Microsoft Project Support Blog

Project Server 2013: Where is the April 2013 Cumulative Update Rollup package?

2013-05-17T17:15:00Z

*** 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.

Project Online: I can’t read my custom field text

2013-05-17T16:47:02Z

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).

Project Online: Getting to Project Web App

2013-05-15T17:49:00Z

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.

Getting started with Project Online

2013-05-01T18:11:04Z

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:

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!

Project Server 2013: March Public Update–Problems running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard

2013-04-11T14:51:21Z

For Project Server 2013 we issued a public update in March, which is a required patch going forward for loading all future Cumulative Updates, such as the April CU. However, there was an issue with the Project Server part of the patch which would lead to an error when running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard. The error in the upgrade logs would be something like the following, with an EventID of ajxnf:

WARNING Project Web Instance 'SharePoint - 80:PWA' can only be upgraded once its database 'ProjectWebApp' has been upgraded

ERROR Cannot upgrade [ProjectSite Name=f959de76-c4e9-4fa7-91a5-d9d9e287714b]. 38c20f9c-fdcc-b07a-f785-09836d46c179

and the error at the end of the configuration wizard, or in the PSCDiagnostics logs would be something like:

ERR Task upgrade has failed with a PostSetupConfigurationTaskException

An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException was thrown. Additional exception information: Failed to upgrade SharePoint Products.

This would be repeated for each PWA site in your farm. The fix for this issue is in the April Cumulative Update for Project Server 2013. The roll-up package including the SharePoint fixes for April has been delayed (at the time of writing expected w/c 4/22) – but if you are in this state currently and want to complete the configuration wizard then loading the individual Project Server 2013 April CU is certainly an option – see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2760261.

If you have yet to install the March Public Update then I would suggest delaying until the full roll-up patch including SharePoint Server 2013 is released and then you can load the March PU, then the April CU and finally run the configuration wizard, which will avoid the failure noted above.

As always, please open a support incident if you need any assistance with any of the above steps.

Microsoft Project Server 2007, 2010 and 2013 April 2013 CU Announcement

2013-04-11T14:29:00Z

I am pleased to announce the release of the April 2013 Cumulative Update (CU) for Project, Project Server and SharePoint for 2007, 2010 and 2013. Also for February this is earlier in the month (apart from the delayed shipments – see below), and since December 2012 we are planning to ship the Office Cumulative updates on the 2nd Tuesday (“Patch Tuesday”) of the even months. Feel free to open a support case if you have any questions around this or need assistance getting these patches deployed. Remember that this release for the 2010 products, like all CUs since the August 2012 Cumulative Update, has a hard requirement on Service Pack 1 – see notes below. In most of the KB articles the term hotfix is used in place of Cumulative Update. They tend to be interchangeable terms – a Cumulative Update is just a hotfix built to a schedule.

An important point for Project Server 2013 is the requirement to load the March 2013 Public Update. Another important point to add here is that there was an issue with running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard on a server with Project Server 2013 installed – this is fixed by applying the April CU – so a good practice would be to load the March PU, then the April CU and then run the configuration wizard. I will be adding a separate posting and link back which gives more details on the failure.

Project and Project Server 2013

This include a number of fixes, so Microsoft strongly recommends that you test this in a test environment based on your production environment before putting this fix live in production.

The article below provides information on how to deploy the Project Server Cumulative Update.

You can read about the fixes included in the Project and Project Server April CUs from the following articles:

Project Server 2013 Server Rollup Package

*** Update 5/17 - see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2737990 for the rollup package *** There is a slight delay on the SharePoint/Project Server package – more details as soon as I have them, but expectation is for the week of 4/22. Due to the issue with the March PU and running the Configuration Wizard, you could consider loading the individual Project Server patch which does not include the SharePoint updates - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2760261 if you need to get the configuration of the March PU completed. If you haven’t yet loaded the March PU then I would suggest waiting for the roll-up package for the April June CU.

