Release Notes
Rational ProjectConsole

for Windows
Version: 2002.05.00

Copyright (c) 2001, Rational Software Corporation.

All Rights Reserved.

 

This document contains the following sections:

Installation and Setup Notes

General Technical Notes

Known Defects

Contacting Rational Technical Support

Installation and Setup Notes

Chapter 3, Installing and Setting Up Rational ProjectConsole in the printed document, Installation Guide, Rational ProjectConsole provides most of the information you need to install the Rational ProjectConsole software during installation of a Rational Suite product, and to get ProjectConsole up and running. This section provides additions and changes to the content provided in Chapter 3.

It contains the following subsections:

Before You Install

Setting Up the ProjectConsole Server

Using Vendor Databases

Using Tomcat as the Web Server

Before You Install

Before you install this release, we strongly recommend that you uninstall earlier versions of Rational Suite products.

Setting Up the ProjectConsole Server

Starting the ProjectConsole Servers

The Installation Guide, Rational ProjectConsole manual states that, to start the ProjectConsole servers, you must run the ServerStartup.bat file. The procedure for starting the servers has changed since the manual was printed.

To start the ProjectConsole servers:

·         Click Start > Programs > RationalSuiteProduct > Rational ProjectConsole > Start Rational ProjectConsole Servers.

After you do this, you should see a DOS Command Prompt window that indicates that the servers are ready. In addition, one or more xmlagents.exe DOS windows open.  You can safely minimize these windows. Do not close them.

Note  On a machine on which you have installed only the ProjectConsole agent software, you can use the same procedure to start the servers for the collection agents.

To stop the ProjectConsole servers, type “stop” in the Command Prompt window and close the xmlagents.exe window(s).

Using Vendor Databases

Connecting to an Oracle Database from an Oracle 8/8i Client

If you are using an Oracle database, and the database server is a machine other than the ProjectConsole server machine, you must configure ProjectConsole to use the correct version of the Oracle client.  You need only do this once on the ProjectConsole server machine before you start the ProjectConsole servers.

If you are using the Oracle 8.0 client, run the following command:

installutil registeroracleoption client_ver=8.0

If you are using the Oracle 8.1 (or 8i) client, run the following command:

installutil registeroracleoption client_ver=8.1

The procedures used to connect to vendor databases are identical for ProjectConsole and Rational ClearQuest. For more information, see the section ClearQuest with Oracle in the online document Rational ClearQuest Release Notes. To access the Rational ClearQuest Release Notes document, click Start > Programs > RationalSuiteProduct > Rational ClearQuest > Rational ClearQuest Release Notes.

Installing Microsoft SQL Server 2000

During the installation of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, there is an option to use “Windows only authentication” or “mixed mode (Windows and SQL Server) authentication”. You must select mixed mode (Windows and SQL Server) authentication in order for ProjectConsole to function properly.

Using Tomcat as the Web Server

If you have installed a Rational Suite product other than Rational Suite Enterprise and plan to use Tomcat, and not IIS, as your Web server, you must add the COMMONHOME environment variable to the System variables, and set its value to the installation directory for ProjectConsole. The default installation directory for ProjectConsole is:

C:\ProgramFiles\Rational\Common

If you have installed ProjectConsole to a different location, use that directory as the value for the COMMONHOME environment variable.

General Technical Notes

This section contains general technical notes for using Rational ProjectConsole.

Change Request ID:

RATLC00006135

Component:

ProjectConsole Administrator

Description:

When configuring ProjectConsole to run with the Microsoft IIS Web server, the ProjectConsole virtual directory must not have "execute" privilege. If it does, the installation of the Java virtual machine may fail.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00010062

Component:

ProjectConsole/MS Project data collection

Description:

The scheduled collection task for Microsoft Project that is included in the ProjectConsole sample warehouse contains Perl scripts for manipulating data. If you run this scheduled task, notice that the Perl script can take 5 minutes or longer to execute, depending on the speed of your ProjectConsole agent machine.

Known Defects

This release of ProjectConsole has unresolved defects. This section lists these defects, and, if available, procedures for working around them.  Defects are grouped based on the functional area affected.

