enterprise Global and close Microsoft Project Professional.
15. In PWA go to Server Settings->Manage Views, select Summary under Resource Assignments.
16. Add the Custom Field that you created in step 2 to the view, move it next to the Name field and click the Save button.
17. Open Project Professional, open a test file, add the Custom Field that you created in step 2 into the current view and press F9.

Note:  The Custom Field does not have to be visible for this is to work, we are just doing this so verify that the fields are populated in Project.

18. Save and Publish the project.
19. Verify that the Custom Field was populated in Project.
20. Go to the Resource Assignments view and verify that the Summary Tasks now shows in the new Custom Field in the view.     

ThisProject Code Snippet

Dim x As New NewSaveEvent


Private Sub Project_Open(ByVal pj As Project)

  Set x.App = Application

End Sub

Class Module Code Snippet

Public WithEvents App As MSProject.Application


Private Sub App_ProjectBeforeSave(ByVal pj As Project, ByVal SaveAsUi As Boolean, _
Cancel As Boolean)

  Dim strSummary, StrError, strWBS, strCustomFieldName As String
  Dim iLastLevel, iError As Integer
  Dim taskField As Long
  
  

  'Change this value to the name of the Custom Field you created to store
  'the Summary Task Name
  strCustomFieldName = "Set Custom Field Name Here"
  
  

  taskField = FieldNameToFieldConstant(strCustomFieldName, pjTask)
  
  iError = 0
  
  Set pj = ActiveProject
  
  
  

  For Each tsk In pj.Tasks
  
  If tsk.Summary = False Then
  
    If (Mid(tsk.WBS, Len(tsk.WBS) - 1, 1) = ".") Then
      iLastLevel = 2
    ElseIf (Mid(tsk.WBS, Len(tsk.WBS) - 2, 1) = ".") Then
      iLastLevel = 3
    ElseIf (Mid(tsk.WBS, Len(tsk.WBS) - 3, 1) = ".") Then
      iLastLevel = 4
    Else: iLastLevel = -1
    End If
        
    If (iLastLevel < 2 Or IsNull(iLastLevel)) Then
      iError = 1
      GoTo Err
    Else: strWBS = Left(tsk.WBS, Len(tsk.WBS) - iLastLevel)
    End If
     
      If (IsNull(strWBS)) Then
        iError = 2
        GoTo Err
      Else
        For Each tSearch In ActiveProject.Tasks
          If tSearch.WBS = strWBS Then
            strSummary = tSearch.Name
            Exit For
          End If
        Next
        
      End If
  

      
     
    
      
    tsk.SetField FieldID:=taskField, Value:=strSummary
  

    
  End If
  
  Next
    
Err:

Select Case iError

Case 1
StrError = "WBS Summary Postion could not be identified"
Case 2
StrError = "WBS Summary String is Empty"

End Select

If iError <> 0 Then MsgBox StrError
          
        
End Sub

  

This code sample will show the immediate Summary Task but you can modify it to include more levels if you require.  Keep in mind that larger values in that Custom Field could impact how many other fields you can easily fit into the view.

Good luck, and always remember to test before you deploy a significant change into production.

We have had a quite a few questions on the topic of using a Mac to run Project Online, so I took myself into uncharted territory (for me), acquired a MacBook Pro from our labs, running OS X 10.8.3 and set to work to see what it could do.  First I’ll set the scene – we support access to Project Web App (PWA) both for Project Server 2013 and Project Online using Safari on the Apple Mac, but we do not have a version of Project Professional 2013, or Project Pro for Office 365 that runs natively on OS X.  So I knew to be able to run everything I’d either have to load Windows 8 using Boot Camp (which wasn’t the point of the exercise) or find some virtualization software that runs on OS X and allows me to run Windows 8 and the Office 2013 programs.  After a quick search I found Parallels Desktop 8 and VMware Fusion 5.  I’m making no judgment on either product, and don’t expect a full review – and there are other products too (Oracle’s VirtualBox, is another one), but it didn’t take long to get the trial versions of both these products up and running with Windows 8, Office 2013 and Project Professional 2013 (I could have loaded Project Pro for Office 365 – same thing, virtually..).  I also wanted to use Excel on the Mac, and unfortunately the installed trial had expired.  No problem – I had a license for Office 365 Home Premium with some spare installs out of the 5, so I could load Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook!  Great that you can mix and match the installs of Home Premium across PC and Mac.

I soon mastered Command, Shift, 4 – so on with the blog!  PWA, was obviously no issue and felt just like using IE and my PC.

The first expected issue was trying to open a Project in Project Professional:

and as expected, this didn’t work.  I didn’t dig deeper, but if anyone knows of a way to re-direct the call to the VM that would be a nice feature.

