Project Programmability and Business Intelligence

March 2013 update of the Project 2013 SDK download file

Jim Corbin — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:42:00 GMT

The Project 2013 SDK download is updated. The conceptual, how-to, and reference documentation in the download closely matches the Project 2013 developer documentation online content published on MSDN.

The Project2013SDK.msi download file now installs properly on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.

The Project 2013 SDK download contains:

The on-premises Reporting database schema reference, ProjectServer2013_ReportingDB.chm, and the OLAP cube schema reference.
Updated VBA Help for local use. Objects such as Chart, Report, Series, and Shape now show correct members tables, properties, and methods topics.
Basic reference topics for the JavaScript client-side object model (JSOM), which includes REST endpoints and HTTP request syntax. You can use the JSOM for development of Project Online solutions for cross-browser web apps and for non-Windows platforms.
Sixteen complete code solutions, including two task pane apps (with minor updates) for Project, the QuickStatus app sample for Project Server and Project Online, eight client-side object model (CSOM) solutions, two solutions for querying the ProjectData service for reporting, and three updated legacy PSI solutions.
DLLs and a license for redistribution of the Project Server CSOM assemblies, JavaScript files for the CSOM, the Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Library assembly, and the Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Events.Receivers library for on-premises development.
Notes: 1. The attached REDIST.zip file contains the RTM build 15.0.4420.1017 of the Project Server assemblies for redistribution.
              2. The REDIST.zip file also includes the Microsoft.Office.Project.Schema.dll assembly, for developing event handlers.
              3. Project CSOM solutions also require the redistributable DLLs for the SharePoint 2013 CSOM,
                  which are at SharePoint Server 2013 Client Components SDK.
Updated Intellisense files for the PSI and CSOM, source code for creating a PSI proxy assembly, and instructions on how to update the PSI proxy files.
XML schemas for the Project client, AppProvisioning, and the Statusing PSI.

The top-level online landing page for the Project SDK is Project for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/project).

For additional Project-related SDK content, see Office for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office), SharePoint for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint), and Build apps for Office and SharePoint (http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/apps/). The two articles on Task pane apps for Project are in the Apps for Office and SharePoint SDK, and the JavaScript API for Office reference includes information specific for Project, the ProjectDocument object with eleven methods and three events, and four enumerations for Project.

Want to try out Project 2013?

Sign up for Project Online and Project Pro for Office 365
Download Project Professional 2013 and Project Server 2013

--Jim

MSDN Webcast: Project 2010 JS Grid Extensibility: Project Web App

Jim Corbin — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:41:07 GMT

Pat Malatack (Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation) has a comprehensive series of webcasts on extending the JS Grid in Project Web App.

Note: This blog post was originally created Monday, April 19, 2010. The webcasts were missing for the past several months, but have been reinstated on the Microsoft Events site (https://msevents.microsoft.com/).

MSDN Webcast: Project 2010 JS Grid Extensibility: Project Web App (Part 1 of 3) (Level 400)
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
1:00 P.M.-2:00 P.M. Pacific Time
This is the first webcast in a three-part series on extending grid pages in Microsoft Office Project Web App. In this webcast, we focus on initializing custom grid code and interactions between the grid and the Project Web App Ribbon. In particular, we show you how to add additional functionality to the Project Center.

MSDN Webcast: Project 2010 JS Grid Extensibility: Project Web App (Part 2 of 3) (Level 400)
Thursday, April 22, 2010
1:00 P.M.-2:00 P.M. Pacific Time
This is the second webcast in a three-part series on extending grid pages in Microsoft Office Project Web App. In this webcast, we focus on the use of events and delegates to interact with the timesheet grid in a way that allows for the addition of custom features and functionality to that page.

MSDN Webcast: Project 2010 JS Grid Extensibility: Project Web App (Part 3 of 3) (Level 400)
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
1:00 P.M.-2:00 P.M. Pacific Time
This is the third webcast in a three-part series on extending grid pages in Microsoft Office Project Web App. In this webcast, we walk you through more grid customizations, including adding custom commands to the column header dropdown and custom row header states.

Project Server 2013 reporting database (RDB) schema reference

Jim Corbin — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 22:47:00 GMT

The attached Project2013Reporting.exe file contains a draft release of the schema reference for the reporting tables and views in Project Server 2013. To install the files, run Project2013Reporting.exe. The next release of the Project 2013 SDK download will also include the reporting schema reference; that will be announced here when the Project 2013 SDK update is published.

The Project Server 2013 RDB and OLAP cubes are accessible only with an on-premises installation of Project Server. For Project Online, you can use REST queries of the ProjectData OData service. The ProjectData service is also available with on-premises installations. For more information, see ProjectData - Project 2013 OData service reference in the Project 2013 SDK.

The attached file includes the following:

ProjectServer2013_ReportingDB.chm is the HTML Help build of the RDB reference. It includes only the tables, views, stored procedures (SProcs), and user-defined functions (UDFs) that are in the dbo user namespace of the Project Server database.

Note: The draft, published, and archive database objects are not documented. Project Server 2013 combines objects from the four Project Server 2010 databases into one database. The default name of the database is ProjectService; different Project Web App instances can have different database names.

OLAPCubeSchemas2013.xlsx includes a worksheet for each of the 14 OLAP cubes that are available to build with Project Server 2013. Each worksheet lists the dimensions, measures, and properties that are available in the cube.

