default assignment owner project online

• Microsoft Applications
• Microsoft Training
• Microsoft Consulting
• Microsoft Support
• Microsoft Project
• Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Power Platform
• About Integent

August 23, 2019

The difference between status manager and assignment owner in project online.

Two important roles when it comes to scheduling with Project Online are Status Manager and Default Assignment Owner . In this blog, we'll walk through the difference between the two.

Status Manager

Status Manager refers to the user who will receive task updates as Team Members update their tasks.

By default, the Status Manager is the Owner of the project when it was created. If the Owner of the project changes at any point during the project, the Status Manager field for existing tasks will also need to change. The new Owner or Project Manager will need to manually update this field. Status Manager is available as an editable field when you have the project opened in Microsoft Project Professional.

I found that in most cases, the Status Manager can only  be updated by the user (with proper permissions) who has the schedule open.

When tasks are updated, the task status is sent to the appropriate Project Owner for each project. The task updates can be reviewed by the Project Manager in the Approvals Center in Project Online and Accept or Reject the time.

Default Assignment Owner

Default Assignment Owner is the user whose Tasks page or Timesheet the tasks will display. By default, the Default Assignment Owner is the resource themselves. The Assignment Owner field is available as a Read Only field in Microsoft Project Professional.

Here is a scenario when the Default Assignment Owner will be someone other than themselves:

• Resource A will have tasks assigned to them. However, they will not have access to log into the system to report actual time. In this case, their Default Assignment Owner can be updated to another user, possibly a manager or team lead.
• When tasks are assigned to Resource A, the tasks will display on the Tasks page or Timesheet of the Default Assignment Owner. The Default Assignment Owner's tasks will be displayed on their own as well. They can then update task status for both their tasks and Resource A’s tasks.
• For this approach, I recommend updating the view for Tasks or Timesheets to include the Resource Name field. This will allow the Default Assignment Owner to see which tasks belong to which resource.

The Default Assignment Owner field is set and can be updated at the Enterprise Resource level.

When scheduling, pay attention to these roles! They play an important role in the Project Update cycle.

Related Links

• Can not sync Active Directory Group for Project Server 2007 Project Web Access Site
• The Status Manager Field is Now Available in Microsoft Project Online!
• Microsoft Project Training Webinar Series - Module 05: Assignment Planning with Microsoft Project
• Load Summary Resource Assignments
• The Status Date Functionality in MS Project

Using the assignment owner and status manager in MS Project Online

Setting the default assignment owner for a resource in ms project online.

Steps to set the default assignment owner for a resource in MS Project Online:

• Open MS Project Online.
• Click the " Resources " item in the left menu.
• Click the " RESURCES " item in the top menu.
• Select the resource, click the box near the resource name.
• Click the " Edit " button in the " Resources " block.
• Click the " Browse ... " button in the " Default Assignment Owner: " field,
• Click the user name in the " Pick Resource " window. You can find the first three characters of the username by clicking the " Search " button.
• Click the " OK " button in the " Pick Resource " window.
• To save click the " Save " button.

Steps to set the default assignment owner for resources in MS Project Online:

• Select resources, Click the boxs near the resource name.
• Click the " RESOURCES " item in the top menu.
• Click the " Bulk Edit " button in the " Resources " block.
• Click the " Browse ... " button in the " Default Assignment Owner: " field,
• Click the user name in the " Pick Resource " window. You can find the first three characters of the username by clicking the " Search " button.
• Click the " OK " button in the " Pick Resource " window.

Using the assignment owner and status manager in MS Project Pro

You can set up a resource assignment owner on each project task. The assignment owner can report on task completion and resource usage. The state manager can receive the results of the execution of project tasks. By default, the state manager is the project manager.

Steps to set the assignment owner and status manager for resources in MS Project Pro:

• Open MS Project Pro.
• Open the " Task Usage " view.
• Add the " Assigment Owner " column and the " Status Manager " column and.
• Choose the username in these columns.
• Publish your project.

Step to set the assignment owner for the resource in MS Project Pro:

• Open the " Gantt Chart " view.
• Click the task twice the mouse.
• Choose the tub " Resources " in the window " Task Information "
• Choose the assignment owner in the field " Assignment Owner ".
• Set the units for each resources in the field " Units ".
• Click the button " Ok "

2023-05-14 16:47:34

Ivan Oberemok

[email protected]

Author: Ivan Oberemok

Ph.D., trainer-consultant for project management

• Candidate of technical sciences in the field of "Project management and production development", associate professor of KNUSA
• Certified Project Manager Level B International project management association
• Certified Project Manager Level C Japanese project management association

Chat for registered users only Login

This is the About page. You may modify the following file to customize its content:

• Search the community and support articles
• Microsoft 365 and Office
• Search Community member

Ask a new question

PWA Default Assignment Owner Show all tasks in My Tasks

Report abuse.

