URL Options: Modifying the Query String Parameters

  • Article

You can use URL options with every page in Microsoft® Office Project Web Access to specifically hide or show parts of the page. URL options can be used to minimize the amount of screen space that Project Web Access uses or to simplify the page view for different user tasks, such as using remote access or working with a limited set of tasks.

You can save the modified URL for use within Project Web Access. You can also use the URL to create a Web Part for use with other Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint™ Services and SharePoint Portal Server sites.

This topic includes the following information:

  • Parts of a URL in Project Web Access
  • The SimpleUI Parameter
  • Other Optional URL Parameters

There are additional URL options in the form of view variables. These are described in URL Options: View Variables.

Parts of a URL in Project Web Access

There are four parts in the URL for a Project Web Access page. The following examples use the default installation of the Project Server sample database on a server named ServerName. Click Projects on the Project Web Access toolbar, and then click one of the projects in the list. For example, if you have installed the default sample database, click 1 Exabyte Desktop Drive, and examine the URL. The page named View a Project has the following URL:

http://ServerName/sample/Views/ProjectReport.asp?_projectID=102

  • Project Server name: In the example, ServerName is the name of the server where Project Server is installed. Users of Project Web Access, and Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server pages where Project Server Web Parts are used, must have access to this server.

  • Virtual directory: The sample database is installed with a default virtual directory named sample, which includes the files and directories such as VIEWS that are in the IIS Virtual Root of Project Server. For example, in Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, expand the Sample virtual directory, right-click the VIEWS subdirectory, and then click Properties. The VIEWS Properties dialog box shows the Local path is \Sample\VIEWS. IIS provides the virtual directory in the URL as /sample/Views/.

  • Project Web Access page: The ProjectReport.asp page delivers the View A Project page, and it requires a project ID parameter. Other Active Server Pages (ASP) pages such as PortfolioView.asp have only optional parameters.

  • Session customization parameters: The ProjectReport.asp page requires the standard parameter _projectID-102, which gets the information for the project ID number 102 from Project Server. You can type additional parameters in the URL address. For example, add the parameter SimpleUI=3:

    http://ServerName/sample/Views/ProjectReport.asp?_projectID=102&SimpleUI=3

    The following sections explain SimpleUI, the other optional parameters, and view variables.

    Note  When you first display a standard page in Project Web Access, you might see the custom parameter _oid=-1. Project Web Access uses this parameter for tracking offline status; you should omit it in the custom URLs that you create.

The SimpleUI Parameter

The SimpleUI parameter provides a bitmapped value that controls the display of user interface (UI) elements for a page in Project Web Access. The seven low bits in the one-byte value are variable, for 128 possible combinations. The following table shows the UI elements and the variable bits, along with the first four values of SimpleUI.

Bit 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
SimpleUI
Value
(decimal)		 Indicator
Click
Disabled		 No Grid
Buttons		 No Title
Elements		 No
Tabs		 No
Action
Pane		 Collapsed
Action
Pane		 No
Menu
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
3 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

From the table, you can see that the URL parameter SimpleUI=3 tells Project Web Access to display the page with the options No Menu = True and Collapsed Action Pane = True (the bit value 0 is False, and 1 is True). That means the displayed page does not show the menu UI component, and the Action pane on the left side—if the Action pane is present—is also collapsed.

The Table of Values for SimpleUI includes the list of all 128 SimpleUI values.

Note  If you add a parameter such as SimpleUI=3, removing that parameter has no effect after the page is displayed. You must specify SimpleUI=0 (or the previous value) to change the page to the previous display.

Following are the rules for display of the UI parameters, and the order of precedence:

  • No Menu: Hides the Project Web Access menu in all pages. That is, Project Web Access hides the menu that contains the items Home, Tasks, Projects, Resources, Status Reports, Updates, Risks, Issues, and Admin.

  • Collapsed Action Pane: If the action pane is present in a page, the initial state of the navigation and action pane is collapsed. You can also expand and collapse the action pane with the Expand button in the top right corner of the pane. Normally, the action pane is expanded.

