Release History

BrightWork 15.24

Tab Themes

• In this release we are providing new themes that can be applied to the Tabs web part for a more modern experience.

Resource Report Allocation Themes

• Resource Report Allocation Themes have been added with hue graduation to better visualize under and over-allocation of resources, and to provide a more modern visual experience.
• Font Size can now be set to: Small, Medium (the default), Large, or Extra Large, in the Report Display Settings for Resource Reports.

New List and Reporter Icons

• BrightWork icons used in lists and Reporter have been updated with a more modern design. Below is a table illustrating some of the new icons alongside the previous version.
• Icons for On Target, Warning, and Danger, used in Metric Scorecards have been refreshed.

Other Improvements

• BrightWork Progress Indicator Bars have a refreshed design including:
  • Increased height.
  • Colored border (Green, Yellow, or Red).
  • Addition of a light fill of Green, Yellow, or Red, to better communicate the Status Indicator value.
• BrightWork Progress Bars have a refreshed design including:
  • Increased height.
  • Blue border.
  • Light blue fill.
• All Resource Reports in out of the box templates now default to:
  • Green Light theme.
  • No over-allocation work highlight color, as this is now included in the theme.
  • Font Size of medium.
• Similarly, when configuring a BrightWork Reporter web part, after selecting Resource Report as the Report Type, the same defaults as above are applied, namely:
  • Green Light theme.
  • No over-allocation work highlight color, as this is now included in the theme.
  • Font Size of medium.
• When emailing reports the new Progress Indicator bar and new icons will appear in the email.
• When emailing a Resource Report the Allocation Theme and any Font Size setting will appear in the email.

BrightWork 15.23

Boards

• User Interface: Users can now conveniently and quickly collapse all / expand all swimlanes in Boards, making it easier to focus on relevant data. This feature is available when swimlanes are enabled in a List Board View web part.

Metrics

• The Project Cache and Work Cache are now data source options for calculated date metrics and calculated number metrics.
• The order in which metrics are recalculated can now be configured. This allows for metrics that depend on other metrics to be put in a sequence so they pick up the correct values.

Web Part Settings

• Easy and convenient drag and drop ordering of: Metric Tile definitions, List Chart Y-Axis values, Reporter Chart Y-Axis values, and Metric History Chart Y-Axis values.
• Reporter: A Personal Settings icon will appear at the top of Reporter web parts when you're using Personal Settings instead of Shared Settings.

Other Improvements

• Gantt: Gantt tooltips now include the day of the week for dates.

Fixes

• Reporter: If new sites are added to the Specified Sites field in the Report Scope section of a Reporter web part, these sites will now be added to target sites during a design sync.

BrightWork 15.22

Template Design Sync Enhancements

New Template Design Sync capability has been included in this release:

• Promoted Link items are now included as a design sync option.
• Template binding configuration can now be done via a user interface.
• The Sync button is now located at both the top and bottom of the sync page for added convenience.

Project Status Report Cache - Column Mapping Enhancement

A new feature has been added that simplifies mapping columns from Project Status Report lists to the Project Status Report Cache.

When adding a column to a Project Status Report list and then mapping it to a column in the Project Status Report Cache, you can now use a feature that allows you to create the mapping on a configuration page. Changes are applied to the Project Status Report XML mapping file, removing the need to edit this file manually which could inadvertently introduce syntax errors.

The mapping dialog contains a useful link to the Project Status Report Cache list (available to Site Collection Administrators only).

Project Task Hierarchy Gantt - Critical Path

Critical Path identification is now available in the Project Task Hierarchy Gantt. With the click of a button you have the option to display the longest sequence of tasks that must be finished on schedule in order to complete the entire project on schedule.

Other Improvements

• The Outgoing E-Mail From address override can now be configured via a user interface in Site Settings as an alternative to SharePoint Designer.
• Improved report view descriptor settings for List Item and Resource reports when using the Project Cache, Work Cache, or Reporter Definition files as the data source.
• Boards: An option to show the 'Add a new card' icon on the top left of the Board has been added to Board Settings.
• Boards: An option to open a card in either the Edit form or the View form has been added to Board Settings.
• Summary task rollups of child task data is now more robust.
• More support for workflows when copying a site or using Template Design Sync in non-English regions.
• Support for calculated date fields when copying a site or using Template Design Sync in non-English regions.