• Volunteer Moderator

The person designated as the Assignment Owner for a task is the person who will see the tasks on his/her own Tasks page in PWA.  If your example above, if Jack is the Assignment Owner for Peter, Paul, Jane, and John, Jack would see all of their tasks on his Tasks page in PWA, and the other four would see NO TASKS.

Beyond this, you need to be aware that there are two fields that control this behavior.  The first is the Default Assignment Owner field which is set for each resource in the Enterprise Resource Pool.  The second is the Assignment Owner field, which is set for each task assignment in every Microsoft Project schedule.  If a new project is created AFTER the Default Assignment Owner has been set for every resource, the Assignment Owner for every task assignment in that project will be set according to the Default Assignment Owner value for each resource in the project.  If a project was created BEFORE changing the Default Assignment Owner value for every resource, then the Assignment Owner value for every task assignment will be the name of the assigned resource.

I suspect the latter is the situation you have.  To correct this, the PM would need to open the project in question, apply the Resource Usage view, temporarily insert the Assignment Owner column, and change the value to the new assignment owner.  The PM would need to save and publish the project as well.

Hope this helps.

4 people found this reply helpful

Was this reply helpful? Yes No

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

Thanks for your feedback.

Replies (4) 

Question info.

• Norsk Bokmål
• Ελληνικά
• Русский
• עברית
• العربية
• ไทย
• 한국어
• 中文(简体)
• 中文(繁體)
• 日本語

This browser is no longer supported.

Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.

Project Online: Find Assignments I'm Assignment Owner of

My customer is trying to delete a resource, but is receiving an error saying '[Resource Name]: The resource is the assignment owner for [Task Name] and cannot be deleted'. This customer is NOT using timesheets or task statuses so the assignment owner field has never been used, but was just filled with default values when creating tasks.

The TaskName in the error message is a generic task name (from the template), used in multiple projects. For now, the only solution we see is opening all projects, checking the assignment owner field and updating where needed. Too time-consuming in an environment with 100+ projects.

We've tried getting an SQL statement requesting TaskName, ProjectName and AssignmentOwner, but turns out AssignmentOwner is not an available field in the Project Online database. An alternative script in CSOM returned nothing but "null" values.

Is there a way, either in PWA (tasks? approvals?) or using custom code, to get a list of all assignments for which a specific user is assignment owner?

Thanks in advance!

Not Monitored Tag not monitored by Microsoft. 35,642 questions Sign in to follow

The product group for Project actively monitors questions over at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/project/ct-p/Project https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/msoffice_project

--please don't forget to Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

• Updating resource custom field values via REST in Microsoft Flow

by Martin Laukkanen | Jul 26, 2018 | Flow , How to , Workflow | 21 comments

Flow is a great (one day) replacement for SharePoint Designer workflows, however at the moment the Project Online connectors are still in “preview” and as such as woefully inadequate. In my view the biggest omission is the inability to set custom fields, among many other failings this one is pretty much always step one or two on any workflow I have ever needed to create for Project Server.

You may have seen some MS demos where they show a quick easy way to circumvent this by using the HTTP action, unfortunately I’ve yet to find any online examples of that so I’m going to write one myself. This article focuses on Enterprise Resource custom fields but applies equally well to Task custom fields. However, the process is actually simpler for Project level custom fields and Paul Mather has blogged on the topic before here . Although he doesn’t cover Flow in that article, you can convert his JavaScript code to a JSON body and use it as as below. There’s also this StackExchange post that covers Project fields using a different method.

Updating Enterprise Resource fields via REST

It turns out this is not supported!

Please correct me if I’m wrong here, I’ve spent many hours looking for a solution for this from MS to no avail!

Well for me I figure if MS released an API 5 years ago and never got around to finishing it then supported or not I need a way to do my job. Fortunately it is possible via CSOM/JSOM to do this, and by understanding how all the client side API’s work you will see that it is possible and (arguably) fully supported to do this via REST using the internal methods used by CSOM/JSOM.

Updated Enterprise Resource default fields via REST

Before we look at custom fields lets cover how to set the default fields such as; Group, Email, etc. These can be set via the normal REST endpoint, and frankly this is how it also *should* be possible to set custom fields.

Assuming the resource exists and you want to update it by GUID, the following HTTP PATCH request will do it:

That’s a raw HTTP request from PostMan, the important bits are the JSON and the PATCH type of request, yes a standard POST or PUT request will not work. In that JSON body of the request you can list multiple custom fields as long as you adhere to correct JSON syntax, for the full list of field names, browse to the endpoint in your browser: /sites/pwa/_api/ProjectServer/EnterpriseResources.

