I’d like to remind everyone about two upcoming webcasts

Other BI Project 2010 resources -

• Project 2010 TechNet BI Resource center - http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9726143
• Project 2010 Quick Start Training - http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/quick-start-training.aspx (check the Reporting Part 1 and 2)

We are very happy to announce availability of recordings of the Microsoft Project 2010 Ignite - http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/quick-start-training.aspx

Following the worldwide delivery of Ignite to about 900 attendees in 9 cities, Christophe Fiessinger and myself recorded the event at Microsoft Studio in April. Topics discussed in this series are listed below; there is a total of 8.5 hours of valuable recording available at your fingertip that you should all watch (5.5 hours of presentation and 3 hours of product demonstrations). 

Each module is conveniently delivered using a Silverlight player as shown below, that gives you the ability to view the presenter and the slides as the same time as well as give you a chapter breakdown and full transcription of presentation.

Please note that the primary goal of the Ignite content was to enable technical readiness prior to launch, focusing specifically on what’s new with respect to EPM 2007, hence we highly encourage you invest in training for a successful implementation of this exciting release of Microsoft Project 2010. Last but not least please remember that there plenty of other Project 2010 resources as listed below that went live today with the launch.

Great training!

Christophe & Jan

• Project Developer Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905469.aspx <-- This is the place to start.
  All of the portal pages are updated, including the Videos and Webcasts page.
  
• SDK Online: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms512767(office.14).aspx
  
• SDK Download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=46007f25-b44e-4aa6-80ff-9c0e75835ad9&displaylang=en

What's New

Following are the major new and updated topics in the Project 2010 SDK, since the beta release. There were a series of changes related to ASMX web services, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, and claims authentication since the beta release. The MSDN online library and the SDK download are finally in sync!

• Using Formulas and Graphical Indicators with Custom Fields
• Custom Fields and the Reporting Database
• Project Client Programming includes the following subtopics:
• VBA Object Model Changes
• How to: Use VBA to Add a Custom Command to the Ribbon
• How to: Use Managed Code to Add a Custom Command to the Ribbon
• Walkthrough: Building a Managed Code Add-in to Check PWA Compatibility
• Overview of WCF and the PSI
• How to: Create a Proxy Assembly for WCF Services
• Walkthrough: Customizing the PWA Ribbon and Accessing the JS Grid
• Walkthrough: Developing PSI Applications Using WCF
• How to: Use Impersonation with WCF
• Prerequisites for ASMX-Based Code Samples
• Prerequisites for WCF-Based Code Samples

The Class Library and Web Service reference for the PSI has many updated type and member descriptions, permissions requirements, and several new code samples for PSI methods-particularly for the Driver, PortfolioAnalyses, Workflow, Calendar, and Archive  services.

Project 2010 SDK Download

Major content in the SDK download includes the following:

• pj14SDK.chm is an HTML Help file that includes the same conceptual topics and managed code reference that is online.
• pj14_ReportingDB.chm documents the RDB schema.
• RDB_Field_Selector.xlsx includes a pivot table that helps to select fields in the RDB for reports.
• OLAPCubeSchemas2010.xlsx
• ProjectGuide subdirectory includes the Project Guide default files, modified for use in Project 2010.
• mspdi_pj14.xsd is the Project Standard / Professional XML schema for data interchange.
• WINPROJ.DEV.hxs is an update of VBA Help that includes the latest changes in the VBA object model documentation. There are also instructions for replacing the VBA Help file shipped with the Project RTM release.
• Intellisense subdirectory: includes updates of the XML files for Intellisense descriptions, instructions for installing, and scripts for creating and updating a PSI proxy assembly using either the WCF or ASMX interface. With a proxy assembly, developers can see Intellisense descriptions for the PSI service classes and members.
• WCFHelloProject includes Visual Studio solutions that configure WCF programmatically and by using the app.config file.
• Impersonation is the - you guessed it - Visual Studio project for impersonation.
• CustomizeProjectCenter is a Visual Studio 2010 solution that modifies the ribbon for the Project Center page in Project Web App and shows how to access data and events on the JS Grid.
• RibbonAddIn includes Visual C# and Visual Basic add-ins for the Project 2010 client.
• Project2010EditableAddIn is a Visual Studio 2010 solution that checks current project for properties that are not compatible for server-side scheduling in Project Web App.
• BranchingWorkflow includes the complete Visual Studio 2010 project for creating a Project Server workflow, as described in the online SDK.
• SampleProposal2 solution duplicates the Sample Proposal workflow that is installed with Project Server 2010
• CustomActivityWorkflow subdirectory includes a solution with two projects.

