Open Plan 8.8 Help

Standard Open Plan Options

Use the grid in the System Preferences Defaults dialog box to set standard Open Plan options.

Some of these options are added during the Open Plan installation.

Option

Description

_Allow_Edit_ReadOnly

When you open read-only files within Open Plan, this option enables you to make changes to these files and save them using a new name, preserving the original read-only file.

There are two settings:

  • 0 = Do not allow modifications to read-only files.
  • 1 = Enable users to modify read-only files, saving under a different name.

Because the process of applying this option differs from the way the predefined options are applied, use the Set Edits to Read-Only File procedure.

_ApplicationTimeOut

This option is used to set the amount of notice given to users (in seconds) whose sessions are about to be terminated. The default period of time for notification is 10 seconds.

_BLANKDIALOGCONTENTSONNEW

This option controls the display of the contents of a dialog box.

There are two settings:

  • 0 = Blank out the contents of the dialog box when the user clicks the New button.
  • 1 = Leave the existing contents of the dialog box when the user clicks New, effectively copying the data to the new activity.

The default setting is 1.

_CLEAR_BASELINE_DATA

This option is used to clear baseline data from the Activity collection.

  • 0 = Do not clear baseline data.
  • 1 = If you set this value and select <No Baseline> on the Baselines dialog box, Open Plan clears the baseline start (BSDATE), baseline finish (BFDATE), and SOURCE_BASELINE fields from the Activity collection.

The default setting is 0.

_CLEAREXISTINGLOCKS

This option enables Open Plan to clear any existing locks and sessions for you when you log on to the application.

  • 0 = Disable the clear existing locks feature.
  • 1 = Clear any existing locks and sessions. This setting applies to all users except for those who belong to an exclusion group defined in EPM Security Administrator as well as the SYSADMIN user and members of the System Administrator group.

_CLEAREXISTINGLOCKSEXCLGROUP

The value for this option, if set, is examined only if _CLEAREXISTINGLOCKS is set to 1. If the logged-in user is a member of one of the comma-delimited groups specified in _CLEAREXISTINGLOCKSEXCLGROUP, the locks for that user will not be cleared.

_CONFIRMCHANGESONDIALOGNAVIGATION

This option makes Open Plan display a confirmation message to save changes when the user clicks a navigation button or closes a modeless dialog through the Windows Close button (X).

There are two settings:

  • 0 = Do not display a confirmation message.
  • 1 = Display a confirmation message.

_Copy_ACL_On_SaveAs

This option enables access control information to be copied when Save As is used to save a file.

There are two settings:

  • 0 = Do not copy access control lists when performing a Save As.
  • 1 = Copy access control lists when performing a Save As.
The default setting is 0.

_DISABLE_CUSTOM_UIAUTOMATION

This option enables you to turn off an Accessibility tool (such as Narrator).

  • 0 (or blank) = You can access tables and spreadsheets of the project when using the Accessibility tool. This is the default value.
  • 1 = You cannot access tables or spreadsheets of the project when using the Accessibility tool.

_DISABLE_UNDO

  • 0 = Enable the Undo function on the Quick Access toolbar. This is the default setting.
  • 1 = Disable the Undo function for all users. It takes immediate effect for the logged in user. For other users, it takes effect the next time Open Plan connects to the data source. No additional undo functions will be available, but any undo functions that were listed prior to the preference being enabled will still be there.

_ENABLE_BATCH_SAVE

This preference works in conjunction with the _BATCH_THRESHOLD, _MIN_BATCH_SIZE, and _MAX_BATCH_SIZE default preferences.

  • 0 = Disable batch save.
  • 1 = Enable batch save. Normally, it is enabled by default, but it is turned off when Shared mode is active or a table has memo columns. In addition, you must explicitly set this preference to 1 to enable it if the database is an SQL Server. With the preference enabled, Open Plan processes write queries to the database as a batch.

_IDENTITYTYPE

Normally, this option is set in the EPM Security Administrator.

It controls how you log on to Open Plan (in conjunction with the _IDENTITYMODE preference when that preference is set to Delegate or Mixed).