Project 2013 Client Package:

Description of the Project 2013 hotfix package (Project-x-none.msp): April 9, 2013

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2768336

We are working on the specific CU installation options for 2013, but the process hasn’t changed from 2010 – so if you are familiar with 2010 patching or read the 2010 instructions below you should be good to go.

Project and Project Server 2010

This include a number of fixes, so Microsoft strongly recommends that you test this in a test environment based on your production environment before putting this fix live in production.

The article below provides information on how to deploy the Project Server Cumulative Update.

You can read about the fixes included in the Project and Project Server April CUs from the following articles:

Server Rollup Package(Recommended):

Description of the Project Server 2010 cumulative update package (Project server-package): April 9, 2013

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2775426

Individual Project Server Package:

Only required if you do not install the Server Rollup.

Description of the Project Server 2010 hotfix package (Pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp): April 9, 2013

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2791064

I’ll update with the DB version shortly.

Project 2010 Client Package:

Description of the Project 2010 hotfix package (Project-x-none.msp): April 9, 2013

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2794664

The client version number is 14.0.6137.5000, in case you want to limit the connection of certain patched release to Project Server 2010.

More information on deploying the Cumulative Update:

The article below provides information on how to deploy the Project Server Cumulative Update.

Updates for Project Server 2010

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/gg176680.aspx

As Project Server 2010 is now based on SharePoint Server 2010 we strongly recommend that you install the Project Server 2010 Server Rollup Package as there are a large number of individual server packages for SharePoint Server. The Project Server 2010 Server Rollup Package contains all the patches released in this Cumulative Update for SharePoint Foundation Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2010 and Project Server 2010.

As mentioned above, and at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2012/07/18/project-server-2010-from-august-2012-cumulative-update-onwards-you-will-also-need-to-load-sp1.aspx – the August Cumulative Update requires your client and server to already be at the Service Pack 1 (SP1) level – if you get a message saying the patch does not apply to your system then this may be the reason.

SP1 for the Project Server 2010 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=26636

SP1 for the Project Professional 2010 client can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26635 for the 32-bit and http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26627 for the 64-bit.

For those accustomed to Project Server 2007 Cumulative Updates, you should note that the MOSS Server Rollup Package does not contain the Project Server patches. As in Project Server 2007, the Server Rollup Packages are much larger but they will greatly simplify your Project Server patch deployment.

Client Installation:

Installation of the client patch is straightforward and is the same as it was in Project 2007. The instructions for installing the client patch are below.

NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends testing within a NON-Production environment prior to rollout.

1. Download the hotfix from the link in the KB Article.

2. Extract the patch package by running the .exe file that you downloaded.

3. Run the extracted .exe file to apply the patch to your Project Professional/Standard client.

Project and Project Server 2007

No fixes this month for Project or Project Server 2007 – but listing the WSS and SharePoint patches for reference. This include a number of fixes, so Microsoft strongly recommends that you test this in a test environment based on your production environment before putting this fix live in production.

*** Update 4/12 - Sorry - there is an update for Project Server 2007 - but no separate CU, it is included in the MOSS server-package listed below. Thanks Adrian for correcting me. ***

You can read about the fixes included in the April CU from the following articles:

Server Rollup Packages: Listing the WSS and SharePoint roll-up packages, but as there are no fixes for Project Server these do not include them.

Description of the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 cumulative update server hotfix package (WSS server-package): April 9, 2013

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2799869

Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 cumulative update server hotfix package (MOSS server-package): April 9, 2013

*** Update 4/12 - The MOSS server package includes a fix for Project Server 2007 - The Next and Previous buttons on the review timesheet detail page work in reverse. For example, when you click the Next button, the previous page is displayed. ***

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2799867

More information on deploying the Cumulative Update:

The article below provides information on how to deploy the Project Server Cumulative Update.

