I’ve already heard a few reports (no pun intended) of this catching folks out – so worth explaining what has happened here.  We made some changes to where reports are stored in Project Online, and we have posted a few announcements about this.  Nothing is lost – it is just that the Business Intelligence Center (BI Center) isn’t the default place we go for reports anymore.   When telling people to read the Message Center in Office 365 I sometimes feel like the Vogon commander telling humans that if they can’t be bothered to go to Alpha Centauri and see the plans for Earth’s destruction then they shouldn’t complain when it happens – getting to the Message Center isn’t light years away – but it may as well be…  Enough Douglas Adam’s and on to the point of the blog:

On November 11th we published a message to the Office 365 Message Center under the “Plan for change” category saying Changes are coming for the Business Intelligence Center for Project Online – and suggesting complete actions by December 10th.  In your message center this will be a link, which will take you to this page:

The additional information link goes to https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Where-did-the-BI-Center-site-go-in-Project-Online-4b71a920-d603-4ffd-b2ab-654e398c73d5?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US and tells you basically that the link in the left navigation now goes to (for example) sites/pwa/PWAReports/Forms/AllItems.aspx rather than the old sites/pwa/ProjectBICenter/Pages/Default.aspx page (which still exists and can be found under Site Contents, Subsites, Business Intelligence Center).

The article give you options to either use the new site or carry on using the old one – and updating your links accordingly.  The change that is catching people out is documented as:

Any Project Online sites that you're already using will be updated to use the new Reports library and Data Connections list instead of the BI Center site. Your existing BI Center site is not deleted (until you delete it yourself), and your existing content is still available. Links in your Project Online sites are updated automatically to point to your new Reports library and Data Connections list.

I do appreciate that not every user, or even the PMO administrator, will be an Office 365 Administrator so you may not have access to the message center – so make sure you are talking to your Office 365 Administrators to understand if there is anything you need to know about coming down the line.

If you have a new recently provisioned instance of Project Online then the BI Center would never have been created so nothing that you need to worry about.

If you need any help following the steps described then you can of course open a support incident.

I couple of related issues I thought worth documenting when you are using Firefox as your browser with Project Online – or indeed Project Server 2013.  The first is when trying to open some projects from Project Center – using the ribbon option to Open in Project Professional – either read only or for editing – and you find they don’t appear to exist on the server – the second issue is the error handling when incorrect data is entered in Project Details Pages (PDPs) – such as putting text into a cost field.

First the problem with opening some projects:

It looks as though things are working – wheels spin, Project Professional opens, but then you see an error: Project Web App was unable to find the specified project.

At first this seemed somewhat random – then I found the pattern and confirmed by using Fiddler to examine the flow of data to the web services behind the scenes.  It turns out that unlike Internet Explorer and Chrome, Firefox is encoding spaces in the string it gets from the Project Center – so in my example project above – “AA Testplan” – this gets passed into the web service as a project called “AA%20Testplan” – and as no such project exists the error above is generated.  A couple of possible workarounds – obviously you could avoid spaces in project plan names and you can edit the name either in the PDP or in the “File, Open, Show me the list of all projects” page in Project Professional as shown below (please don’t use ‘save-as’ as that would overwrite the plan and all GUIDs would change – causing issues with existing assignments, timesheets etc.)

The other workaround would be to use a different browser such as Chrome or Internet Explorer.

We are currently considering the best fix for this one – either to handle the encoding on the server side, or potentially have the client cope with the %20.  As ‘%’ is not a valid character in a name it should be possible to assume that shouldn’t be there.

The second Firefox issue – and like busses these things tend to come along together – is a missing error if you put invalid data into a PDP custom field – such as text into a cost field.  In IE or Chrome it will alert you to the fact, (Project Online shows this below the field, Project Server 2013 shows it at the top of the page)

Whereas Firefox will refresh the page – but not display the error (and not save anything – which is the same as IE and Chrome of course).  Again using Fiddler I can see that the error was actually returned by the web service but was just not displayed.  Nothing in the pipeline for fixing this right now – and only workaround would be to use another browser.  If a premier customer feels strongly about this then we can certainly discuss a fix for this.