This is a great news! We have just released the Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713956 that builds on top of 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728417  that SharePoint team has released recently. And yes the Virtual Image that has to be downloaded, imported and running prior to installing “our” Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack.

We also advice to watch the following webcast: Project 2010 Virtual Image, Getting Started Quickly (Level 100) 

Highlights

- End to end project lifecycle

- New Business Intelligence story!

- Built on top of common 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728417  using NEW Project 2010 Demo Installation Platform

Demo storyline

It follows the life of a project from inception through to completion! Demo storyline offers a comprehensive overview of the new and existing capabilities in:

· Microsoft Project Professional 2010

· Microsoft Project Server 2010

· Microsoft SharePoint 2010 products and technologies

· Microsoft Office 2010 Products

More information about the Project 2010 Demo Solution in this comprehensive XPS document (also available on the download page http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9713956)

Project 2010 Demo Installation Platform

We have published the entire source code of the Project 2010 Demo Installation Platform http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project2010DemoPack so us and partners could extend on it and built future demo packs for Project 2010!

Q&A

Q: Do I need to download, import and run the 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728417) before installing the Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack?

A: Absolutely yes. Refer to this comprehensive XPS document for more details.

Q: Could I install this Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack on any other VM, including Project 2010 Beta?

A: No.

Q: Is there anything around evaluation period and expiration I need to pay attention to?

A: Please follow information included with 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728417 to properly understand procedure like re-arming and activation so you can prevent lot of unpleasant surprises!!!

Q: Any recommended hardware for good performance?

A: Yes -  we specify the additional HW requirements in this comprehensive XPS document. We recommend Solid State Drive for great performance. More about HW we use for demoing here.

Q: How long does it take to install the Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack on top of 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine?

A: If the above VM is already running and working properly it takes up to 30 minutes. If you are using Solid State Drive it’s usually around 10 minutes.

Q: What is in the Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack?

A: We have packaged the following content: 4 core Project databases, 1 SharePoint Content database, 1 OLAP Database, number of WSP customizations (check the Solution Starter webcast series here if you want to learn more), additional demo files and PowerShell script for configuring and deploying the whole solution. So that’s it in a nutshell. Check this link for more details http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project2010DemoPack.

Q: Could I only extract the Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack?

A: Yes, we have included that option as well based on the demand, but it’s intended for expert use only.

Q: What if I have additional questions about this Project 2010 Demo Solution?

A: You have several options – please check this webcast and search or post your questions in this forum.

There are some great SharePoint resources out on the internets that could really make it easier and faster to build solutions on Project Server 2010. 

• Jan posted about three Visual Studio 2010 Extensibility Projects a couple weeks back,  if you haven’t had a chance to take a look you should really try play around with the code.  The code can be found at http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vsixforsp
• If your new to SharePoint and want to hit the ground running on 2010 I suggest taking a look at the SharePoint 2010 Developer Training Kit. The kit includes webcasts and code samples which will help you get comfortable with SharePoint 2010 and let you focus on building rich Project 2010 solutions!http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=83a80a0f-0906-4d7d-98e1-3dd6f58ff059
• There are plenty of other great SharePoint resources at the SharePoint developer center. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/default.aspx

And of course keep your eyes peeled this week for the revised version of the Project 2010 Developer Center, we will sure to post on this blog once it goes live.

This is great news! We have just released the Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack that builds on top of 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9728417 that CJ released recently and that has to be downloaded prior installing “our” Microsoft Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack.

• Where to get it – Download (yes this is the same link as in the past but it leads you to the RTM version now)
• The script and installation procedure – in this XPS document (part of the download)

Join us with Ben today Project 2010 Virtual Image, Getting Started Quickly (Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 1:00 P.M. PST) where we talk more about the Project 2010 Demo Solution, its contents and how to get started quickly!

The power of the Installer Platform Illustrated here:

Also for DEVELOPERS we have fully released the source code for this Installation Pack Platform so if you want to use it to deploy your demos on the 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine check this - http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Project2010DemoPack.

Enjoy!

Join us with Ben Tuesday - we will be showing and talking about the “Project 2010 Demonstration and Evaluation Installation Pack” – WORLD’S premiere! You don’t want to miss that :)

• Project 2010 Virtual Image, Getting Started Quickly (Level 100)
• Tuesday, May 11, 2010
• 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

Hello,

With the Project 2010 release, we have deprecated the Project Guide content. For the end user, this means there is no way through the UI to show the Project Guide. However, there is away to display the Project Guide through the OM. So if you have your own custom guide, you can still use it with a bit of work. This post will show you how to do this in three easy steps.

