Project 2007 Compatibility Mode (Project Server 2010 settings)

Project 2007 Compatibility Mode

Project 2007 compatibility mode allows an upgraded Project Server 2010 instance to accept client connections from Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and also Project Professional 2010. This setting is only configurable if your deployment has been upgraded from Microsoft Office Project Server 2007. (By default, it is enabled after the upgrade.) This feature in Project Server 2010 is also known as backward compatibility mode (BCM).

Backward compatibility mode (BCM) is a feature in Project Server 2010 that assists in the upgrade of an Enterprise Project Management environment. Project Server 2010 accepts connections from the Microsoft Project Professional 2010 client. But it can also accept connections from Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) if BCM is enabled in Project Server 2010. BCM is enabled automatically after you upgrade to Project Server 2010. After you upgrade to Project Server 2010 (by either the in-place or database-attach upgrade method), BCM enables you to avoid having to upgrade your Office Project Professional 2007 client computers at the same time. Because Project Server 2010 accepts connections from both Office Project Professional 2007 SP2 and Project Professional 2010 clients when BCM is enabled, you can decide to upgrade the clients later, and in batches (running in a mixed environment), if you want. When you have finished upgrading the clients to Project Professional 2010, you can turn off BCM in Project Server 2010 server settings, which then allows for only Project Professional 2010 connections.

We recommend that BCM be enabled only as a temporary measure to help in the upgrade process. When Project Server 2010 is configured in backward compatibility mode, Project Professional 2010 clients that connect with Project Server 2010 have certain features disabled. The disabled features cause the following limitations:

• Manually scheduled tasks are not available on the server or client.

• Tasks cannot be set to inactive.

• Font strikethrough is not available.

• All departmental custom fields are enforced in Office Project Professional 2007.

All new features that are available in Project Professional 2010 (for example, Timeline, Team Planner, 32-bit colors) are available to Project Professional 2010 users, but not to Office Project Professional 2007 SP2 users.

An instance of Office Project Professional 2007 SP2 connecting to Project Server 2010 in backward compatibility mode is blocked from providing functionality that requires loading a Microsoft Project Web App page in the client. This includes doing approvals and opening enterprise resources. As a workaround, you can use Project Web App on a Web browser to do these functions until you are ready to upgrade to Project Professional 2010. Additionally, workflow-controlled custom fields are not available in Office Project Professional 2007 SP2.

Project Server 2010 prevents you from creating cross-project type links (resource sharing, cross-project dependencies, and master/subproject) on mixed Project file versions. For example, you cannot create a cross-project link from a project that is in compatibility mode (Office Project 2007 format) with one that is in the native mode (Project 2010 format). What this means is that after you disable backward compatibility mode, as you open and save projects, they are converted to native mode. However, projects that have not been opened and saved remain in compatibility mode. Project Server 2010 does not let you create or even connect projects that are in different modes. Therefore, your cross-project links do not fully function until all of the related projects are opened and saved so that they are all in Project 2010 format.

When BCM is disabled in Project Server 2010, Project Server is running in native mode. In native mode, only Project Professional 2010 clients are able to connect to Project Server 2010. However, Project Professional 2010 features that were not available in BCM (such as manually scheduled tasks) become available in native mode.

To disable Project 2007 compatibility mode (backward compatibility mode)

1. On the Server Settings page, in the Operational Policies section, click Additional Server Settings.

2. On the Additional Server Settings page, in the Project 2007 Compatibility Mode section, clear the Enable Project 2007 Compatibility Mode check box.

3. Click OK.

4. After making the change, you must check out and open the Enterprise Global file in Microsoft Project Professional 2010. In the Enterprise Global file, make a very minor change (for example, dragging the splitter bar on the screen), save the file, and then check it back in. This is required to upgrade the Enterprise Global file to the newer version of the Microsoft Project Professional client.

See Also

Concepts

Backward compatibility mode (Project Server 2010 TechNet Webcast)