#ProjectOnline PWA Project Details Page integration with Project Roadmap #Office365 #PPM #PowerPlatform #MSFlow
January 16, 2019 at 7:22 pm | Posted in Administration, Functionality, Information, Reporting | Leave a commentTags: Flow, Office365, Power Platform, Project Home, Project Online, Roadmap
As you are probably aware by now, the new Roadmap feature is live in Project Home as detailed in this blog post: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/project-roadmap-is-live-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatfom/ This post covers a new button that would have appeared in your Project Online PWA instance:
This new Add to Roadmap button is on the Task tab on Schedule Project Detail Page. This enables you to add published tasks to a project roadmap directly in Project Online PWA without having to navigate away to the Project Home, open the Roadmap then adding the tasks via the Roadmap interface.
When the current project is linked to a roadmap row with at least one task selected (you can select multiple), clicking this will load a modal pop up:
You will then need to select the correct Roadmap and Row using the dropdowns. Only Roadmaps and Rows will appear where the current project is already linked. Here is one Roadmap where this project is linked:
I’ve selected the Deployment task then clicked the Add to Roadmap button then selected the Roadmap and Row as seen below:
Clicking Add will start the process to add the task:
Once completed you will see the added to roadmap message as below with a clickable link to the roadmap:
Accessing the roadmap will now show the new task added:
If you try the Add to Roadmap button for a project that is not linked to a Project Roadmap you will see this modal popup:
A great enhancement to Project Online!
#Project Roadmap #CDS #App Overview #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatform #Dynamics365 Part 2
January 7, 2019 at 6:03 pm | Posted in Administration, Configuration, Functionality, Information | Leave a commentTags: Dynamics 365, Flow, MS Project, Office365, Power Platform, PPM, Project Online, Roadmaps
This post follows on from part 1: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2019/01/01/project-roadmap-cds-app-overview-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatfom-dynamics365-part-1/ In part 1 we had a quick overview of the solutions used in the CDS app for the Roadmap service. In this post we will look at the fields used by the Roadmap service and take a look at some of the data in the Portfolio Service CDS database. As you know, this new feature is known as Roadmap to the end users, but the backend is known as the Portfolio Service, hence both names being used here.
Firstly we will have a look at some of the entities and field definitions from the Portfolio Service solution PowerApps admin interface that we briefly accessed at the end of part 1:
As you can see from the screen shot above, there are 6 entities deployed in the Portfolio Service solution. Each of these entities have various other artefacts such as views, keys, fields etc. For this post, we will just look at the fields. We wont explore all of the entities or all of the fields in each entity, but we will look at some of the key entities and fields used by the Roadmap service.
Firstly we will look at the Roadmap entity in the PowerApps portal:
You can scroll along the grid to see the properties such as description etc. This entity contains the roadmap details – the roadmap properties and rows added to the roadmap. Some of the key fields here for us as end users for reporting etc. are:
- msdyn_name – this field will contain the Roadmap name and the row name
- msdyn_type – this is used to determine the type – either a Roadmap which is type 0 or a row which is type 1
- msdyn_roadmapid – this is the roadmap / row GUID
- msdyn_parentroadmapid – this is contains the roadmap GUID for the rows added to a roadmap
- msdyn_groupaadid – this is the associated Office 365 group ID
The next entity is the Roadmap Item:
This entity contains the roadmap item details – items added to rows on the roadmap and items added directly to the roadmap like key dates. Some key fields are:
- msdyn_name – this field will contain item or key date name
- msdyn_duedate – this field will contain the due date for row items
- msdyn_startdate – this field will contain the start date for row items
- msdyn_status – this is the status for the item such as At Risk, On Track etc.
