Grouping with Enterprise Custom Fields Issue. Please Help

[Chris King]

I currently have a project manager that has been having a problem as of late
with grouping by Enterprise Custom fields in a local project plan (plan not
on the server). He is connected to the server, and everytime he groups using
the custom fields he gets false data for the grouping. In other words he is
getting data from other fields instead of the data from the fields he is
grouping by.

Now here is the strange part. When he first creates the project plan the
grouping works as it should. When he saves the file (locally) and then
closes and reopens the file the grouping no longer works. It also works
properly if he saves the files to thr server and it becomes an enterprise
project.

I have tried searching online for anything like this, but have not found
anything. Any help or suggestions would be great. We would like to not have
to save these project plans to the server as they are just test data (what
if) projects.

Server Setup: Single server setup
Project Server 2007 SP1 and all updates
SQL Server 2005 Database
WSS 3.0
Project Professional 2007 SP1 with all updates

 

[Chak]

Chris,

If project plan is not saved to the server and you are using the local
custom fields, you should open the project locally. You should not
connect to the server account while you launching MS Project Pro
2007. By connecting to the server account, you will see the
enterprise fields from Project Server.

Try to use "My computer" account to open the project plan locally.
This way, local custom fileds will be displayed with correct values.


Thanks
Chak
http://www.epmcentral.com

 

[Chris King]

Chak,
Thanks for the reply. We are using the Enterprise Fields for the
grouping, not local custom fields, so we need to be connected to the server.
The issue is that while we are using Enterprise custom fields with a plan
that has yet to be saved to the server we cannot get a correct grouping using
the enterprise fields that we want to use.

 

[Barbara - Austria]

Chris,

I have never had that before. You could try do deactivate (activate) "Use
internal Ids.." in Tools -> Options -> Interface.

 

[Chak]

Chris,

Okay. Have you define the grouping in enterprise global?

If you define the grouping in local plan, you have to create the local
view and grouping. After you save the plan to the server, you can
copy the view/grouping to enterprise global.

Thanks
Chak
http://www.epmcentral.com

 

[Chris King]

Barbara,
Thank you for the reply. Tried your suggestion with no luck, but thank
you for giving us something to look at.

 

[Chris King]

We have the grouping defined, and it works perfectly with all of our plans
that are currently saved to the server. The issue comes with plans that are
not yet saved to the server (some that we don't want to be saved). When we
first create these plans (while connected to the server) the grouping works
fine, however after saving the plan (locally) the grouping stops working.

It could be that this is suposed to be like this, but it would be nice to
know either way. If we can't use this grouping with the local plans because
we are using enterprise fileds in the grouping and the file is not saved to
the server then that is fine and we will just ahve to make due, but we would
prefer to be able to use the grouping (with the enterprise fields) on any
plan that we choose regardless if it saved yet to the server.

 

[Astro Boy]

We have the grouping defined, and it works perfectly with all of our plans
that are currently saved to the server.  The issue comes with plans that are
not yet saved to the server (some that we don't want to be saved).  When we
first create these plans (while connected to the server) the grouping works
fine, however after saving the plan (locally) the grouping stops working.

It could be that this is suposed to be like this, but it would be nice to
know either way.  If we can't use this grouping with the local plans because
we are using enterprise fileds in the grouping and the file is not saved to
the server then that is fine and we will just ahve to make due, but we would
prefer to be able to use the grouping (with the enterprise fields) on any
plan that we choose regardless if it saved yet to the server.







- Show quoted text -

Chris,

It seems like you're asking for trouble by mixing your environment
like this. Why do PMs who are users of Project Server creating and
saving local schedules? Why aren't all schedules on the server?

We tell our PMs that they should not create local schedules. In the
VERY rare exception, we tell them they CANNOT connect to the server
while working on a local schedule. We don't want to take the chance
that they start assigning Enterprise resources, or, worse, start
creating (or getting error messages because they CAN'T create)
Enterprise resources when saving.

That's not a definiitve "You can't do what you're trying to do"
answer, I know. I just think you're introducing too many variables
when you mix Project Server and local schedules.

Hope that helps...

AB

 

[Kevin M]

Hi Chris,

I see you're using 2007, in 2003 enterprise outline codes aren't available
for grouping (or at all) in a file saved locally. ("save as file", not the
"save offline" function)

Perhaps the functionality is the same in 2007? We haven't upgraded yet.

--Kevin