One interesting addition – which makes me think it should be possible to get Safari talking to Project Pro in the VM, courtesy of Parallels Desktop 8, was an additional icon in Safari, that allowed me to re-open my current session in IE, within the virtual Windows 8 environment.

I hadn’t even opened Parallels Desktop 8 at this point, so it started the VM and took me to the very nice Santa Monica picture to log in to Project Online

So I could open my Project in the copy of Project Professional 2013 within the virtual environment:

Another nice feature was the ability to add my Windows 8 applications to the Launchpad, alongside the native Office applications..

Next I tried the option in Project Center (within Internet Explorer in the Virtual Environment) of exporting to Excel.  What happened next surprised me, but pleasantly…

I hadn’t used Excel within Parallels Desktop – and the file association was clever enough to export the Project Center in IE in the VM, to Excel running natively on the Mac.

You can of course update the file associations and use the Excel 2013 version (next screen shot), and you might want to do this to have the best reporting options against OData, which isn’t supported from the Excel for Mac 2011 version – more later…

The OData stuff worked just fine from Excel 2013 in the VM,

From Excel 2011 on the Mac there isn’t the option for OData, and I’m not sure if there are any third party offerings to fill this gap.  Excel on the Mac does support ODBC, just not sure if any enterprising souls have developed an ODBC driver for OData.

All in all I was impressed with the Windows 8 experience on the Mac – and at this point switched over from my Parallels Desktop…

to my VMware Fusion one, and tested a few of the same scenarios, with the same success.

And then tried something else – SharePoint Designer 2013 to connect to Project Online for creating workflows.  Like Project, SharePoint Designer doesn’t have a Mac version – so this could be another scenario where the virtual environment on the Mac is useful for the SharePoint and Project Online user who prefers to keep with their Mac.

Again, no problems running SharePoint Designer under the virtual environment.

So, to sum up:

• We support Safari for PWA
• We do not have Project Professional for the Mac, so use a virtual environment for Project Professional 2013 (Project Pro for Office 365), SharePoint Designer 2013 and Excel 2013 (if you want OData access)
• Use the native Office for Mac Applications for the ‘Export to Excel’ options

If anyone has hit other issues when using a Mac or has any questions then I’d love to hear them!

*** Update 5/17/2013 - That update was a little too quick and totally wrong...  Thanks to Tony Blackburn of QuantumPM for putting me straight.  The rollup package was released and is available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2737990.  The note below should have been targeted at the April 2013 MSO updates and not SharePoint Server.  Sorry for the false alarm and confusion everyone! ***

Quick update – I mentioned in the original April CU release e-mail - http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/04/11/microsoft-project-server-2007-2010-and-2013-april-2013-cu-announcement.aspx that there was a delay in the rollup package for Project Server 2013 which includes the Sharepoint Server fixes – and delay got to a point where the decision was taken to NOT release the SharePoint package for April (and therefore also not release a rollup) but hold off for the June 2013 Cumulative Update.  If you are waiting for a Project Server fix then no problem – we already released the April CU just for Project Server – 2760261, but if you want the rollup then you should wait until June.  If you are waiting for a specific SharePoint fix that was due in April then I suggest you talk with your SharePoint support contact about getting these earlier than June.

A few of you will have run in to this issue, in Project Web App both in Project Server 2013 and Project Online.  In some drop downs we have a transparent background which makes it difficult to read the list of choices as the text behind is also visible,  The example below is choosing a custom field at the task level – and the custom field is based on a lookup table.  You will also see similar behavior in other areas of the product – such as using the force in/out option in the Portfolio feature.  For those of you using Project Server 2013 on-premises you have the answer – the fix was shipped in the April 2013 Cumulative Update – see the second screen shot.  For the users of Project Online this same fix will be deployed over the next few months (June-July timeframe) – so you will see the problem go away soon.

Here is a view of the same thing in my Project Server 2013 installation which is patched to the April 2013 Cumulative Update

One other observation while I was testing this scenario – you do now see the default values set for custom fields applied when you create a new task within PWA – and also at the Project level when creating a new Project via Project Center (although it isn’t shown in the PDP while you are creating – it will be there once the project is created).

One recurring theme in early support calls on Project Online has been how to get to Project Web App (PWA).  I’ll cover several options here, for different users, both administrators and general users.  The usual issues are finding PWA through navigation, or getting Access Denied messages due to missing permissions or licenses.