- msdyn_type – this is used to determine the type – either a key date which is type 0 or a phase which is type 1
- msdyn_roadmapid – this is the roadmap / row GUID
- msdyn_roadmapitemid – this contains the roadmap item GUID
The next entity is the Roadmap Item Link:
This entity contains the roadmap item link details – items added to rows on the roadmap that are linked to external projects (Project Online or Azure Boards currently). Some key fields are:
- msdyn_externalname – this field will contain the external task name
- msdyn_externalduedate – this field will contain the external due date for row items
- msdyn_externalprojecttaskid – this is the external task GUID from the external project
- msdyn_externalstartdate – this field will contain the external start date for row items
- msdyn_externaltype – this is used to determine the type – either a key date which is type 0 or a phase which is type 1
- msdyn_externalurl – this is the link to the external project
- msdyn_roadmapid – this is the roadmap row GUID
- msdyn_roadmapitemid – this contains the roadmap item GUID
- msdyn_roadmapitemlinkid – this contains the roadmap item link GUID
The final entity that we will look at is the Roadmap Row Link:
This entity contains the roadmap row link details – rows on the roadmap that are linked to external projects (Project Online or Azure Boards currently). Some key fields are:
- msdyn_externalname – this field will contain the external project name
- msdyn_externalprojectid – this is the project GUID from the external project
- msdyn_externalurl – this is the link to the external project
- msdyn_refreshenddate – this is the finish time the external project last synchronised with the CDS data via the Flow
- msdyn_refreshstartdate – this is the start time the external project last synchronised with the CDS data via the Flow
- msdyn_roadmapid – this is the roadmap row GUID
- msdyn_roadmaprowlinkid – this contains the roadmap row link GUID
Lets explore the data in the Roadmap entity. There are several ways in which we can do this, in code using the Organization Service or the Web API: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/developer/common-data-service/work-with-data-cds or there is a Connector for Power BI: https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/cds-for-apps-powerbi/ For this I will use Power Query in Power BI but also show you how to access the Web API too. To access the Roadmap data in Power BI you will need the server URL. There are at least two ways (probably more) to get the correct server URL for the CDS Roadmap uses. Firstly via the Office 365 Admin Center using the steps below:
Access the Office 365 Admin Center > Admin Centers > Dynamics 365:
Then click open on the correct instance and you will see the server URL in the URL bar:
The other way, if you do not have access to the Admin Center is by using the browser dev tools. Access Project Home > Press F12 / open the dev tools > Access a Roadmap > In the Network tab, find the network call GetCdsEndpoint then check the Response, you will see a cdsurl property:
Once you have the server URL you can either use the Power BI connector or the Web API. The the simplest way to demo viewing this data using the Web API is via the Browser. In this example. Add the following to the end of the server URL: /api/data/v9.1 – you can use a different version, at the time of writing 9.1 was the latest on my tenant. Going to the root Web API URL will return the JSON for all of the entities available. Append the entity that you want to access to the end of the URL and you will see all of the data available in the entity:
As the Web API implements the OData protocol you can use the standard query options such as $select or $filter. Here I’m just selecting the name and type from the roadmaps entity:
https://org05724544.crm11.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.1/msdyn_roadmaps()?$select=msdyn_name,msdyn_type
Here I’m filtering for roadmaps only as the roadmaps entity contains roadmaps and rows:
https://org05724544.crm11.dynamics.com/api/data/v9.1/msdyn_roadmaps()?$filter=msdyn_type eq 0
To easily make sense of the data you need to format the JSON. Power BI is easier to visualise the data.
In Power BI click Get Data > More > Online Services > Common Data Service for App (Beta):
Select it then press connect. Accept the warning about being a preview connector (something to be aware of!). Now enter the server URL:
Now you can see all of the tables / entities that are in this CDS service, for the purpose of this blog post I will just expand Entities then select Roadmap, Roadmap Item, Roadmap Item Link and Roadmap Row Link:
Then click Edit to load these in the query editor. I’ve removed some of the default fields to clean up the data. Here is one of my roadmaps from the msdyn_roadmap table via Power Query in Power BI:
Here is a row from my roadmap:
Here is a key date added to my roadmap from the msdyn_roadmapitem table:
Here is a task (known as a phase in Roadmap) added to a row in the roadmap:
Here is a milestone (known as a key date in Roadmap) added to a row in the roadmap:
Here is an item link for a task linked to a row in Roadmap from msdyn_roadmapitemlink table:
Here is an row link for a project linked to a row in Roadmap from msdyn_roadmaprowlink table:
In the final part of this mini series, we will look at following on from this and creating a simple report in Power BI for the Roadmap data and bring in some Project Online data.
