Community

"Get More Out of Your Project Server Deployment with EPM Live"

Christina Williams — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:57:09 GMT

Microsoft Office Project Server is a powerful application that many EPM Live customers are leveraging to centralize and manage their project schedules. It has a robust database back-end that allows for storing enterprise resources, field attributes, field calculations, and more. However, many of our customers are looking to leverage their investment and extend their EPM solution to manage more than just the tasks and schedules of their projects and programs. They also want to deploy Project Server throughout more of their organization.

By connecting EPM Live to the Project Server platform, our customers leverage all the features of Project Server and tie it together nicely with a flexible SharePoint solution that enables them to manage their entire project. Project Managers (or Schedulers) can still use Microsoft Project Professional without any new training or change to their process. Timesheets and Enterprise Resources can be utilized without any impact to the end users. The only difference is a positive one; EPM Live enables organizations to extend the solution to reach a broader audience and meet the needs of the entire project team.

For example, project teams need to begin collaborating on a project far in advance of creating a schedule. By connecting EPM Live to Project Server, the project team is naturally guided through the project lifecycle. Create workgroups upon project initiation, or even project requests, to begin collaborating with the team immediately. Eliminate disparate systems and manage your entire project within one SharePoint platform. Create your schedule as the project progresses with seamless integration with the Project Server platform.

In addition, different types of departments may manage their projects with varying methodologies. Using the flexible site templates with EPM Live, we’ve seen organizations extend the use of Project Server to enterprise wide deployments. For example, IT Development may use SCRUM methodology whereas the Program Office uses PMBOK. We’ve seen enterprise deployments fail time and again when attempting to force everyone to use the same project management process or methodology.

Lastly, EPM Live allows you to truly understand and manage all the work around a project. Project Server does a great job with visibility to schedules and tasks. Leverage that capability, but connect Project Server to EPM Live and now organizations can manage all the activities around managing a project. Team members can easily view and update all their activities across projects within one view. Functional managers finally have the visibility to what their resources are working on- all activities, not just the tasks within the schedule. Keep in mind, you can still take advantage of the Timesheets feature within Project Server to capture actual hours.

In conclusion, there are many benefits to connecting EPM Live to your Project Server deployment. Extend the capabilities of Project Server and meet the demands of a larger enterprise audience. To learn more about how to get more out of your Project Server deployment with EPM Live, Contact Us.

by mmanimtim

SharePoint Views in EPM Live Rollup Lists Are Missing Fields

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:46:56 GMT

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Symptoms

EPM Live has been deployed onsite and fields/columns are missing in certain List Views.

Cause

This could be because SP1 (Service Pack 1) has not been applied to SharePoint. The EPM Live templates have been configured in an SP1 environment so this is required when deploying onto the client site.

Workaround/Resolution

To fix this issue, install SP1 for MOSS 2007 or WSS 3.0.

Additional Information

None

Status

None

Creating Work Planner Templates

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:33:38 GMT

Availble in EPM Live (version 2.1 and later) is the ability to create Work Planner templates. Creating a Work Planner template is accomplished by simply saving an entire site as a template including content (assuming your tasks have been created in the Task Center). Using this process you are limited to one Work Planner template per Site Template but it's a nice way to enable template functionality when using the Work Planner. Follow the steps below to create a template:

In the site that you want to use as your template, create a new project called "Template".
Create your tasks using the Work Planner.
Make any other adjustments necessary to your template.
From within the Site Settings section, Save your site as a template and be sure to include content.

Next time a new project is created through the EPM Live New Project screen and the new template is selected, the system will create the new project and template renaming the "Template" project to whatever name the user provides.

Uploading Custom List Templates in EPM Live

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:29:06 GMT

1. Select and download the custom List Template from the KnowledgeBase Solution Gallery: http://kb.epmlive.com/DownloadsCategory74.aspx.

