Customized Issues list on WSS in PWA

M

Mark Byington

I'm posting this again because my original post was a few days ago and may
get overlooked by someone who has a suggestion.

I customized the 'Issues' list on a project to take advantage of the email
notice feature, which is not available if you create a custom list (at least
not that I could find).

It seems the lists 'out of the box' with project server are
'announcements', 'contacts', 'events', 'links','issues', and 'risks'. All
lists EXCEPT 'issues' and 'risks', have the following options:

Change general settings
Save list as template
Change permissions for this list
Delete this list
Select a portal area for this list

If one creates a new 'custom' list the above features are also available.

The 'Issues' or 'Risks' lists have ONLY the following options:

Change general settings
Change permissions for this list
Select a portal area for this list

There doesn't seem to be a way to save it as a template.

I'm looking for a way to save or copy it to a common area so that I may use
it again for other projects when I get requests to do so.

My brite idea seems to have gotten me a lot of busy work because I'm getting
requests from other PM's for something similar.

Here's hoping someone has an idea or two.
 
R

Rob

Mark,

I believe that the reason for this is because the "Issue" and "Risk" lists
are tied to Project Server. Making changes to either list have the ability
to break the link with PWA (I have seen this many times).

quote
"I'm looking for a way to save or copy it to a common area so that I may use
it again for other projects when I get requests to do so."
endquote

What you need to do is create a new site definition based off the PWA folder
in Sharepoint (the site definition that Project uses to create the project
sites). Then you make the necessary changes in your new site definition in
the "Issue" and "Risk" list's Schema.xml files (and the site definition's
ONET file). Then you point Project Server at the new site definition.

This way, every time a new project is created your new site definition is
used and your "Issues" and "Risks" lists are configured just the way you want
them.

CAUTION: both of these lists are very tricky to deal with. Making changes
to these lists in both the Schema.xml and the ONET.xml files can cause PWA
not to work or break functionality with PWA. (in PWA on the top nav bar you
will see a link to "Risks" and "Issues". When you make changes in the custom
PWA site definition these two links are the 2 main areas where breaks can
happen. Also, problems can arise in SharePoint where the links to Project
Server at the bottom of the Issues and Risks "New Item" page can go missing
as well.)

I have created several custom site definitions for PWA and the first one I
made worked just fine in Sharepoint; but PWA was all messed up. I just want
to caution you of the possible problems that can occur.

I hope that this information helps you.
Rob Cuscaden
 
M

Mark Byington

Rob,

I was afraid it was something like that. I'm not sure what I'm going to do
about it, but at least I have a better idea what's going.

Thanks for the info...and the food for thought.
 
R

Rob

Mark,

No problem, creating site definitions is what I do so once I saw your post I
knew exactly what you were talking about. I am a SharePoint guy so I don't
come to this newsgroup too often (but since the PWA site is a WSS/SharePoint
site defintion I have had to create them for people).

If you have any more questions, let me know.
Rob Cuscaden
 
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