#Project Roadmap #CDS #App Overview #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatfom #Dynamics365 Part 1
January 1, 2019 at 7:19 pm | Posted in Administration, Configuration, Functionality, Information | 1 CommentTags: Dynamics 365, MS Project, Office365, Power Platform, PPM, Project Online, Roadmaps
Following on from my last post where we walkthrough using the new Roadmap service for Microsoft PPM, in this post we take a quick look at some of the backend architecture within Dynamics 365. For those of you that missed the first post on Roadmap, a link is here: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/12/19/project-roadmap-is-live-ppm-projectmanagement-msproject-projectonline-office365-powerplatfom/
The new Roadmap Service is built on top of the Common Data Service (CDS) for Apps that is part of the Power Platform offering. Details on the CDS for Apps can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/common-data-service/data-platform-intro. For this post we start in the Office 365 admin center, click the Admin Center icon from the left nav then click Dynamics 365. This will load the Dynamics 365 Administration Center:
On this Microsoft Demo instance I have one instance, this is where Roadmap is deployed to. Clicking the Open button will open this instance in a new window:
It defaults to the Administration screen. Using the Settings menu you can access other settings:
Most of these settings are either empty or contain the default entities / settings but a few do contain specific settings for the Roadmap service – also known as the Portfolio Service as you will seen further on in this post. If you access the Customizations menu:
Then click Publishers and you will see the Publishers this App uses:
Notice “Microsoft Project” – this is the Roadmap part of the app. Go back to the Customizations page and click Solutions, you will then see the solutions that this app uses:
Notice the two Portfolio Service solutions – these are part of the Roadmap solution. You can click the “Portfolio Service” display name and this will load the solution information / components:
Here you can navigate the various components such as entities then the fields within those entities:
We will explore the fields in part 2. You will notice the status bar informing us that we cannot edit components that are within a managed solution, these are managed by the Portfolio Service solution.
In part 2 we will look at the fields used by the Roadmap service and the data in the CDS database for Roadmap.
#Project Roadmap is live #PPM #ProjectManagement #MSProject #ProjectOnline #Office365 #PowerPlatfom
December 19, 2018 at 9:00 pm | Posted in Add-on, Administration, App, Configuration, Functionality, Information, Reporting | 2 CommentsTags: MS Project, Office365, Power Platform, PPM, Project Online, Roadmaps
Microsoft Project Roadmap is now live and rolling out! This is available on one of my demo tenants, in this post we will have a walkthrough creating a roadmap. For those of you who might not be aware, Roadmap is a new feature added to Microsoft’s PPM offering, this was announced at Microsoft Ignite: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/09/24/microsoft-project-the-future-ignite-ppm-pmot-workmanagement-projectonline-projectmanagement/ and: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/microsoft-project-roadmap-product-at-a-glance-ppm-office365-flow-powerplatform-dynamics365-azure-azureboards/
Once this has been rolled to your tenant, it will need to be enabled, Brian Smith covered that already here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/brismith/2018/12/07/project-online-getting-started-with-roadmap/. Once activated on your tenant, you will see a new option on the Project Home page:
For those of you not familiar with the new Project Home, see this post: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/new-projectonline-project-home-office365-ppm-ui-ux-msproject-fabricui/
Clicking the Roadmap option for the first time will trigger Roadmap to be set up for the first time on that tenant, you will see the message below:
Once that has completed after a short while, you will see the following page:
This is the blank roadmap canvas ready for you to create your roadmap items. There is a prompt to do this, see the “Add a row” card. Click the Add row button, this will load a side panel on the right:
Specify a name for the row – this could be the project name, feature name etc., it is just your reference for that roadmap item row. Specify an owner for that roadmap row – this is the person who is responsible for that project or feature etc. Then select the connection, the row can either connect to a Project Online project or an Azure DevOps Board:
In this example, I will select Project Online. The panel then changes so you can enter the PWA URL:
Enter the PWA URL and press the green tick to validate it:
Now start typing the name of the project you want to link this row to:
Then click the project name to select it. After a few moments, the panel will update:
Click See Details to view the permissions of the Flow – Roadmap uses Microsoft Flow behind the scenes to sync the data from Project Online and Azure Boards into the Roadmap database. Click Continue, the panel will then update to show what services the Flow will connect to and the account it will use:
Click Connect, after few moments the panel will update to Add items, here you can search for tasks from the linked Project Online project / Azure Board project:
Start typing the task names then select them, the selected items will appear in the table below:
Note the Type column, “Phase” are tasks with a duration greater than 0 and “Key date” are 0 duration tasks. Click Add at the bottom once the tasks are selected. These items will then be added to the roadmap row:
Notice in the right hand panel, you can see the last time the project was updated – this is the last time the project was synchronised to the roadmap database using Microsoft Flow. This happens every 5 minutes but you can trigger it manually by pressing the update button. We will look at the Flow later on. In the right hand panel, you can also click the project name, this will link to the Project Detail Page for that project in Project Online. You can access this project panel by either clicking the row title or selecting the row then clicking the Details button above the timeline.
Key dates can be added to the timeline using the Add key date button:
Key dates can be anything from key business dates to dates when a product is due to ship, it is just a way to visualise important dates for the roadmap.