2. Login to EPM Live (as an administrator) to the site collection where you want to upload this template. Make sure to browse to the top level site of the site collection.
3. On the "Site Actions" menu, click "Site Settings." If you are not already at the top level site, click "Go to top level site settings." Under the Galleries section, select "List templates".

4. On the Upload drop down menu, click 'Upload document' or 'Upload multiple documents' depending on how many List templates you wish to upload.

5. Browse to the .stp file on your computer and upload it.

6. The List Template should now be ready to go.

7. To create the new List item, on the "Site Actions" menu, click "Create."

8. Find and select the new List item to create it.

SharePoint Workflows: Handy Tips for Tasks

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:22:28 GMT

Microsoft provides comprehensive FREE online courses so you and your team can learn how to efficiently and effectively utilize the many SharePoint features.

Course Description:
Does your company use workflows on a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site? Are you frequently completing workflow tasks? If so, you’ll like the handy tips explained in this short course.

Click on the link below to take this online course:
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102629571033

Receiving "Field Types" errors in event viewer

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:04:27 GMT

Symptoms

You receive "Field Types" errors in the event viewer when you have EPM Live installed onsite.

Cause

These errors are due to an .xml file being in the wrong location.

Workaround/Resolution

1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Templates\XML
2. Move the "FLDTYPES_EPMLIVE_BACKUP.xml" file to another location. (Anywhere except this directory. We suggest C:\Program Files\EPM Live\EPM Workgroup Toolkit)

Additional Information

None

Status

None

Changing the Quick Launch Menus in Your Workspace

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:03:04 GMT

With EPM Live you have the ability to modify the headings and links in your top quick launch menu. The quick launch menu is located at the top of your workspace. To modify the quick launch in you workspace follow these instructions.

1. Go to your Project workspace by clicking on your project name in "Project Center".

2. Click “Site Actions” and then choose the “Site Settings” option.

3. Click the “Quick Launch” link in the “Look and Feel” section.

4. On this page you have the ability to add, edit, and delete links and headers as well as change the order of the links and headers.

Note: Headers are the bolded titles and links are the indented titles underneath the headers. To delete a link or header click the icon of the one you want to delete then click “Delete” on the page that follows. You also have the ability to edit headers and links from this page.

Web Part Error Message using Rollup Web Part

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:54:14 GMT

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Symptoms

You receive the following error when adding an EPM Live Rollup Web Part to the page:

Trying to use an SPWeb object that has been closed or disposed and is no longer valid.

Cause

This error is caused by an incompatibility between the EPM Live Rollup Web Part and another Web Part on your page.

Workaround/Resolution

The EPM Live Rollup Web Part is no longer supported. Please use the EPM Live Grid Web Part for all of your roll up requirements instead. You can find more information regarding the EPM Live Grid Web Part in the Configuration & Administration Guide:
http://kb.epmlive.com/KnowledgebaseCategory4.aspx

Additional Information

None

Status

None

div Tags Appear in SharePoint Fields after Publishing

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:34:30 GMT

Symptoms

<div> tags appear in SharePoint fields after publishing from Microsoft Project using Project Publisher.

Cause

The related fields in SharePoint are set to rich text.

Workaround/Resolution

Change the fields in SharePoint to 'single line of text'

Additional Information

None

Status

None

Project Publisher Error: "The underlying connection was closed"

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:27:07 GMT

Symptoms

You receive the following error when publishing:

Error Connecting: The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a receive.

Cause

This is typically caused by internal network connectivity issues.

Workaround/Resolution

Email EPM Live Support at support@epmlive.com to discuss additional possible resolutions.

Additional Information

None

Status

None

SharePoint Calendars: Connect a SharePoint Calendar to Outlook

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:52:58 GMT

Microsoft provides comprehensive FREE online courses so you and your team can learn how to efficiently and effectively utilize the many SharePoint features.