Deploy cumulative updates (Project Server 2007)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd239177.aspx

Server Pack 3 for Project and Project Server 2007 has been released. While not required for the August CU, we strongly recommend that you install it as it contains a number of patches to improve performance and reliability. The following blog goes into more detail about SP3.

Office 2007 and SharePoint 2007 Service Pack 3 Availability

http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/10/25/office-2007-and-sharepoint-2007-service-pack-3-availability.aspx

SP3 may be optional, however, Service Pack 2 for both WSS and Office Servers 2007 are required for this Cumulative Update. The KB articles below provide information on how to download and install SP2 if you have not already done so.

Description of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP2 and of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Language Pack SP2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953338

Description of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Service Pack 2 and of 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack Service Pack 2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953334

The Server CU is released in two different versions. The first version is in Individual Packages specific to a particular product like WSS and Project Server. These are smaller downloads but they do not include language packs or patches for other products so patches for those products would have to be downloaded and installed separately.

The second version is the Server Rollup Packages. This is a set of two rollup packages which contains all the fixes for WSS, Project Server and MOSS. These packages should be used when MOSS is part of the deployment and/or you have language packs installed. The Server Rollup Packages are much larger but they will greatly simplify MOSS patch deployment.

Client Installation: (For reference – there were no fixes released for Project 2007 client in this cycle)

In order to install this hotfix, you will need to have Microsoft Project 2007 SP2 installed on the client.

Description of Office Project 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of Office Project Language Pack 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953326

Once we know that SP2 is installed, you will install the hotfix by performing the following steps:

NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends testing within a NON-Production environment prior to rollout.

1. Download the hotfix from either the KB Article.

2. Extract the patch package by running the .exe file that you downloaded.

3. Run the extracted .exe file to apply the patch to your Project Professional/Standard SP1 client.

Feel free to open a support incident at http://support.microsoft.com if you run into any issues with the installation and we will be happy to help!

SharePoint 2013: Problems opening documents with Office 2010 if you load Project 2013

2013-04-04T19:26:00Z

Thanks to Jorge Ray (sorry Ray!) for this great blog post - http://blogs.technet.com/b/raymond_ris/archive/2013/04/04/cannot-open-or-create-word-documents-in-sharepoint-2013-with-office-2010-and-project-2013.aspx explaining how, after loading Project 2013 this can make your SharePoint libraries default to the 2013 versions of the protocol handlers. You might get a Url such as ms-word:nft|u|http://o15psvr:8080/Shared Documents/Forms/template.dotx|s|http://o15psvr:8080/Shared Documents for Word or ms-excel:ofv|u|http://sharePointDocumentlibraryURL for Excel.

The fix is easy – go take a look at Ray’s blog.

Project Online: How do I get a copy of my databases?

2013-03-21T17:00:34Z

You don’t… We have had this question a couple of times so thought it worth a posting. Customers and partners familiar with Project Server 2013 or even Project Server 2010, may be used to copying the databases to another server for testing or reporting or whatever. In Project Online that certainly isn’t an option. You have 3 PWA instances available to you so you could use one for testing – but there is no way to get access to your databases or copying them either within or in/out of the datacenters. You do of course have access via OData to much of the information in Project Online and could pull this down to a local data store for other reporting purposes – or through CSOM as described in the Project SDK. The OLAP cubes aren’t an option in Project Online – so if you wanted an OLAP capability then getting data locally (or somewhere else in the cloud – SQL Azure for example) via one of these mechanisms would enable you to use other reporting tools. You can of course save project plans down to mpp format locally too. This last point is worth considering for archive purposes – as the administrative backup options are not a feature of Project Online (as mentioned in Tuesday’s Server Settings post).