However if you look at the endpoints you’ll see the custom field values referenced by internal name, e.g.:  Custom_x005f_000039b78bbe4ceb82c4fa8c0c400284

Unfortunately it is not possible to add to your JSON the CF value, like: “ Custom_x005f_000039b78bbe4ceb82c4fa8c0c400284″: “Text value for field” as a result we have to work a bit harder.

Enter the ProcessQuery endpoint

(If you’re not interested in the why, but just the how to do this, you may want to skip to the next section!)

If you’re familiar with Fiddler traces of any of the SharePoint client side object models then you will have seen that all of the API calls made are translated into HTTP calls to an internal endpoint:  _vti_bin/client.svc/ProcessQuery while not documented anywhere I have found, you can see that basically this is where the ClientContext.ExecuteQueryAsync(…) call from either CSOM or JSOM is performing the requested operation.

The ProcessQuery endpoint accepts a HTTP POST request with a body that looks something like this:

That happens to be the query syntax to set a single text custom field for a resource. If you read through the content you can see (in order of Id properties) what is happening, in short the above translates to the following (pseudo) CSOM code:

Pretty cool huh? :)

It get’s better, as if you trace in fiddler some code that does multiple things, like for example setting 3 or 4 custom field values, you will see that they are all batched into a single POST query just as you’d expect when using ExecuteQueryAsync in your code. The change in the method above is simply additional <Action> elements in the XML, one for each call to SetCustomFieldValue (note: incrementing the Id property is also necessary).

The remainder of that XML deserves a short explanation, ignoring the XML schema stuff the only other variable defined in the above example is a GUID: {3a609e5f-e2a1-497c-87a2-e5e8a781c096}. This GUID refers to the ServerTypeId that is defined in the Microsoft.ProjectServer.Client.dll file specifically the PS.ProjectServer constructor, and importantly “EnterpriseResources” is a public property of that class. So with that in mind you could re-use this GUID and make calls to any other public property to construct the call you need.

I prefer to cheat, and simply write a small snippet of JSOM (or CSOM) code that makes the call I want in REST, then use fiddler to get the XML body created when I make that call.

Calling a Project Online API from Flow

Now that we know what the HTTP request needs to look like we can start building a flow. Not so long ago this was much more difficult as we had to worry about OAuth2 and AzureAD apps and such, but now thankfully MS have added a new action to the SharePoint actions list which we are going to use:

I’ve created a new flow with a Project Online trigger “When a new resource is created”, and then added the above HTTP request action.

You need to populate the following values:

• Site Address : URL to your PWA
• Method : POST (for custom fields, or if out of the box fields PATCH)
• Uri : _vti_bin/client.svc/ProcessQuery
• Accept: application/json; odata=verbose
• Content-Type: text/xml
• Body : [Our XML body from the previous step]

Note: The header for Content-Type must be “text/xml” to match the content, if you were updating a default field using the JSON body from the beginning of this article, this would also be set to “application/json; odata=verbose”.

Thanks to the SharePoint HTTP action we don’t have to worry about authentication here, so actually that is it! Well almost.

Parameterizing the Flow action

Adding some variables to the flow allows us to parameterize the action based on whatever logic you want, once that’s done replace the values in the XML like this:

Important: Notice I have stripped the XML of tabs, spaces and line endings! This is required, if you don’t do that you will get an Unknown Error on larger query bodies.

What about default fields?

For completeness if you wanted to update the internal Group field for a resource, the http request action would look like this:

Note the resource GUID is in the URI and both the Method and Headers are different!

What about Lookup Table Values?

Lookup table value updates via REST have the same requirements as updating those values via JSOM (or CSOM), see my earlier post – Updating Lookup Table values using JSOM – for more on that.

In summary though, we need to first identify the lookup entry internal name, something like “Entry_412bb4bd5661e711a989000d3a28f1ff” then we need to pass that to the request as an array.

The request body now will look like this:

I’ve left in the previous example to demonstrate how to set two custom fields at once, but the important part here is lines 9 – 16 which include the additional syntax you will need to set an array type value. Once again passing the value as an array is required for both single value lookups as well as multi-value.

Final words

This ProcessQuery endpoint is not publicly documented by Microsoft but a long time ago I discussed this with some people from the product group and their response was that while not officially supported, it is  supported in the sense that it will not change until JSOM and CSOM are both disabled, as that’s how they internally work.

So use it with the usual warnings, but biggest of all: I take no responsibility or offer no support for how you use the above. Feel free to ask a question in the comments below, if I can help I will, but no guarantees.

Share and Enjoy !

21 comments.

Thanks for your post. I wrote something related on this topic: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Project/Project-workflows-How-the-quot-Send-an-HTTP-request-to/m-p/217812#M288 I just used the standard fields of the project, but I will try the custom fields for the project as well.

