Filtering OnePager Using Enterprise Custom Flag Fields from Project Online

Everybody knows that OnePager can use local flag fields (Flag 1-20) from Microsoft Project to filter the tasks and milestones that make it into your report. Did you also know that OnePager can make use of flags in Project Online and Project Server that are set up as enterprise custom fields?

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to set up an enterprise custom flag field in Project Online, how to connect OnePager Pro to Project Online, and how to tell OnePager to filter your report based on that enterprise custom field. Even though our example features Project Online, you can follow more or less the same steps with Microsoft Project Server 2010, 2013, and 2016.

We’ll be doing this strictly on the server — no pushing things in and out of Project Professional. Of course, if you prefer to use Project Professional to make edits to Project Online, feel free. It’s just not required as far as OnePager is concerned.

Here are the steps:

  1. First we’re going to set up the enterprise custom flag field. To do this, log into Project Online and go to Settings > PWA Settings:
  2. Under the Enterprise Data section, click on Enterprise Custom Fields and Lookup Tables:
  3. Click New Field, and set up your new flag field. You can name it whatever you’d like, but it’s important that the Entity is set to “Task” and the Type is set to “Flag”:
  4. Once you’ve set things up, click Save at the bottom, and you should see the new flag appear in Project Online’s list of enterprise custom fields:
  5. Under the same Settings > PWA Settings as before, click on Manage Views  under the Look and Feel section. We’re going to modify which fields display in the “Tasks Summary” view, but if you use a different view in Project Online, feel free to edit that instead.
  6. Find your your new enterprise custom flag field in the Available Fields list, add it to the Displayed Fields, and then Save the view.
  7. Now, open up one of the projects that you want to include in your OnePager report. On the Tasks tab, ensure that your View is set to the “Tasks Summary” view, or whatever other view you just edited to include the new flag field:
  8. Go to Task > Edit to check the project out, and then change a few of the flag values from “No” to “Yes”. Save and then Publish your project. IMPORTANT: Forgetting to publish your project can cause Project Online to send incorrect flag values back to OnePager, so it’s important to publish your project whenever you’ve changed your flag selections in Project Online.
  9. Now that Project Online is set up correctly, we can (finally?!) launch OnePager. In this example, we’ll double-click the OnePager Pro desktop icon instead of launching OnePager as a Project add-in, but this is up to you. OnePager connects directly to Project Online, so you do not have to use Project Professional as an intermediary if you don’t want to.
  10. If your default OnePager template isn’t already pulling enterprise custom fields from Project Online, go to File > Options > Templates, and click the Get Enterprise Custom Fields box. This will allow OnePager to log into Project Online and get your enterprise custom fields:
  11. Still in OnePager, go to File > New, and click the Select button. Then, BROWSE Project Online/Server:
  12. OnePager will give you a list of your available projects in Project Online. Select as many as you’d like to include:
  13. After selecting your projects, go back to the import wizard and ensure that your filtering is set up to use the enterprise custom field:
  14. Click Create New Project View. OnePager will log into Project Online, import the project(s) you selected, and filter them based on the enterprise custom field that you just set up:

This entry was posted in OnePager Pro Tips, Project Online, Project Reporting, Project Server by Safford. Bookmark the permalink.

About Safford

Safford is a versatile technology professional with a solid history of empowering emerging growth companies in a broad array of industries. His employment history includes energy industry consulting at Quorum Software, Senior Manager of Client Services and Technical Sales at telecom service aggregator GetConnected, and Vice President of Strategic Partner Management at electronic payment processor IP Commerce. Prior to his tenure as OnePager's COO, Safford was the company's Vice President of Marketing and Alliances. Safford holds a BA in Psychology and management from Rice University.

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