There are also 3rd party options that may help get at your data (just Bing Project Online migration tools) – and so far FluentPro appear to be coming highest up the search results. I’d certainly love to hear from other partners if you have interesting offerings too. Migration can be about getting data into the online environment – but the same kind of tools usually offer opportunities for pulling data out too – whether for reporting – or perhaps you are using the Online environment for a proof of concept which is fore-runner to a Project Server 2013 on-premise installation!

Finally, a good article if you want to build your own tools is the SDK and worth starting at the comparison of Project Online to Project Server 2013 from a development perspective.

As I have mentioned previously – Project Online is a close relative to Project Server 2013 but not an identical twin – learn to think of them as different products with different feature sets.

Project Online: Server Settings

2013-03-19T21:31:00Z

This is a follow up post to the one on Project Server 2013 Server Settings and covers the Server Settings options in Project Online. If you are new to Project Online and never used Project Server 2010 or Project Server 2013 then you probably don’t need to read further. You won’t miss what you never had! This posting is more for the folks transitioning or just wanting to know the differences. In this context I find it much easier to think of Project Online as a new separate product rather than think of it as Project Server 2013 hosted by Microsoft. They might be siblings – but they are not identical twins.

In Project Online there are changes to server settings due to the nature of the service offering – and the fact that you no longer have to manage the server as we do that for you. From early feedback it is clear there is some confusion around some of the apparently missing options so an explanation follows..

In Project Server 2010 Server Settings was available in the left navigation for administrators and it looked like this:-

And in Project Online we now have a couple of different ways to get to the same settings – either use the EDIT LINKS option to make Server Settings appear on the left – or use the new navigation from the gear icon in the top right and select PWA Settings. A clue here that this really is Project Online – the top left says Office 365 rather than SharePoint – which you would see with Project Server 2013 – and the menu with PWA Settings shows the Office 365 Settings option (preview in my case).

This will bring up the PWA Settings page which may look like this:

I say ‘may look like this’ because some of the options will depend on the permissions mode you are currently using. This is similar to Project Server 2013 and is well described in the TechNet article ‘Plan user access in Project Server 2013’ at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161361.aspx, but for Project Online there is a way to change permission modes through the UI of the Office 365 Admin page – and you can bring up the following screen by selecting your PWA site then clicking the drop down menu from Project Web App in the ribbon and selecting Settings.

The article at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-project-online-help/change-permission-management-in-project-web-app-for-project-online-HA103433509.aspx titled Change permission management in Project Web App for Project Online gives all the details – please heed the WARNING section. Changing modes loses any existing permissions you may have set and they won’t come back if you reset back again.

In my initial PWA Settings screenshot above I am in the default, SharePoint Permissions mode – so I am missing a few options compared to the following shot from another instance on my server in Project Permissions mode.

As you can see, with Project Permissions mode comes a new section on Security with the familiar options from the 2010 Security section in the top left of the first screen shot – and a couple of extra options in the Personal Settings – for managing and acting as delegates. Delegation isn’t a feature that is available when you are using SharePoint Permissions. Also this shows that Personal Settings is now a subset of PWA Settings and not its own menu option. The security section isn’t applicable to SharePoint Permissions mode as all control is governed by SharePoint rather than by Project’s groups and categories. This also covers project sites too – so the User Sync section goes away too in SharePoint Permissions mode. Also note that what was called Project Sites is now covered by Connected SharePoint sites.

For Project Online that is all you get and all you need. If you read the other article on Project Server 2013 you will have realized that some of the server settings were moved to Central Administration and as in the Project Online world we administer the server then all those options are handled for you – or are not applicable to the Project Online product line.

For example the options of OLAP Database Management, Server side event handlers, Alerts and Reminders and Administrative Backup and Restore are not applicable as those features are not present in Project Online. The queue is something you can view your jobs for – but not something you can choose to change control settings for – and likewise you do not need to access the Project Workflow Settings option. For Project Site provisioning the process is more controlled with Project Online – so again this obviates the need for getting at the settings. For existing customers making the transition this last change may need some procedural changes – perhaps creating your project sites first in your location of choice and then linking to a plan – if you are used to the fine control over exactly where you sites gets created.