Course Description:
Connect a SharePoint calendar to Outlook so that you can view and update the calendar right from Outlook, a program that you're probably already using every day.

Topics covered:

Connect the SharePoint calendar to Outlook and view it along with your main Outlook calendar.
Use Outlook to enter or edit calendar items in the SharePoint calendar directly, even when you're offline.
Copy items between the two calendars to ease scheduling.
Disconnect a SharePoint calendar when you no longer want to access it from Outlook.

Click this link to take this online course:
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102550981033

SharePoint Calendars: Create Your Own Calendar

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:21:20 GMT

Create a calendar on a site from scratch.

Name the calendar and add it to the Quick Launch.

Change permissions for the calendar.

Remove a calendar that you no longer need.
Click this link to take this online course:

http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102552281033

Excel Services: Allow User Input

Christina Williams — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:18:05 GMT

Microsoft provides comprehensive FREE online courses so you and your team can learn how to efficiently and effectively utilize the many SharePoint features.

Course Description:
Allow people to enter data for selected cells when you use Excel Services to publish an Excel 2007 spreadsheet to your Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise site.

Click on this link to take this online course:
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102857011033

Excel Services: Requirements, Recommendations and Permissions

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:26:05 GMT

Microsoft provides comprehensive FREE online courses so you and your team can learn how to efficiently and effectively utilize the many SharePoint features.

Course Description:
Learn the requirements for using Excel Services and how permissions can be set so that some people can edit spreadsheets, while others can only view them. After completing this course you will be able to:

Know the software you need in order to use Excel Services.
Understand SharePoint permissions and how they affect the actions people can take with files published to your SharePoint site.
Know what is happening if you see a message about trusted file locations after you publish a file to your SharePoint site.

Click this link to take this online course:
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102856361033

Quick Launch & Top Link Bar - Relative vs. Actual Links

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:12:25 GMT

With SharePoint you do have the ability to change your site name and URL for non-top level SharePoint sites. The one major problem with this is that if you hard code or use the actual physical link to the list, view, etc… when you change the URL to the site it will cause your quick launch and top link bar links to not work anymore. When you click on them you will receive an error because that URL doesn’t exist anymore. To resolve this issue you want to use relative links whenever possible and not actual “physical” links for your quick launch and top links.

Let’s say for instance your quick launch link looks something like this: https://my.epmlive.com/brandonnew/pptest/Lists/Task Center/Planning View.aspx. This is an actual or physical link. You would want to edit the link in the quick launch or top link navigation, located in the site settings, to look like this: ./Lists/Task Center/Planning View.aspx

This will now change the actual or physical URL of the link to a relative link. So when you click on the link it will now navigate to the new URL that you changed the SharePoint site to and not the old incorrect link.

SharePoint Calendars: Tips and Tricks

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:08:25 GMT

Microsoft provides comprehensive FREE online courses so you and your team can learn how to efficiently and effectively utilize the many SharePoint features.

Course Description:
Be more effective when you work with a calendar on a SharePoint site in your browser and in Outlook 2007.

Click this link to take this online course:
http://office.microsoft.com/training/training.aspx?AssetID=RC102552581033

Error Message: "Object Moved"

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:59:45 GMT

Issue Description: When publishing a Microsoft project schedule the following error message appears:
Object moved
Object moved to
https://portal.id.ethz.ch/projekte/lb-audit/_layouts/1033/error.aspx
ErrorText=The file vti_bin/lists.asmx does not exist here.

Resolution: Either the server URL is incorrect and/or web services is not turned on. Here are some steps to ensure that web services is turned on and the correct URL is being used.

1. Navigate to Central Administration for SharePoint
2. Under the "Application Management" tab you will find an area called "Application Security"
3. Click "User Permissions for Web Application"
4. Ensure that the option for "Use Remote Interfaces" is checked
5. Ensure that the correct URL is being used when you are publishing to your SharePoint site.