If you experience problems with ProjectConsole, consult the following list before you call technical support.  If you encounter a problem that is not listed, contact Rational Technical Support for assistance.

Vendor Databases

Change Request ID:

RATLC00002304

Component:

Vendor databases

Description:

If you try to copy a DB2 or Oracle database that contains collected data to SQL Server, an error may occur. This error is related to differences in case-sensitivity between the databases. By default, Oracle and DB2 databases are case-sensitive, while SQL Server databases are not.

Workaround:

Use case-sensitive SQL Server databases. For information about setting case sensitivity of SQL Server databases, see your SQL Server documentation. 

Rational ProjectConsole Tutorial

Change Request ID:

RATLC00022185 

Component:

ProjectConsole Pretutorial

Description:

Part 2, section 0.2.14 of the ProjectConsole Pretutorial contains the following incorrect text:

For Master Database Information, enter “tutorialmaster” and “admin” as the username and password for all instances.

For User Database Information, enter “tutorialwarehouse” as the name and “admin” as the username and password for all instances.

The correct text is as follows:

For Schema Repository Information, enter “tutorialmaster” as the database name and “admin” as the admin username and password for all instances.

For Data Warehouse Information, enter “tutorialwarehouse” as the database name and “admin” as the admin username and password for all instances.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00022187

Component:

ProjectConsole Pretutorial

Description:

Part 4, section 0.4.2 of the ProjectConsole Pretutorial instructs you to start the ProjectConsole servers by running the ServerStartup.bat file. The procedure for starting the servers has changed.

To start the ProjectConsole servers:

Click Start > Programs > RationalSuiteProduct > Rational ProjectConsole > Start Rational ProjectConsole Servers.

ProjectConsole Servers

Change Request ID:

RATLC00022067

Component:

ProjectConsole Server machine

Description:

To access information from the Word domain, you must have Microsoft Word installed on the ProjectConsole Server machine.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00006122

Component:

ProjectConsole Server software

Description:

The Project Console Dashboard Server communicates over port 1099. Occasionally, another application takes this port. If this occurs, Dashboard Server does not start, and an error is reported to indicate that port 1099 is in use.

Workaround:

Reboot your ProjectConsole server machine before you start the ProjectConsole servers.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00002006

Component:

ProjectConsole servers

Description:

In some cases, after you start the ProjectConsole servers, two instances of the xmlagent.exe are started, each in a separate DOS window.

Warning:  Do not close any of the DOS windows.  You can, instead, minimize them.

ProjectConsole Web Site

Change Request ID:

RATLC00022012

Component:

ProjectConsole Web site/Java plug-in

Description:

If you try to access a static ProjectConsole site that was generated by makeStatic.bat on a machine on which you have not yet logged on to the ProjectConsole Web site, the static Web site will attempt to download and install the Java plug-in from the Sun Microsystems Web site. This results in installation of the wrong Java plug-in (ProjectConsole requires Java plug-in 1.3.0_01), which causes the ProjectConsole navigation tree control applet to fail to run.

Workaround:

Please contact Rational Technical Support for instructions on downloading a patch.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00022184

Component:

ProjectConsole Web site/Netscape 4.7x

Description:

If you use Netscape 4.7x as your Web browser, you cannot resize the frames displayed on the ProjectConsole Web pages.

Workaround:

None

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00002277

Component:

ProjectConsole Web site

Description:

In this release, you cannot access the ProjectConsole Web site using Netscape on a Solaris machine.

Workaround:

None  

 

Change Request  ID:

None

Component:

Rational ProjectConsole Help/Internet Explorer 6.0

Description:

If you log on to the ProjectConsole Web site from Internet Explorer 6.0, and you open Help for ProjectConsole and display the Table of Contents, you may see an error message indicating that the focus cannot be moved to a control.

Workaround:

To use the Rational ProjectConsole Help without further interruption, close the message box by clicking either OK or No (depending on your environment).

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00019843

Component:

ProjectConsole Web site/Netscape

Description:

If you use the Netscape browser, you cannot generate pages from the ProjectConsole Web site unless you first reset the processing priority for Netscape.