Fixes

• If a duplicate site is added to the Portfolio Projects list in a Portfolio, BrightWork Reporter will now render as expected.
• Successor milestone start dates now equal the finish dates of predecessor tasks.

Deprecated

Provisioning Project Cache pages via the user interface has been deprecated.

BrightWork 15.21

Work Cache Column Mapping Enhancement

A new feature has been added that simplifies mapping columns from work lists to the Work Cache.

When adding a column to a work list and then mapping it to a column in the Work Cache, you can now use a feature that allows you to create the mapping on a configuration page. Changes are applied to the Work Cache XML mapping file, removing the need to edit this file manually which could inadvertently add syntax errors.

The mapping dialog contains a useful link to the Work Cache list (available to Site Collection Administrators only).

Project Task Hierarchy Gantt Improvements

New Project Task Hierarchy Gantt capability has been added in this release:

• The default sorting order is now based on the sort setting of the active view or CAML filter. You can also choose to sort on multiple column headers to display tasks in a flexible manner in the order you want.
• Search through the Gantt using the Gantt Search box to quickly find specific items.

New Template Design Sync Options

When using Template Design Sync you can now choose whether to add, synchronize, or remove Nintex Forms providing even more options when syncing your templates.

Other Improvements

• Project Request Manager: Project Request List View web parts can now be added to pages.
• In Project Request Manager you can now disable the 'Flag this project as already created' option, so it is not displayed when creating a project from a Project Request.
• Project Request Manager emails by default now use the outgoing email From setting configured in SharePoint Central Administration instead of the address of the person submitting the request.
• There is a site collection 'Site Option' to override the email From address for BrightWork Reporter emails, BrightWork Reporter scheduled emails, and Project Requests.
• Project Task Hierarchy Gantt: Added a Refresh action to the Gantt.
• Template Design Sync: It is now easier to filter by Severity in Site Sync logs as Severity is now a column and is available for filtering.
• A web part configuration icon is now available in the title bar when hovering over the following BrightWork web parts: Gantt, List Boards, Metric Tiles, Reporter, Scorecard.
• List Boards: Added an action to create a new card directly from a list board.

BrightWork 15.20

Gantt Chart Interactions

New Gantt Chart interaction capability has been added in this release:

• % Complete can now be easily updated by dragging the % Complete bar directly in the Gantt Chart. This new functionality provides a quick method for changing task status.
• Predecessor link drag and drop allowing users to easily create Finish-to-Start relationships between tasks.
• Milestone drag and drop to provide a quick and easy method to set milestone dates directly in the Gantt Chart in the same manner as other tasks.

With these changes it is recommended that the Gantt Chart column setting "Refresh on Update" be turned On.

Gantt Chart Grouping of Project Cache Items

Gantt Charts using the Project Cache as the data source can now group tasks by your selected columns.

Up to 4 columns can be selected to group by, and sorting in ascending or descending order is supported.

This provides greater flexibility to choose the data source you would like displayed in the chart.

Template Updates

A number of changes have been made to the out of the box templates.

• Project Lite, Project Standard, and Project Structured templates:
  • The List Gantt View web part for Project Tasks - Active Items Gantt, All Items Gantt, and My Items Gantt is replaced with the Gantt Chart web part to provide a more modern experience.
  • The Gantt Chart and the Task Name column are now wider than they were with the older Gantt web part.
• Project Area, Project Office, Projects and Work Tracker, and Portfolio templates:
  • The home page List Gantt View web part is replaced with the Gantt Chart web part to provide a more modern experience.
  • The Gantt Chart and the Project column are now wider than they were with the older Gantt web part.

Other Improvements

• Gantt Chart Stale Data Handling: If the Gantt Chart screen has not been refreshed prior to expiration of the timeout period, before any new entered data is saved the system will check that no conflicting data was entered by another user. If a conflict is detected, a warning message will display and the screen will automatically refresh to display current data.

BrightWork 16.19

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.19 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.19 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.19 release.

BrightWork 16.18

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.18 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.18 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.18 release.