Multiple rows can be added, you can have different rows linked to different PWA instances or different Azure Boards. The row order can be changed using the Move up or Move down arrow buttons above the timeline when a row is selected.
All items on the roadmap can have a status set:
Give the roadmap a name by clicking the “Untitled roadmap”, this will open a panel for you to update the name:
You have other options on the page, zoom to change the zoom level of the timeline. Filter to filter for a specific owner. Go to date to scroll the timeline to a date and Members to share access to the roadmap. This is done via Office 365 groups, you can either link this to an existing group or create a new one:
Once linked to a group, you will see the privacy level below the roadmap title:
The roadmap then has all of the features the Office 365 groups provide such as File, Planner, SharePoint, Conversations etc. The group can be accessed by clicking the group name on the members callout:
Clicking the Project link on the top bar will take you back to the Project Home, here you will now see your roadmap:
You can create many roadmaps from Project Home, linked to different projects and different Office 365 groups. If you wanted another user to access your roadmap, copy the URL link once you’ve accessed the roadmap then send then the URL, just ensure they have been added as a member to that roadmap.
As mentioned earlier on, the roadmap feature use Microsoft Flow to sync the data with the roadmap database. For each row you create that is linked to Project Online or Azure Boards in a roadmap, a new Flow will get created automatically. These will run every 5 minutes to sync the data. Two rows in my example roadmap were linked to projects in Project Online, this created two Flows for me:
We can drill in and see the Flow:
There are many actions in this Flow to sync the data, the Flow does many checks checking things like the project last published time and will only sync if the project publish was greater than 15 minutes ago. I wouldn’t recommend changing this Flow unless you know what you are doing – there is no need to change this Flow, leave it be! If you do happen to break it by accident, disable the Flow from the Flow admin page then on the roadmap, try to manually update a project row that is linked to that Flow, it will display a Fix option:
Click Fix, the panel will then update to show the Fix button:
Click Fix and the Flow will be redeployed.
That’s it for this post – a great addition to the Microsoft PPM offering.
#ProjectOnline Snapshot / data to #SharePoint list using #MSFLow #MicrosoftFlow #PPM #PMOT #Office365 #PowerPlatform
December 14, 2018 at 10:00 pm | Posted in Add-on, Administration, Configuration, Customisation, Functionality, Information, Reporting, Workflow | 2 CommentsTags: Flow, Odata, Office365, Power Platform, PPM, Project Online, Project Online Desktop Client, REST, SharePoint Online
Next in my series of posts on using Microsoft Flow with Project Online is capturing Project Online data into a SharePoint list, this is a useful scenario for simple snapshot requirements. For example, if you want to snapshot some key project level data, the easiest place to store this data is in a SharePoint list. I have blogged simple code examples before that do this: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/projectonline-data-capture-snapshot-capability-with-powershell-sharepoint-office365-ppm-bi/ & https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/01/27/projectonline-project-level-html-fields-to-a-sharepoint-list-powershell-ppm-office365/ Whilst these approaches work, the PowerShell does need to be run from somewhere, a server / Azure Function etc. This post provides the same end result with Project Online data in a SharePoint list but all from a Microsoft Flow. The Flow can be seen below:
This simple example makes use of the recurrence trigger to schedule the process, the “Send an HTTP Request to SharePoint” action to get the project data from Project Online and a SharePoint create item action inside an Apply to each loop. We will walkthrough the actions later in the post.
Firstly, the SharePoint list was created:
This was created in my Project Online Project Web App site collection. I created SharePoint columns on this list for each of the fields I wanted to capture from my Project Online dataset. As this is just an example, the number of fields and data is quite limited. Now back to the Flow. We will skip over the recurrence trigger to the first action that gets the Project Online data, this just uses the “Send an HTTP Request to SharePoint” action to call the Project Online OData REST API so that we can easily get all of the Project Online data. In this example we are accessing the Projects endpoint in this API and selecting a few example project level fields including an example custom field:
This action will get all of the data based on the Odata query used in the Uri input. We wont cover all of the settings here in this post as I covered this in the last post found here: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/12/12/projectonline-publish-all-projects-using-msflow-microsoftflow-ppm-pmot-office365-powerplatform-part-2/
Next we need to loop through all of the projects in the results array to create a SharePoint list item for each project. To do this we need to use an “Apply to each” action:
In the output from the previous step we use body(‘ReadallProjects’)[‘value’] to use the data from the previous step which is all of our Project Online projects with some data minus the timesheet project in this example. Then for each project in the array we create a list item on our target SharePoint list using the create item action. In the create item action we just map the data from the array to the correct list column. The Project Online fields are accessed using an expression, for example for ProjectCost in this example Flow the expression is items(‘Apply_to_each’)[‘ProjectCost’] where apply to each is the name of the action and ProjectCost is the field / property in the results from the Odata query.
