Watch Out: Portfolio Server 2007 - Special Characters in Project Name in Portfolio Server 2007

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First one in "Watch Out: Portfolio Server 2007"

Portfolio Server 2007 has no check for special characters in Project Name.

All the functionality of PPS 2007 works fine till the time we hit and try to synchronize a project with a special character in it.

Like it or not! – Project Server 2007 has validation checks and do not allow below special characters in project name.

§ Project name should be less than 200 characters

§ . (period)

§ \

§ "

§ /

§ :

§ ;

§ |

§ ?

§ '

§ <

§ >

§ *

§ #

So all PPS 2007 admin – get ready for some proactive stuff; train the users for not using special characters in project name in PPS

How do we find the projects already created with special character?

Below SQL can help (not the best / optimized SQL but will do the job).

SELECT * FROM sfSTRUCTURE_ENTRIES

WHERE (NAME LIKE '%.%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%\%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%"%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%/%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%:%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%;%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%|%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%?%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%''%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%<%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%>%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%*%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%#%')

OR (NAME LIKE '"%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%"')

OR (NAME LIKE '''%')

OR (NAME LIKE '%''')

 

Run this SQL on the PPS database.

Obvious questions – Should we add a trigger to perform the validation.

Well – from PSS support policy perspective answer is NO.

As an simple alternate – create a simple report and deploy the same to the Reporting Service instance of PPS. Subscribe to report .. Take manual action of requesting users to extend help.