The Project Server 2013 RDB includes three new tables, 27 new views, and a total of 33 tables and views that include new fields. You can easily find the new items by searching, for example, for “New field” (with quotes). The following screenshot shows the new ProjectVisibilityMode field in the dbo.MSP_EpmProject_UserView view:

Building an app for Project Server 2013

Jim Corbin — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:26:00 GMT

Alex Burton, a Project MVP, has published a series of posts titled Building your first Project Server app on the EPMSource blog. The app is named Publish All; it publishes all enterprise projects for the PWA instance where the app is installed. The Publish All app is developed by using the Project Server JavaScript object model (JSOM) with "Napa" Office 365 Development Tools, and can be deployed to Project Online and to an on-premises installation of Project Server 2013.

The blog series includes the following parts:

Alex has even gone so far as to add a support page for the Publish All app, at http://epmsource.com/2013-apps/. It looks to be a very useful series.

For more information about the Napa tools, see How to: Create a basic app for SharePoint by using Office 365 Development Tools on MSDN. For information about using Visual Studio 2012 with the JSOM for Project Server, see Getting started with the Project Server 2013 JavaScript object model.

Installing the Project 2013 SDK download on Windows 8

Jim Corbin — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 20:20:00 GMT

The Project 2013 SDK download is updated for the RTM release of Project 2013. In addition to articles, references, and code samples that are updated from the July release of Project 2013 Preview, the SDK also includes a local copy of VBA Help for Project Standard and Project Professional.

You can install the downloaded Project2013SDK.msi file on computers that are running Windows 8, Windows 7 (and a couple of earlier Windows releases), Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012. When you install the SDK on a Windows 7 machine, the SDK contents are accessible from the Start menu. Figure 1 shows, for example, that the Microsoft SDKs folder contains the Project 2013 SDK folder, which contains links to three files. From the hierarchical context of the Start menu, it is clear that the Documentation node is contained in the Project 2013 SDK folder.

Similarly, if you install the SharePoint 2013 SDK download and the Apps for Office and SharePoint SDK download, they each create a folder in Microsoft SDKs, and each SDK has a Documentation node within its folder.

Figure 1. Using the Project 2013 SDK from the Windows 7 Start menu

The problem

Windows 8 does not have a Start menu, it has two related Start screens. After you install the Project 2013 SDK download, and scroll the main Start screen to the links for the installed files, you can see the same three links as in Windows 7. (To see the Welcome Guide on the Start screen, you can search for Welcome.rtf, open it in Internet Explorer, and then pin Welcome Guide to the Start screen.) But, the Start screen in Windows 8 is not arranged in hierarchical folders. In Figure 2, it is not clear what the Documentation link is for.

Figure 2. Using the Documentation link to the Project 2013 SDK, on the Windows 8 Start screen

The problem is worse if you also install the SharePoint 2013 SDK and the Apps for Office and SharePoint 2013 SDK. You would then have three Documentation links and three Welcome Guide links, each of which goes to a different SDK.

If you right-click one of the Start screen icons, the icon shows a check mark, and the Start screen shows options at the bottom (see Figure 2). If you choose All apps at the bottom right of the screen, Windows 8 shows lists of installed apps within top-level groups. For example, the Microsoft SDKs group contains links for all of the Office, Project, and SharePoint SDKs that you install; there are no subfolders to distinguish which links go to which SDK. In Figure 3, only the Project 2013 SDK is installed, and the links have the same names as in Figure 2.

Figure 3. Using the Project 2013 SDK links in the Apps view, in Windows 8

The workaround (for now)

On a machine with Windows 8, you can install one SDK at a time, and then rename the links on the Start screen, before installing another SDK.

To install Office, Project, and SharePoint SDKs on Windows 8

Log on to Windows 8 as an administrator.
Install, for example, the Project 2013 SDK.
On the Start screen, right-click the Documentation icon, and then choose Open file location at the bottom of the screen.
On the Windows Desktop, rename the Documentation link as Project 2013 SDK Documentation, and then choose Continue in the File Access Denied dialog box (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Renaming the Project 2013 SDK links in the Desktop view
Similarly, rename the VBA Reference link as Project 2013 VBA Reference, and rename the Welcome Guide link as Project 2013 Welcome Guide.
With the mouse pointer in the lower-left corner of the screen, choose the Start pop-up icon, and then scroll to the Project 2013 SDK icons (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. Using the renamed links in the Start view
Install the Apps for Office and SharePoint 2013 SDK, and similarly rename the Start screen links.
Install the SharePoint 2013 SDK, and similarly rename the Start screen links. Figure 6 shows the Microsoft SDKs group with the renamed links in the All apps view.

Figure 6. Using the renamed links for all three SDKs in the All apps view

In future releases, the Office, SharePoint, and Project SDK downloads will be reconfigured so that they install with non-conflicting link names on Windows 8.

Creating Project Workflows using Visual Studio 2012

Kia Amiri — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:30:00 GMT

In Project Server 2010, Project developers were able to create Project Workflows using Visual Studio 2010. In Project Server 2013, we enabled creating the workflows with SharePoint Designer, which makes it much easier and faster to create Project Workflows. In that blog post, we showed how we have simplified the workflow creation for Project using SharePoint Designer 2013.