BrightWork 15.18

Boards - Manual Sorting

Cards in Boards can now be manually sorted within the columns by dragging and dropping. This allows for prioritization within columns to avoid bottlenecks. Cards can also be manually sorted within columns across swimlanes.

Dragging and dropping the card within a column will automatically change the item Order number in the SharePoint list. Manual sorting can be enabled in settings when you select source list.

Resource Apportioning

List Item Reports and Resource Reports now support grouping by one multi-user Person or Group column.
Resource Reports also support the Work being apportioned evenly between the individuals. Similarly, List Item Reports support Number and Currency columns being apportioned evenly between the individuals.

Resource Reports support Number columns, typically Work, being apportioned evenly between the Person or Group grouping.

Boards - Advanced Card Styling

Advanced card styling gives IT professionals and developers full control of card styling. This is optional and if left blank the default Board theme styling is applied.

Advanced card styling is not an end-user feature, but does provide great flexibility for anyone who can invest the time in developing and maintaining the styling.

Template Updates

A number of changes have been made to the out of the box templates.

• Project Lite, Project Standard, and Project Structured templates:
  • Projects Statement link has been added to the Quick Launch. This will open the Project Statement in a dialog. There is more detail in the How can I activate the new 1X.18 features section (in the BrightWork 1n.18 help version only).
  • All Tasks Gantt report uses the Gantt Chart web part rather than the List Gantt View web part. This allows drag and drop updates to dates.
• Project Areas, Project Offices, and Portfolio templates:
  • Project Gantt page on the Project Cache version, the List Gantt View web part is replaced with a Gantt Chart web part to provide a more modern experience.
  • Home Link fo reports reflects the template, i.e. a Project Office or a Portfolio.
• Work Tracker:
  
  • Work Gantt has been added and linked to from the home page and allows items to be edited by dragging and dropping dates in the Gantt.

Other Improvements

• Boards: Search can be triggered by pressing Enter in the search box.
• Boards: Background updates have been made to improve overall performance.

Fixes

• Expanding Reporter Settings - Column Settings section is slow.
  Chromium browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge can be slow when opening the Column Settings section of the Reporter Settings page. This does not impact all users of these browsers, nor other browsers like Firefox. However, the impact of this was such that we have changed the default behavior of the Column Settings section so that it is expanded by default. This will help mitigate the problem until we have a more permanent fix. This applies to Reporter Settings for: List Item Reports, Resource Usage Report, and Gantt Report. This change also applies to the two Gantt web parts: List Gantt View web part and Gantt Chart web part.
• Gantt: there was an issue when a Gantt bar would continue off the page when there is no Start Date set. This is now fixed.

BrightWork 16.17

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.17 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.17 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.17 release.

BrightWork 15.17

Gantt Chart Drag and Drop

The Gantt Chart web part supports editing the dates of Tasks using drag and drop.



Drag and Drop Start and Finish dates, or the Task bar, to adjust task dates. The updates are saved immediately in the Task.

Gantt Chart Zoom

The Gantt Chart web part supports Zoom In and Zoom Out.

Zoom In on a specific date range to see more detail, up to and including days of the week. Zoom Out for a wider date range up to years and quarters.

To further facilitate updating task dates using drag and drop, the Gantt Chart supports adding Timespans. Timespans can be added both to the right and to the left of the Gantt using actions in the Gantt Toolbar.

Gantt Chart Calculate Schedule

For Project Task lists using Task Scheduling, the schedule can be calculated in the Gantt Chart using the Calculate Schedule action. This can be optionally hidden.

You can also set the Calculate Schedule to run after every update in the Gantt Chart settings.

Scheduled Email Enhancements

BrightWork Reporter now allows Scheduled Emailing of reports to Active Directory Security Groups , and to Cc individuals or Security Groups.

The users in Groups, or listed in the Cc list, do not have their permissions checked the way individuals in the To list are. This means they may not have access to the data in the report. So, caution should be exercised when including Groups or when using the Cc list.

Internet Explorer Partial Deprecation

Internet Explorer is not suited to using the Gantt Chart web part, or Boards. We now encourage you to switch from Internet Explorer and to use modern browsers like Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. There may be times when Internet Explorer is still of value, copying data in a Datasheet for instance. However, most of the time you will be better served to use a modern browser.