The first step is to write a method that turns the guide on and off. To do this, we need to have a guide, so I am going to use the one that we shipped in Project 2007.  However, the default Project Guide files need some changes:

The folder structure should be flattened. All Project Guide files unzip to a subfolder named DefaultProjectGuideFiles.

The gbui:// protocol is removed. The custom "goal-based user interface" protocol and Project Guide resources are not installed with Microsoft Project 2010. For example, the following line in MainPage.htm:
       <script src="gbui://mainpage.js" language="JScript"></script>

   ... is changed to:
       <script src=mainpage.js" language="JScript"></script>

You can find the modified Project Guide files in the Project 2010 SDK download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=46007f25-b44e-4aa6-80ff-9c0e75835ad9&displaylang=en 

Once you have the guide downloaded and extracted into a directory, for example, C:\PG\DefaultProjectGuideFiles, you need to author the following method in VBA:

Sub Guide()

    If (Application.DisplayProjectGuide = False) Then
        OptionsInterfaceEx DisplayProjectGuide:=True, _ 
               ProjectGuideUseDefaultFunctionalLayoutPage:=False, _ 
               ProjectGuideUseDefaultContent:=False, _ 
               ProjectGuideContent:="C:\PG\DefaultProjectGuideFiles\GBUI.XML", _ 
               ProjectGuideFunctionalLayoutPage:="C:\PG\DefaultProjectGuideFiles\MAINPAGE.htm"
    Else
        OptionsInterfaceEx DisplayProjectGuide:=False
    End If

End Sub

Update the ProjectGuideContent and ProjectGuideFunctionalLayoutPage to point your Project Guide content.

The next step is to create a button in the ribbon. In this example, I will add a button to the View tab:

Here is the code to do this:

Private Sub AddGuideRibbonButton()

    Dim ribbonXML As String
    
    
    ribbonXML = "<mso:customUI xmlns:mso=""http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2009/07/customui"">"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "   <mso:ribbon>"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "   <mso:qat/>"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "       <mso:tabs>"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "           <mso:tab idQ=""mso:TabView"">"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "               <mso:group id=""Project_Guide"" label=""Project Guide"" autoScale=""true"">"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "                   <mso:button id=""Project_Guide_Btn"" label=""Guide"" imageMso=""CategoryCollapse"" onAction=""Guide""/>"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "               </mso:group>"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "           </mso:tab>"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "       </mso:tabs>"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "   </mso:ribbon>"
    ribbonXML = ribbonXML + "</mso:customUI>"
   
    ActiveProject.SetCustomUI (ribbonXML)
    
End Sub

The last step is to hook up loading the button to an event. For this example, I am doing on the Project Open event, however, you may want to choose a different event based on your scenario.

Private Sub Project_Open(ByVal pj As Project)

    AddGuideRibbonButton

End Sub

At this point, we have a working Project Guide in Project 2010:

Note: Because the Project Guide is an add-in, Project 2010 adds the Tasks, Resources, Track, and Report drop-down menus to the Add-Ins tab on the ribbon.

Hope this helps,

Chris Boyd

Hey,

In this post, I will be showing how you can use the Ribbon designer in Visual Studio 2010 to create custom ribbons in Project Client 2010. To get started, you will need a copy of Visual 2010 with the Office Tools installed and Project Client 2010 installed.

1. To get started, open Visual Studio and create a new Project 2010 add-in:
   
   
2. Next, you need to add the Ribbon Designer by adding a user control to you project:
   
   
   
3. In the Ribbon Designer, add the controls you want to include on your ribbon. In my example, I am going to add a simple button, which when clicked, will display a message box with the name of the active project:
   
    
   
4. Double click on the button to view the code for the ribbon. Here, we are going to add a reference to the Project interop assembly and a static variable that will reference the application:     
   
   
   Code Snippet

   1. using System;
   2. using System.Collections.Generic;
   3. using System.Linq;
   4. using System.Text;
   5. using Microsoft.Office.Tools.Ribbon;
   6.  
   7.  
   8. using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;
   9.  
   10. namespace ProjectAddIn2
   11. {
   12.  
   13.     public partial class Ribbon1
   14.     {
   15.         public static MSProject.Application Appliction;
   16.  
   17.         private void Ribbon1_Load(object sender, RibbonUIEventArgs e)
   18.         {
   19.  
   20.         }
   21.     }
   22. }
   
