. . . which is, after all, a SharePoint application. See the SharePoint and Silverlight Training Course . It includes 30 hands-on labs, including labs on accessing data through WCF services.

There are a couple of ways to programmatically get the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) value for a Project Server user. The simplest way is to query the Reporting database, for example: SELECT [ResourceUID] ,[ResourceName] ,[ResourceBookingType] ,[ResourceIsActive] ,[RBS] FROM [ProjectServer_Reporting] .[dbo].[MSP_EpmResource_UserView] AS res WHERE res .ResourceName = N’Linda Jones’ The result on my machine is: ResourceUID ResourceName ResourceBookingType ResourceIsActive RBS 0D455775-01CB-42E1-A481-A6F0F1F8208A Linda Jones 0 1 User Assistance.DevDocs.SDK Writers To get the RBS by using the PSI is a bit more work. Because the RBS is an enterprise resource custom field that uses the RBS lookup table, you can use the following steps: Call the ReadResources method and filter the primary Resources table for the user name and GUID. Alternately, you can use the ReadUserList method to get all of the active resource names and GUIDs, and iterate through the ResourceDataSet for the specific resource. The attached example uses the –userList command line argument to have the application use the ReadUserList method, and displays the elapsed time for the method used. Call ReadResource with the resource GUID to get the full ResourceDataSet . Iterate through the ResourceDataSet. ResourceCustomFields table to get the CODE_VALUE for the RBS custom field (if it exists). Use a filter with the ReadLookupTables method to get a LookupTableDataSet that contains only the LookupTableTrees table for the RBS lookup table. Iterate through the LookupTableTrees table to get the LT_VALUE_FULL string that corresponds to the CODE_VALUE in the RBS custom field.

We’re happy to announce the publish of a new white paper by Chris Vanderluis of HMS Software for the “From the Trenches” column in the Project Server 2010 TechCenter

Conference rooms can be created as a resource by the Microsoft Online Services administrator. You can create a calendaring resource for any room, piece of equipment or anything else that needs a reservation. In our latest BPOS-S video we learn how to create these resources. This is a very useful feature that has multiple purposes for any business. Was this video helpful? Learn more about Microsoft Online Services with our other support and how to blog posts . What support videos would you like to see? We want to hear from you in the comments section below or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

The How to: Modify the Ribbon in PWA article in the Project 2010 SDK works for the cases in the article, but in other cases, you can get a JavaScript error when you try to hide some ribbon controls in PWA. For example, if you hide the Zoom and Show/Hide groups in the Project Center ribbon, a JavaScript error occurs while debugging the Visual Studio project, and all of the ribbon controls are disabled on that page. The error occurs only for controls in the Show/Hide group. Here is the standard Project Center ribbon. The Visual Studio 2010 project that hides the Zoom group and the Show/Hide group is in the attached HideTwoGroups.zip file. Here is the solution for the Project Center ribbon customization issue – at least with three of my machines, all of which have Internet Explorer 9, with both 32-bit and 64-bit IE. I did not test with IE8. The problems may be solved, or may be different, with future updates or different versions of Internet Explorer. Make sure you are running IE9 RTM (9.0.8112.16421).

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we take a look at how the UN is taking a page from Microsoft’s datacenters to build more green, and we learn about how one company is utilizing the power of Microsoft Lync to help enterprises collaborate better. UN Taps Microsoft for Green Data Center Tech Datacenters are a crucial part of modern computing. Microsoft BPOS is powered by datacenters across the world and Microsoft has extensive knowledge in researching and developing datacenters. The UN is going to use Microsoft’s green data center technology to build its new office in Nairobi, Kenya. The Microsoft IT Pre-Assembled Components, or ITPAC, is a system constructed with the focus on providing the lowest Power Usage Effectiveness, or PUE, to decrease energy costs. Microsoft reports that the PUE for their ITPAC data centers is between 1.05-1.15. This a good range considering that the average PUE for data centers is reported to be 1.92, which is considered high by the Environmental Protection Agency. Check out the video below to learn how Microsoft’s ITPAC Containers are built. The UN Nairobi office wants to make its new office “energy-neutral” and is turning to Microsoft for help. What do you think of the “green” datacenter focus? Is it essential for companies to be green when it comes to datacenters? Leave your thoughts below. Telligent Connects With Microsoft Lync Telligent is known for their applications that foster community development. They are taking their community collaboration to the next level by utilizing Microsoft Lync . Microsoft Lync is the next generation unified communications in the Cloud. Telligent is syncing Lync with their social community software and enabling users the ability to harness the power of collaboration. Telligent Connect for Lync will be a part of the Telligent Enterprise and will feature the capabilities of Microsoft Lynch including worker’s online presence and launching instant messaging and meetings via Lync. Are you utilizing a Microsoft’s Cloud to create something? Share what you’ve made in the comments below. What are your thoughts about the stories we shared with you this week? Did you see a story you want to share with us? Let us know what other topics you’d like to see. You can comment on this blog post or send an

