#ProjectServer 2013/2010 Dec CU is available #sp2013 #ps2013

Little late though, but before the years end would like to share that Dec 2013 CU for Project Server 2013/2010 is available.

You can find the details of Project Server 2013/2010 installation package here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectsupport/archive/2013/12/12/microsoft-project-server-2010-and-2013-december-cu-announcement.aspx


Note, as usual, that this should be applied to test environment first prior to production. Also Mar 2013 CU is been set as baseline for all Project Sever 2013 CUs, so install Mar 2013 CU first.

Dec CU includes fix to one of the commonly encountered issue:

• Assume that you change values for fields such as Project Owner and Name on a Project Detail Page (PDP) in Project Web App. When you save and refresh the page, the values are reverted to what they were before the change.

Also at last, try this PowerShell script to install CU for reduced installation time.

http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Server-2013-automate-and-833aeb0b

And if its works for you, please do not forget to rate :) 

Happy patching and Happy New Year to everyone .... 

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#Project and #ProjectServer 2010 SP2 released #PS2010 #SP2010 #Project2010

Good news, Service Pack 2 for SharePoint Server 2010/Project Server 2010 and Project 2010 is available now.

The Service Packs contain all cumulative fixes since SP1, starting with the June 2011 Cumulative Update (CU) and the July 2011 Public Update (PU) all the way through to the April 2013 CU and May 2013 PU.  The Service Packs also contain previously unreleased fixes.  In addition to general product fixes, these fixes include improvements in stability, performance, and security.The complete list of fixes is available here.

All the download are available through Microsoft download center, and the link to each download is as below:

Project 2010 Service Pack 2 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687457 – with full technical details of the client products athttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687523/en-us 

Downloads – x86 – x64

Project Server 2010 Service Pack 2 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687452

Download - Download the Microsoft Project Server 2010 Service Pack 2 package now

SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 2 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687453 – with full technical details for the server products at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687524

Download - Download the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Service Pack 2 package now 

For other Office and Sharepoint SP2 packages please visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2687521/

More details related to update are here.

And as usual, don't rush to install any update directly to production, try it first on your test environments.

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Project Server 2010 - SP1 Features in detail

In continuation to my Project Server 2010 SP1 announcement blog, i have just discovered in detail about few of the 'great' fixes the SP1 will bring based on the huge requests of the users. And they are:

1. Time-phased support for manually scheduled tasks
2. Improvements to project scheduling in Project Web App

Time-phased support for manually scheduled tasks:

Microsoft introduced the manual scheduling or user-controlled scheduling in Project 2010, which is a collection of features designed to give you more control over how tasks are scheduled. This gives you more control over your schedule but one of the areas you didn’t have control was editing timephased data for them. With Project 2010 SP1 you can now edit timephased data for manually scheduled tasks on the Project Client and Project Server. For more details, see this.

Improvements to project scheduling in Project Web App:

With introduction to the ability to create/edit Project schedule through Project Web App. One of the limitations though was that the only way to edit projects that contained Fixed Work or Effort Driven tasks was to use Project Professional 2010. Project Web App only allow you to edit or create project with Fixed Unit tasks. With Project 2010 SP1 you can now edit project plans containing Fixed Work tasks and Effort Driven tasks in Project Web App. For more details about this new fix, click this.

I am sure most of us, Project Server Consultants, were eagerly needed the above fixes as often it was hard to convince the users about limitations of scheduling through Project Web App. 

Until the next post, happy Projecting ... :)

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Project Server 2010 SP1 Release date

Microsoft revealed this week that it is on track to ship the first service pack for Office 2010 by the end of June. Office 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) will be made available for the Office productivity suites, the Office Web Apps, and SharePoint 2010, and will provide functional changes as well as bug fixes, Microsoft says. And with this release, Microsoft will also be officially supporting Google's Chrome browser in the Office Web Apps.

SP1 releases for both Office client suites and SharePoint server products will be made available. All language versions of SP1 will release simultaneously. Initially, Service Pack 1 will be offered as a manual download from the Download Center and from Microsoft Update, and no sooner than 90 days after release, will be made available as an Automatic Update.

• Outlook fixes an issue where “Snooze Time” would not reset between appointments.
• The default behavior for PowerPoint "Use Presenter View" option changed to display the slide show on the secondary monitor. 
• Integrated community content in the Access Application Part Gallery. 
• Better alignment between Project Server and SharePoint Server browser support.
• Improved backup / restore functionality for SharePoint Server
• The Word Web Application extends printing support to “Edit Mode.”
• Project Professional now synchronizes scheduled tasks with SharePoint task lists.
• Internet Explorer 9 “Native” support for Office Web Applications and SharePoint
• Office Web Applications Support for Chrome 
• Inserting Charts into Excel Workbooks using Excel Web Application 
• Support for searching PPSX files in Search Server 
• Visio Fixes scaling issues and arrowhead rendering errors with SVG export
• Proofing Tools improve spelling suggestions in Canadian English, French, Swedish and European Portuguese.  
• Outlook Web Application Attachment Preview (with Exchange Online only) 
• Office client suites using “Add Remove Programs” Control Panel.