Hi, Thanks for sharing! I just tested your method out for some project fields and it works nicely like you said for the default fields, but it didn’t accept custom fields unfortunately. It seems it works in the same way as with updating resource fields. I guess one of the above approaches is required.

Cheers, Martin

How do you access the local project lookup table for a custom field with the REST API? I can get to a list of lookup entries for enterprise fields by ProjectServer/LookupTables(‘a7e72b5f-ef3c-e911-afc3-00155d0c6c29’)/Entries. Is there a way to get to project level custom fields? I can see the entries in my tasks, but I can’t find the corresponding lookup tables to figure out what the entry values actually are for local custom fields.

Hi Eric, Local field values will not show in the REST (or even PSI) APIs, any fields must be created as enterprise custom fields to be set via REST or any server side API. The only way it is possible to work with local fields / lookups is via the client object model using VBA or .NET (VSTO). Regards, Martin

We are using project server 2016 on premise. We need create projects and update project custom fields using CSOM. setCustomFieldValue is not exist in 2016 version. Is there any option please let me know.

Not available? I use the JSOM API all the time with 2016 (actually 2013 -> Project Online) in my apps, so if you can’t find the method using CSOM, check the version of the CSOM NuGet package you are using as it is possible.

Hi Martin, Can you provide an example of updating a custom resource lookup field value with Flow? I have a customer need and happy to engage you as a consultant. I have other Project Online customizatations needed as well.

Hi, Martin!

Nice job. Do you know how to update Base Calendar of a resource? I try a patch request to “_api/projectServer/EnterpriseResource(‘ResourceGuid’)/BaseCalendar” with body: {“__metadata”:{“type”: “PS.Calendar”}, “Id”:”” }

It seems to work with 204 code status. But it isn’t change the resouce’s base calendar.

Could you help me, please?

Hi, I haven’t tried that via REST myself and from much experience with other Project endpoints it takes some trial and error. Looking on MSDN you might be able to use the same REST syntax (using MERGE and PUT) as the PS.Calendar object: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/project-javascript-api/jj669502(v%3doffice.15)

The PUT syntax would be something like:

PUT _api/projectServer/EnterpriseResource(‘ResourceGuid’)/BaseCalendar [Other headers here] { “calendarid”: “GUID of Calendar” }

I’m just guessing but that’s worth a try.

HTH, Martin

Hello very good contribution, but I have a question, how to extract the contents of a custom field to save it in a SharePoint list

Hi, you should be able to use the out of the box List Projects Flow action to retrieve custom fields. The syntax it takes for the “Select Query” is an OData query, so through that you can select any custom field for a project. You can test your query easily enough by browsing the OData endpoint under PWA, in the browser try something like /sites/pwa/_api/ProjectData/Projects/ to see all the fields.

Martin, I’ve been trying with no luck to update a Task level field. I using the Update Task action and have both the Project ID and Task ID. I’ve tried various ways to update a field e.g }, “IssueKey”:”@{variables(‘IssueKey’)}” } That I found in another blog and this }, “IssueKey”:”@{variables(‘IssueKey’)}” } However, I get the error The parameter IssueKey does not exist in method GetById. clientRequestId: 2eaffa04-15ce-4ace-beb1-aacead44f713 serviceRequestId: 979d129f-60a8-9000-05df-1baf84ca3223

Any pointer would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Brian, I have not tried to update Task custom fields before, only creating tasks.. From the lack of MS documentation on the topic I can only assume that the process is the same as in this post above with updating Resource custom fields which required the use of the ProcessQuery endpoint. This is because the documented Update method (which maps to the REST, JSOM, CSOM and eventually the Flow actions) only supports OOB fields. So I guess the only option would be some reverse engineering to get the XML payload required for the ProcessQuery endpoint, then using the Send HTTP Request to SharePoint action with that method.

Sorry I can’t be any more help. Martin

Martin, I have been searching on how to update a Task level field using flow but very little out there Can you advise how to update a Task level field?

Thanks in advance, Brian.

i am trying to update the resource lookup field and passing the value as showing in your example, the flow is successful completed but its not updating the value in the fields.

i verified the action output and its showing unknown error. ErrorTypeName”: “Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UnknownError.

