Project Connector Release

A new version of the Project 2010 Connector was released this afternoon - both 32-bit and 64-bit.  There is one repair and one new feature.

No More Timeouts

The previous version of the connector was timing out on MS Project files that contained more than about 400 tasks.  The new version does batch processing, meaning it can handle any number of tasks.  Please be aware that with a large amount of tasks, it will still take several minutes.  The longest process will be the first synchronization which handles all tasks.  After that, it will only synchronize tasks that have changed and their parent items (for scheduling updates).

Set Baseline

Many clients were manually copying the Scheduled dates (Start/Finish/Work) to the Baseline columns before synchronization.  Now there is a Set Baseline option in the Add-in menu that will do this automatically.  This button does exactly what the Set Baseline button in the MS Project toolbar does except with no settings to be entered.  The main intention of this operation is to use it prior to the first synchronization from MS Project to Connections Online to populate the Baseline/Projected dates.  

Once completed tasks have been entered into the MS Project file, the Set Baseline option should no longer be used.  The reasoning is that MS Project overwrites the Scheduled Date columns with the Actual Date columns when they are populated.  Therefore, if the Set Baseline is used after completed tasks are entered, the Projected information will be overwritten with the Actual information.  There are warnings in the connector to prevent this behavior.  If Projected/Baseline dates need to be adjusted after completed tasks are entered, it will be necessary to update the Baseline for each affected task manually.

In summary, please be sure the Baseline is correct and synchronized with Connections Online before entering any Actual date information.