  • 0 = User (You enter your user name and password.)
  • 1 = SAM (Open Plan looks for the Windows User Name as the key to the user name in the Open Plan database using Windows Authentication.)
  • 2 = UPN (With the User Principal Name option, your normal email address is used as the key to the user name in the Open Plan database using Windows Authentication.)
  • 3 = SAML (The Security Assertion Markup Language Single Sign-On option is not currently supported by Open Plan.)
  • 4 = SAM USER (The SAM USER option uses your domain and Windows name [for example, "ADSDELTEKCOM\\JohnSmith"] as the key to the user name in the Open Plan database using Windows Authentication.)

_MAXLOGINRETRIES

This option controls the maximum number of times you may (unsuccessfully) try to log on to Open Plan.

The default setting is 3.

_NO_BASELINE_CODES

This option sets whether Open Plan checks for the existence of a baseline activity code field that matches the regular activity code field for certain operations (for example, General Import) - 0 = Open Plan does not check for the existence of a baseline activity code field.

  • 1 = Open Plan checks for the baseline activity code field that matches the regular activity code field.

_OLD_MSPIMPORT

This option controls the use of the old MSPTOOP.exe to perform MSP Export rather than the new modern interface.

  • 0 = Open Plan uses the latest MSP Export interface.
  • 1 = Open Plan uses the old MSPTOOP.exe file to perform MSP Export.

_REPLACEBASELINEBUDGETWITHACTUALS

This setting determines whether actuals are used to populate baseline usage information for complete and in-progress tasks.

  • 0 = Disable the use of actuals to update baseline usage.
  • 1 = Enable the use of actuals to update baseline usage.

_REQUIREDGROUPMEMBERSHIP

If the value is non-blank, a user logging in via Windows Authentication is required to be a member of the specified group.

_SHAREDMODEBASELINES

Enabling this option enables Baselines to be created or updated when a project is open in Shared mode.

If the option is not enabled, baselines can only be created or updated when the project is open in Exclusive mode.

  • 0 = Disable the option. Open Plan creates or updates baselines only when the project is open in Exclusive mode.
  • 1 = Enable the option.

_SUPPRESSLOOPDETECTION

With this option, you can turn off full automatic loop detection in Open Plan (by setting a value of 0) or restrict it (by setting a value less than the total number of activities) for large networks or networks with large numbers of complex relationships. Full loop detection will still be performed during Time Analysis.

The default value for _SUPPRESSLOOPDETECTION is 1000. The number is a threshold value that determines at what point loop detection will be turned off. Thus, for the default value of 1000, loop detection is enabled as long as the total number of activities does not exceed 1000.

_URL

This option sets the URL associated with the database.

_USE_ORACLE_APPEND_HINT

This option is used with Oracle databases when performing a Restore or Save As in Open Plan.

  • 0 = Disable the option.
  • 1 = Open Plan adds an "append hint" to an Oracle INSERT query. This can help optimize performance for the query.

_USEOLDREMAININGQTYRULES

This option prevents changes to Original Duration triggering an update to Remaining Quantity for Total Resources. Setting _USeOldRemaining QtyRules = 1 makes Open Plan use the original rules.

USEUNIQUEWPCOSTDATAPROCESS

With this option, you can enable or disable concatenation of Control Account key fields and the Work Package ID when creating an Integrated Program Management Data and Analysis Report (IPMDAR) file during the Schedule Data Export process.

  • 0 (or the option is not present) = Open Plan performs concatenation of CA ID and the WP ID when exporting to IPMDAR format. This is the default value.
  • 1 = Open Plan does not perform concatenation of CA ID and the WP ID when exporting to IPMDAR format.
Note: If the _AUDIT_LOG_LEVEL default preference is not present, Open Plan defaults to setting the log level to 1 (errors only). For audit messages associated with baselines, it is recommended to set the preference value to 3 (informational logging) or higher. With this configuration, Open Plan includes the audit messages in the WST_AUDIT_LOG table.

With the audit log always enabled and the log level set to 3 or higher, Open Plan automatically adds entries to the audit log under the following circumstances:

  • Baselines are updated during a P6 import.
  • An MRP or CAM import is performed.
  • The ResetBaselineDates method is called on a baseline activity via the API.