For more details, go through the MS official update site: http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/05/16/announcing-service-pack-1-for-office-2010-and-sharepoint-2010.aspx

Look forward to SP1..

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Project Server 2010 - FEB CU released

A little late to post, but this is to announce that the Feb CU of Project and Project Server 2007/2010 have been released. Although there are some problems reported with the server roll out packages, and the current advice is to wait for the release during the week of 3/7/2011. For more details, browse the MS admin blog.

The webcast, Information About Microsoft Project and Project Server Cumulative February Update, about the Cumulative Update detail will be on 8th march, the link to access the webcast is:   https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032455141 

However, Project 2010 client package is ready to be installed from here. The instruction to install the client patch to the client is pretty simple and is the same as it was in Project 2007:

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

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.

NOTE: Microsoft strongly recommends testing within a NON-Production environment prior to rollout. Feel free to open a support incident at http://support.microsoft.com if you run into any issues with the installation.

Happy patching!

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Project Server 2010 - Team Member Group Permissions Bug

In my blog, i would like to highlight one of the issue been fixed after applying the December CU of Project Server 2010. Few weeks back i come across this issue while i was trying accessing Projects as Team Member group user. Initially i thought it was me who forgot to check an appropriate category permission but after confirming few times all the settings, my doubt became concrete when i browse through a techNet site - where more than a few users have registered a similar incident as an Issue.

To make my self more meaningful, below is the scenario:

Scenario:

• Resource is a member of Team Member group.
• Resource is only allowed to view the Project plan
• Resource is not allowed to edit any Project custom field information
• Resource is not allowed to edit Project Schedule

Following is the screen shot of the Team member group permission following the above scenario:

Result:

When user of the above mentioned group try to access the project detail from the Project Center, the user will end up with the following error.

When access project, Error.

First Solution:
For the sake of work around, if you only allow user to Edit Project Custom fields (which ideally shouldn't be allowed), it will work.

The user is now able to edit the Project summary fields, but not able to change the Project schedule.

Second Solution:

If you deny the Edit Project Summary fields and allow user to Save project to project server and publish project (ideally this shouldn't be allowed to team members) it will work: The user will not be able to edit the Project custom fields, but enable to update the Project Schedule :)

The fact of the matter is, both the above solutions are not acceptable for customers. It does not make sense that the user of the Team Member group can update Project custom field or Project Schedule or both. I have also found a comment of one of the senior moderator at techNet, and he wasnt agreed of calling it an issue and rather explained it as design behavior of new Project Server 2010. But on a contrary, i stick to my opinion of calling it a Issue, as to me no design is good if its unable to fulfill customers basic requirement.

Although the Microsoft has released a hot fix ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2459112/) to fix the above issue. The more good news is that MS has also released December CU for Project Server 2010 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2459258/) which contains this fix along with the other fixes. Applying this CU will enable Team member users to access the Project detail only by allowing them to Open Project group permission.

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Project Server 2010 - December CU released

This is to echo Brian Smith announcement of the release of the latest Project Server 2010 Cumilative Update.  Cumulative update packages for Microsoft Project Server 2010 contain hotfixes for the Project Server 2010 issues that were fixed since the release of Project Server 2010.

It fixes few of the really required issues, such as team member permission to view projects and setting the project owner of the project. The more detail of the CU can be viewed on the following link:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2459258/

In order to find out the current version of CU or Hofix of your Project Server 2010, follow the Brian Smith article for details: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/09/23/how-to-tell-which-cumulative-update-hotfix-or-service-pack-version-of-project-server-2010-and-project-2010-you-are-running.aspx.

Look for my upcoming blog where i am going to write in detail about 2 of the issues fixed after applying this CU. Please also note that, do not apply this CU in your production environment without testing.

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Project Server 2010 Version after OCT CU

Since its been a while a Project Server 2010 is released, and Cumilative updates for the product are also been released. You might come across a situation where you want to make sure if your Project Server version is the latest version or not.

Check the following locations for the Microsoft.Office.Server.dll to determine the version. If the version is 14.0.5128.5000 or greater, the October CU, which apparently is the latest hot fix of Project Server 2010 so far, is applied.

• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\ISAPI\Microsoft.Office.Server.dll
• C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.Office.Server\14.0.0.0__71e9bce111e9429c\Microsoft.Office.Server.dll

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Project Server 2010: October Cumulative Update now re-released!

This is just to announce that the new CU of Project Server 2010 is now re-released. See the revised article related to the CU: http://blogs.technet.com/b/projectadministration/archive/2010/10/27/microsoft-project-server-and-sharepoint-2007-and-2010-october-cu-2010-are-live.aspx.

So all the Project Server consultants/administrators, visit the following website to read the details and download the Update:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/projectserver/gg176680.aspx

Ref: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brismith/archive/2010/11/18/project-server-2010-october-cumulative-update-now-re-released.aspx

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