Once this Flow runs a few times you can then easily create snapshot / trend reports or even extend the SharePoint view to show what you need:
As you can see in this example, I’ve updated the SharePoint view to show the RAG icon in the Overall RAG column rather than the text value. This is very simple with the column formatting options available with the SharePoint modern UI using JSON.
Another example of extending Project Online with low / no code solutions in Office 365.
There will be further example solutions built for Project Online using Microsoft Flow in later posts.
#ProjectOnline Publish all projects using #MSFLow #MicrosoftFlow #PPM #PMOT #Office365 #PowerPlatform part 2
December 12, 2018 at 9:00 pm | Posted in Administration, Configuration, Customisation, Functionality, Information, Workflow | 4 CommentsTags: Flow, Odata, Office365, Power Platform, PPM, Project Online, Project Online Desktop Client, REST
Following on from my first blog post on Publishing all projects in Project Online using Microsoft Flow, here is the 2nd post. For those that missed the 1st part, it can be found here: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/12/06/projectonline-publish-all-projects-using-msflow-microsoftflow-ppm-pmot-office365-powerplatform-part-1/
In this post we will look at achieving the same publish all functionality but using different actions than we used in the last example. Previously we used the actions available with the Project Online connector, in this example we do not use the Project Online connector when accessing Project Online. The Project Online connector actions used previously to get the projects, check the projects out and then publish and check in the projects have been replaced with a SharePoint action where we can call the Project Online REST APIs. This is to show another example of working with Project Online using Flow. This approach does require an understanding of the Project Online REST APIs but this approach offers so much more capability for Project Online when using Microsoft Flow. The Flow can be seen below:
The difference between this Publish all flow and the example from part 1 is that we have replaced all of the Project Online connector native actions with the SharePoint “Send an HTTP Request to SharePoint” action and removed the Filter action as that is not required now. The “Send an HTTP Request to SharePoint” action can be used to work with the Project Online REST CSOM API and the Odata Reporting API directly from Microsoft Flow – this opens up so many more options for working with Project Online using Flow! This Flow assumes you have set up the connection for SharePoint Online using an account that has publish access to all projects and access to the Odata Reporting API in Project Online. This example is still triggered using the schedule action so I wont cover that part. Once triggered, the first action is to get all of the Project Online projects:
Enter the Project Online PWA site URL in the Site Address, select the HTTP Method – GET in this case. Then add the Uri, in this case we are using the Odata API to return all project Id’s and filter out the timesheet project but this could be updated to select only projects based on your logic such as projects with a certain custom field value or projects not published in a certain number of days / weeks etc. Then add the HTTP headers as seen. This action will get all of the projects based on the Odata query. Next we need to loop through all of the projects in the array to check them out, publish them then check them back in. To do this we need to use an “Apply to each” action:
In the output from the previous step we use body(‘Send_an_HTTP_request_to_SharePoint_-_get_projects’)[‘value’] to use the data from the previous step which is all of our Project Online projects minus the timesheet project in this example. Then for each project in the array we check out the project using another “Send an HTTP request to SharePoint” action:
This time the HTTP Method is a POST and the Uri is set to use the REST CSOM API to check out the project. We pass in the ProjectId from the current item in the array using items(‘Apply_to_each’)[‘ProjectId’]
The final action is to publish the project and check it in, this is done using another “Send an HTTP request to SharePoint” action:
The HTTP Method is a POST and the Uri is set to use the REST CSOM API to publish the project and check it in – the check in is performed using the true parameter. We pass in the ProjectId from the current item in the array using items(‘Apply_to_each’)[‘ProjectId’]
The final variation of this publish all example is only very slightly different, the only difference is that it is manually triggered rather than on a schedule. We have removed the schedule action and replaced it with a SharePoint trigger to trigger when an item is created on a list:
I have a list on my PWA site that only PWA admins can access, here an admin user creates a new item, this then triggers the publish all flow:
We then have a history of who triggered the publish all jobs and when.
This post will hopefully give you some ideas on how Microsoft Flow can now really compliment Project Online and offer some scenarios for low / no code customisations.
In the next post we will look at more examples for building low / no code solutions for Project Online using Microsoft Flow.