**Note**
In version 2.0, Project Publisher behaves differently when Microsoft Project is connected to Project Server because EPM Live integrates with Project Server. If you're not using the version of EPM Live that integrates with Project Server and you attempt to publish while connected to Project Server, this error may occur. Please try logging into Microsoft Project with the "Computer" profile and then publishing.

Modifying Meeting Workspace Pages

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:57:50 GMT

You can modify/customize your meeting workspace page(s) by selecting the Site Actions drop down box on the meeting workspace homepage or any meeting workspace page.

Modifying the Top Link Bar in EPM Live

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:54:16 GMT

The top link bar helps users of your site to get to other sites in the site collection (site collection: A set of Web sites on a virtual server that have the same owner and share administration settings. Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites.) by displaying a row of tabs at the top of every page in the site. The options available to you for configuring your top link bar will vary depending on whether the publishing features in EPM Live are enabled for your site collection (site collection: A set of Web sites on a virtual server that have the same owner and share administration settings. Each site collection contains a top-level Web site and can contain one or more subsites).

To modify the top links, follow the steps below.

On the home page for the site, click the Site Actions menu , and then click Site Settings. Note: On a site for which the Site Actions menu is customized, point to Site Settings, and then click the settings that you want to view.
In the Look and Feel column, click Top link bar.
To create custom links for the site, click Stop Inheriting Links. To use the same links as the parent site, click Use Links from Parent.
From here, you may add, remove, or rearrange links on the top link bar.

Additional Information:
Top Link Bar is the term used in SharePoint WSS 3.0. In SharePoint MOSS 2007, the Top Link Bar is accessed by clicking Navigation in the Look & Feel column. Then, it is reffered to as Global Navigation.
Top Link Bar is the term used in SharePoint WSS 3.0. In SharePoint MOSS 2007, the Top Link Bar is accessed by clicking in the Look & Feel column. Then, it is reffered to as Global Navigation.

Increasing SharePoint Performance

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:10:56 GMT

SharePoint like any other IIS web application has a web site and an application pool within IIS. One of the common issues with SharePoint, just like any other web application, can be performance. The heavier the traffic on the site and application pool the more the performance tends to slow down. However, there are some things that can be done to help this.

· First and foremost you need to ensure that you have enough physical resources on your web server to handle the amount of traffic required. This means enough physical memory, processing power, and enough bandwidth on your network to handle the large amounts of traffic.

· Also, it is recommended that you separate your web server from you SQL server. SQL server can be a huge resource hog, so if you can spread out the work load by using different servers for the web server and your SQL server, this would be optimal. You may need to even go as far as having multiple front end web servers for load balancing configured in a farm.

· If at all possible do NOT use a virtual machine to run SharePoint. If you do use a virtual server you definitely want to separate your SQL server from the web server because SQL as it is does not run very efficiently on a virtual server. In fact it isn’t even supported by Microsoft. If you must run SharePoint, and I stress only SharePoint, on a virtual server then you need to ensure that you allocate enough resources such as memory, number of processors, and processing power for that virtual server.

It also helps to allocate the proper virtual memory to the web application pool that SharePoint is running on. This is a setting within IIS itself. If you navigate to the properties of the SharePoint web application pool on the “Recycling” tab check the box for the “Maximum virtual memory (in megabytes) and then add the appropriate virtual memory. The proper amount here can easily be disputed however from the research I have done it is recommended to use double the amount of virtual memory as you have physical memory.

EPM Live Version 2.1 Release Notes (1/19/09)

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:07:55 GMT

Overview

This article describes the updates to EPM Live provided in version 2.1. This article also contains a link to onsite upgrade instructions for those customers who have purchased annual support and maintenance. Starting the week of 2/9/09, there will be links in the new features table below to related articles explaining the functionality in greater detail.