We are, however, still supporting creating Project Workflows with Visual Studio for the more complex set of workflows, and in fact, have also made it easier to create Project Workflows with Visual Studio 2012. Below, we are going to use a sample two-stage workflow to show how you can create workflows with Visual Studio 2012:

1. Creating the Workflow solution: File Menu>New>Project>Office/SharePoint>SharePoint solutions > SharePoint 2013 Project. Give this project a name, and hit OK:

In the customization wizard, enter the address of the PWA web you’d like this workflow to be published to. Then, pick the sandboxed solution option to limit this workflow to this particular PWA web:

2. At this point, the project you’ll see the empty canvas. In the Project Menu, click on the Add New Item, and from the Office/SharePoint tab, select Workflow, enter a name, and hit Add:

Then, in the customization wizard, pick Site workflow:

Then, pick the history list and the workflow tasks list from that site. We recommend that you use the default lists since a number of PWA UI entry points, use these default lists. Then, hit Finish:

3. Now, we need to set up the environment to use the Project Server activities. In the toolbox, right click and click on “add tab”, and call the new tab “project server”:

Then, right click on the “project server” tab and click on “choose items” from the menu, and you’ll see this dialog:

In the dialog click on Browse, and navigate to where the workflow dlls are located. They are usually located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\WorkflowActivities
You’ll see two activities dll there. Open the project server one (Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.WorkflowActivities.dll), and hit OK. You are now taken back to the “toolbox items” dialog, and highlights the selected corresponding activities. Hit OK to continue.

4. You might see a “sequence” in the canvas. Delete that, and from the toolbox, pick Flowchart and add it by dragging it into the main area. This flowchart will be the main container of all the stages of the workflow:

In the toolbox, click on Control flow, and add the sequence inside that flowchart. Throughout this sample workflow, we will use sequence to represent workflow stages in Visual Studio. This is similar to how SharePoint Designer handles each stage, i.e. each stage is equivalent to a separate sequence in Visual Studio:

Rename the sequence to “Create_Stage” by clicking on the “Sequence” and start typing to change the name. Drag the line from start to “Create_Stage” to connect them together:

5. Double click on the “Create_Stage” to drill into this sequence

a. Under project server in toolbox, add the “EnterProjectStage” and “ExitProjectStageGate” activities to the sequence. These two activities are required in any of the PWA stages in Visual Studio.

b. In the properties of “EnterProjectStage”, change the StageID to the Stage ID of the particular stage you’d want this sequence to represent. You can find the stage ID in the URL of that stage, and is available if you navigate to that stage in PWA Settings > Workflow Stages, and then click on the particular stage. Since stageID is a string, the ID should be provided in quotation marks.

c. Put another sequence between “EnterProjectStage” and “ExitProjectStageGate”. Essentially, everything in this sequence is what is represented in the text-based designer in SharePoint Designer stage definition.

d. From project server item in the toolbox, drop the “waitForProjEvent” activity in that sequence:

e. Change the EventName property to “OnProjectSubmit”. The other supported Event Names are “OnProjectCommit” and “OnProjectCheckIn”

6. In the breadcrumb, click on Flowchart to go one level up. Add another sequence after Create_Stage and call it Finished_Stage, and connect the wire from Create_Stage to the Finished_Stage:

7. Similar to the Create_Stage, add the EnterProectStage and ExitProjectStageGate activities to the sequence as well as the WaitForProjectEvent activity in the middle, and set the properties accordingly:

8. This completes building the workflow in Visual Studio. However, in order to make sure that the workflow can be properly published to the PWA, we need to make a few more changes in the xaml files of the project: From solution explorer, pick “Elements.xaml” under the workflow node

a. Replace the WSEventSourceGUID with the following so that the workflow is correctly identifies as a project workflow:
<Property Name="WSEventSourceGUID" Value="5122D555-E672-4E5D-A7C4-8084E694A257" />

b. Inject the following properties under the “Url = WorkflowStartAssociation”:
      <Property Name="Microsoft.ProjectServer.ActivationProperties.ProjectId" Value="" />
      <Property Name="Microsoft.ProjectServer.ActivationProperties.CurrentStageId" Value="" />
      <Property Name="Microsoft.ProjectServer.ActivationProperties.RequestedStageId" Value="" />
      <Property Name="WSEventContextKeys" Value="Microsoft.ProjectServer.ActivationProperties.CurrentStageId;#Instance
Microsoft.ProjectServer.ActivationProperties.ProjectId;#Instance
Microsoft.ProjectServer.ActivationProperties.RequestedStageId;#Instance
" />

9. Now that everything is set, and the workflow is ready for publishing, click on the “Build Solution” under the Build menu, and then click on the “Deploy Solution” under the Build menu. The wsp file is now deployed to the site. You can also find a copy of the wsp file in the file system, under [project name]>bin>debug

Now, the workflow will show up in PWA. If you navigate to PWA Settings > Enterprise Project Types, and create a new Enterprise Project Type, you will see this workflow as one of the options in the workflow dropdown list.

For more information, see Getting started developing Project Server 2013 workflows in the Project 2013 SDK.