The observant amongst you may already have noticed a new link over on the right (or read my other blog) for Project Server 2013 Cumulative Updates.  I have gathered together the lists of fixes from each of the KB articles for previous Cumulative Updates going right back to the launch of Project Server 2013.  The direct link is http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/p/ps13cu.aspx – in case you are reading this in a RSS feed.  The updates are in reverse chronological order and I plan to update this as each new update or service pack is released.  Project Professional and the 2010 family will be coming shortly.  Let me know what you think.  Am I missing any key information?

I am very pleased to announce the release of the December 2014 Cumulative Update (CU) for Project, Project Server and SharePoint for 2013, and Project and Project Server and SharePoint 2010.  Feel free to open a support case if you have any questions around this or need assistance getting these patches deployed. A reminder that there will be no Cumulative Updates released for Project or Project Server 2010 or 2013 in January 2015.  The next planned CU will be released around February 10th 2015

This release for the 2010 products, like the November CU, has a hard requirement on Service Pack 2 – see notes below, (Support for Microsoft Office 2010 Service Pack 1 ended on 10/14/14).  Don’t forget language packs SP2 if you have any language packs loaded!  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.  I should also point out that the individual Project Server packages are only ‘individual’ in the sense that they do not include the SharePoint patches – they are still cumulative and the December CU will contain all previous CU releases (at least back to the applicable baseline. 

Another important point to add here is that there was an issue early last year running the SharePoint Configuration Wizard on a server with Project Server 2013 installed – this is fixed by applying the April 2013 or later– so a good practice would be to load SP1, then the December 2014 CU and then run the configuration wizard (if you didn’t already load the April 2013 through June 2014 CU).

Project and Project Server 2013

An overview of all the Office 2013 releases for December 2014 can be found here – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3020816 - Office 2013 cumulative update for December 2014

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 December CUs from the following articles:

Project Server 2013 Server Rollup Package

December 9, 2014 Cumulative Update for Project Server 2013 package

http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2910911

Project Server 2013 Individual Project Package – (cumulative, but only the Project Server fixes):

Hotfix KB2910944 for Project Server 2013 December 9, 2014 (Projectserverwfe-x-none.msp; Projectservermui-<Language-Code>.msp)

http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2910944

The dbo.Versions table should show 15.0.4673.1000 after applying the December 2014 CU.  The version number 15.0.4675.1000 can be used to control the connecting client to the December 2014 level, but only if you are loading the November CU or more recent to the server.  This version control no longer blocks server side scheduling engine since the November CU, but as this fix is server side you cannot use a higher value until you have this server patch or a more recent one.

SP1 for Project Server 2013 can be hound here - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2880553

Project 2013 Client Package:

Hotfix KB2910920 for Project 2013 December 9, 2014 (Project-x-none.msp)

http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2910920

The client version number will be 15.0.4675.1000.  The server scheduling engine is no longer blocked by version control since the November CU on the server, so providing you have November 2014 CU ort above on the server you can use the 15.0.4675.1000 value to control connection of the December 2014 CU patched client..  If you are running a server CU earlier than November 2014 CU then follow the suggested version number for the server patch level you are running.  See Project Server 2013- Controlling the version of connecting clients–and PWA edits- for more details.  As mentioned above – the version number entered no longer controls the server side scheduling engine – so from the November 2014 CU release onward you can set a higher version to control clients without blocking the server side scheduling in the schedule web part.

We are working on the specific CU installation documentation 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.

SP1 for Project Professional 2013 can be found here - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817433

Also note that Click to Run installations will be automatically patched (mine updated today to the same version as above).  Installations in Enterprise Environments that have been modified will be deployed based on the schedule determined by your Administrator.  See http://support2.microsoft.com/gp/office-2013-click-to-run.

Project and Project Server 2010

An overview of all the Office 2010 releases for December 2014 can be found here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/3020815 – Office 2010 cumulative update for December 2014

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 December CUs from the following articles:

Project Server 2010

Project Server 2010 Individual package (cumulative – but just the Project Server 2010 fixes)

Hotfix KB2910889 for Project Server 2010 December 9, 2014 (Pjsrvwfe-x-none.msp)

http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2910889

Project Server roll-up package

December 9, 2014 Cumulative Update for Project Server 2010 package

http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2899587

The Project Server database version is not updated with the December 2014 CU, but if you were running an earlier release than November 2014 you will see the version updated to 14.0.7137.5000 after applying this or the package hotfix above, and running the configuration wizard.