New Features and Fixes in version 2.1

Title	Description	Type
Chart Web Part	The EPM Live Chart Web Part is new in version 2.1. This Web Part can be placed in any Web Part zone within EPM Live and will allow you to use List data as data sources so you can create colorful charts and graphs.	New Feature
Email Notifications - Missing resources fix	There was an issue in version 2.0 where certain users did not show up in the email notification list.	Update
Email Notifications - Manually "Send Notifications"	There is now a button in the EPM Live Email Notifications section that will allow you to manually send notifications.	New Feature
Email Notifications - Regional date/time support	All email notifications that contain date/time information will now display the date/time information according to the regional settings of the source data site.	New Feature
Grid/Gantt - Sort by date in Gantt Chart View	Dates can now be sorted properly within the EPM Live Gantt Chart Web Part.	Update
Grid/Gantt - Filter Support for the Grid View	The Grid Web Part now contains filter support.	New Feature
Grid/Gantt - Grid Export to Excel Error	The "Unable to Open" error is now fixed.	Update
Grid/Gantt - User based Grid or Gantt View	Switching between the Grid and Gantt View will now be set as a user preference.	New Feature
Grid/Gantt - "Totals" support for all fields in a List	Using the EPM Live Grid Web Part it is now possible to specify how all fields are summarized. Learn more	New Feature
Grid/Gantt - "New" icon for new items in Grid View	A "New" icon will now appear in the Grid View for all new items.	New Feature
Grid/Gantt - Ability to disable right-click functionality in Grid	By displaying the "Title" field in the Grid, the right-click edit functionality will be disabled so that certain views can read only. This prevents users from editing tasks in certain views. Learn More	New Feature
Grid/Gantt - Ability to configure Grid/Gantt settings at the List level	All Grid/Gantt settings can be configured in the SharePoint List instead of having to configure each Web Part separately.	New Feature
Grid/Gantt - Improved performance for large recordsets	The height of the Grid/Gantt Web Part can be set now so that only a limited set of records are rendered initially which improves performance significantly.	New Feature
Grid/Gantt - Support for Regional Settings	The Grid now supports proper regional setting formatting.	Update
Work Planner - View in Gantt fix	When "View in Gantt" is selected, the correct hierarchy will now be displayed.	Update
Work Planner - Single click cell edits	The Work Planner cells are now editable with a single click instead of a double click.	Update
Work Planner - Ability to use a resource pool	The Work Planner can now be configured to use a central resource pool when assigning resources.	New Feature
Work Planner - Save Baseline functionality	There is a button in the Work Planner now that will allow the Project Manager to "Save Baselines".	New Feature
Work Planner - Template Support	You can now create project templates for use with the Work Planner. Learn more	New Feature
Work Planner - Exclude SharePoint Groups	There is now an option to exclude groups in the "assigned to" field in Work Planner.	Update
Work Planner - Approval Workflow Support	Approval Workflow is now supported for use with the Work Planner.	Update
Work Planner - Predecessor Support	Finish to Start predecessors are now supported.	New Feature
EPM Live Admin - Lock Project Publisher Settings	You can now specify the Project Publisher publishing settings globally. When users publish to your EPM Live environment, the publishing settings will be locked because they are managed globally.	New Feature
EPM Live Admin - Disable Publishing from Project Publisher	You can now specify which sites can be published to from Project Publisher.	New Feature
EPM Live Admin - Managing Editable Fields	Managing which fields show up in the edit form can now be accomplished by simple configuration.	New Feature
EPM Live Admin - Total field settings	Managing how fields are summarized can now be managed within the List Settings of any List. This now supports the summarizing of calculated fields.	New Feature
Project Publisher	Click here to view separate release notes for Project Publisher.	Update
Site Collection and Project Workspace Changes	Click here to view separate release notes for changes to the EPM Live Site Templates	Update

EPM Live v2.1 Installation Guide

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:03:39 GMT

Click HERE to access the EPM Live v2.1 Installation Guide.