Connecting a Project Task Pane App to PWA

Eli Sheldon — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:11:00 GMT

Introduction

Apps for Office present a great new opportunity to bring data from a variety of sources into Office applications. The new Project specifically offers a very powerful way to surface both SharePoint and Project Web App data in a task pane app in Project Professional. To connect with SharePoint or PWA from the client, we use on-the-fly OAuth flow as presented in the SharePoint 2013 SDK. The App for Project described in this article connects with the same PWA site collection that Project Professional is currently connected to, and displays data about the currently selected task that is not otherwise available from within Project Professional. This will work with all versions of Project Professional (C2R, MSI, On Demand) and with all PWA environments (Project Online, Project Server).

Setup

Prerequisites for this project are:

Visual Studio 2012
IIS or IIS Express configured to allow applications to run on your server (at localhost)
Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 tools for Visual Studio, available here
Project Professional 2013
Project Online tenant or Project Server

The first step is to launch Visual Studio 2012. Create a new App for Office 2013 project as shown below. Let’s call it “TaskLastModifiedApp”.

In the next dialog, make this a Task Pane App for Project.

We need to add references, as this app will use a number of APIs across Office and SharePoint. These DLLs may be in a different location on your system. Most of these references are automatically added if you use the App for SharePoint template, so if you can’t find these on your system, create a quick App for SharePoint solution and note the reference paths to help you out. You should add:

C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Windows Identity Foundation\v3.5\Microsoft.IdentityModel.dll
C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.IdentityModel.Extensions\v4.0_2.0.0.0__69c3241e6f0468ca\Microsoft.IdentityModel.Extensions.dll
C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Windows Identity Foundation\v3.5\Microsoft.IdentityModel.WindowsTokenService.dll
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI\Microsoft.ProjectServer.Client.dll
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll
C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.IdentityModel.dll
C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.IdentityModel.Selectors.dll
C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.0\System.ServiceModel.dll

Additionally, you will need to add a copy of TokenHelper.cs, which is generated when creating an autohosted or provider-hosted App for SharePoint project.

Task Pane App Manifest

The actual task pane app is just an XML manifest. Open up TaskLastModifiedApp.xml from the TaskLastModifiedApp project in your Solution Explorer. Replace its contents with the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<OfficeApp xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/appforoffice/1.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:type="TaskPaneApp">

  <Id>[leave this line alone]</Id>

  <Version>1.0</Version>

  <ProviderName>Microsoft</ProviderName>

  <DefaultLocale>en-US</DefaultLocale>

  <DisplayName DefaultValue="TaskLastModifiedApp" />

  <Description DefaultValue="This app will show you when the selected task was last modified"/>

  <AppDomains>

    <AppDomain>https://localhost:44301/</AppDomain>

  </AppDomains>

  <Capabilities>

    <Capability Name="Project" />

  </Capabilities>

  <DefaultSettings>

    <SourceLocation DefaultValue="https://localhost:44301/pages/URLConstructor.aspx" />

  </DefaultSettings>

  <Permissions>ReadWriteDocument</Permissions>

</OfficeApp>

Replace the port after localhost (in both instances) with whatever port you have configured IIS to use for SSL. Make sure to toggle the “SSL Enabled” property on the TaskLastModifiedAppWeb project to true. Let whatever ID was originally set in the manifest remain.

Architecture

Next, delete the TaskLastModifiedApp.html page – we will need .aspx pages in this project. The basic architecture of the task pane app is as follows:

When the task pane app is launched, it loads “URLConstructor.aspx”, which pulls the PWA URL from the client and constructs a call to OAuthAuthorize with the proper tokens to request permissions for the app to access PWA data. This page loads “URLConstructor.js” to interact with the client.
OAuthAuthorize is launched in a new window, since we cannot predict the customer’s Project domain. After the user trusts the app, that new window is redirected to “PostOAuth.aspx”, which surfaces the auth code back to URLConstructor.aspx.
Once URLConstructor.aspx has the auth code, the task pane app is redirected with this as a token to “Default.aspx”, which has the functional code for the app. This page uses Project CSOM code in its code-behind page to read data from PWA, as well as “TaskLastModifiedApp.js” to interact with the client.

Constructing the OAuthAuthorize URL

The complete code for URLConstructor.aspx is as follows:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="URLConstructor.aspx.cs" Inherits="TaskLastModifiedAppWeb.Pages.URLConstructor" %>

  

<!DOCTYPE html>

  

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

  

<head runat="server">

    <title>TaskLastModifiedApp</title>

    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9" />

    <script type="text/javascript" src="..\Scripts\Office\1.0\MicrosoftAjax.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript" src="..\Scripts\Office\1.0\Office.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript" src="..\Scripts\URLConstructor.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript">

        function getClientId() {

            var clientId = '<%=ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ClientId"].ToString() %>'; //read the clientID from web.config

            getPwaUrl(clientId); //return to client code

        }</script>

</head>

  

<body>

    Redirecting...

</body>

  

</html>

This page needs to be an .aspx page in order to read from web.config, but does not need anything in its code-behind. The clientId read from web.config is needed for the authorization flow. getPwaUrl() is a function within URLConstructor.js.