   
   
5. The next step is to set the Application variable in the start up method of the add-in:
   
   
   Code Snippet

   1. using System;
   2. using System.Collections.Generic;
   3. using System.Linq;
   4. using System.Text;
   5. using System.Xml.Linq;
   6. using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;
   7. using Office = Microsoft.Office.Core;
   8.  
   9. namespace ProjectAddIn2
   10. {
   11.     public partial class ThisAddIn
   12.     {
   13.         private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
   14.         {
   15.             Ribbon1.Appliction = Application;
   16.         }
   17.  
   18.         private void ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
   19.         {
   20.         }
   21.  
   22.         #region VSTO generated code
   23.  
   24.         /// <summary>
   25.         /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
   26.         /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
   27.         /// </summary>
   28.         private void InternalStartup()
   29.         {
   30.             this.Startup += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Startup);
   31.             this.Shutdown += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Shutdown);
   32.         }
   33.         
   34.         #endregion
   35.     }
   36. }
   
   
   
6. Last step is to add a message box that displays the name of the project:
   
   
   Code Snippet

   1. using System;
   2. using System.Collections.Generic;
   3. using System.Linq;
   4. using System.Text;
   5. using Microsoft.Office.Tools.Ribbon;
   6.  
   7.  
   8. using MSProject = Microsoft.Office.Interop.MSProject;
   9. using System.Windows.Forms;
   10.  
   11. namespace ProjectAddIn2
   12. {
   13.  
   14.     public partial class Ribbon1
   15.     {
   16.         public static MSProject.Application Appliction;
   17.  
   18.         private void Ribbon1_Load(object sender, RibbonUIEventArgs e)
   19.         {
   20.  
   21.         }
   22.  
   23.         private void button1_Click(object sender, RibbonControlEventArgs e)
   24.         {
   25.             MessageBox.Show("Active Project: " + Appliction.ActiveProject.Name);
   26.         }
   27.     }
   28. }

When you compile and run the application, you should see Project client boot and have the ribbon appear:

Hope this helps,

Chris Boyd

Chris is doing his UI customization Webcast today! Don’t miss it :)

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032449001&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Event Overview

In this webcast, we focus on the customization of the Microsoft Project 2010 client user interface, and we discuss the new Ribbon interface and custom task panes. We also introduce the Microsoft Project 2010 Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) add-in and show how to use the Ribbon Designer.

Presenter: Chris Boyd, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Chris Boyd is a program manager on the Microsoft Project team, where he is focused on programmability, performance, and Microsoft Exchange integration.

Pretty cool – check this out http://www.sharepointproconnections.com/blogs/MicrosoftInsider/tabid/1948/entryid/12761/3-New-Visual-Studio-2010-Extensibility-Projects-for-SharePoint-2010.aspx

These projects will help you automate some common development tasks when creating SharePoint 2010 solutions using Visual Studio 2010.

These three SharePoint 2010 Extensibility Projects can be downloaded from the MSDN Code Gallery here, http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vsixforsp.

All of the projects contain a Hands On Lab and a walkthrough video. Follow the links below to blog posts providing further details for each project template.

Steve – is now doing his webcast on the following topic, where is is showcasing developing PSI extensions! Check it out! If you miss it – it will be available recorded in few days!

MSDN Webcast: Real-World Solutions: Filter Resource and Project Data Based on Custom Fields (Level 300)

Monday, April 19, 2010

1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

This procedure is described in the document “Setting up the Virtual Machine” that accompanies the Project 2010 Beta Demo VM.

Some of you might be running into activation messages, like “You must activate Windows today” or your virtual machine will be rebooting every 2 hours. To prevent spoiled demos please read on -

Perform re-arming (no Internet connectivity required) – temporary solution

Please perform the “re-arming” of your image (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948472).

1. Start your image

2. Logon into the image as Administrator

3. Start -> Run, type CMD

4. Into the command prompt window type “slmgr -rearm” (without quotes)

5. You should see dialog saying “command completed successfully”.

6. Reboot the VM

7. After reboot the VM your evaluation period has been extended

8. Please remember to warp-um all pages before your demo!

Q&A

Q: What is the demo VM, where do I get it?

A: “The Project 2010 Solution demo provides a comprehensive overview of the new  and existing capabilities included in Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010. The demo follows the life of a software development project from inception through to completion.” More on the second part here - http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability/archive/2010/02/25/project-2010-beta-virtual-lab-is-available-as-hosted-experience-in-your-browser.aspx 

Enjoy!