From using this method many times I can suggest trying the following: Remove any unnecessary spacing or tabs from the xml, that fixes most issues. Also I’ve seen cases where the xml namespace is not correctly interpreted (why I can’t say!), so for example this works: <Request xmlns=" http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/clientquery/2009&quot ; SchemaVersion="15.0.0.0" LibraryVersion="16.0.0.0" ApplicationName="Javascript Library">

But for no good reason this doesn’t: <Request xmlns=" http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/clientquery/2009&quot ; LibraryVersion="16.0.0.0" SchemaVersion="15.0.0.0" ApplicationName="Javascript Library">

(Note the order of properties)

Like I said that makes no sense, but it fixed a problem for me once before. HTH, Martin

i tried to update the code as per your suggestion above but now its showing different error

@{items(‘Apply_to_each_2’)[‘InternalName’]}

@{items(‘Apply_to_each_3’)[‘InternalName’]}

@{items(‘Apply_to_each’)[‘ResourceId’]}

“SchemaVersion”: “15.0.0.0”, “LibraryVersion”: “16.0.20113.12008”, “ErrorInfo”: { “ErrorMessage”: “Name cannot begin with the ‘1’ character, hexadecimal value 0x31. Line 1, position 95.”, “ErrorValue”: null, “TraceCorrelationId”: “b0e5569f-0079-b000-8e08-6fbb8131acf9”, “ErrorCode”: -1, “ErrorTypeName”: “System.Xml.XmlException” }, “TraceCorrelationId”: “b0e5569f-0079-b000-8e08-6fbb8131acf9” } ]

Will this work for Document Libraries?

Thanks for the tutorial. I’ve set up a flow with this code, but when I run it, no changes are made. I tried making many alteration to see if I can get it to work. The error message I keep getting is:

“SchemaVersion”: “15.0.0.0”, “LibraryVersion”: “16.0.20203.12005”, “ErrorInfo”: { “ErrorMessage”: “Unknown Error”, “ErrorValue”: null, “TraceCorrelationId”: “20495d9f-1006-b000-2102-44cd24394456”, “ErrorCode”: -1, “ErrorTypeName”: “Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.UnknownError” }, “TraceCorrelationId”: “20495d9f-1006-b000-2102-44cd24394456”

And this is what my code currently is:

65041374-ad2f-e456-afad-00155d6c680b

fcb7e097-932f-e911-afae-00345d862c02

a98b9384-3dsb-e911-b087-00155de49008

How about setting the Timesheet Manager, Default Assignment Owner or Base Calendar?

Recent Posts

• Easy Reports PCF Component
• BulkEdit App package download now available
• Getting more out of Flow connectors – Session slides and demos
• I’ll be speaking next month on extending Microsoft Flow
• Development
• HolidaySync
• Project 2007
• Project 2010
• Project 2013
• Project 2016
• Project Online
• Project Pro 2007
• Project Pro 2010
• SharePoint 2007
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013
• Troubleshooting
• Uncategorized

Search Forums

Recent topics.

• Is it possible to restrict access to projects based on user’s permission group?
• Bulk Edit App stopped working after SP patching
• Update Project Start / Finish Dates
• Onprem install without appcatalog – wsp version
• Page loading Error
• Bulk Edit Support Forum
• Holiday Sync Support

Copy short link

• Search forums
• Newsgroup Archive
• Project Newsgroups
• Project Server

Default generic resource task assignment owner in templates

• Thread starter .jussi
• Start date Jan 27, 2009
• Jan 27, 2009

Hello everyone, I'm looking for experiences in using generic resources for tasks assignments in templates. The way we use them is roughly as follows: * Enterprise templates have generic resources assigned to tasks * Project managers create new projects using the templates and form a rough schedule * Resource manager reviews the schedule, sees which real resources are best available for implementation and replaces the generics with real resources My problem is that the generic resource task assignments' ownership defaults to me. It seems that a project created from an enterprise template inherits this information from the template. The assignment should default to the project manager - any ideas how to accomplish this? Once the generic resource is replaced with a real resource, the assignment ownership passes over to the real resource, but until then it is assigned to the default assignment owner - which seems to be me due to the enterprise template. Thank you in advance, - Jussi  

Marc Soester [MVP]

Hi Jussi, unfortunalty what you describe is a bug in Project server. When creating a template, the user who created the template remains the status manager of the tasks. There are some workarounds. The way I handle this is I set up a Administrator account that I use to create templates. This means that generic resource assignments are displayed in the administrator account which avoids messing up my task page. Somethimes you want that generic resources are updated by other users. In this case you will need to change the status manager for this task manually. I hope this makes sense and helps  

Hi Marc, That is exactly the work-around I ended up with - I saved all the templates using an separate admin account. Unfortunately this does not work retroactively but fortunately for the few projects that do not get resourced quickly and thus would linger on my tasks list I am able to go set the task owners to the respective project managers. It is starting to feel like that either I am extraordinarily talented in running across every single one of them or PS2007 has more serious bugs than I would expect a product of this profile (and price) to have. Thank you again, you've made my life a bit easier once again. - Jussi  

Gary L. Chefetz

Actually, this one was fixed in one of the CUs. Update your system to make this go away. However, note that the summary tasks will continue to reflect the creator of the template, but this is not a problem because you don't add resources to summary tasks. -- ---------- Gary L. Chefetz, MVP MSProjectExperts Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com  