The complete code for URLConstructor.js is as follows:

var _projDoc;

var pwaUrl;

var oAuthUrl;

  

Office.initialize = function (reason) {

    _projDoc = Office.context.document;

    getClientId(); //on document load, reads the ClientId from web.config first since it is server-side

}

  

function getPwaUrl(clientId) { //uses Office App API to read PWA URL

    _projDoc.getProjectFieldAsync(Office.ProjectProjectFields.ProjectServerUrl,

        function (asyncResult) {

            if (asyncResult.status == Office.AsyncResultStatus.Succeeded) {

                pwaUrl = asyncResult.value.fieldValue;

                generateUrl(clientId); //creates the OAuthAuthorize URL with necessary parameters

            }

            else {

                logMethodError("getProjectFieldAsync", asyncResult.error.name, asyncResult.error.message);

            }

        }

    )

};

  

function generateUrl(clientId) {

    oAuthUrl = pwaUrl + "/_layouts/15/OAuthAuthorize.aspx?IsDlg=1&client_id=" + clientId + "&scope=Projects.Read&response_type=code&redirect_uri=https://localhost:44301/pages/PostOAuth.aspx";

    authWindow = window.open(oAuthUrl);

    codeListener(); //start listening for the auth code

}

  

function codeListener() {

    setTimeout(function () { readCode(); }, 1000); //check for the auth code every one second

}

  

function readCode() {

    try { //if we can actually reach the authCode field on PostOAuth.aspx

        authCode = authWindow.document.getElementById("authCode").value;  //pull the authCode value

        if (authCode != "NA") { //if it is not the default "NA"

            authWindow.close(); //close the new window

            document.location.href = "/Pages/Default.aspx?code=" + authCode; //redirect task pane to the app code with the authCode token

        }

    }

    catch (e) {

        codeListener(); //if we couldn't reach PostOAuth.aspx, wait another second and try again

    }

}

When the task pane app loads, it first reads web.config from the aspx page, since this is server-side code. Once it has the clientId, we read the PWA URL. We then create the full OAuthAuthorize URL with the parameters specified above. scope=Projects.Read requests read permission to projects on the current PWA site. Make sure to match the SSL port here as well, as before.

On running the app, a new window will open up outside of Project that prompts the user to login to PWA (if they have not checked “Keep me signed in” previously). They will then be presented with a “Do you trust…” page, the same as if they were installing an App for SharePoint. This is the OAuthAuthorize.aspx page. Once trusted, that new window navigates to PostOAuth.aspx, presented below:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="PostOAuth.aspx.cs" Inherits="TaskLastModifiedAppWeb.Pages.PostOAuth" %>

  

<!DOCTYPE html>

  

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head runat="server">

    <title></title>

</head>

<body>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

    <div>

    <asp:HiddenField ID="authCode" runat="server" value="NA"/>

        Closing...

    </div>

    </form>

</body>

</html>

And PostOAuth.aspx.cs:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

  

namespace TaskLastModifiedAppWeb.Pages

{

    public partial class PostOAuth : System.Web.UI.Page

    {

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            var code = Request.QueryString["code"];

            authCode.Value = code;

        }

    }

}

This page saves the auth code token in a hidden field. The task pane app, still on URLConstructor.aspx, waits for this value and then closes the new window. The app then continues on to default.aspx with the proper code token needed to finish the OAuth flow.

Reading the Last Modified Date of the Selected Task

The remainder of this article is an example of what you might do in your task pane app now that you have read access to PWA data. This example will show you the Last Modified date and time of the task you have selected. On launch, it shows you data for the selected task, and as you change tasks, the data is updated using an event handler.

The complete code for Default.aspx is as follows:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="TaskLastModifiedAppWeb.Pages.Default" %>

  

<!DOCTYPE html>

  

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head runat="server">

    <title>TaskLastModifiedApp</title>

    <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=9" />

    <script type="text/javascript" src="..\Scripts\Office\1.0\MicrosoftAjax.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript" src="..\Scripts\Office\1.0\Office.js"></script>

    <script type="text/javascript" src="..\Scripts\TaskLastModifiedApp.js"></script>

    

</head>

  

<body>

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

        

        <asp:HiddenField ID="projGuidHF" runat="server" />

        <asp:HiddenField ID="taskGuidHF" runat="server" />

        <asp:HiddenField ID="pwaUrlHF" runat="server" />

  

        <asp:Label ID="TaskLastModLabel" runat="server" Text="Loading..." />

  

        <div style="display: none;">

            <asp:Button ID="hiddenTaskChangedButton" runat="server" OnClick="OnTaskChanged" />

        </div>

  

    </form>

  

</body>

</html>

This page contains three hidden fields used to pass data back and forth between the client-side code and the server-side code. It also leverages a label to surface the results to the user, and a hidden button that the client-side code uses to call a server-side function, as you will see below.