#ProjectOnline Publish all projects using #MSFLow #MicrosoftFlow #PPM #PMOT #Office365 #PowerPlatform part 1
December 6, 2018 at 12:00 am | Posted in Add-on, Administration, Configuration, Customisation, Functionality, Information, Performance, Reporting, Workflow | 1 CommentTags: Flow, Office365, Power Platform, PPM, Project Online, Project Online Desktop Client
I recently had the opportunity to present at a Microsoft Tech Sync session where I presented a session on Project Online and Flow. During this session gave examples of how Microsoft Flow compliments Project Online by enabling no / low code solutions to extend the Project Online features. I plan to do several blog posts over the next month or so where I will share some of these Microsoft Flows. Hopefully this will give you some ideas of how Microsoft Flow can be used to simplify some of those customisations for Project Online.
The first Flow example I want to share with you is a publish all projects flow. I have published examples before for Project Server and Project Online as found here:
- https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Server-2010-Publish-all-45ba385b
- https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Server-2010-Publish-537857d8
- https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Server-2013-Online-Publish-15215a56
These all required a basic understanding of the Project Server / Project Online APIs and somewhere to run the code from – I thought this would be a good example to move over to a Microsoft Flow. In this blog post I will walkthrough the first example I have for publishing all projects as seen here:
This is built using only actions from the Project Online connector in Flow – so there is no need to understand the Project Online APIs! This Flow assumes you have setup the connection to Project Online using an account that has publish access to all projects. This Flow is triggered using a schedule as seen here:
When this Flow is triggered, the first action is to get all the Project Online projects using the List Projects action:
All you need to do is provide the PWA site URL. This List Projects action also includes project templates so these need to be filtered out, to do this we filter the results returned from the List Projects action using a Filter Array action:
In the From field we enter body(‘List_projects’)[‘value’] to get the data from the previous action, which in this case is the List projects action. In the filter we use item()[‘ProjectType’] is not equal to 1, Project Type 1 being the Project Templates. In advanced edit mode it looks like this:
Next we need to loop through all of the projects in the array to check them out, publish them then check them back in. To do this we need to use an Apply to each action:
In the output from the previous step we use body(‘Filter_array’) to use the data from the previous step which is all of our Project Online projects minus the project templates. Then for each project in the array we check out the project using the default Checkout project action:
Enter the Project Online PWA URL then in the Project Id property pass in the Project ID from the current item in the array using items(‘Apply_to_each’)[‘Id’]
The final action is to publish the project and check it in, this is done using the default Checkin and publish project action:
Enter the Project Online PWA URL then in the Project Id property pass in the Project ID from the current item in the array using items(‘Apply_to_each’)[‘Id’]
That is it, when this flow executes it will publish all of your Project Online projects. A simple no code serverless solution!
In part 2 we will look at two other variations for publishing all projects in Office 365 Project Online using Microsoft Flow.
#ProjectOnline #PPM #PowerBI Project Compliance Report Pack #BI #Reporting #PowerQuery #DAX #Office365
October 22, 2018 at 9:29 pm | Posted in Add-on, Administration, Functionality, Information, Reporting | 3 CommentsTags: DAX, Office365, Power Query, PowerBI, PPM, Project Online
This is a supporting blog post for a new Project Online Power BI Report Pack that I have published. This report pack provides examples for a project compliance / audit type check to ensure your projects follow certain planning standards. This follows on from the previous report packs that I published: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/projectonline-ppm-powerbi-report-pack-v2-bi-reporting-powerquery-dax-office365/ This new report pack follows the same theme / styling. The compliance report pack can be downloaded from the Microsoft Gallery, the link to download the report is here: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Online-Power-BI-Compliance-b45b657c
The report pack consists of two reports, a summary report for project level checks and a detailed report for tasks, risks and issues checks. These can be seen below:
Summary Page:
Project Details (Select a Project from the filter):
Same report but with a different project selected:
These reports only use default intrinsic fields so it should work for all Project Online deployments.
Once downloaded, the report pack data sources will need to be updated to point to your target Project Online PWA instance. To do this you will need the Power BI desktop tool installed. This can be downloaded here: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/desktop
Open the downloaded PWMatherProjectOnlinePowerBIAuditComplianceReportPack.pbit template file in Power BI Desktop and follow the steps below to point the data sources to your Project Online PWA instance:
- In the parameter window that opens, enter the full Project Online PWA URL without the /default.asp – such as https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/pwa
- Click Load
- The data will now start to load and you will be prompted to connect
- On the OData feed window, click Organizational account and click Sign in and enter credentials as required
- Click Connect
- On the Privacy levels window set the privacy as required
- Click Save
- The data will load – this may take a few minutes depending on the dataset size in Project Online
- Access the Project Details page and select a project from the project filter
- Save the report
Please note, some of the steps above might not be seen if you have connected to the Project Online instance from Power BI Desktop previously. This file can either be emailed around to colleagues with details on how to update the credentials to their own or what would be better is to create a Power BI app workspace and give users access: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-create-workspaces
The checks in this pack are just examples and might not be applicable to your organisation but it will give you a good starting point it you do not have any compliance / assurance type reports today.
