Microsoft Project Hell 2003. ("So near yet so far away")

[Ronen Magid]

Hi,

Simple description of the problem.

YESTERDAY:

- Seen project in project server 2003 web page.
- Could open project in the web interface to see project.
- Could open with the Project 2003 App for editing (launch from the web
interface).

TODAY:

- See project in project server 2003 web page.
- Can open project in the web interface to see project.
- CAN'T LAUNCH WITH PROJECT 2003. Why? a message box saying "Selected
Project(s) cannot be opened with Project". A typical "urgh, something bad
happened" Microsoft message with no documentation and a dead end.

All my attempts to salvage my project from the deep hellish realms of
Project server or Sharepoint have been failed. The internet contains two
references to the message box I mentioed above. Both are cries for help that
have gone unanswered.

HELP !

 

[Ronen Magid]

Tried that. The project hasn't shown up. But it does show up on the web
interface.

Thanks.

 

[Ronen Magid]

Yes. There is one project in the project server. can't miss that...

 

[Ronen Magid]

and yes. it's the same user Id. I am also the owner of the project -
security is done via nt authentication on our single domain... everything
matches. If I could only knows what M$ means by "Can't open Project(s)".
It's like if they don't even know why they fail... this is extremeley
frustrating. Sometimes I wish I had chosen a simpler project management that
simply, well, works. It's been a living hell to set up the project
server/sharepoint and it still refuses to work right- completely unstable,
things change on a daily basis without anyone changing configurations. I
just don't get it.

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

Selected
Project

What is the exact error message you get?

Do you have Service Pack 1 installed?

 

[Ronen Magid]

Hi,

I- t's a VBSCript Message box ("Microsoft Office Project Web Access 2003").
Saying: "The selected project(s) could not be opened in Project".

- Service Pack for what? Project Server or Project 2003 (office)? (or
perhaps Sharepoint?)

Thanks,
Ronen

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

Hi,

I- t's a VBSCript Message box ("Microsoft Office Project Web Access
2003"). Saying: "The selected project(s) could not be opened in
Project".

- Service Pack for what? Project Server or Project 2003 (office)? (or
perhaps Sharepoint?)

Project Server\Project Pro

 

[Ronen Magid]

Hi,

Yes. It's SP1.

any ideas why this message pops up?

Thanks,
Ronen

 

[Jason Vickers]

Ronen,

I am running into the same exact problem with my install of Project. I
receive the error you have when I have Project already open on my machine and
try to open a project from PWA.

If you have Project closed, you will likely receive a SQL authentication
error that will pop up a SQL login box for the Project Login you created for
SQL server.

Unfortunately, I'm still working through the solution to the problem. My
guess is it's in the method SQL talks to SharePoint, and is an authentication
issue. We also had issues with using Project Authenticaion vs. Active
Directory authentication. Let me know if you had any breakthroughs on this
problem. We may end up going back to install on this to get it right.

Thanks,

 

[Jason Vickers]

Ronen,

Okay, I have it figured out, at least for my install of project.

The "Selected Projects cannot be opened with Project" error occurs when
you try to open a project that was saved locally BEFORE it was uploaded to
the Project Server.

Think of it this way: I have a project I've been working on saved in My
Documents. I have Project set to automatically detect my connection state
(Under "Tools" "Enterprise Options") so when I try to open a file that has
been saved on someone else's computer, it tries to find it on my computer,
and thusly dies.

The solution is to save your projects directly to the Project Server, and
set your connection state to "Manual." That way the file ONLY points to the
location on the Project Server, and not to the local copy on the machine
belonging to the person who loaded the file.

I've not found any documentation from Microsoft about this bug. I think
if it's something that was planned for, or if it was something that Microsoft
knew about, they would have put an error that said something like "You cannot
open a Project file that corresponds to a locally saved Project" instead of
"Hey, it doesn't work. Good luck."

Good luck,

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Jason:

In your case, your Project Server is set to allow non-enterprise projects.
This is the downside of that practice.