• Jan 28, 2009

Excellent, thank you! I'll go look for the CU and see what happens. We are patched up to October, but have been waiting for the SP2 to land as our bigger problems have not been issued in the CU's. - Jussi  

Are you certain that you applied your updates to both the client and Server? I'm fairly certain that this was fixed by the October CU. -- ---------- Gary L. Chefetz, MVP MSProjectExperts Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com  

• Apr 1, 2009

I'm have this issue now, we've updated with CU thorugh December, but i'm getting the generic resources assigned to me even though the status manager was changed to be someone else for all tasks (expect summary tasks of course) and this was done before the project was published the first time. Any suggestions?  

Jan: Are we talking about assignment owner or are we talking about status manager? The problem with jumping into a thread with a me-too post is that symptoms can be similar and the problem very different. Jussi's problem was with templates, specifically. Is this your issue? Generic resources do not have assignment owners, so whoever publishes the tasks (Status Manager) will see these on their My Tasks page. Is this what you're dealing with? I recently blogged on this subject and need to do a follow-up blog post to explain how to transition away from this problem midstream. Check it out at: http://www.projectserverhelp.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=48 -- ---------- Gary L. Chefetz, MVP MSProjectExperts Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com  

Hi Gary, I was referring to creating a project from a template that has generic resources and when the project manager published the project all the generic resources assignments showed up in my task view. We checked the status manager in the project and it was the PM who published. I checked the generic resources and I don't see an assignment owner nor do i see where i can assign or unassign an assignment owner. I'll check out your blog for more info. Thanks Jan  

Jan: Once you read the blog post, you'll understand what's going on here. -- ---------- Gary L. Chefetz, MVP MSProjectExperts Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com  

Shawn Everingham

• Jun 11, 2009

Gary, I responded to your blog post, but not sure if it went any where. I have a great need to have the functionality you address in this blog post. Well written, and thanks for the guidance in regards to Generic Resouces. So, I have a Generic Resource, named, Generic: DBA. As a generic resource, the RES_DEF_ASSN_OWNER is NULL in the table MSP_RESOURCES in the published database. I have set this field for the Generic: DBA to be the RES_UID for the DBA Team Lead, for example. So RES_DEF_ASSN_OWNER = RES_UID of a REAL LIVE resource. I would think this would send the Default Assignment Owner 1) an email when the project is published and a task has been assigned to the Generic: DBA resource, 2) the task would show up on the DBA Team Lead's My Tasks page. This is not happening. Even though the RES_DEF_ASSN_OWNER = RES_UID of a live resource, when I add the column in MS Proejct Assignement Owner for the task, it shows ME...the project owner. So the task shows up in MY Tasks list, not the 'hacked' RES_DEF_ASSN_OWNER field. Why is MS Project not grabbing the default assignment owner? Is there another field that governs this behavior? thanks in advance! Shawn  

Shawn: If you're using the a modified stored procedure to accomplish your setting, understand that by doing this in the database we are outside Project Server database, and can't get around program logic that omits generic resources from notification emails. The only problem that I am reasonably certain is safe and effective to solve using this technique is to clear these assignments form the Project Manger's My Task page without unpublishing them. As generic resources, I would expect system behavior to be consistent for the resource type regardless of the default assignment owner. I'm not endorsing your change because I have not tested for potential consequences, however you could certainly add your own custom notifications, -- ---------- Gary L. Chefetz, MVP MSProjectExperts Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com  

Gary, Thank you for the quick reply. You may have misunderstood me. I'm not looking for endorsement for your solution to Generic Resources. What I would like to understand, is I follow your procedure to update the RES_DEF_ASSN_OWNER with the RES_UID of the generic resource itself. UPDATE MSP_RESOURCES SET RES_DEF_ASSN_OWNER = RES_UID WHERE (RES_TYPE = 20) cept, my where clause is WHERE (RES_NAME like 'Generic: DBA%') However, this does not remove it from my tasks (I'm the project owner). It would also seem logical, that if I assigned the RES_DEF_ASSN_OWNER a valid GUID for a valid, live resource, then when I assign a task to the generic resource, then the Assignment Owner ought to equal the Default Assignment Owner, in this case, a valid resource. However, this is not the case. It defaults to the project owner for the Assignment Owner when I assign a Generic resource to a task. Taking this a step further, I tried to manually change the field Assignment Owner in my MS Project project by adding the Assignment Owner field and changing it value from my name (the project owner) to another valid resource. Project, however, would not accept the resource for the assignment owner field, because that resource was not in my 'Resource Team' for the project. I added this live/valid/enterprise resource to my team, made him/her the Assignment Owner, and sure enough, those tasks, although assigned to a Generic resource, showed up on the Assignment Owner's My Task page...as hoped. My question is, why is the default assignment owner not populating in my projects Assignment Owner field, and instead, populating that field with the project owner...seems to go against your solution...help?! Thanks!  