Workaround:

To set the processing priority for Netscape:

1.      Start Netscape.

2.      Start the Task Manager.

On the Processes tab, in the Image Name column, right-click the Netscape executable, point to Set Priority on the shortcut menu, and then click BelowNormal.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00001952

Component:

ProjectConsole Navigation Tree

Description:

If you create a URL shortcut for a node in the navigation tree that has a name containing special characters such as “/” or “&”, the shortcut will not work.

Workaround:

Do not specify node names that contain special characters for display in the navigation tree if you plan to create URL shortcuts for them.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00012435

Component:

ProjectConsole Web Site

Description:

The sample Rose models delivered with ProjectConsole were created using classic Rose.  If you have Rose RealTime installed on your system, you will not be able to run the predefined Rose data collections or generate artifact reports from the sample Rose model.

Workaround:

If you want to collect RoseRT metrics, create your own RoseRT Dashboard templates.  Creating artifact reports from RoseRT artifacts is not currently supported.

 

ProjectConsole Administrator, Dashboard, and Dashboard Designer

Change Request ID:

RATLC00001968

Component:

ProjectConsole Administrator, Dashboard, and Dashboard Designer

Description:

ProjectConsole has a session time out feature with a default value of 24 hours.  If you are logged on to the ProjectConsole Web site for more than 24 hours without performing any actions, your session will time out.

On the next action that you perform after the session times out, you will be prompted to log on again.  After this, if you try to run the Administrator, Dashboard, or Dashboard Designer tool, the tool does not start.

Workaround:

If your session times out, close your browser, restart it, and log on to the ProjectConsole Web site again.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00002051

Component:

ProjectConsole Administrator, Dashboard, and Dashboard Designer

Description:

When you execute a menu command, the command is always performed on the node that is selected in the navigation tree.  The node selected in the navigation tree and the content displayed in the right pane can get out of sync. 

For example, in the Administrator, if you click on a scheduled task node in the navigation tree to open its properties page, and then click another scheduled task node, the properties pages for both tasks are displayed in the right pane, with the focus on the properties page for the second task.

If you then click the properties page for the first scheduled task in the right pane, you will see that the selection in the navigation tree does not change. The second scheduled task is still selected in the navigation tree, while the properties page for first scheduled task has focus in the right pane.

If you next click Task > Run, the second scheduled task is run because that is the task currently selected in the tree.

Workaround:

Before you execute a menu command, be sure that you have selected the correct node in the navigation tree.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00002139

Component:

ProjectConsole Administrator, Dashboard, and Dashboard Designer

Description:

If two users log on to the ProjectConsole Web site using the same user account, they may encounter problems saving data in the ProjectConsole tools (Dashboard, Dashboard Designer, and Administrator).

Problems can also occur if more than one user logs on with Administrator privileges, opens the same ProjectConsole tool, and attempts to update the same item at the same time.

Workaround:

Do not share a user account with another team member. The administrator responsible for setting up ProjectConsole for your development team should have separate accounts set up for each team member.  Also, users with Administrator privileges should avoid updating the same item.

ProjectConsole Administrator

Change Request ID:

RATLC00022027

Component:

ProjectConsole Administrator, Website Administration dialog box

Description:

In the Website Administration dialog box, the Document Server tab is not synchronized with Administrator toolbar buttons or the commands available in menus on the Administrator menu bar.

Workaround:

To synchronize the Document Server tab with Administrator toolbar buttons and menu commands, on the Document Server tab, click Save.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00006123

Component:

ProjectConsole Administrator

Description:

After you use the ProjectConsole Administrator to edit the current user profile, you must close your browser, and then restart it and log on to ProjectConsole again. Otherwise, ProjectConsole uses the cached user profile and prevents you from starting Dashboard, Dashboard Designer, and Administrator.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00006119

Component:

ProjectConsole Administrator

Description:

After you use the Web Site Administration node in the ProjectConsole Administrator to make changes to document server values, you must restart the ProjectConsole servers to make your changes take effect.

