Resource is unable to save a task in PWA (Project Server 2007)

[.jussi]

Hello,

My resources are using the task details view to update task information
including some enterprise custom fields. For the most parts this works fine.
However, there are some tasks that produce strange results. For some, the
user has to click save twice to get the updates to save and in isolated cases
the updates will not save at all.

When the update is not saved, the user is returned to the task details view
without any error messages. For some tasks clicking save again will save the
task. For the previously mentioned few, this is an infinite loop - the user
can mash her forehead on the save button all day long and it will only reload
the task details (with the changes on it, but not saved).

Has anyone seen this behavior before, or do you have any suggestions what
could be the source?

We are not fully patched as of now, we are running Project Server 2007 SP1 +
Feb 2009 CU.

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

I've seen this behavior with a custom date field specifically. For some
reason, you have to enter the data and submit it on the My Assignments page,
not in Details.

Entering the data on Details won't save it. Check to see if that field
works in the My Assignments and then train them to use that.

That's on a pre-SP2 environment.

 

[.jussi]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for the feedback. Unfortunately this does not apply to our
environment, as the custom field that gets updated is a text field based on a
lookup table, so it technically it is a UID. In addition to this, for some
tasks, clicking save twice does actually save the data. Only for a very
limited number of tasks the save does not work despite repeated attempts.

I have a nagging feeling that patching up might help, but as we have not
done sufficient QA on SP2 yet to feel comfortable promoting it to production,
I'd very much like to either find the cause for this - and know that
upgrading helps - than just try. That is one aspect of my enquiry, I was
hoping that if there has been a patch that addresses this issue, someone
would know of it.

- Jussi

 

[Gary Chefetz]

Jussi:

If it's not a bug then the alternative is bad data, which comes in two
flavors; Corruption or Bad User Input. So you can duplicate your system into
a test bed and see if the latest patches help, or you can look for and
isolate the commonality between the contents of the pages or the users that
can lead you to determining whether it's a bad data issue that you're
dealing with. Typically you'll find that this is related to specific
projects and if that's the case, you can try some corrective therapies. You
may even discover that it's a little of both causes.

 

[.jussi]

Thank you Gary.

I will probably end up having to do what you suggest - creating a new test
environment and replicating the current state there to see if the patches
help. So far my attempts at finding a common denominator between the
problematic tasks have been fruitless.

- Jussi