Clarity

Hi all,

a customer needs to upgrade Clarity from 13.2 to 14.2.

He has the MSP plugin installed on all user pcs. The actual version of MSP installed is 2007.

Part of the upgrade process will be also the upgrade of MSP from 2007 to 2013.

Is there a best practice to upgrade the MSP plugin in this case? Do the customer need to uninstall the previous version and install the new one? Or can directly install the new version?

Thanks to everybody

Fabio

The best practice is to search this community

You could start with

https://communities.ca.com/message/101976991#101976991

There are more in little bits if you learn to use the search like

https://communities.ca.com/message/105597047#105597047

https://communities.ca.com/message/101683684#101683684

https://communities.ca.com/message/100930766#100930766

Do uninstall instructions exist for 14.2 MSP Connector?  I will be testing 14.2, but will need to revert back to 13.1 for production purposes until we go live with 14.2 later this year.

If you are upgrading from 13.1 to 14.2, it should be okay that you install it on top of it, without the need of uninstalling (only uninstall in case you face any installation error). 14.2 installer should take care of that (earlier versions do not!).

Also, for uninstalling (downgrading), please remove it via Control Panel. You may have two or three components there, such as CA Clarity PPM Microsoft Project Interface and CA Clarity PPM Schedule Connect and CAClarityAddin.

Best regards.

Thank you Marc.  I may need to use this sooner than planned, as I'm getting the following "SchedLink MFC Application has stopped working" error when loading of the XML file begins:

I followed the stops from https://communities.ca.com/message/101976991#101976991 which were copied to the Cookbook.  Running MSP2010 32-bit with Windows 7 64-bit and Java 7 32-bit installed from our 13.1 Account Settings\Software Downloads page (jre-7ul11-windows-i586.exe - which is working fine with 13.1).  I have a current/recent install of MSP2010, so the patch, .Net Framework and Visual Studio updates are all present.  OWB and SDK were not installed previously, so there was nothing to do there as part of the uninstall.

Starting from MSP side, I can contact 14.2, see the list of projects, select a project and start the process.  The project will get locked on 14.2 side, but then nothing progresses.  Starting on 14.2 side, opening the project in MSP Read/Write starts MSP, locks the project in 14.2 and runs well until it hits the "loading XML file" bit - then halts with the error message above.

Don't know where to turn now.  I see in these threads mention of JRE 1.6 - if Java 7u11 is working fine with 13.1, do I need to downgrade to an older version of JRE to get rid of the SchedLink error?  I have solved this same error message before in previous versions, by upgrading JRE - perhaps there is something in JRE 1.6 that was not carried into newer versions?  Hate to think that I have to take something that works for 13.1 and downgrade to an older version to make it work in 14.2.

Dale

Uninstalled MSP Interface, SchedLink and CA APP using Control Panel\Remove Programs.  Also, removed JRE.  Then reinstalled starting with JRE.

No change in behavior - still crashing on "Writing XML files."

I then uninstalled the CA components and reinstalled using "Legacy" version - works fine, now.  Don't yet know what is wrong/missing from the new installation that causes it to crash during XML write.

Using Event Viewer can pull the following text from event log.  One note - the AppData folder is not visible to me.  I have a question in to our IT team regarding admin rights, so that I might retrieve the mentioned files, to see what other info might be there to help debug this issue.

Does anyone know if lack of access to the AppData  or any other folder could be the root cause of this issue in the first place?

Fault bucket 944965317, type 17

Event Name: APPCRASH

Response: Not available

Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:

P1: SchedLink.exe

P2: 1.0.0.2

P3: 54fc5c27

P4: SchedLink.exe

P5: 1.0.0.2

P6: 54fc5c27

P7: 40000015

P8: 00106ce5

P9:

P10:

Attached files:

C:\Users\stockmandc\AppData\Local\Temp\WER6BFB.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml

These files may be available here:

C:\Users\stockmandc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_SchedLink.exe_26d43fa31a7029a3de8346d9132347ed5856d42_0ee67a6d

Analysis symbol:

Rechecking for solution: 0

Report Id: 34df997e-3a22-11e5-9658-68f72869cc14

Report Status: 0

Ok - I've had a "Doh!" moment.  Answer to interface stalling during 'Writing XML Files" can be found at CA PPM Tuesday Tip: Restricted access to Program Files directories require the install directory of the new 14.x MSP Driver to be changed

Since implement the ideas found in above link, have a different problem, now.  Will take this problem to the "restricted access" thread.

Done, here.

Hi Fabio,

I was also going to suggest some links (as urmas has done). FYI, the Tuesday Tip link he gave was also published in our CA PPM online magazine (cookbook of related articles, really) on Flipboard here:

Tuesday Tip: Microsoft Project and OpenWorkbench Add-ins for CA Clarity PPM | CA PPM Cookbook

For brevity, I like Marc's response. I don't claim to be an expert, but if it can be removed via the Programs and Features Control Panel (referring to Windows 7 on most corporate desktops and laptops), that is less complex than I had previously thought.

Cheers,

Damon

I have been testing this plugin for weeks now.  When you install it, you will have a choice between the legacy driver and the "new" driver. I have had so many issues with the "new" driver, that I had to toss it aside. The new driver supports MSP 2013 SP1, whereas the legacy does not.

CA support wrote up one of my defects : that we have Fixed Work as our default for project. the New driver always changes all the tasks to Fixed units, thus messing up the entire forecast (we do forecasts in MSP which then lead to populating the cost plan in clarity ). There is also an odd message that pops up with the new driver about the task end dates and actual through dates and no matter what option you choose, the system wipes out of overwrites your task dates and forecast.. there is a long list I have open with CA support,, so be on alert, depending on how you use MSP.  The save message is a tiny little message in the lower right of your system tray. When it is done,then a message will display. But, if you click on the project while it is saving it can lock up-- so to me, that is a poor usability change to not be able to clearly see  the progress of the save.

Anyway, for me, I was able to install it on top of the 13.3, but then I also tested with a full uninstall (as mentioned above). Either way, the plug in installed, but again, depending on which driver you choose and how you use MSP, you may or may not experience issues. The legacy driver still has some of the same critical defects that exist with today's interface.  I have an ongoing case... Good luck!

I just saw that new issue yesterday for the new driver where tasks created in CA PPM (Clarity) are exported to MSP as Fixed Units even though the MSP default is set to Fixed Work. As a workaround, I think we have it noted to manually change the task type in MSP and save back to Clarity. Hope that helps. Thanks for sharing in the community forum for CA PPM. You can also find valuable information and apply gentle criticism to the CA PPM product documentation found here:

https://wiki.ca.com/display/CCPPMOP142/Microsoft+Project+and+Schedule+Connect+Configuration

Kind Regards,
Damon

Hi Damon

Yes we know that is the work around, but that is a horrible work around when you have large implementation projects that contains tons of tasks.  The business of Professional Services is quite different than say development type projects.  Anyway, we had tons of issues with the new driver testing, so I have been focusing on the legacy drive. But they did agree to put our critical MSP defects in 14.2 patch 5, so now we are waiting on that.