I will plan to update this in the future, so feel free to add comments for any suggested project compliance checks, provided they are generic enough and possible using only intrinsic fields, I will look to add these in a later release.
I hope you like it 
#ProjectOnline reporting on task Predecessors and Successors #O365 #MSProject #PPM #PMOT # Excel #PowerBI #OData
October 13, 2018 at 9:23 am | Posted in Administration, Configuration, Customisation, Fixes, Functionality, Information, Reporting | 3 CommentsTags: PPM, Project Online, Project Online Desktop Client, Project Server 2013, Project Server 2016
A few times I have heard this topic come up so I thought it was worth a quick blog post to give two examples for getting access to this detail. Firstly a quick look at my sample project to see the data and task links:
As we can see, all tasks are linked. The predecessor and successor details are not available in the OData reporting API by default: ({PWASiteURL}/_api/ProjectData).
The first option we will explore is using the REST CSOM API ({PWAURL}/_api/ProjectServer). To access this is not a simple read from one endpoint like it would be in the OData reporting API if the data was there. When using the CSOM REST API you have to first get the project then from there you can get the task details and task link details. Below we walkthrough this process and view the results. I am just using the browser to return the data for ease. Let’s have a look at this Project data using: {PWASiteURL}/_api/ProjectServer/Projects(‘a28bf087-2acb-e811-afb0-00155d143a0e’) where the GUID is the project GUID for the project seen above. This returns:
Here you can see all of the related endpoints and then the project properties below. I have outlined in red the two related endpoints that are useful to us, the TaskLinks and Tasks.
Lets have a look at the TaskLinks first – we have 4 links in the simple plan displayed above, this matches what we see in the TaskLinks endpoint:
{PWASiteUrl}/_api/ProjectServer/Projects(‘a28bf087-2acb-e811-afb0-00155d143a0e’)/TaskLinks
For each link we can then access two other endpoints /End and /Start and see two properties for the link, Id and DependencyType. Id is the TaskLink Id and DependencyType is the internal dependency type value, the enumerations for the dependency type can be found here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.projectserver.client.dependencytype_di_pj14mref.aspx. Looking at the data returned, I have 3 links with a dependency type of 1 (Finish to Start) and 1 link with a dependency type of 3 (Start to Start). Now for one of those TaskLinks, we will look at what the /End and /Start endpoints provide. I will use the TaskLink with a Start to Start dependency type for this. Firstly the /Start endpoint:
{PWASiteUL}/_api/ProjectServer/Projects(‘a28bf087-2acb-e811-afb0-00155d143a0e’)/TaskLinks(‘0d7da2b3-2dcb-e811-9328-1002b5489337’)/Start – where the 2nd GUID is the TaskLink GUID
This returns all of the data for the starting task, in this example it is task T2 (I’ve updated the REST call to just return the task name:
Task T2 is the task starting the link as seen in the project plan:
The /End endpoint, as you can guess will return the same details but for the task ending the link:
{PWASiteUL}/_api/ProjectServer/Projects(‘a28bf087-2acb-e811-afb0-00155d143a0e’)/TaskLinks(‘0d7da2b3-2dcb-e811-9328-1002b5489337’)/End – where the 2nd GUID is the TaskLink GUID – I’ve update the REST call to just return the task name:
This returns T3 from the example project:
As you can see, using the TaskLinks endpoint once we have the project, we can then navigate to find the task details for the linked tasks.
Now lets look at what the /Tasks endpoint can do for us to find the linked tasks. Accessing the {PWASiteUrl}/_api/ProjectServer/Projects(‘a28bf087-2acb-e811-afb0-00155d143a0e’)/Tasks endpoint will return all of the tasks in the project (based on the project GUID used in the REST call):
For each task in the project we can see the task properties but also navigate to another endpoint to view more related data for that one task. For example, we can then navigate and view the /Predecessors and /Successors. I will use task T3 for this walkthrough by passing in the Task GUID for T3. Accessing the predecessors data for task T3:
{PWASiteUrl}/_api/ProjectServer/Projects(‘a28bf087-2acb-e811-afb0-00155d143a0e’)/Tasks(‘b3433ba7-2dcb-e811-9328-1002b5489337’)/Predecessors – where I have passed in the task GUID for T3:
This returns the TaskLink details for the predecessor task – from that point we can then use the /End and /Start related queries to get the linked task details. The same goes for the /Successors endpoint for the example task T3:
{PWASiteUrl}/_api/ProjectServer/Projects(‘a28bf087-2acb-e811-afb0-00155d143a0e’)/Tasks(‘b3433ba7-2dcb-e811-9328-1002b5489337’)/Successors – where I have passed in the task GUID for T3:
This returns the TaskLink details for the successor task – from that point we can then use the /End and /Start related queries to get the linked task details.