Other Improvements

• Template Design Sync Select All/Deselect All: When Syncing with a template, you can select all the low risks updates, or deselect all the options. Low risk options are 'adds' or 'updates', but exclude 'deletes'.
• Report Editor CAML Formatting: When editing a list query template in the Report Editor, the Specify Query (CAML) formatting is automatically formatted when editing List Query Templates.
• Gantt: Other changes to Gantt Chart:
  • Edit Option: Tasks in the Gantt Chart can be configured so that they are editable in the Gantt Chart.
  • Expand All/Collapse All: Expands all or collapses all the Summary Tasks in the Gantt Chart.
  • Gantt Toolbar: With Options for:
    1. Expand All
    2. Collapse All
    3. Zoom In
    4. Zoom Out
    5. Add Timespan Left
    6. Add Timespan Right
    7. Calculate Schedule

BrightWork 16.16

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.16 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.16 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.16 release.

BrightWork 15.16

Gantt Chart Web Part - Hierarchical Tasks

The Gantt Chart web part has been updated to allow tasks be displayed in a hierarchy. Other improvements include:

• Projects Tasks: Project Task lists can now be reported on in a hierarchical Gantt.
• Icons: Project status icons can now be displayed on the Gantt. This includes: status, priority and status indicator icons, as well as icons like health, time and cost.
• Height: The height of the Gantt can be configured in the Gantt settings.
• Column Types: Gantt now supports lookup columns, multi-value lookup columns, and multi-value choice columns.
• Default Columns: Gantt now includes icon columns configured by default.

Portfolio Project Cache Reporting

Portfolio reporting sites can now report on the Project Cache, improving performance. The following additional features are now available for Portfolio reporting site.

• BrightWork Reporter web part: Instances in Portfolio reporting sites can now select the Project Cache as a Data Source. This facilitates faster reporting and, for larger sites, can show greatly improved performance.
• Gantt Charts web part: The Gantt Chart web part, which uses the Project Cache for project reporting, is now available in Portfolio reporting sites.
• Quick Setup: Existing Portfolio reporting sites can be quickly updated by using the BrightWork Provision Project Cache Pages action.
• New Portfolio sites: New Portfolio reporting sites, created from the out of the box template, will default to report on the Project Cache.

Template Design Sync

Template Design Sync now supports the option to include column mapping in Project Status Report lists. Also, Template Design Sync now follows the same rules as Rename Project Home Link if the Quick Launch is synced.

Other Improvements

• BrightWork Web Part Page: When creating a new BrightWork Web Part Page, the default behavior for 'Overwrite if file already exists?' is now set to 'No'.
• Reporter Definition: When creating a new Reporter Definition file in the BrightWork Reporter Library the default behavior for 'Overwrite if file already exists?' is now set to 'No'.
• Refresh on Update: BrightWork Reporter Refresh on Update localizes the refresh to just the BrightWork Reporter web part, helping improve page performance after an update.
• Open in Dialog: Open in Dialog from Quick Launch functionality now supports spaces in the URL.
• Gantt: Other changes to Gantt Chart:
  • Performance: Gantt has been refactored to improve performance.
  • Project Cache Milestone Deprecated: Milestone is no longer an option in the Data Binding section for Project Cache Gantt charts.
  • Full Screen Deprecated: Full screen view has been deprecated due to incompatibilities with SharePoint.
• Reporter New Gantt Deprecated: The New Gantt Report Type is no longer appearing in BrightWork Reporter. Users are asked to use the new Gantt Chart web part instead. Existing BrightWork Reporter web parts that use the New Gantt Report Type will no longer work as expected.
• Microsoft Project Sync: Microsoft Project Online Desktop Client introduced a bug that returned a Type Mismatch error when doing a Microsoft Project Sync. This has been addressed.

BrightWork 16.15

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.15 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.15 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.15 release.

BrightWork 15.15.1

Update for August 2020 CU

The BrightWork 15.15.1 release addresses an issue resulting from a change made in the Microsoft SharePoint August 2020 Cumulative Update (CU). This CU contains an update to prevent JavaScript being added to the Quick Launch. As a result, warning messages can appear when creating a Project site from a Template containing one of these links. Typically these calls would open a Project Statement in a dialog and were used in BrightWork templates prior to November 2015.