  • No Action Pane: Project Web Access does not display the navigation and action pane; this takes precedence over the Collapsed Action Pane bit. When the No Action Pane bit is 1 (True), the Collapsed Action Pane setting has no effect.

    Note  Some of the SimpleUI values are equivalent in their action on the UI. For example, SimpleUI=5 and SimpleUI=7 both have No Menu and No Action Pane as True. For the decimal value 5 (binary 101) the Collapsed Action Pane setting is False, and for the decimal value 7 (binary 111) Collapsed Action Pane is True. Because there is no Action pane at all, both SimpleUI values result in the same UI appearance.

  • No Tabs: Hides the grouping and sorting tabs for any page that normally contains tabs. For example, the page View My Tasks (TasksPage.asp) shows the tabs View Options and Filter, Group, Search when there are tasks in the list. If you set SimpleUI=8 (binary 1000), those tabs disappear in the view. No Tabs has no effect if the page does not contain tabs.

  • No Title Elements: Hides the title pane, including the title text and title buttons or drop-down list box, for any page that normally contains these elements. For example, in Project Web Access, click the Resources menu item and you see the default page with the title Resource Center and the Choose a view drop-down list box. In the browser Address box, add the parameter SimpleUI=16, as in the following address. Note that the URL is not case-sensitive.

    http://ServerName/sample/Views/ResourcesRegisterView.asp?simpleui=16

    The Resource Center title and the drop-down list box are no longer visible.

  • No Grid Buttons: When bit 5 of the SimpleUI value is True, Project Web Access does not show the toolbar buttons above grid views. With SimpleUI=32, and the 63 other values where the fifth bit is 1, the grid buttons are hidden. Pages with grid buttons include Tasks, Resources, and Updates. Bit 5 has no effect on pages without a grid, or where there is a grid without buttons, such as Projects and Risks.

  • Indicator Click Disabled: If the value of SimpleUI is 64 through 127, icons in the Indicators column are disabled if they link to Windows SharePoint Services. For example, click the Projects menu item to see the Project Center page. Projects that have associated risks, issues, documents, or notes have an icon in the Indicators column for each type of association. Normally, if you click one of those icons, you go to the page that displays that kind of data.

    The data and display pages for risks, issues, and documents are stored by Windows SharePoint Services or the SharePoint Portal Server that is associated with Project Server. When the Indicator Click Disabled bit is True in the SimpleUI value, those icons remain visible but nothing happens when you click on them. The indicator icons for Project Server data, such as Notes, remain enabled.

Other Optional URL Parameters

There are several other URL parameters, in addition to SimpleUI. Project Web Access 2003 still supports Microsoft Project 2002 URL options, although some are deprecated because SimpleUI handles them.

  • Parts: The Parts parameter provides a bitmapped value that controls the display of user interface elements for the home page in Project Web Access. The eight low bits in the one-byte value are variable, for 256 possible combinations. The following table shows the user interface elements and the variable bits, along with the first four values and the greatest value of Parts.
    Parts
    Value    		 Show
    Risks    		 Show
    Timesheet    		 Show
    Contents    		 Show
    Links    		 Show
    Issues    		 Show
    Status
    Reports    		 Show
    Tasks    		 Show
    Transactions
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
    1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
    2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
    3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
      .   .   .                
    255 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
  • NoSaveLinkBtn: The parameter NoSaveLinkBtn=1 hides the Save Link button where it exists on the grid, such as in the Project Center view. If No Grid Buttons is set to True through the SimpleUI parameter, that takes precedence. Set NoSaveLinkBtn=0 to show the Save Link button again on pages that include it, except when SimpleUI has values of 32 through 63 or 96 through 127.
  • NoBanter: The option NoBanter=1 eliminates the right section on the Home page that by default includes a graphic and the link Work with Outlook.
  • NoMenu: This option is set to True by odd values of SimpleUI (1, 3, 5, ..., 127), although NoMenu still works as a URL option in Project Web Access 2003.