The complete code for TaskLastModifiedApp.js is as follows:

var _projDoc;

var taskGuid;

var projGuid;

var pwaUrl;

  

// This runs after every postback

Office.initialize = function (reason) {

    _projDoc = Office.context.document;

    if (document.getElementById("pwaUrlHF").value == "NA") { //if this is the first run

        firstRun();

    }

    manageTaskEventHandler('addHandlerAsync'); //need to re-register event handler after each postback

}

  

// Only need these on the first page load, not on postbacks

function firstRun() {

    getProjGuid();

    _projDoc.getProjectFieldAsync(Office.ProjectProjectFields.ProjectServerUrl,

        function (asyncResult) {

            pwaUrl = asyncResult.value.fieldValue;

            document.getElementById("pwaUrlHF").value = pwaUrl;

        }

    )

    getTaskGuid();

}

  

// Get the GUID of the selected task, comes from SDK

function getTaskGuid() {

    var TaskLastModLabel = document.getElementById("TaskLastModLabel");

    TaskLastModLabel.innerHTML = "Loading...";

    _projDoc.getSelectedTaskAsync(function (asyncResult) {

        taskGuid = asyncResult.value;

        document.getElementById("taskGuidHF").value = taskGuid; //saves the task GUID to a hidden field to pass to the code-behind

        document.getElementById("hiddenTaskChangedButton").click(); //runs the CSOM calls in the aspx.cs file

    });

}

  

 // Get the GUID of the current project.

function getProjGuid() {

    _projDoc.getProjectFieldAsync(Office.ProjectProjectFields.GUID,

        function (asyncResult) {

            projGuid = asyncResult.value.fieldValue;

            document.getElementById("projGuidHF").value = projGuid; //saves the project GUID to a hidden field to pass to the code-behind

        }

    )

}

  

// Task selection changed event handler.

function onTaskSelectionChanged(eventArgs) {

    getTaskGuid();

}

  

// Add or remove a task selection changed event handler.

function manageTaskEventHandler(docMethod) {

    manageEventHandlerAsync(

        Office.EventType.TaskSelectionChanged,      // The task selection changed event.

        onTaskSelectionChanged,                     // The event handler.

        docMethod                // The Office.Document method to add or remove an event handler.

    );

}

  

// Add or remove the specified event handler.

function manageEventHandlerAsync(eventType, handler, operation, onComplete) {

    _projDoc[operation]   //The operation is addHandlerAsync or removeHandlerAsync.

    (

        eventType,

        handler,

        function (asyncResult) {

            // code here runs after event has been registered (or failed)

        }

    );

}

The first time this code runs, it pulls the PWA URL (just like we did in URLConstructor.js) and saves it to one of our hidden fields, registers a client-side event handler to capture when a new task is selected, and starts the process of connecting to PWA and pulling the data we need, which is mostly done in the code-behind file. After each postback, we do not need to recapture the PWA URL, as our ProjectContext is maintained as a static variable.

We need to make one quick tweak to TokenHelper.cs first – change GetRealmFromTargetUrl from a private method to a public method.

The complete code for Default.aspx.cs is as follows:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using Microsoft.ProjectServer.Client;

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Client;

  

namespace TaskLastModifiedAppWeb.Pages

{

    public partial class Default : System.Web.UI.Page

    {

        public static ProjectContext projContext;

        public static PublishedProject thisProj;

        public Guid projGuid;

  

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            if (!IsPostBack) //set values of hidden fields if this is the first page load

            {

                projGuidHF.Value = "NA";

                taskGuidHF.Value = "NA";

                pwaUrlHF.Value = "NA";

            }

        }

  

  

        protected void GetContexts()

        {

            var code = Request.QueryString["code"]; //pulls the code token from the request

  

            string targetPwa = pwaUrlHF.Value; //pulls the PWA URL from where the Office app API stored it

  

            Uri targetPwaUri = new Uri(targetPwa);

  

            var tRealm = TokenHelper.GetRealmFromTargetUrl(targetPwaUri);

  

            Uri rUri = new Uri("https://localhost:44301/pages/PostOAuth.aspx"); //hardcoded link to redirect_uri

  

            var clientContext = TokenHelper.GetClientContextWithAuthorizationCode(targetPwa, "00000003-0000-0ff1-ce00-000000000000", code, tRealm, rUri);

  

            projContext = GetProjectContextWithAuthorizationCode(targetPwa, "00000003-0000-0ff1-ce00-000000000000", code, tRealm, rUri);

  

            projGuid = new Guid("{" + projGuidHF.Value + "}"); //loads the current project through CSOM

  

            var projects = projContext.LoadQuery(projContext.Projects.Where(proj => proj.Id == projGuid));

            projContext.ExecuteQuery();

            thisProj = projects.First();

        }

  

        protected void OnTaskChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) //determine the selected task's last modified date

        {

            if (thisProj == null)

            {

                GetContexts();

            }

            

            var taskGuid = new Guid(taskGuidHF.Value);

  

            var tasks = projContext.LoadQuery(thisProj.Tasks.Where(task => task.Id == taskGuid)); //load the selected task off of the project

            projContext.ExecuteQuery();

            PublishedTask thisTask = tasks.First();

            string dateMod = thisTask.Modified.ToString("D"); //pull out the Modified field on the task

            string timeMod = thisTask.Modified.ToString("t");

            TaskLastModLabel.Text = "The selected task was last modified on " + dateMod + " at " + timeMod + ".";

        }

  

        public static ProjectContext GetProjectContextWithAuthorizationCode(string targetUrl,string targetPrincipalName,string authorizationCode,string targetRealm,Uri redirectUri)

        {

            Uri targetUri = new Uri(targetUrl);

  

            string accessToken =

                TokenHelper.GetAccessToken(authorizationCode, targetPrincipalName, targetUri.Authority, targetRealm, redirectUri).AccessToken;

  

            return GetProjectContextWithAccessToken(targetUrl, accessToken);

        }

  

        public static ProjectContext GetProjectContextWithAccessToken(string targetUrl, string accessToken)