This release addresses this issue and adds a new capability allowing items on the Quick Launch to open in a dialog without the need to add JavaScript to the Quick Launch. For more information, see the opening items in a dialog from the Quick Launch topic.

BrightWork 15.15

Gantt Chart Web Part

The Gantt Chart web part is a new web part. It replaces the New Gantt Report Type in BrightWork Reporter.

The initial version of the Gantt Chart web part supports the following:

• Web Part Ribbon: Like most BrightWork web parts, the settings can be accessed from the web part's Ribbon. The web part can be Refreshed from the ribbon also.
• Data Source: Project Cache is the Data Source supported. The Data Source can also be filtered using views from the Project Cache or by using CAML.
• Gantt Scope: Current Site or Current Site including all sub-sites.
• Gantt Data Binding: Options to select the start and finish dates, percentage complete, and a milestone flag to be viewed on the Gantt timeline.
• Column Settings: Select and order the reports columns. Also, modify the column's caption, hide the caption, and specify a column width.
• Column Types: Not all columns in the Project Cache are available. The following columns types not available; Project Link, Dates, Numbers, Currency, People/Groups (i.e. users), Choice, Text, and Yes/No
• Sorting: Select up to four columns to determine the default order in which items are displayed.

The Gantt Chart web part also supports the following:

• Initial set of columns are automatically selected.
• Column widths can be dragged to expand or narrow the column.
• Column splitter can be dragged left and right to hide or show columns.
• Column can be sorted by clicking on the column's heading. Ctrl-Click a column heading for multi-column sorting.
• Gantt timeline set to fit the project dates.
• Search of Gantt content.
• Full screen view by clicking this icon: . Hit the Esc key to exit this mode

Copy Sites Across Site Collections

BrightWork now includes a feature that allows users to copy a site from one BrightWork site collection to another.

This leverages the unique BrightWork Copy Site feature which gives far greater support than native SharePoint.

The Copy Site Across Site Collections feature is especially useful for copying templates, and is also useful when copying projects (without user assignments).

The feature is intended to be used by SharePoint Admins or BrightWork Super Users as the feature is included in the BrightWork API. The feature is also made available as a Web Service. The help topic references a number of examples on how to call the Web Service to get you started.

Security Updates

To maintain ongoing compliance with U.S. Federal and State security requirements, a new version of jQuery (version 3.5.1) is now being used.

These security updates ensure that BrightWork remains compliant and secure. For this reason we recommend upgrading to this version or later.

Other Improvements

• Deprecated: The New Gantt Report Type is no longer available in BrightWork Reporter. Users are asked to use the new Gantt Chart web part instead. Existing BrightWork Reporter web parts that use the New Gantt Report Type will continue to work, but they cannot be updated or new web parts added with this option.

Fixes

• Work Tracker Template: All Issues - Status chart, on the Overall Status Charts page, now uses the All Issues view instead of All Items.

BrightWork 16.14

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.14 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.14 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.14 release.

BrightWork 15.14

New Gantt

The New Gantt chart is a modern Gantt chart intended to eventually replace the current Gantt chart.

The New Gantt chart will be gradually rolled out across BrightWork and is currently available for the Project Cache.

New Gantt chart features, not in the existing Gantt chart, include:

• Columns are automatically selected
• Column widths can be dragged to expand or narrow the column
• Column splitter can be dragged left and right to hide or show columns
• Column can be sorted by clicking on the column's heading. Ctrl-Click a column heading for multi-column sorting
• Gantt timeline set to fit the project dates
• Fixed height web part with sticky headers for easier scrolling
• Search of Gantt content including; project, dates, and % complete
• Full screen view by clicking this icon: . Hit the Esc key to exit this mode

User Access Report

The User Access Report reports on the number of users currently with Read or higher level of access to BrightWork.

SharePoint Administrators can now optionally configure the User Access Report timer job so that the User Access Report CSV file is saved to a specified SharePoint Document Library.

This SharePoint Document Library can then be shared with non-SharePoint Administrators, removing the need to access the server's local drive to access the report.