• Jun 15, 2009

Shawn: Perhaps I didn't express myself well in the previous post, but my point is that I can't tell you what the application logic is behind the behaviors you are describing as I'm not privy to the code base. It's clear to me just by the lack of constraints in the database is that all database integrity is handled programmatically and I have no idea what the system can tolerate beyond the hack I specified as I have not tried to push this out-of-band solution any further, other than asking for a Design change around this for the next version. The reply I got for the design change seemed to suggest that the capacity for generic resources to be their own assignment owners may have been the original design intent and that this somehow got lost in the sauce. So the only thing I can say with certainty is that the system seems to support the hack for setting generic resources as their own assignment owners through this stored procedure hack. From what you report, I can only surmise that in extending the hack, you're running afoul of some logic in the code. -- ---------- Gary L. Chefetz, MVP MSProjectExperts Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com  

• Jun 16, 2009

Shawn: Perhaps I didn't express myself well in the previous post, but my point is that I can't tell you what the application logic is behind the behaviors you are describing as I'm not privy to the code base. It's clear to me just by the lack of constraints in the database is that all database integrity is handled programmatically and I have no idea what the system can tolerate beyond the hack I specified as I have not tried to push this out-of-band solution any further, other than asking for a Design change around this for the next version. The reply I got for the design change seemed to suggest that the capacity for generic resources to be their own assignment owners may have been the original design intent and that this somehow got lost in the sauce. So the only thing I can say with certainty is that the system seems to support the hack for setting generic resources as their own assignment owners through this stored procedure hack. From what you report, I can only surmise thatin extending the hack, you're running afoul of some logic in the code. -- ---------- Gary L. Chefetz, MVP MSProjectExperts Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com message ... read more »- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Click to expand...

Shawn: Perhaps I didn't express myself well in the previous post, but my point is that I can't tell you what the application logic is behind the behaviors you are describing as I'm not privy to the code base. It's clear to me just by the lack of constraints in the database is that all database integrity is handled programmatically and I have no idea what the system can tolerate beyond the hack I specified as I have not tried to push this out-of-band solution any further, other than asking for a Design change around this for the next version. The reply I got for the design change seemed to suggest that the capacity for generic resources to be their own assignment owners may have been the original design intent and that this somehow got lost in the sauce. So the only thing I can say with certainty is that the system seems to support the hack for setting generic resources as their own assignment owners through this stored procedure hack. From what you report, I can only surmise that in extending the hack, you're running afoul of some logic in the code. -- ---------- Gary L. Chefetz, MVP MSProjectExperts Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com message ... read more »- Hide quoted text - - Show quoted text - Click to expand...

• Jun 22, 2009

Gary, thanks so much for the detail in your response. I agree that extending the 'work around' causes a foul with the code...thanks for clearing that up. Shawn  

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Similar Threads

What is Default Assignment Owner field?

The Default Assignment Owner field contains the name of the enterprise user who is responsible for entering status on a given assignment.

Add resources to the enterprise resource pool

The enterprise resource pool is used to manage and assign resources to plans within Project Server. In Microsoft Project Professional, you can add resources to the list of enterprise resources that are contained within Project Server.

Note:  You must have appropriate permissions to add resources to the enterprise resource pool.

What do you want to do?

Add individual resources to the enterprise resource pool, add multiple resources from project to the enterprise resource pool, add more resources from the enterprise resource pool in microsoft project professional.

Adding resources within Microsoft Project requires that Microsoft Project Professional be connected to Project Server with an account that has permissions to add resources to the enterprise.

Project Web Access is displayed within your Web browser  

Note:  The Web browser may have opened up behind Project. Check the Windows task bar to see if a new Web browser has opened.

Specify the following items about the new resource:

Resource Type      To change the resource type, in the Type list, select work resource , cost resource , or material resource . You also can choose whether the resource is a budget resource or a generic resource by selecting the Budget check box or Generic check box.

Note:  Clear the Resource can logon to Project Server check box if you don't want to collect information on tasks that the resource works on, or if you don't want the resource to log on to Microsoft Project Server.

Resource Name and other identifying information      This includes the actual name of the resource, as well as the e-mail address and Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) value.

If this resource maintains a team Web site, type the hyperlink name and the URL address in the Hyperlink Name box and Hyperlink URL box respectively.

Leveling      To exclude this resource from the leveling process, clear the Can Level check box.

Timesheet manager and default assignment owner      If the resource has a Timesheet Manager or Default Assignment owner, other than himself, type or search for the manager’s name.

