Project templates provide the most efficient way to manage the repeated characteristics of a type of project (for instance, planning or building). The result is that each time a new project is created, the configurations are set and ready with the right people and framework for the process to begin. A project template can be modified to accommodate additional repeated setups, then saved for a new department or process. If a project template is in use for months and it is determined that a modification is required or would improve it, all changes affect only future projects created with the modified template and not existing projects.
The only change that can be made retroactively is adding a user to an existing group, active projects. This feature accommodates new hires, for instance.
Project templates allow you to pre-configure the following:
workflows
Project Templates allow users to upload and delete files into the Project Template folders. The benefit is that standard documentation or examples can now be a part of each project that is created with the Project Template. There is no limit to the number of Project Templates you can create.
To create a new template:
Info tab notes:
In the Incoming: field of the Info tab, the Incoming email feature can be enabled. Here you can select the CC project on TeamMail feature to be managed on a project by project basis, but this feature requires that the Incoming Email feature for the site is configured and functioning properly.
In the Status row, you can enter a Workflow Definition URL to hyperlink a project status to a status chart of a particular workflow. This URL, if set, will show up in the Project Info screen of a project built with this template. This feature is more commonly used with ProjectDox Workflow and not ProjectFlow.
When the Disable Reaccept checkbox is checked, this feature will not allow a user to reaccept a task in the workflow. The option will still appear for the user; however, clicking it will only cause a warning to appear on their screen, letting them know the option has been disabled.
By default, anyone can re-assign their own task. Every user will see the reassign icon on their own tasks. If the Disable Reassignment box is checked then only Project Administrators and the System Administrators would be able to reassign, effectively changing the default setting. Project Administrators and the System Administrators should have the same rights in the respect that they can:
a. See the “show all tasks” checkbox above the task list and open read-only eforms for all tasks
b. Have reassignment capabilities
On the Folders & Files tab, create a folder structure as you would for setting up a new project.
On the Roles tab, create a set of specific permissions tied to a default role name that can be assigned to Template Groups.
On the Metadata tab, set metadata as you would for setting up a new project.
On the Groups tab, set up Template Groups as you would set up Project Groups, including the use of the Private group setting. When you create the project, the Template Groups will become Project Groups, complete with the default users and permissions that were set on the Template Group. The receipt of the project invitation can be withheld by placing a check in the Disable Invitation Email check box.
The Permissions tab gives you a quick view of the groups that are set up for the template, whether the group is set up as private, and whether permissions have been set for the group. Here you can add/invite new users to the template and set up permissions on the template groups as you would for project groups. You can set permissions through the permission icon , including assigning default roles. See setting group permissions in the Manage User Permissions topic.
The Notifications tab allows you to set which Notification events will occur for the user or group. To set them, select a user's name from the list of available users, or select a group name from the list of available groups. The notification event options screen displays the area where you can choose your options for each user or group. Subscribed users are sent automatic notification emails whenever one of the selected events occurs within the project. The options include:
Create Folder
Delete Files
Create File Discussion
Delete Folder
Create Markups
Download Files
Create Project Discussion
Upload Files
Workflows
ProjectDox Workflow: This tab will only show if you have the ProjectDox Workflow active. The Workflow tab allows you to assign existing workflow definitions and eForms to the project template. In the Automatically start workflow on project create section, a list of saved Workflow definitions displays where you may select and save the workflows that you would like to start automatically each time a project is created with this template.
ProjectFlow – The Settings tab allows for selection of the ProjectFlow workflow. Use the Auto Start Workflow drop down to select the workflow to start when the project is created manually or with the ProjectCreator service.
The Reports tab displays a list of all Project and Workflow reports from the QueryReports table in the database. You may select the reports that you want to show up for the specific project or project template. When saved, users will be able to see which reports are associated with the current project in the Project Edit screen.
If your ProjectDox installation is dual workflow, meaning ProjectDox Workflow and ProjectFlow, one or the other workflow can run within a project. ProjectDox is auto-filtering the ProjectFlow reports from the Reports list when Standard Workflow is selected as the workflow type and vice versa if ProjectFlow is selected for the workflow type.
When the user creates a new project from the project template, the reports checked in this section will be associated with that project, but the user can change the selected reports from the Project Edit screen at any point after the project is created. Any future changes made to a project template for those checked reports will only affect the newly created; it is not retroactive.
To modify an existing template:
Adding a new or existing user to an existing project template
When configuring project groups within an existing template, radio buttons will display at the bottom of the Groups selection tab, allowing you to add the user to only the project template (to all projects created moving forward), or to add the user to all non-archived projects created with the template (all active projects, retroactively). If you choose to propagate the user to all active projects created with the template, the process is performed in the background, therefore, the addition of the user will take time, depending on the number of active projects.
To use a template to create a new project:
From the main Projects screen, click the Create Project button.
Select a template to use from the Available Template dropdown. This will create/set the default folder structure, metadata, project groups, project roles, and group permissions for the new project. After a project is created with a template, changes made to the project will have no effect on default the template itself.
The default radio selection is “add the user only to the project template.”
This feature is only available for System Administrators.
Must be an existing group; this feature does not add new groups to an existing project template.
If you have 500 projects created with the template but the user group was not added until the last 200 projects were created with that template, then the user will be added to 200 projects
Processing of records for adding the user to all groups is performed in 100 record blocks. The interval is determined in the ProjectDox Project Utility Service.
The timing is determined by the ProjectDox Utility schedule set in the config file, <add key="SecondsBetweenInvoke" value="300" />
The Tasks table in the ProjectDox database will record a singular task, ‘AddUserToAllProjectsTask Process,’ regardless of how many projects the user is being added to.
SQL Query: select * from tasks where taskname = 'AddUserToAllProjectsTask Process'
If desired, login to ProjectDox as a System Administrator, click on Admin-->Users, select the user and display the project membership or group membership tab sorted to your advantage to check that it’s working
This feature operates on a single template basis. Should you suspect the feature is not producing the desired result, the following actions can be utilized to verify:
Select a project that you believe should have been populated with the added user. Note the ProjectID, shown in the URL of the browser.
Run a query in the SQL database on the Project’s table and select that ProjectID. Note the associated ProjectID.
Run a query in the SQL database on the Project’s tables to determine how many projects were created with the ProjectID. This is useful in finding how many projects should have been affected.