ProjectConsole Dashboard

Change Request  ID:

RATLC00002076

Component:

ProjectConsole Dashboard

Description:

If you create a chart for your project metrics and publish the chart in PDF format, the x-axis labels are displayed horizontally, and can overlap.

Workaround:

None     

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00002140

Component:

ProjectConsole Dashboard

Description:

In Dashboard, if two or more users are viewing the same metrics panel (with chart(s)), and one user modifies a chart and then saves the panel, another user looking at that panel cannot see the changes until he first closes, and then starts Dashboard again.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00019897

Component:

ProjectConsole Dashboard

Description:

If you create a gauge in ProjectConsole Dashboard, and specify that gauge thresholds are to be displayed as percent values, the resulting gauge displays incorrect values.

Workaround:

None

ProjectConsole Maintenance Tool

Change Request ID:

RATLC00002247

Component:

ProjectConsole Maintenance Tool

Description:

If the resolution for your monitor is set to 800 by 600 pixels or less, you cannot view all of the controls on the ProjectConsole user interfaces.

Workaround:

Set the resolution for your monitor to at least 1024 by 768 pixels.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00006140

Component:

ProjectConsole Maintenance Tool

Description:

If you try to create a Microsoft Access metrics warehouse, and specify a filename located in a directory that is not shared, you will see the error message, “The filename you have specified is not in a Share....". The first time this message comes up, it is hidden by the Maintenance Tool window, making it seem as though the Maintenance Tool has stopped while moving the master database.

Workaround:

To see the error message, minimize the ProjectConsole Maintenance Tool window, or click the error window icon on the taskbar.

To accept the current path, click Yes. To place the Access database(s) on a shared drive, click No, share the directory, and then restore the Maintenance Tool window.

ProjectConsole Template Builder

Change Request ID:

RATLC00002312

Component:

ProjectConsole Template Builder

Description:

In customizing Microsoft Project templates, ProjectConsole does not automatically insert LIMIT commands for tables. If a Microsoft Project template includes a LIMIT command that surrounds the entire table, an extra (blank) column is generated in the resulting table.

Workaround:

To make LIMIT commands work correctly with a table, you must manually insert one for each column in the table.

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00019505

Component:

ProjectConsole Template Builder

Description:

This release of ProjectConsole Template Builder does not support the RoseRT (Rose RealTime) domain type. You cannot use Template Builder to create templates that collect artifact information from Rose RealTime.

Workaround:

None

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00020357

Component:

ProjectConsole Template Builder

Description:

If Rational ClearCase (or ClearCase LT) Integration with Word is installed on your machine, you might not be able to start ProjectConsole Template Builder on the machine.

Workaround:

To avoid ProjectConsole Template Builder startup problems on a machine on which ClearCase (or ClearCase LT) Integration with Word is installed, move the clearcase.dot file from its default location:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\ ApplicationData\Microsoft\Word\ STARTUP\clearcase.dot

to the following location:

C:\Progranm Files\Rational\SoDAWord\Word\ STARTUP\clearcase.dot

 

Change Request ID:

RATLC00020515

Component:

ProjectConsole Template Builder

Description:

If Rational ClearCase (or ClearCase LT) Integration with Word is installed on your Windows 2000 machine, the Help on Template Builder and About Rational ProjectConsole Template Builder commands are not available in the MS Word Help menu.

Workaround:

To avoid ProjectConsole Template Builder startup problems on a machine on which ClearCase (or ClearCase LT) Integration with Word is installed, move the clearcase.dot file from its default location:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\ ApplicationData\Microsoft\Word\ STARTUP\clearcase.dot

to the following location:

C:\Progranm Files\Rational\SoDAWord\Word\ STARTUP\clearcase.dot

Contacting Rational Technical Support

If you have questions about installing, using, or maintaining this product, contact Rational Technical Support using the following email address: 

support@rational.com

For new issues, please type ProjectConsole and a short description of the problem in the subject line.

When you contact Rational Technical Support, please be prepared to supply the following information:

·          Your name, company name, telephone number, and e-mail address

·          Your operating system, version number, and any service packs or patches you have applied

·          The browser you are using

·          Suite product name and release number

·          Your case ID number (if you are following up on a previously reported problem)