To specify the assignment owner, in the Default Assignment Owner box, type or search for the assignment owner's name. Typically, the assignment owner is the work resource who was initially assigned to the task, but the assignment owner could also be a manager or anyone else on a team.

To specify the project calendar that should be applied to the resource, in the Base Calendar list, select the calendar.

You can choose whether the resource is committed or proposed to work on a project by choosing the Default Booking Type box.

Team details      If the resource name represents a Team of resources, then check the box Team Assignment Pool and browse for the team name.

Cost and group codes      If your organization created codes for grouping and costing purposes, select these codes in the Group box, Code box, Cost Center box, and Cost Type box.

Your organization may require additional information about your resources. Under Resource Custom Fields , enter the information that your organization requires for each resource. This section won't appear if your organization has not defined custom resource fields.

Choose Save .

If you want an enterprise resource to work on a task within your project, you need to use the feature Build Team from Enterprise in your project. Learn how to add resources to your project .

Before you can add multiple resources to the enterprise resource pool, you need to add them to the Resource Sheet view, or start with a plan that already has resources.

Enter the resource you want to import into the enterprise resource pool. If you already have resources in your project that aren't part of the enterprise resource pool, these existing resources will be imported.

On the Resources tab, select Add Resources , and then select Import Resources to Enterprise . The Import Resources wizard is displayed on the left, with the Resource Sheet view on the right that contains the resources in the current project.

To map any customized fields you have in your project with enterprise custom fields that are defined by your organization, select Map Resource Fields . After mapping resource fields, select OK in the Map Custom Fields dialog box.

Select Continue to Step 2 for each resource that you want to add to the enterprise resource pool.

Note:  The Resource Sheet view will have an Errors column to give you warnings of any mistakes made in importing resources.

In the Import Resources wizard, select Yes in the corresponding Import column. This step will insure that no errors are created when resources are imported into the enterprise resource pool. Any errors will appear next to the resource name in the Errors column to the right.

Select Save and Finish . The resources have now been imported to the enterprise resource pool.

You can select a Project plan from an earlier version of Project to import resources. This is useful if you have resources in .mpp files from earlier versions of Project or resource lists in other file formats.

If you want to add resources that already exist in a database or a list in Microsoft Office Excel, use the Import Wizard that appears when you open a file that is not a Microsoft Project Plan (MPP) or Microsoft Project Template (MPT) file, or when you select ODBC in the Open dialog box. Learn how to add or update enterprise resources using an external data file .

Multiple resources can also be added from Project Server.

Note:  You have to select at least one resource in order to open Enterprise Resource Pool in Project Professional.

In Project, add resources to the Resource Sheet view.

Close and save Project.

Note:  Your organization may require additional information about your resources. Under Resource Custom Fields , enter the information that your organization requires for each resource. This section will appear only if your organization has custom resource fields.

The resources that you added to the project will be added to the enterprise resource pool.

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

404 Not found

Assignment Owner (assignment field)

Data Type     Enumerated

Entry Type     Calculated or entered

Description     The Assignment Owner field contains the name of the user who is responsible for entering status in Project Web App for the current assignment.

How Calculated     Work resources own their own assignments by default. Assignments with material resources and generic resources are owned by the default assignment owner, if one is identified. If there is no default assignment owner, the Assignment Owner field contains the name of the person who created the project plan. This field can be changed to any work resource who is a part of the project team. Cost resources do not have assignment owners.

Best Uses     Add the Assignment Owner field to the Task Usage or Resource Usage view when you need to review or update the name of the individuals who are to enter status for the assignments. Update this field if a team member other than the assigned work resource will be entering status for the assignment, or if there are multiple assigned resources, and one of them is to be responsible for reporting status in Project Web App. Specify an assignment owner if the resource does not have a default assignment owner or if you want to change it.

Example     Wilson is assigned to a number of tasks in the project. For five of these tasks during the month of July, he will be working away from the office and unable to access a computer to report on his assignment status. His manager, Pilar, is available during that time period, so she has set herself to be the assignment owner for those five assignments. Pilar will then be able to enter status information for Wilson on those assignments.

In your construction project, you have two resources assigned to all tasks having to do with laying brick: the work resource Keith, the bricklayer, and the material resource "Bricks." In addition to being the assignment owner for his work assignments, Keith has also been designated the assignment owner for the "Bricks" assignments. When reporting assignment status, Keith enters the number of hours he has worked on his assignments. He also enters the number of bricks he has used in the fulfillment of these assignments.

Remarks     Team members who are identified as assignment owners can see the assignment in Project Web App.

You can set the assignment owner for an individual assignment using the Assignment Information dialog box.

You can set the assignment owners for all resources assigned to a single task through the Task Information dialog box.

The Assignment Owner field is not available for local (non-enterprise) resources.

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.