First navigation in the role of administrator.  As an admin the Office 365 Admin Center will look like this:

There are a coupler of routes to PWA, and the following screenshots assume the administrator has also been assigned a license for Project Online.  The highlighted ellipses have a direct link – Projects –  to the ‘default’ PWA site:

And the default will be the one that automatically gets provisioned when signing up for Project Online.  The address of this default site is .sharepoint.com/sites/PWA">https://<your_tenant>.sharepoint.com/sites/PWA.  If you delete the default site for some reason then this link will just be bad and give a 404 – webpage cannot be found.  The link actually goes to -my.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/MyProjects.aspx">https://<your_tenant>-my.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/MyProjects.aspx – which redirects to the default site.

The other route is via the Admin drop down, then selecting SharePoint:

This will show all the available site collections (defaults to site collections in the left nav) and these are grouped into Website, Site Collections with Project Web App (PWA) and Site Collections.  I’ve edited out the Url where <your_tenant> would be, just to protect the privacy of my colleague’s site.

If you click on one of the PWA sites it will bring up the site collection properties, then clicking on the Web Site Address will take you to PWA.  To avoid this route of course you could save to favorites!

Now on to the users view of things, and introducing the part that permissions and licensing play in accessing PWA.  If the user logs in via https://portal.microsoftonline.com the will land on the Get Started with Office 365 initially.

Same ellipses as the administrator, but until the user is assigned a license for Project Online they will not see Projects listed  - just Office Store and Office.com.  The administrator assigns licenses through the Admin Center, Users and Groups and then selects the User and assigns the licenses for Project Online, including Office Web Apps, SharePoint Online and Project Pro for Office 365 as appropriate.  The Office Web Apps and SharePoint Online licenses may already have been assigned from another plan, such as E3.  In my tests I didn’t see the Projects option until I had logged out and logged back in as the user.

To show the full experience, I have neglected to share the site with my new user – so  even though I have the license for PWA, if I click on Projects then I see the following – Access Denied my user does not have permissions to access this resource.  Ask the site admin to give you access or sign in with a different account.

Someone with permissions on the site, such as the administrator, would need to navigate to PWA, then click the SHARE option towards the top right, and they would see this dialog:

The administrator then adds the users name, and can also (under  SHOW OPTIONS) set a specific level of permission.  I have taken the default of Team Members for PWA.  For full details of Project permissions the recently published administrator’s guide at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=38827 is a must read.  This is the Project Server 2013 version – so not all is applicable to Project Online. I understand a more tailored version for Online is in the works.

Success!  No logout needed when adding permissions, but does take a short while before I can get to the site (and the direct link will also be in the e-mail sent to my account).

If I now remove the Project Online license from this user and navigate directly to the PWA Url (the Projects link will be gone) – I will get a message that is fairly descriptive – sorry, you don’t have a license to use Project Web App:

If I then removed the user from the Team Members group so the site was no longer shared with them then I would be back to the Access Denied message shown earlier.

So there you have it – navigation, licenses and permissions for PWA.  I should also note, as the question comes up frequently, that you cannot share PWA sites to external contacts – they need to be licensed users for Project Online within your tenant.

*** Update 5/17

An addendum to this posting, and if you have been upgraded running on SharePoint online for a while, so have been upgraded before adding Project Online then you may have an issue with the Projects link - via the page <your_tenant-my.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/MyProjects.aspx.  You will see "an unexpected error has occurred" and get an error in the ULS logs:

Application error when access /_layouts/MyProjects.aspx, Error=The file '/_layouts/MyProjects.aspx'  does not exist.   at
System.Web.UI.Util.CheckVirtualFileExists(VirtualPath virtualPath)     at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetVPathBuildResultInternal(VirtualPath
virtualPath, Boolean  noBuild, Boolean allowCrossApp, Boolean allowBuildInPrecompile, Boolean throwIfNotFound, Boolean ensureIsUpToDate)    

 Getting Error Message for Exception System.Web.HttpException (0x80004005): The file '/_layouts/MyProjects.aspx' does not exist.     At
System.Web.UI.Util.CheckVirtualFileExists(VirtualPath virtualPath)     at System.Web.Compilation.BuildManager.GetVPathBuildResultInternal(VirtualPath
virtualPath, Boolean noBuild, Boolean allowCrossApp, Boolean allowBuildInPrecompile, Boolean throwIfNotFound, Boolean ensureIsUpToDate)    

This can happen if you are still in '2010' mode for the My site collection.  Steps to overcome this are:

• Selected the My site collection
• clicked on Site collection upgrade settings
• click on “link to upgrade page” and upgrade the site, ensure the site collection upgraded to 2013 version.

Thanks to my colleague Sriram for finding the resolution to this issue.