The Office 365 Blog posted a new blog about the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. In the blog post Allen Filush from the Office 365 blog explains the new awards being presented for Online Services Partners. This is an exciting way to be recognized for your hard work. Be sure to check out his entire blog copied below. – Josh Topal. —– Worldwide Partner Conference 2011 The 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is fast approaching, taking place July 10-14 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. As a refresher, WPC is an annual gathering for the Microsoft partner community to learn about Microsoft’s roadmap for the upcoming year, network and build connections, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills and techniques. If you haven’t registered already, follow the link by April 25 th to get a special “early-bird” discount of 15%! New Awards for Online Services Partners Winning a WPC Partner Award is a great way to differentiate your company from your competition and get the recognition you deserve from the press, your industry, analysts and of course, Microsoft. Even better, winners will be invited onstage to be recognized for their achievements and receive exclusive access to an Awards celebration. Here you’ll have the opportunity to network with Microsoft Executives and showcase your ground-breaking solution. Nominations are underway and close April 15, so nominate your solution today! This year we are announcing two exciting new awards for Microsoft Online Services Partners: the Commercial Partner of the Year and the Solution Partner of the Year: Online Services Commercial Partner of the Year The Microsoft Online Services Commercial Partner of the Year Award honors Microsoft partners who have built a successful cloud practice and who have shown both innovation and results related to selling and to delivering solutions to the Small to Midmarket (SMB) customers. So don’t worry if you didn’t work with Coca-Cola or GlaxoSmithKline, we are very interested in partners that are having success in smaller and medium sized businesses. Read more about the award criteria (page 12) and submit your nomination by April 15 th . Online Services Solution Partner of the Year Developing solutions and selling to the “Big Guys?”

In our latest BPOS Support video , we explore the Microsoft Online Services Diagnostics and Logging Support Toolkit, or otherwise known as MOSDAL. MOSDAL performs network diagnostics and collects system information, network information and login information for service-based products. MOSDOL saves time by collecting numerous amounts of information with one tool. The video below shows you how to get MOSDAL, enable verbose logging, and troubleshoot common MOSDAL issues. Was this video helpful? Learn more about Microsoft Online Services with our other support and how to blog posts . What support videos would you like to see? We want to hear from you in the comments section below or send an email to our community mailbox . Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

This week in BPOS news is a recurring segment on the Microsoft Online Services Team Blog that covers news from all sectors of Cloud Computing and the Microsoft Online Services business suite known as the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). You can read all past This Week in BPOS News segments here. For this week in BPOS news we take a look at what Microsoft has to offer in the cloud and we look some interesting findings around small-to-medium business cloud adoption. What does Microsoft have to offer in the cloud? Our first story for This Week in BPOS News explores the many ways Microsoft brings the cloud to you. Simon May dedicates a TechNet blog post to describing several Microsoft Cloud offerings. He starts at the lowest level by explaining what the Cloud is. I think he does a great job outlining the basics of Cloud Computing and diving into the following Microsoft Cloud offerings: Windows Azure SQL Azure Office 365 and BPOS Windows Intune Hyper-V Cloud Simon introduces the above Microsoft Cloud offerings and explains them in a way that is easily digestible. I would recommend this blog post for anyone interested or intimidated in the Cloud, and wanting to learn more about the many Cloud products Microsoft is working on. Are you in the Cloud? What Microsoft Cloud offerings are you familiar with? Leave your comments below.

If you think about it, meetings are a lot like projects. They’re for a defined amount of time with the goal of getting something accomplished. All good meetings have a defined agenda just like all good projects have a detailed schedule. Since you can use Project to create schedules, why not use Project to create your agendas? Now this is probably overkill for your one hour meeting where the agenda is three bullet points but if you are trying to plan a multi-hour meeting where a variety of speakers have to present and you need to stick to a timeframe – Project can definitely help. I recently had to plan a meeting that had some complexity and using Project saved me time. I knew that we had four hours available and had to get in seven presentations plus an intro and conclusion. I started by just dividing the time out and giving everyone the same amount of time but then all the speakers were saying they needed extra time or didn’t need that much time. If I had been in Excel or Word I would have had to manually update all the time slots and then constantly be checking to make sure everything still fit. Since I was in Project, I could make use of links and deadlines to automate this. This was especially handy after I made what I thought was the final schedule and someone pointed out I should probably add some breaks seeing how it was a four hour meeting – whoops. The below timeline is the final result of my planning and made for a great agenda graphic in my meeting request: How did I do this: Create a new project. Go to the Project tab – Project Information and set the project start date to the exact date and time of the meeting. Ex. 3/23/11 1:00 PM. If your meeting goes over lunch or outside normal working hours, also make sure to set the Project Calendar to the 24 hour calendar so it doesn’t affect your agenda. Go to File tab – Options. On the General tab, set the date format to HH:MM On the Duration tab, set Duration is entered in Minutes (or Hours is that works better for you) Now add your agenda items in the order you’ll be presenting. Feel free to use summary tasks to help organize the topics – I did. Select the last meeting item and go to the Task Information dialog – Advanced tab. Set the deadline to be the meeting end time. This way you’ll get an indication if you go over time. Now link all of the tasks by selecting them and clicking Link Tasks on the Task tab. You can now start playing with different durations to build a meeting agenda that will work. Don’t forget breaks! When you are done, you can create an agenda timeline by right-clicking the tasks and selecting Add to Timeline. Here’s the actual schedule that I created: Happy meeting planning!