Jan

It’s my pleasure to announce series of upcoming Project 2010 webcasts for developers and BI specialists - spanning from extending User Interface of Project 2010 to deep drill down on workflow creation and extending the BI using Excel Services and Performance Point Services!

We would like to also announce the Project 2010 Solution Starters! They were created to help in deployment and customization of Project Server 2010. This set of Solution Starters is focusing on Demand Management experience in Project 2010. The Solution Starters source code will be publicly available via MSDN Code Gallery - so anyone can extend the experience! In this regard we offer two series of Web Casts – the introductory series as well as deep code drill-down. Please note the source code and additional documents will be available after the respective webcast.

What is in this post?

· Project 2010 Developer webcasts

· Project 2010 Business Intelligence webcasts

· Project Developer “Real-World Solutions” series webcasts

· Additional Resources for Project 2010

· Q&A

Project 2010 Developer Targeted webcasts

  
(yes – this timeline was created using Project Professional 2010)

Project 2010 Business Intelligence

“Real-World Solution” Project Developer series

Project 2010 Resources

Product information

· http://www.microsoft.com/project/2010/

· Project Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/project/

Interactive content - Videos & Sessions & Webcast

· http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/US/channels/microsoftproject/

· http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/epm.aspx

IT Professional related

· TechCenter @ TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/ProjectServer/

· Admin Blog http://blogs.technet.com/projectadministration/

Developer related

· Developer center @ MSDN http://msdn.microsoft.com/Project/

· Programmability blog http://blogs.msdn.com/project_programmability/

Additional questions? Project 2010 Forums!

· http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/projectserver2010,projectprofessional2010/

SharePoint 2010 resources

· http://sharepoint.microsoft.com

Q&A

Q: What if I miss the Webcast?

A: As the nature of the live interaction – you can ask questions during the live Webcast. If you miss it you can watch the recording, but the Q&A option is not available.

Q: Where do I get more information on Project 2010?

A: Please check the Project 2010 Resources in this e-mail.

Q: I’m SharePoint developer and I want to get started with Project Server. What are the best resources?

A: Beside of the resources above – you can visit our “Project Server Programmability” series of webcasts on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dd334415.aspx.

Q: Can I get Project 2010 Beta Virtual Image?

A: Yes- Hosted or Download

Q: I’m interested in IT Professional Webcasts as well. Where do I find them?

A: Please check this announcement from Christophe http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisfie/archive/2010/03/03/announcing-microsoft-project-server-2010-it-professional-technet-webcast-series.aspx

Thanks!

Jan

Developing, Debugging  and Testing your Project apps just got easier thanks to Visual Studio 2010.  Check out today’s launch activities at http://live.ch9.ms to get all the details.

We are pleased to announce a new TechCenter for Project 2010 focused on Business Intelligence! Based on the partner and customer feedback we are concentrating all technical information about BI in Project 2010 into one single location. The BI center currently offers number of Presentations, WebCasts links to blogs and technical articles as well as links to the “uber” BI center for SharePoint 2010. As you know we leverage the power of SharePoint 2010 in Project 2010 – this is especially true for reporting– if you want to learn basics about SharePoint 2010 BI – the BI center for SharePoint 2010 is your best bet. If you are looking for specific information for Project 2010 – e.g. how to set up BI, create and customize reports – the BI center for Project 2010 is the place to go!

Business Intelligence Resource Center for Project Server 2010 exists in context of the “uber” as per the following illustration:

Q&A

Q: Is the content final or will it grow in the future?

A: The content of the BI Center for Project 2010 will continue to grow in the future as new content becomes available.

Q: Could I use Visio Services  to visualize Project data?

A: Absolutely – you can use Visio Services, Performance Point Services as well as Excel Services to build reports and data visualizations in Project 2010. We are working on specific materials for this as well.

Q: I have been using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) in 2007 for data visualization. Could I continue using it in 2010?

A:  You can still continue using SSRS reports against 2010 with minimal changes. People often look for securing their SSRS reports based on Project Server security – check this out.

