Project.mpt or Global.mpt

[DDragov]

Hi,
I have created a .mpt template file for my users which they copy to their drive and use it as a starting point. When they copy file to their drive they save it as a .mpp file. This file contains modules that are called on the Project Open and some of them on the Project Close.
I am looking now into the solution on how to incorporate any future modifications of the modules so that it can be applied to all project files. In other words if users have created 20 project files and I modify the template I want this code to apply to all other 20 files previously created as well as any future files.

I tried using Global.mpt file but ran into some issues such as if I move all modules to the global.mpt the functions called from ThisProject/Project Open are ending having errors since they are not defined. Is there any way of specifying in the project that modules are defined in the Global.mpt.
I also tried to Move modules from another central .mpt file to the current project on the opening. Before moving modules I deleted them to avoid having to answer to the question "Do you want to replace the file?", but then some modules wouldn't get deleted right away because functions that are called in the Project open event are defined in the modules.

I would appreciate any help, suggestion on how to solve this issue. I am open to any proposition in regards how to share modifications among all users and previous and future projects.

Thanks in advance.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Why are the users copying the *.mpt file locally? Would it make more sense to store the template file centrally and just maintain the one copy? I'm afraid I'm not the person to help with in-depth discussions of code. Try posting to the Project forum for programming:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/projectserver/en-US/home?forum=project2010custprog

 

[DDragov]

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it.

Here are more details.

There is one copy of a Template.mpt file in the shared drive. Users copy this file to their project folder for a specific project and they save it as Project_n.mpp. There is only one Project_n.mpp file per project. So whoever works on the particular project will alweays open the same Project_n.mpp file. There is a lot of projects that users work on and each of them has its respective Project1.mpp, Project2.mpp, Pproject3.mpp etc.file.
If I modify code in any of the modules of the Template.mpt file that is on the Shared drive I am now sure that modifications will apply only to the new projects (when user initiate the Project_n.mpp and starts from the Template.mpt). But in the case of already created project files (Project1.mpp, Project2.mpp, Project3.mpp) I also want to apply the modifed code in modules, but currently when I open them I have the old code.

I hope this explains more now.

Thanks

 

[JulieInMaine]

Thanks - that does help. You are correct that changes to the template file will only impact new projects - if there is code involved. The best I can suggest (other than posting to the MS forum) is to have the users copy the new modules into their files through organizer. I don't know what your code does so I can't go much further down the road - but are you confident that the changed code won't alter existing files in a bad way?

 

[DDragov]

Thanks for your reply. I will definitely post the question in the suggested forum.
This question is related to any future possible modifications. Current code is used to update the project file with data from a database and also to update database with the data from the project file. To make sure that the code does not affect the files in the bad way I would need to definitely test it before implementation.
I was more interested in the best approach on how to handle this type of request. I want this to be transparent for users, and I don't want them to do any copying manually since some of them are not very technically skilled. I tried already something, but came across some obstacles so I am not sure if I am on the right path

Thanks again.

 

[SkipVought]

I'd suggest the following convention for all your Project users:

[ul]
[li].mpp files stored in specified network location(s) will be maintained via your update modules.[/li]

[li].mpp file store locally or in other network locations will not be updated.[/li]
[/ul]

Presumably, you have both the skillset and access necessary to effect these kinds of changes.

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![/sub]