EPM Live version 2.1 Template Release Notes (1/26/2009)

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:51:00 GMT

Changes to the EPM Live Site Collection v2 Template:

Quick Launch bar is now visible. EPM Live originally hid the Quick Launch bar to save real estate but found that most customers actually preferred having the Quick Launch bar at the top level so they could easily manage and access enterprise content for their users.
The "Disable Publishing" property is now set to TRUE. This is a new feature in version 2.1 which allows administrators to set which sites allow publishing to from Microsoft Project using Project Publisher. This change was made due to an overwhelming number of users accidentally publishing their projects to top level sites when they meant to publish to their workspace instead.

Changes to the Project Workspace Template:

Set all Task Center views except the My Tasks View to use the column "Task Name" instead of "Task Name (linked to item with edit menu)". This change, along with an update to the Grid Web Part will disable the right click edit functionality for most Task Center views. The reason this was changed is because team members were editing tasks or assignments that were not meant for them to be editing. This change now mandates that all task management is performed by either using Microsoft Project or Work Planner and that all task updates by Team Members are either done through the My Work rollup or the My Tasks View of the Task Center List.
"New" button hidden from all Grid/Gantt instances on the Task Center List. Again, this change was made to promote the managing (adding) of tasks either in Microsoft Project or Work Planner instead of directly through the List itself.
All instances of the Grid/Gantt Web Part in the Task Center and Project Center Lists now point to the Grid/Gantt settings of the actual List itself. This change was done to centralize the Grid/Gantt settings so that settings do not have to be modified on each page through the Web Part properties.
Work Due By view on the homepage instead of Overdue Tasks
Executive View added to Project Center

Turning off version 1.0 notifications

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:46:29 GMT

On January 7th the old version 1.0 notifications will be turned off. For users who were using the original email notifications in version 1.0, you will need to follow the steps below to subscribe to the new notifications. Most users should be using the version 2.0 notifications because this feature has been released now for quite some time. If you have been receiving email notifications and see that the settings in step 2 below are blank, then you are currently subscribed to version 1.0 notifications and will need to subscribe to version 2.0 instead.

To subscribe to the new notifications...

Browse to the Site Settings page within your Site Collection.
- If you do not see a section entitled "EPM Live Administration", click on the Site Collection Features link under the Site Collection Administration section. Click the Activate button next to the EPM Live Workgroup menus Feature.
From the Site Settings page, click on the Notifications Settings link within the EPM Live Administration section.
Fill out the appropriate information in the General Settings section
In the User Settings section, choose to Lock Notifications and then select the users you want to receive the email notifications. The Lock Notifications property specifies that the notifications are controlled by the administrator and not the end user. When Lock Notifications is not checked, users can configure their own notifications.
The List Settings section specifies the different sections of the email and is customizable. Click the OK button to save your changes.

SharePoint Filtered Lookup Field Type

Christina Williams — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:25:54 GMT

This project creates a custom SharePoint lookup field that offers new functionalities to default SharePoint lookup field by allowing filters to be applied to retrieved data. Applied filters can be either dynamic CAML queries or pre-defined list views residing in source lists.

Important Note: Although this 3rd party feature is not included in our installation for onsite customers, we have installed this in our online environment and encourage onsite customers to install it as well. This feature installs a new column type that allows you to lookup values from any site in the site collection.

Below is a few of the features offered by the Filtered Lookup field over standard SharePoint Lookup field:

Cross-site lookup (all sites within same site collection)
Filter retrieved data using list views
Filter retrieved data using dynamic/ad-hoc CAML queries. This means you don't need to create a list view each time you want to apply a lookup filter to source data
Supports retrieving data recursively using either list views or dynamic queries
Supports MultiLookup with filtered data
Same look and feel as default SharePoint Lookup and MultiLookup (i.e. in list forms)

The project is packaged as a Windows installer using the SharePoint Solution installer; to install, simply run setup.exe.