        {

            Uri targetUri = new Uri(targetUrl);

  

            ProjectContext projContext = new ProjectContext(targetUrl);

  

            projContext.AuthenticationMode = ClientAuthenticationMode.Anonymous;

            projContext.FormDigestHandlingEnabled = false;

            projContext.ExecutingWebRequest +=

                delegate(object oSender, WebRequestEventArgs webRequestEventArgs)

                {

                    webRequestEventArgs.WebRequestExecutor.RequestHeaders["Authorization"] =

                        "Bearer " + accessToken;

                };

  

            return projContext;

        }

    }

}

PageLoad()

The first time the page loads, we need to initialize the hidden field values. This enables us to not set them directly in Default.aspx (and thus lose their values after a postback) and lets the client-side code distinguish between a first run load and a postback.

GetContexts()

This code also only runs once, assuming the current project remains loaded. This handles the last part of the OAuth flow – we use the code token from OAuthAuthorize to generate a client context and a project context using methods in TokenHelper.cs, as well as slightly modified methods GetProjectContextWithAuthorizationCode() and GetProjectContextWithAccessToken().

OnTaskChanged()

This first checks to make sure we have a project loaded from which to pull data. We then read the selected task guid from the hidden field, which was updated client-side before this method was called. We use Project CSOM to load the selected task from PWA and read its Last Modified field, which is then presented to the user in a readable format using the label on Default.aspx.

Register the App ID and App Secret

Since we are not submitting this app to the Office Store, we need to register it on our test tenant. On your tenant, navigate to https://[your PWA site]/_layouts/15/appregnew.aspx. Generate a new App Id and App Secret, set the Title to “TaskLastModifiedApp”, set the App Domain to localhost:44301 (or wherever the app code is running), and set the Redirect URI to match the redirect_uri token value in the oAuth URL created in URLConstructor.js.

Hit Create, and then add the App Id and App Secret to web.config in your Visual Studio solution. It should look like the following when you are done, with your values for ClientId and ClientSecret:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

  

<configuration>

    <system.web>

      <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.0" />

    </system.web>

  <appSettings>

    <add key="ClientId" value="a9ce3d5a-bb14-4aad-9c27-41a05c473b4d" />

    <add key="ClientSecret" value="hL0C8wt2PPaBYNYRMZzcUcu3C/Vv0fbm48djGzyIXOw=" />

  </appSettings>

</configuration>

Time to Test!

To run the app, just hit F5 in Visual Studio, which will launch Project Professional. Make sure to connect to a PWA profile, then load a published project (or create and publish a new one). From a task view, select the Project tab in the ribbon, hit the dropdown for Apps for Office, and click TaskLastModifiedApp.

The app will launch in a task pane on the right side of the screen. It’ll prompt you to trust the app, quickly load, and then display the last modified date and time of the selected task.

Select a different task, and the data will update almost instantly.

Wrap-Up

In this blog post, you have learned how to create a task pane app in Project Professional that can display data from PWA that would not normally be visible in the client. The app uses SharePoint’s OAuthAuthorize page to request permissions from PWA and handle the authentication handshake between the app code and your online data. For more on working with OAuth, make sure to check out the relevant node in the SharePoint 2013 SDK. For more information on PWA programmability, check out the Project 2013 SDK. To learn more about writing task pane apps for the new Project, see this node in the Office 2013 SDK.

New VBA classes and members in Project Professional 2013 Preview

Jim Corbin — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:39:00 GMT

The What’s new for developers in the new Project desktop (besides task pane apps) article is available in the Office Developer Blog. The VBA and VSTO object model includes includes classes that support new reports with charts, tables, and Office Art. Other new members in the Project object model support the new task paths feature, cache status, and working with tasks lists in SharePoint 2013.

Project 2013 Preview SDK and related resources

Jim Corbin — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:48:55 GMT

The Project 2013 Preview SDK download is published. The conceptual, how-to, and reference documentation in the download closely matches the Project 2013 developer documentation online content published on MSDN. In addition, the download also contains:

Ten complete code solutions, including two task pane apps for Project, six client-side object model (CSOM) solutions, and two solutions for querying the ProjectData service for reporting.
DLLs and a license for redistribution of the three Project Server CSOM assemblies, JavaScript files for the CSOM, and the Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Library assembly.

Note: Project CSOM solutions also require the redistributable DLLs for the SharePoint 2013 CSOM, which are at SharePoint Server 2013 Client Components SDK.
Intellisense files for the PSI and CSOM, source code for creating a PSI proxy assembly, and instructions on how to update the PSI proxy files.
XML schemas for the Project client, AppProvisioning, and the Statusing PSI.

The top-level online landing page for the Project SDK is Project for developers (http://msdn.microsoft.com/project).

Want to try out Project 2013?

Sign up for the Project Online Preview with Project Pro for Office 365
Download Project Professional 2013 Preview & Project Server 2013 Preview

Using the updated ChangeXML utility for Statusing

Jim Corbin — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:14:00 GMT

The Statusing methods in the Project Server Interface (PSI) in Microsoft Project Server 2010 enable one user to read, submit, and update assignment and task status for another user, without resorting to impersonation. In the Project Server 2007 SDK, the How to: Generate ChangeXML for Statusing Updates article shows how to generate the changeXml parameter for the UpdateStatus method, validate the XML, and use the ReadStatus and SubmitStatus methods. The Project 2007 SDK download includes the complete Visual Studio 2005 solution for the ChangeXML utility. However, the ChangeXML utility could only update status for the current user.

