Strange values in new Enterprise custom text fields

[Christina]

MSP 2003, PS 2003

Yesterday, I created 2 enterprise custom text fields; one for the PM to
enter text (project status) and the other with a formula to show a graphical
indicator based on the text entered in the first custom field. I then
created a PWA view adding these 2 fields. I tested it on 2 projects and
everything worked perfectly.... until today.

I needed to make a change to the formula in the 2nd field so I decided to
start clean and erase the formula and graphical indicators from this field in
Enterprise Global. I also went into the 2 projects where I entered data into
the first field, thinking this would "clear everything out" that I entered
yesterday. I went into PWA to the new view to confirm that these fields
were empty... and they weren't. In some projects, what was the 1st text
field was now showing a graphcial indicator. In some projects, what was the
2nd text field (that had the formula) was now showing text or the results of
the formula (not the graphical indicator). However, I had already cleared
out the formula in Enterprise Global so I wouldn't expect to see any values
at all in these fields, let alone values that were never supposed to be there
in the first place.

What did I do incorrectly? Can these custom text fields be deleted
completely? Or is there a step that I missed when I cleared out the content
from the custom fields? Or perhaps, could there be data corruption?

I was very excited at what we could now reflect in our executive reports...
until this afternoon. Now I have wonky data that I don't know how to fix.
Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Christina

 

[Rod Gill]

After clearing/changing the formula, did you open each of the projects and
re-publish them? Only a publish will refresh the data you see in PWA.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

MSP 2003, PS 2003

Yesterday, I created 2 enterprise custom text fields; one for the PM to
enter text (project status) and the other with a formula to show a
graphical
indicator based on the text entered in the first custom field. I then
created a PWA view adding these 2 fields. I tested it on 2 projects and
everything worked perfectly.... until today.

I needed to make a change to the formula in the 2nd field so I decided to
start clean and erase the formula and graphical indicators from this field
in
Enterprise Global. I also went into the 2 projects where I entered data
into
the first field, thinking this would "clear everything out" that I entered
yesterday. I went into PWA to the new view to confirm that these fields
were empty... and they weren't. In some projects, what was the 1st text
field was now showing a graphcial indicator. In some projects, what was
the
2nd text field (that had the formula) was now showing text or the results
of
the formula (not the graphical indicator). However, I had already cleared
out the formula in Enterprise Global so I wouldn't expect to see any
values
at all in these fields, let alone values that were never supposed to be
there
in the first place.

What did I do incorrectly? Can these custom text fields be deleted
completely? Or is there a step that I missed when I cleared out the
content
from the custom fields? Or perhaps, could there be data corruption?

I was very excited at what we could now reflect in our executive
reports...
until this afternoon. Now I have wonky data that I don't know how to fix.
Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Christina


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[Gary Chefetz]

Recalculate and then republish.

 

[Christina]

Recalculate and then republish.

--
Gary L Chefetz, MVP, MCT, MCITP
msProjectExpertshttp://www.msprojectexperts.com
FAQs and Referencehttp://www.projectserverexperts.com
BLOG:http://projectserverhelp.com

"Rod Gill" <rodATproject-systemsDOTcoDOTnz> wrote in message










- Show quoted text -

Gary/ Rod-

Thank you both for the speedy replies!!

I opened a couple of the projects, hit F9 and then did a Publish All.
It fixed one problem but didn't fix the all of them. We had already
in use a different Stoplight Indicator field that we have been using
for a year that was working fine but we no longer liked the formula,
which is why we were creating new ones. What I noticed is that now,
that field which should have an indicator, has text (but only on some
projects) until I click on F9 and republish. However, PWA still shows
values in the fields that I removed and I can't re-insert them into
the project to clear them out unless I rename again in Enterprise
Global.

Any other thoughts? I'm about ready to pound my head on my desk ;-)

 

[Christina]

Gary/ Rod-

Thank you both for the speedy replies!!

I opened a couple of the projects, hit F9 and then did a Publish All.
It fixed one problem but didn't fix the all of them.  We had already
in use a different Stoplight Indicator field that we have been using
for a year that was working fine but we no longer liked the formula,
which is why we were creating new ones.  What I noticed is that now,
that field which should have an indicator, has text (but only on some
projects) until I click on F9 and republish.  However, PWA still shows
values in the fields that I removed and I can't re-insert them into
the project to clear them out unless I rename again in Enterprise
Global.

Any other thoughts?  I'm about ready to pound my head on my desk  ;-)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

One other thing that I need to mention.... we also added a new
Enterprise Outline Code yesterday. Not sure if that could be related
but I figure it can't hurt to mention.

 

[Gary Chefetz]

Christina:

You need to remove the deleted enterprise fields from your views, if I'm
hearing you correctly.

 

[Christina]

Christina:

You need to remove the deleted enterprise fields from your views, if I'm
hearing you correctly.

--
Gary L Chefetz, MVP, MCT, MCITP
msProjectExpertshttp://www.msprojectexperts.com
FAQs and Referencehttp://www.projectserverexperts.com
BLOG:http://projectserverhelp.com










- Show quoted text -

Hi Gary-

I will end up doing that but I'm concerned that there is still data in
these fields. For the text field (Ent Project Text 2), I only
populated that field in 2 projects and have subsequently cleared it
out. But there is text showing up in this field that, oddly, seems to
correspond with the graphical indicator for the original calculated
field (Ent. Project Text 1). And the 2nd calculated field (Ent
Project Text 3) should only be looking at Ent Project Text 2 when
returning a graphical indicator. However, even though I removed both
the formula and graphical indicator config from this field, there are
a few fields returning data based on the formula that was deleted from
that field. And it's returning this data on projects I never touched.

We have another Enterprise Outline Code that we will no longer be
using that I will need to remove from all past and current projects.
So I want to make sure I remove it correctly and don't cause what
appears to be orphan data in other enterprise fields. ;-)

Thanks again for you help and any other thoughts would be greatly
appreciated!
Christina

 

[Gary Chefetz]

Christina:

I don't think that you'll have this problem with enterprise fields. You can
clear the remnant data in the local fields manually.

 

[Quizzed again]

Christina in MOPS2003 you can orphan records in the database if you delete
the custom field but do not remove the values from the custom fields in all
of your projects first. So to fix the problem you have to recreate the custom
fields in the enterprise global. Save, close the global. That will re-attach
the records in the database to the fields. Then if the fields were "required"
you have to remove that setting in the field. Save, close and relaunch MSP.
Now open each project and delete the values in the fields of all projects.
Save and close those projects. Then open the global to edit the fields and
remove the formulas and graphical indicators. Would save teh global and close
and relaunch MSP. Then reopen teh global and delete the fields using the
organizer.


That should clean up the situation. I may have added an extra "close and
reopen the global" step, but better safe than sorry with MOPS2003.

QA

 

[Christina]

Christina in MOPS2003 you can orphan records in the database if you delete
the custom field but do not remove the values from the custom fields in all
of your projects first. So to fix the problem you have to recreate the custom
fields in the enterprise global. Save, close the global. That will re-attach
the records in the database to the fields. Then if the fields were "required"
you have to remove that setting in the field. Save, close and relaunch MSP.
Now open each project and delete the values in the fields of all projects..
Save and close those projects. Then open the global to edit the fields and
remove the formulas and graphical indicators. Would save teh global and close
and relaunch MSP. Then reopen teh global and delete the fields using the
organizer.

That should clean up the situation. I may have added an extra "close and
reopen the global" step, but better safe than sorry with MOPS2003.

QA










- Show quoted text -

Thanks, QA! I will give that a try