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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Project Server 2010 - Resource Picker on PDP

Recently I came across a customer request that: How to select a resource from Project server  group by the Project Manager, or have resource picker web-part,  in the Project Detail Page (PDP)? I stumble upon this query and thought I should write a detail blog because the answer is that there is no OOB way of achieving this. - surprised!

Now you might can see this as one of the very common request, where the user has to mention the Project stakeholder or Project sponsor details on project detail page for reporting purposes. Your first guess might be to use the project owner web part for such purpose, but soon you will realize that its one of the default system behaviour and you cannot utilize owner field for anything else but to define the owner of the project. Moreover the irony is that there is no resource picker webpart available for such requirement as well. So how to collect Project Sponsor information? One way, or the easiest way, could be to create a enterprise custom project text field for the PDP and capture the information in plain text format. But this doesn't sound very attractive, isn't it? 

So in this blog I will show you the usage of Project Server solution starter called Autocomplete web part,  that kind of meet this requirement. 

1. Download the latest version of Solution starter from here.
2. UnZip the PDPCustomizaton folder
3. Go to the Deployment folder and edit the deploy.bat file and set the URL with your PWA URL.
Although the Readme document file comprises of steps to deploy the webpart is already there, but for the sake of putting everything in one place i am mentioning the deployment steps also.




4. Run command prompt as an administrator and execute Deploy.bat.


5. Once successfully deployed and activated you can then go to the server settings, create enterprise project custom field single line text called "Project Sponosor'", and click project detail pages section of PWA.




6. Click on the name of new project Project detail page to edit


7. Click Add web part, and select PDP Customization -> Autocomplete web part and click Add button.




8. Edit web part setting by clicking Edit Web Part. Select the enterprise project custom field of PDP you want to appear as resource picker and select the group from where you want to select the resource for that custom field.






9. When done apply the changes to the project detail page and stop editing. Now open the page and you will see the Project Sponsor field with the picker icon next to it. Click on the icon will allow you to select from the group's resources as Project Sponsor.




At run time the web-part changes the behavior of project custom field to appear just like a resource picker would, and allowing the user to select the resource from the group that will then save in the project custom text field.


This is one easy way of achieving the desired requirement, however the option of developing a custom web-part to achieve this is always available. Hope to see some comments if this helps you by any means.

14 comments:

Thanks for this fantastic solution.

I compiled the package after downloading the new source. After deploying the wsp, while editing the Autocomplete web part, the web part complains "There are no single line text custom fields on the page"

I have verified that there is a single line ECF on the PDP.

This is from BindCustomFields() @ AutoCompleteEditorPart.cs

Any pointers?

Thank you so much.
i am facing same issue not able add the Custom Field showing Error Message that " There are no single line text custom fields on the page".

Khurram,

Just stumbled upon this post :)

I have not tried this solution starter yet, so excuse me if my question sounds silly.

How is this different from adding a look-up table for that custom field (project Sponsor)? Can the group to select from be an "Active Directory" group?

Doesn't appear anyone has solved this:

"There are no single line text custom fields on the page".

Another fine Microsoft bug!!

you have to add project fields web part first then use it you cant use it with project details wepbart it cant see the feilds in it
i hope this can help

but im still having problem i can select the custom field and the group but the selected field become an empty DDL (it does not return the users of the selected group) any help please

It's working working fine for me

@Prasana
Glad to see that you stumbled upon my post :)
its always good to hear from you.

regarding this solution, its much better then using a lookup custom field to select a resource because it lets you get rid of administrative over head of maintaining data in lookup table. in lookup custom field you need to manage your lookup table with requried reosurces, where as using this solution will simply let you select any of the user from pre-defined group. and that group can be Sync with AD.

hope this clarfies, thanks.

What about project Server 2013, this solution could be use it for it?
Thks!

It's working on Project Server 2013 but PWA security mode must Project Server Permission Mode

Great blog! I wonder whether the .bat script will also work for Project Online 2013 (cloud based) and whether we need special permissions for it?

when I try to click on the link above for this solution then it shows that the archive gallery has been retired. Can someone share the solution or the update link?

Hi Sener, I am trying this in PS2013, can you please give me some inputs on how to fix the issue. I am getting the error as above mentioned "there are no single line text custom fields"

Hi VG.
I've got the same error, but switched to Project Information Page, added to existed webpart new my custom field, then added Autocomplete Webpart.

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