So, I am working on a Proof of Concept that integrates TFS 2008, Project Server 2007 and MOSS.

After I create a site based  upon a custom site template I then create a project using the PWA web services (UpdateProjectWorkspaceAddress).  The project is created but when I try and update the project workspace URL using the wssinterop web service it fails with a WSSWebIsNotProjectWorkspace error. 

The template has the correct features activated and if I manually (through the PWA Admin UI) set the project workspace to the same web it works. 

I don't know why it fails since everything looks good but I did discover a workaround after looking at it for many hours. 

Call the same method twice.  Catch the first error and ignore it.  On the second call it returns sucessfully and sure enough it does update the URL.

I figured I would share that and save someone a few hours of frustration.

Example ( string projectName, Guid projectId, projectSvc which is reference to the webservice: http://servername/pwa/_vti_bin/psi/Project.asmx are passed in )

//I am not using the default site collection.  I am using the TFS one (Sites/)
//if (!adminRow.IsWADMIN_DEFAULT_SITE_COLLECTIONNull())
//{
//        siteCollection = adminRow.WADMIN_DEFAULT_SITE_COLLECTION;
//}
#endregion
#region Change Workspace Address
//try it once and ignore the output -- always fails the first time.
try
{
     projectSvc.UpdateProjectWorkspaceAddress(projectId, "Sites/" + projectName, wssWebAppUid);
}
catch{ }
//do it again and it works. Don't ask me it's microsofts interface.
projectSvc.UpdateProjectWorkspaceAddress(projectId, "Sites/" + ProjectName, wssWebAppUid);
#endregion

}

I haven't posted through the holidays.  I have been working but nothing intersting enough to post about. 

I have been on another writting kick.  The book is done...at least the rough draft is as of this evening.  175,000 words.  I'm sure that will swell as I edit it but I really like how it has turned out.  The question is:  will anyone else?  

I have turned parts over to someone who is reviewing it for me, kind of a personal editor.  It is always very different (and unnerving) to have someone else read what you have written.  The story is alive in your head, things that make perfect sense to you may not make sense to someone else that is reading it.  All part of the process I suppose.

I am going to take a break for a week or so and then go back through it editing it.  I have spent so much time on this over the holidays that other things have been left untouched...the Christmas lights come down tomorrow...I promised my wife.

One of the goals I set for myself this year is to start looking for a literary agent by mid-year.  It will need to be hammered into shape if I am going to accomplish that.  Goals a are a good thing.

I figured I would share an interesting thing I discovered today that appears to be amazingly undocumented.

If you use U2U CAML Query Builder to build your CAML queries it creates queries that look like this when querying against columns of type 'User':

 <property name="QueryOverride" type="string">
      <![CDATA[<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='Author' /><Value Type='User'>[Me]</Value></Eq></Where>]]>
 </property>

And that query will not work.  It will return zero results.

So queries like this:

<property name="QueryOverride" type="string">
          <![CDATA[<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name="Index_x0020_Number" /><Value Type="Number">7</Value></Eq></Where>]]>
</property>

and this:

<property name="QueryOverride" type="string">
          <![CDATA[<Where><Contains><FieldRef Name="Title" /><Value Type="Text">testapp</Value></Contains></Where>]]>
</property>

will work fine but using the token '[me]' like it is used everywhere else in MOSS will not work.

The solution ends up being this:

<property name="QueryOverride" type="string">
        <![CDATA[<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='Author'  /><Value Type="User"><UserID /></Value></Eq></Where>]]>
</property>

How much can you write in a weekend?  I couldn't have answered that question prior to this weekend but now I can.

This is in regard to this other post I made:  Programming vs. Writing a Novel

Now I don't want any hate mail from all you jealous guys because I will get all the babes being as cool as I am (just kidding honey) BUT I did crank out close to 20,000 words this weekend...and that is just plain awesome...or sick depending upon your perspective.
 
I got into a groove Friday night and stayed up until about 4AM, I didn’t really want to go to sleep at that point but the coffee stopped working at about 3AM and my eyelids rebelled.  I picked it back up at noon on Saturday and stayed at it until about 2AM.  After dragging my sorry backside out of bed Sunday I worked on it until about 1AM this morning.  Total time:  ~31 hours.  That equates to about 645 words/hour or just under 11 words/minute.  Hmmm…that doesn’t really sound very fast does it?

What did all this require?

Ok.  I have dealt with mismatched version numbers between servers countless times in both SharePoint 2003 and 2007 when transferring data between two environments.  What I had not run into (until today) was the fact that WSS 2.0 can be updated (SP3) while Sharepoint Portal Services was bone-stock-out-of-the-box.  It took me a bit to figure out what was going on. 

I was attempting to restore a 2003 site into a test environment but was getting the dreaded "Your backup is from a different version of Windows SharePoint Services and cannot be restored to a server running the current version" which is always good for a case of heartburn.

SOP is to go pull up the control panel\add remove programs and pull up the support information for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (in this case) on both machines and compare the version numbers.  Unfortunately they both matched.  Didn't expect that.  Twenty minutes of thought and looking at DLL's and I thought about the "other" service installed Windows Sharepoint Services 2.0 (in this case).  Sure enough someone had updated WSS to SP3 but had neglected to update the Portal Server to SP3.

I'm still not sure why the previous owner decided to update the server half-way.