We have a great deal of content available for Project Online, but we do still appear to have a couple of gaps in our documentation around the early experiences – both signing up and the licensing.  This blog aims to show and tell you what to expect, and concentrates on the areas we have found are catching customers out, based on our early support calls.

What is Project Online?  First what it isn’t – it isn’t the rich client app that you run on your desktop.  That is available either to purchase as Project Professional 2013, or as a subscription as Project Pro for Office 365.  Project Online is a cloud based collaboration platform for project teams, where you can save, view and edit your plans, enter your timesheets, report your project status and report across your portfolio of plans – with all the benefits of SharePoint.  The plan editing experience isn’t as rich as with Project Professional – so some of your users may want to also have the client application – other will just need a license to Project Online. 

The experience signing up for a Project Online subscription will depend if you are already a subscriber to other Microsoft services, such as SharePoint Online, or if you want to start out fresh.  If you want to add – then you can go to the Purchase Services option within your tenant administration area (or get your global admin to do it if you do not have access) – the Url will always be the same -  https://portal.microsoftonline.com/Commerce/Catalog.aspx.  If Project Online is not listed as an option then it means one (or both) of two things:

• You are not currently running a subscription level that supports the addition of Project Online (Enterprise or Academic at the time of writing)
• Your current subscription has yet to be upgraded to the release level necessary to add Project Online (Am I using Office 365 after the service upgrade?)

If you don’t already have a subscription and want to start afresh – then get along to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/.

Either way, when you sign up you will subscribe for a specific number of users – and once your site has been provisioned you need to assign these licenses so that users can access the Project Web App (PWA).  The provisioning process will generally be complete within around 30 minutes to an hour – but can sometimes take longer (and is often shorter!) so don’t panic if yours is taking longer.  Once it is complete then the global administrator should see SharePoint (and possibly other items, depending on which services you are subscribed to) listed under Admin.

Initially we will create one PWA site, and it will be created at a location of .sharepoint.com/sites/pwa">https://<tenant_name>.sharepoint.com/sites/pwa.  This site will be hard-coded from the Projects link in your users heading bar – or under the … links.  You can create an additional two PWA sites if required – either using the New button in the ribbon and selecting Private Site Collection with Project Web App, or the Project Web App button to add PWA to an existing site collection.

Back to licenses.  Even though the Global Admin will see the listed PWA sites by clicking on the SharePoint link in the above screenshot, in my example I have not given this admin a license – so they will get Access Denied – <user>@blogfodder.onmicrosoft.com does not have permissions to access this resource.  Please ask the site admin to give you access, or sign in with a different account.  This same message can mean two things – no license or the site isn’t shared with you (or both).  This is quite important to understand, as initially the only person able to access the default PWA and share with anyone else is the person who signed up for PWA.  For additional PWA sites you can set the administrator account – then they would be the only person to have access and to be able to share.

Licensing happens in Admin, Users and Groups, select the user and then it takes you to the Licenses section (it did for me – you may need to click the licenses link in the left navigation bar).  My screenshot is from my Technical Preview tenant, which also has an Exchange preview too – so I see two sets of licenses.  Project Online comes with the Office Web Apps and SharePoint Online (Plan 2) licenses in this example – your wording may be different – but you only need to check these licenses in one section.

Also while we are on the subject of licensing – any users accessing Project Online need to be licensed users on your system – this includes any external people who you want/need to access the system.  They cannot ‘bring their own’ Client Access Licenses (CAL) from another installation.  For more details contact your local Microsoft licensing specialist – I cannot cover all the nuances of licensing here.

On to sharing.  The Share icon in the top right is the easiest place to give other users access – so for the first time this must be as the administrator who created the original PWA, or the administrator set on any new PWA sites.  Here I am giving access to my new global admin account with Administrators for Project Web App permissions, and I am logged in as myself – as I was the original account on this tenant.

Once users are licensed and have been given permissions then you are all set to start using the tool! 

One final question we get – why no trial button for Project Online?  If you do want to try before you buy – then please head over to Jan Kalis’ blog where he outlines the options available for proof of concept and demonstration environment – and certainly your trial experience would be much more fulfilling if you work with one of our partners who will ensure you get the best out of the experience.

Hopefully this has filled a few gaps, and is a good lead-in to the other documentation we have around the features and getting started with your real use of Project Online.  Here are a few links to other ‘getting started’ documents and videos:

• Get started with Project Online
• 10/6/2014 - New link - http://aka.ms/ProjectOnlineGetStarted 
  
• Get Started with Project Online (Overview) – video
• Get Started with Project Online (Demo) – video

We will be updating documentation as we find areas that our customer are struggling with – and please give us feedback on what other articles you would like to see!