If you would like to try out VS 2010 RC using a virtual machine, check out:

http://blogs.msdn.com/drnick/archive/2010/03/25/visual-studio-2010-virtual-machines.aspx

Mike Shughrue – one of our top Project consultants just published samples on how to use PowerShell in Project 2010 to call PSIs: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/pj14PowershellPSI

Why would you care? Want to expose additional PSI objects? Then grab this and follow the “theme”. Your IT friends would love you :) As they e.g. can bulk edit or publish all project using a command line :)

See Project 2010 SDK Documentation for the March update of the online Project 2010 SDK.
The  pre-release Project 2010 SDK is updated on MSDN. Post-beta builds of Project Server are changed for setting WCF service references and using multi-authentication (where Windows and Forms are both used) with Claims. These issues do not affect the Project Server 2010 beta release.

The topic How to: Use Impersonation with WCF is updated again for the RC release, since the previous update in February.
Update of Impersonation Article and Code for Project Server 2010 in the Project_Programmability blog includes  code download with the second round of changes that have been made in Project Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 since the beta release.

Topics with major updates:
Developing Project Server Workflows (all four subtopics are updated, including a PowerShell script for managing workflow deployment)
Prerequisites for WCF-Based Code Samples (includes the corrected changes for creating a PSI proxy)
The managed code reference also has more content, particularly in the Workflow and Driver areas.

The SDK download will be updated shortly after product general availability.

Great work Nintex!

This is also great opportunity for all EPM partners to start building workflow templates for managing Project Lifecycle using the Nintex solution as a platform! This also stresses the importance of getting up to speed with SharePoint 2010 as it is a powerful platform for Project Server 2010!

The official announcement URL http://www.nintex.com/en-US/News/Pages/default.aspx (please search for Project Server 2010)

This material might be handy :)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=f8cb362c-75ad-4cb9-9fbc-3abcdf6afeaf

View PowerPoint files from the October 2009 SharePoint 2010 Developer Conference including:

• Building Solutions with Business Connectivity Services by Using Visual Studio 2010
• Deep Dive into Open XML 2.0 and the Open XML SDK 2.0
• Developing Advanced Access 2010 Web Databases & Publishing to SharePoint 2010
• Developing with REST and LINQ in SharePoint 2010
• Developing with the New User Interface Features in SharePoint 2010
• Excel 2010 and Excel Services, and the Top 10 New Features
• Office 2010 UI Extensibility and Customization: Customizing with the Backstage View and Ribbon
• Overview of the SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform
• Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint 2010 Development Tools Overview
• What's New in Office 2010 for Developers

Just heard from number of you the confusion on the HW requirements, let attempt to clear some of it by this post.

We advice the following two components that extremely enhance the performance:

• 8GB of RAM is optimal on the host machine so you CAN allocate 6GB to the image
• Please NOTE SharePoint 2010 – (platform for Project Server 2010) does NOT support less than 4GB of RAM - SharePoint Server 2010 system requirements – so 4GB on your host machine will not work as it will not allow you to assign 4GBs to the image.
• Attempts to assign less than 4GBs to the virtual machine will cause number of processes not starting – this is not supported

• Fast Hard drive – preferably SSD (Solid State Drive)
• What is SSD?
• How big you recommend? We recommend 80GB+ as the base image size is approx. 40GB
• Recommendations on maker? We had a great experience with Intel, Kingston with Intel Controller (M-Series or E-Series).

Q&A

Does 2 versus 4 core make a big difference? No in our testing – the biggest speed improvement is the SSD.

What configuration are you using for most of your demos?

• We mostly use DELL E6400 (3GHz, duo Core, 8GB RAM, fast SSD) – this offers optimal size/portability and performance. The Project Conference KeyNote and demos ran from it and all Project 2010 Ignite demos I do, run from it as well! Some partners use the DELL Precision M4400.
• We also use HP EliteBook 8530w (Quad core, 8GB RAM, fast SSD) – this one is slightly bigger and heavier – Christophe uses this one for his Project 2010 Ignite demos.
• We are sure that similar specs from other manufacturers will rock as well!

We do our best in order to answer all your possible questions around Upgrade and Migration to Project 2010.

Here are the available resources:

• Upgrade and Migration Resource Center for Microsoft Project Server 2010 (Beta) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9676814  - this is the best bet – one place to go!

This includes information on:

• Migration form Project Server 2003
• Migration from Project Portfolio Server 2007
• Upgrade from Project server 2007

PLEASE NOTE: Upgrade from any pre-release version of Project Server 2010 (including currently available Beta) to the final version of Project Server 2010 will NOT be supported.

Why this post on Programmability blog? If your customers are on Project Server 2003 or Portfolio Server 2007 you will be involved in porting and customizing the processes on Project Server 2010… Great time to start digging around Project 2010 Programmability on http://msdn.microsoft.com/project/.