As you can see, trying the get that data for all linked tasks in a report using Power Query wouldn’t be a simple query to one endpoint but it is possible to follow it through to get the data needed.
The next option to look at is creating two task level calculated fields so that you can get the predecessor and successor details in the /Tasks endpoint in the OData reporting API ({PWASiteURL}/_api/ProjectData/Tasks). Whilst this is simplifies the reporting experience there is a performance cost to this – certainly for large projects with many tasks. Also this will use 2 of the recommended maximum 5 task level calculated fields! In PWA Settings > Enterprise Custom Fields and Lookup Tables, create two new Task level text fields that use formulas, one field will be for predecessors and one for successors. In the predecessors field formula use [Predecessors] and in the successors field formula use [Successors]. The predecessors custom field can be seen below:
The next time you publish your project/s you will then see the data available in the OData Reporting API:
{PWASiteUrl}/_api/ProjectData/Projects(guid’a28bf087-2acb-e811-afb0-00155d143a0e’)/Tasks?$Select=TaskName,TaskPredecessors,TaskSuccessors
Hope that helps!
#ProjectOnline Supporting Projects and Programs Part 3 #PPM #MSProject #Office365 #PMOT #PMO #SharePoint #PowerBI
October 1, 2018 at 6:27 pm | Posted in Administration, Configuration, Customisation, Functionality, Information, Reporting | Comments Off on #ProjectOnline Supporting Projects and Programs Part 3 #PPM #MSProject #Office365 #PMOT #PMO #SharePoint #PowerBITags: e365, PPM, Project 2016, Project 2019, Project Online, Project Server 2013, Project Server 2016, Project Server 2019
In part 3 of this mini series of blog posts we will look at a basic report example to support projects and programs making use of the configuration changes in part 1 and 2. For those of you that missed part 1, see the post here: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/projectonline-supporting-projects-and-programs-part-1-ppm-msproject-office365-pmot-pmo/ and part 2 here: https://pwmather.wordpress.com/2018/09/21/projectonline-supporting-projects-and-programs-part-2-ppm-msproject-office365-pmot-pmo-sharepoint/
Now that we have done some very simple configuration changes in PWA and the Project Sites and then populated some example test data in the PWA instance we can look at example reports. We won’t cover creating these reports from start to end as this isn’t the purpose of the post, it is purely to highlight how to make use of the configuration changes to give to the program level reporting. These reports are also not engaging or showing casing Power BI, so you will want to create much better looking reports as these are just used to show examples of the data!
Firstly, lets look at the Project Center so you get an idea of the Project data I have in this test instance:
Notice I have two projects tagged and 1_Program projects but one in each program. These are the projects that will provide the data in the first page of my Program report:
The slicer is using the Program custom field:
To limit the data on this page, I have added page filter using the Project Plan Type field and filtered to “1_Program” projects:
So this page shows data for the project tagged with “1_Program” in the Project Plan Type field and in this case, the project tagged with “IT Transformation” which in my data set is the “IT Change Program” project. I don’t have much data on this page but this is just to show the data is for the program level project.
The next two pages show similar details for the program, one shows the details and the other shows some charts (just to add some colour!) but they both work the same way in filtering data that is only relevant at the program level:
On these pages there are no page level filters set, the tasks, risks and issues visualisations all have a filter applied to only display tasks, risks or issues that are requiring attention at the program level. On the tasks visuals we are using the task level “Escalation Level” field and filtering to only include tasks tagged with “1_Program”:
On the risks and issues visuals, we do the the same but use the “Category” field and filter to only include risks or issues tagged with “1_Program”:
This provides quick access to data relevant to the program. As we can see, these are very simple examples but the concept can be applied to larger datasets with more fields and data but the first page / report example will only work providing you one have 1 project plan per “program” value tagged with “1_Program” in the “Project Plan Type” Project level field.
That’s it for this short series – I hope that you found it useful!
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