Security Updates

To maintain ongoing compliance with U.S. Federal and State security requirements, a cross-site scripting vulnerability in BrightWork Reporter has been addressed.

These security updates ensure that BrightWork remains compliant and secure. For this reason we recommend upgrading to this version or later.

Work Cache Enhancements

It is now possible to exclude list types from the Work Cache. For example; Tasks, Risks or Issues.

Excluding a list type mapping from the global mapping file will prevent the list items getting added to the Work Cache and will also remove any existing list items already in the Work Cache when a Refresh is ran.

Other Improvements

• Template Changes
  

  Boards have been added to the following out of the box templates

  • Project Structured: Work Boards pages added, new tabbed group added, and linked to from the Quick Launch. Includes Tasks Board, Issues Board, Risks Board, Change Requests Board, and Goals Board.
  • Project Standard: Work Boards pages added, new tabbed group added, and linked to from the Quick Launch. Includes Tasks Board, Issues Board, Risks Board, and Goals Board.
  • Project Lite: Work Boards pages added, new tabbed group added, and linked to from the Quick Launch. Includes Tasks Board and Issues Board.
  • Projects & Work Tracker: Projects Board added as a new page and linked to from the home page tabbed menu.
  • Project Office: Projects Tracker Board added as a new page and linked to from the Quick Launch.


• BrightWork Timer Jobs: no longer stop processing when a corrupted site collection is encountered. Details are written out to the ULS logs and the Timer Job proceeds.
• Project Calendar: is now clearly labelled with 'No Project Calendar Set' if the Project Calendar is not set for the site.
• Navigation: Where Am I? modified for better localization support.

Fixes

• Metric Tiles: added support for metrics with the same Metric Title. These will have different Metric Ids.
• Boards: when multiple Boards exist on the same page, when dragging items on one Board, it was possible for this action to impact on items on the other Board. This has now been addressed.
• Project Request Manager: Fixed issue with Boards returning an error.

BrightWork 16.13

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.13 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.13 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.13 release.

BrightWork 15.13

Boards Updates

There have been a number of improvements to Boards:

Search
Search is now available on each Board by default. All characters used on the Board can be searched for.

Column Card Count
It is now possible to display the number of cards within a column in its header.

WIP Limit
WIP (Work In Progress) Limits can be set for columns or columns that are grouped together. A column with more cards than the set WIP Limit will be highlighted. WIP Limits are a key component of Kanban processes.

Hide Columns
You can now hide the display of a column completely from the Board.

Grouping Columns
Columns can now be grouped together under a common heading.

Other

• Board Settings: Select Theme section now renamed to General Settings.
• Board Settings: Refresh Board option has moved to the General Settings section.

BrightWork Reporter - Refresh on Update

BrightWork Reporter can now be configured to automatically Refresh on Update i.e. refresh the report after an item is saved.

Once enabled, you will no longer have to refresh a report to see changes.

Work Cache Enhancements

The Work Cache had a significant update in the previous release with the addition of the 'Include in Work Cache' column.

This release completes that round of updates including:

• Added support for the two custom list types, BrightWork Custom List (list type 758) and SharePoint Custom List (list type 100). For items from these lists to be added to the Work Cache the 'Include in Work Cache' column must exist in the list and return True.
• Work Cache views for Open Work and My Work now filter on the Completed Flag also. If these views had not been updated then the change will be applied automatically by the upgrade process.
• Added the 'Include in Work Cache' column to out-of-the-box templates.
• Updates made to Resource Allocation items in Project Request sites will now get added to the Work Cache at the next schedulded Update.

User Access Report

It is now possible to generate a User Access Report, automatically on a schedule, in CSV format. This reports on the number of users currently with Read or higher level of access to BrightWork.

This report can be created by:

• Activating the BrightWork User Access Report feature.
• Using the Run Now option, or by waiting on a scheduled run to complete.
• This creates a CSV file on the SharePoint server that can be then analyzed.
• To make the CSV file more usable there is an accompanying Microsoft Excel file that will help when analyzing the data for license purposes.

Other Improvements

• List Gantt View
  

  The List Gantt View web part can now be configured to automatically Refresh on Update i.e. refresh the report after an item is saved.