The ChangeXML utility is now updated for Project Server 2010, in the attached ChangeXMLUtility.zip file. With it, you can generate the changeXml parameter and update status for the current user or for another user. To update status for another user, the utility uses the ReadStatusForResource and UpdateStatusForResource methods. In addition, the utility checks whether the current user has the global StatusBrokerPermission security permission, adds the ResID attribute to the changeXml parameter, and validates the XML against the updated ChangeList.xsd schema in Project Server 2010. For more information about the ChangeList.xsd schema, see Introduction to the ChangeList Schema and Statusing ChangeXML.

Note: The ChangeXML utility is designed for use only on a test installation of Project Server 2010, as an example of a programming utility for statusing. It should not be used on a production installation.

The updated ChangeXML utility also has several other changes. The previous version uses the ASMX interface, which was the only choice available for Project Server 2007. In the updated version, you can choose to programmatically initialize the WCF interface of the PSI by entering the Project Web App URL, or by using the WCF endpoint values in the app.config file. In the following screenshot, the login is automatic if you use the app.config value.

Note: To use the app.config file, change the URL to the value for your PWA instance, for each PSI service endpoint.

In the main window, after you log on Project Server, choose Build Change XML.

You can choose to update the status of available assignments for the current user, or – if you have the StatusBrokerPermission – you can choose another user and update assignments for that user. In the following screenshot, the update is for another user. The Items available for update list shows the Project name : Task name : User name values for each item. You can choose to update assignment values or task values for that assignment. The Generate a Change dialog box shows different controls in the Update section, depending on what kind of update you choose. For example, if you choose to update an assignment custom field, you can choose the custom field and the lookup table value, if the custom field uses a lookup table.

When you choose Update XML, the tool generates the changeXml parameter value, as follows:

Following is the changeXml parameter value in the case shown, for updating the Health assignment custom field. Note that the XML value includes the ResID attribute for the Assn element.

<Changes xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Proj ID="a3e78597-2302-45fc-bb15-7f23d74efdf8">
    <Assn ID="b001d2d9-69eb-49a0-aa9f-6bbe53f9484c"
           ResID="aa3a6f6f-bb70-4d2e-92da-b06580ae6376">
      <LookupTableCustomFieldChange IsMultiValued="false"
             CustomFieldType="Text" 
            CustomFieldGuid="00004f6d-90a2-439a-8cc2-1c1ef6d2da4f"
             CustomFieldName="Health">
        <LookupTableValue
               Guid="0000c45d-8a43-4eb0-9b74-e535b391988a">Late</LookupTableValue>
      </LookupTableCustomFieldChange>
    </Assn>
  </Proj>
</Changes>

You can clear the Run Update check box to just validate the changeXml parameter. For example, manually change one of the elements, attributes, or values in the XML, and see if it still validates. Or, you can check Run Update to validate and run the change.

When the change is completed, try opening the project in Project Professional. If you are the project manager, you are prompted to review the status change in PWA. If you accept the change in PWA, to see the change, open the project in Project Professional. For example, if you changed the Health assignment custom field, go the the Task Usage view, and then add the Health field to the view.

After you save and publish the project, you can also see the change in the Reporting database. For example, run the following query in SQL Server Management Studio for the RDB:

SELECT TOP 1000 [AssignmentUID]
      , [ResourceUID]
      , [Health_T]
    FROM [ProjectServer_Reporting].[dbo].[MSP_EpmAssignment_UserView]

Find the correct assignment and resource GUIDs in the Results pane:

The ChangeXML utility is useful for creating and testing values of the changeXml parameter for the UpdateStatus method,
where you can create and test changes for the current user and for other Project Server 2010 users. It also contains code examples
that show how to check for a security permission of a resource and use statusing methods.

Updating the ChangeXML utility

Here are the main steps that were used to update the application from Project Server 2007 to 2010. The user interface had only
minor tweaks, because that was not an issue for a test tool.

Open in Visual Studio 2010 to update the solution; change the target to .NET Framework 3.5.
Add a reference to the updated ProjectServerServices.dll, which contains a proxy WCF interface of the PSI services.
Remove ASMX initialization; initialize PSI services for WCF (programmatic and/or with app.config). This step is not
essential, but the WCF interface is recommended for moving forward.
Modify the login dialog box; use the WCFHelpers.dll assembly from ProjTool for login routines. The ProjTool code for
Project Server 2010 is in the SDK download.
Note: The logon routines for Forms authentication are not updated in this sample.
Get and display the StatusBrokerPermission value for the current user. Enable the Update for user option if the current
user has the correct permission.
Get the list of active resources, by using ReadUserList; add the ResourceItem class for combobox display and values.
Refresh the list of items to update, by using ReadStatusForResource.
Add ResID to classes for generating and displaying the changeXml parameter (ChangesProj, ChangesProjAssn,
ChangesProjTask, and Items).
Remove the empty ResID attribute in the changeXml value for the current user.
Run statusing updates for a selected user, by using SubmitStatusForResource.
Test

In actuality, testing occurs after each step is completed.

—Jim Corbin