*** Update 3/20 - I should also clarify that you will always get a site created for a project - there is no ability to turn this off in Project Online - though of course you can always delete them afterwards ***

I’d be glad to answer any questions you may have regarding PWA Settings in Project Online or Project Server 2013.

Project Server 2013: Server Settings

2013-03-19T20:30:00Z

In Project Server 2013 we have moved some of the Server Settings options that were familiar to people in Project Server 2010, and in Project Online there are other changes to these server settings due to the nature of the service offering – and the fact that you no longer have to manage the server as we do that for you. From early feedback it is clear there is still some confusion about the changes so thought I’d post some explanation. I’ll do a follow up post for Project Online so as not to get too confusing in the one post (I hope) – but here goes for Project Server 2013.

*** Update 3/19 - MVP Alex Burton did a good comparison during the preview, and a neat tool http://epmsource.com/2012/09/08/project-server-2010-2013-preview-setting-comparison/ - thanks for the reminder Alex***

In Project Server 2010 Server Settings was available in the left navigation for administrators and it looked like this:-

And in Project Server 2013 we now have a few different places so find the same settings, and the first challenge can be that we have a stripped down menu and by default and Server Settings is gone from the left navigation. A couple of solutions to this – either use the EDIT LINKS option to make Server Settings appear on the left – or use the new navigation from the gear icon in the top right and select PWA Settings.

This will bring up the PWA Settings page which may look like this:

I say ‘may look like this’ because some of the options will depend on the permissions mode you are currently using. This is new to Project Server 2013 and is well described in the TechNet article ‘Plan user access in Project Server 2013’ at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161361.aspx. In my screenshot I am in the default, SharePoint Permissions mode – so I am missing a few options compared to the following shot from another instance on my server in Project Permissions mode.

So what are we still missing? PWA Settings covers the Security, Look and Feel. and Time and Task Management sections but we are missing some options in Workflow and Project Detail Pages, Enterprise Data, Queue and Database Administration and Operational Policies.

Some of these are in the ‘other’ Server Settings page – and there a re a couple of ways to get there and I’m including both just for completeness. They both come from Central Administration and reflect the fact that these settings are not generally items that the PMO should be needing to worry about but are more for the farm administrator. The first route starts at Central Administration, General Application Settings from the left navigation.

Then click Manage under PWA Settings. The other route is via the Service Application , so you would click on Application Management from the left navigation then Manage service application under Service Applications.

Within the Manage Service Applications screen you would click on Project Server Service Application – or just select the row and click Manage

And finally in the Manage Project Web Apps page you would select the Url you wanted to manage and using the drop down menu from that line you would select Manage

The first route is the shortest – but if you already happen to be in the page above then worth knowing about this other route too. Before moving on from that page though, there is one of our missing options! Manage Queue Settings for Project Web App! This is now a farm wide setting rather than a per PWA setting – so it is found on the Manage Project Web Apps page.

This next screenshot is the PWA Settings page and the thing to note is that you are in Central Administration and you can manage settings here for ALL of your PWA sites. If you used the 2nd option through Manage PWA then the right PWA will be selected – but if you arrived via General Application Settings you will need to check and if necessary change the PWA site for which you wish to manage the settings. The place to do that is highlighted.

Here we have the other Queue and Database Administration options, with Manage Queue Jobs also available here – and the Operational Policies that were missing from the menu within PWA – and finally the Project Workflow Settings option. So I think the only things missing are Enterprise Global – and About Project Server. Enterprise Global is now managed from Project Professional 2013 – from the Info tab of the File menu – under Organizer. About Project Server does not have an equivalent option in Project Server 2013.

As mentioned I will follow up with a comparison of options to Project Online – and may also have some posting about individual options if any changes in behavior warrant it. Feel free to post any questions you have!