Project 2010 Client Package:

Hotfix KB2910893 for Project 2010 December 9, 2014 (Project-x-none.msp)

http://support.microsoft.com/KB/2910893

The client version number is 14.0.7140.5000, 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 (when available) 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, the November 2014 Cumulative Update and above requires your client and server to already be at the Service Pack 1 (SP2) level – if you get a message saying the patch does not apply to your system then this may be the reason – the message may be “expected version of the product was not found”

SP2 for the Project Server 2010 can be found at Service Pack 2 for Microsoft SharePoint and Project Server 2010 (KB2687452) – and a description at SP2 at Description of Project Server 2010 SP2.  If you have language packs installed then these will also need to be patched to SP2 or the message above will be seen – SP2 for the server language packs can be found at Download the Microsoft Office Servers 2010 Language Pack Service Pack 2 package now and a description at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687462.

SP2 for the Project Professional 2010 client can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39669 for the 32-bit and http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39661 for the 64-bit and a description at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687457

Client Installation:

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.

This post came from an enquiry for how we can tell which list items in an ideation list (I hate that word – but it seems to be catching on…) have been already turned into projects.  In case you are not familiar with this feature of Project Server 2013 and Project Online, I am talking about the option, from a custom list, of turning one or more items from the list into projects.  This is generally used as a way to collect ideas as items in the list before deciding which are to become projects.  The list itself needs to be a custom list (Add an App, Custom List) and not a task list for this feature to show up.  This screenshot shows my idea list, and the ribbon option under Items for creating projects:

If I click Create Projects then it allows me to map some fields from the list (in my case the list is very basic and just has the default columns) and go ahead and choose which Enterprise Project Type (EPT) should be used for the new project:

I click Create Project on this page and I get my new Project.  But back to the original question – how can I tell which ones have already been converted?

I knew there must be a way to tell, as if I try and create a project again I get an error: A project already exists for list item with title Project1002. Please select a list item that is not already converted to a project.

I assumed this was held somewhere in the list properties so I set to work with PowerShell to see what properties I could find.  To get to these I get a reference to the web, then find my list based on the title then I can iterate through the items in the list.  But first I just looked at an item from which I had created a project and one that I had not – and compared the properties.  One useful script I found on the web was at https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/sharepoint/Retrieve-SharePoint-list-8e7fb421 which has a few nice utility scripts to get list information.  Using this I could get my list properties of my second item with the command:

Get-OSCSPListItem -SiteURL "http://brismithps13/ppm" -ListName "NewIdeas" -ItemId 2

This returned quite a bit of information – and on close examination I found that a new custom element had been added to the Xml property ows_MSPWAPROJUID='{B77A374D-917C-E411-80E5-001DD8B72BFE}' – which was the GUID for the created Project.  To make it simpler I just created a script that would iterate through and see which items had this property set.

$web = Get-SPWeb http://brismithps13/ppm
$list = $web.lists | Where-Object { $_.title -eq "NewIdeas" }
$items = $list.Items
foreach ($item in $items)

     {
      [XML]$xml = $item.Xml
     $Item.Title
     $xml.InnerXml.Contains('ows_MSPWAPROJUID')
     }

And the output was:

Project1000
False
Project1001
True
Project1002
True

And I knew I had created projects from Project1001 and Project1002.

This is the very basic level, and a nice to have would be to write some of this information back into the list columns so it was easily visible, and available via OData for example.  (And yes, an even nicer to have would be if we wrote this information back to the list columns when the project was created – perhaps along with a timestamp and the EPT used…(Thanks for the suggestions Gary, Peter and Christine!)  But that would have meant making some assumptions on the list type and columns available – certainly not too difficult but it does then tie things down in terms of customization etc.)

So how about Project Online?  I haven’t tried it, but I did find a very interesting CodePlex project at https://sharepointpowershell.codeplex.com/ which talks from PowerShell through CSOM to SharePoint.  A little more of the how this works can be found on http://jeffreypaarhuis.com/2012/06/07/scripting-sharepoint-online-with-powershell-using-client-object-model/ – this looks like it should let you do the same kind of thing with Project Online.

I hope this is useful.