I'm having some trouble with event names in two places.

The first when using the "add milestones from template" button - every event created has ProjectName appended to the actual event summary, which is creating mass clutter on both the Project Details view and the calendars. It's also making the event summaries all lowercase, instead of Capitalized (or unchanged) as I have it in the template. Is there an easy way to correct this behavior?

The second is on the calendars - ProjectName again is showing up causing all manner of clutter, this time prepended. This isn't done as part of the event record, so I'm guessing it's somewhere in the Calendar layout. Same question for this one.


Thanks

Also, when running "add milestones from template", the resulting dates appear to change at random. I thought this was all squared away yesterday as it was being consistent (though odd). However, today when I run this script the dates are randomly a day late or a day early. I have tried changing the "follows", but this is also not matching--changing from 7 to 8 for example, actually adds 9 days. Changing from -19 to -20 actually caused a -21 day difference.


I'm testing with a simpler example right now, with Item A and Item B, and getting the same odd results:

Item A has a blank (1 day?) duration.

Item B is set to a "follows" of 1 day.

Item B appears on the calendar three days after Item A.

If I change Item B's "follows" to 0 days, delete the events, and reapply the template to the project it behaves as expected (Item A and B on the same day). If I then change Item B's "follows" to blank or explicitly "1 day", it shows up three days after Item A again.


Nothing has changed in the file since yesterday. I simply deleted the events, then reapplied the template this morning and now the day counts are all screwy. Yes, I am the only one with access to this file.

Hi Chazz,

Hope all is well.

The first when using the "add milestones from template" button - every event created has ProjectName appended to the actual event summary, which is creating mass clutter on both the Project Details view and the calendars.

It's a pretty easy change once you find it. In the script:

Apply Process Template ( TemplateID , ProjectID , ProjectName ) { Number , AvoidWeekends }

It calls the script:

Create Edit Delete Event ( SourceNo ) { Operation , Hide, DateStart , DateEnd , TimeStart ... }

with a somewhat complicated calculation for the parameter. It's in there that we're appending the milestone name with the Project name. The highlighted line below shows where this is, so you can just remove the: & " " & $sc_ProjectName to keep that from happening.

It's also making the event summaries all lowercase, instead of Capitalized (or unchanged) as I have it in the template. Is there an easy way to correct this behavior?

Yes, the custom functions SeedCode_EncodeOperators and SeedCode_DecodeOperators use the "Lower" function. You can remove that part of the calculations so they looks like this:

The second is on the calendars - ProjectName again is showing up causing all manner of clutter, this time prepended. This isn't done as part of the event record, so I'm guessing it's somewhere in the Calendar layout. Same question for this one.

This will probably be helped from changing the way it appends above, but the field in the events table called: z_AlternateSummaryCalc is what determines what is displayed on the calendar by default, and Project name is part of its makeup. So, you can adjust that calculation in the Data file, or you can map the calendar "summary" to a different field on the Source No 1 layout.

I see you've got another post, so I'll check that out in a sec.

hth,
Jason

Awesome. The above worked perfectly, and the original issue is solved. Thanks!


I still have the day calculation anomalies. Using the simplified test setup above I've now tried changing the "follows" of Item B with the following results:

2 days - still incorrectly three days after Item A.
3 days - three days after Item A (as it should be).
4 days - four days after Item A, again as it should be.

So, why would Item B refuse to "follow" any less than 3 days behind Item A (which still has a blank "1 day" duration)?

I've done quite a bit of further testing now, completely clearing all records from the events, then phases, then projects each time. The only way it could be any cleaner is to delete the database and start over.

Both "0 days" and negative days working as expected, but positive days in "follows" of blank, 1, or 2 days all result in 3 days effectively. Setting it to 3 or more days works as expected... this is very strange. My first thought was that one of the template events could have been corrupted, but wiping them all out and starting over should have fixed this (I have confirmed they are new IDs).

Maybe it's a leap-year issue? I'll give it another try on our March schedule.

Hey Chazz,

I think the issue is with the one day duration, as this pushes the series forward a full day, so even if the next event is 0 days after, it starts on the next day. Can you send me a screen shot of what you're getting and what you expecting? I've been playing with a stock copy here, and it's as I expect it, but I am used to it. And, I'm not quite getting it from your description.

Thanks!

No problem, this first view shows 2 events in the project template (circled). Newsletter for Approval has a "follows" of 1 day:



This second view shows the resulting schedule after the template has been applied. Note that there is a 3 day gap between "Ad Materials Deadline" and "Newsletter for Approval" circled in red.



This 3 day gap happens no matter what start date I give the project. If I set the "follows" to 2 days I still get a 3 day gap. If I set it to 0 or less (negative), or 3 or more days, it works exactly as it should. It almost seems like it's picking up a ">=3" somewhere on the positive end (I'm very new to FileMaker, hopefully that made sense).

I have the event durations set to 0 for most of the items, as that made the behavior a bit more predictable (it only acts weird with 2 items now).

Hi Chazz,

Thanks. I'll need to dig into this a bit.

Hi Jason,

Sorry for not getting back to this sooner, my "real" job got busy. Has there been any luck figuring out the odd event/schedule behavior?

Thanks

Hi Chazz,

Thanks for the screen shots. They are a big help.

I think what you're seeing here is the "avoid weekends" behavior. You can toggle that off in settings: try that and let me know what you see.

- John

Yep, that was it... which explains why it worked fine for the first week. I'll keep that setting disabled.

Thanks much, looks like we're good to go now!