  Once enabled, you will no longer have to refresh a report to see changes.

• Templates Changes
  
  • Added the 'Include in Work Cache' column to lists in: Project Lite, Project Standard, Project Structured, Projects and Work Tracker, Work Tracker and Project Request Manager.
  • Turned on Refresh on Update in all reports in: Project Lite, Project Standard, Project Structured, Projects and Work Tracker, Work Tracker and Project Request Manager.
  • Turned on Refresh on Update for all List Gantt View reports in: Project Lite, Project Standard, Project Structured, Projects and Work Tracker, Work Tracker and Project Request Manager.

BrightWork 16.12

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.12 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.12 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.12 release.

BrightWork 15.12

Boards Updates

Clicking on the information icon will now open the ribbon, making configuration easier to find.

You can now change the caption on a Board column, so for example, if the actual status value is '(1) Not Started', you can change the heading to 'Not Started' if that is easier to understand.

You can also default a column to its collapsed state. This can be useful when a column contains a lot of cards (e.g. when the number of Completed items grow). The column could also be be collapsed by default if it is often empty.

When Dates are displayed on cards they now refresh like other details on the card once updated.

Project Cache Mapping Updates

The Project Cache Mapping now supports Projects Tracker lists when mapping a column to the Project Cache. This entirely removes the need to edit the XML mapping file.

It is now possible to add and remove mappings for Project Statements, Project Metrics, and Projects Trackers.

Configure Work Cache Inclusion Criteria

The Work Cache by default includes only open work items. It is now possible to configure which list items are included to the Work Cache.

This is achieved by adding a calculated Yes/No column to the list. See Configure List Items to Include in the Work Cache for the steps.

Security Updates

To maintain ongoing compliance with U.S. Federal and State security requirements, an update to a web handler page in BrightWork has been applied.

Also, the capability to have column headers with anything other than text has been removed from the Boards web part to further enhance security.

Other Improvements

• Usability Tip - Ribbon Quick Access
  

  Clicking on the information icon will now open the ribbon as well as the report information window.

  Tip! Double clicking the report information icon will open the Ribbon, dismissing the window.

• Template Changes
  Some improvements to out of the box templates have been made in response to requests from customers, namely:
  • For Project Lite, Project Standard, and Project Structured templates:
  • Task Boards now have swimlanes and card columns turned on by default
  • The first 'Get started with your project' tile on the project home page has been renamed from 'Setup Project' to 'View Project Statement'
  • The Work Board in the Work Tracker has also been updated with a swimlane and more card details
  • The Project Cache is now the default source for reports in Project Areas and Project Offices
  
  

  Further details on these changes can be seen in the What's New | How can I activate the new 16.12 features help topic.

• Better Form Validation Support
  When copying a project which contains lists using Forms Validation no error message will appear. This was a false positive error, and is now ignored. The ULS logs are updated however.

BrightWork 16.11

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.11 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.11 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.11 release.

BrightWork 15.11

Swimlanes for Boards

Boards have been updated to facilitate horizontal categorization of cards in swimlanes.

Swimlanes are optional. Swimlanes can be enabled for both User or Choice type columns. Options also exist to prevent dragging and dropping between swimlanes, and to display a count of cards in the swimlane.

Project Cache Mapping Updates

The Project Cache Mapping functionality has been enhanced to facilitate mapping a column from Project Metrics to the Project Cache without needing to manually modify the global Project Cache XML mapping file.

The new feature will allow you to map a number of values from the metric including the metric's value and icon indicator. You can also remove mappings on the mapping page.

SharePoint 2019 Compatibility

BrightWork is now compatible with SharePoint 2019. Learn how to migrate to BrightWork on SharePoint 2019.

The default experience is set to "Classic Experience" for BrightWork site collections on SharePoint 2019.

Other Improvements

• Create Project - Additional Nintex Workflow support
  Release 3.4.0.0 for SharePoint 2013, Release 4.4.0.0 for SharePoint 2016, and Release 5.0.1.0 for SharePoint 2019 introduced an issue when a site is first copied. This issue has been addressed.


• Easier Context Sensitive Access
  In Reporter Settings and Project Cache Mapping convenient links now exist to relevant Lists or Libraries as follows:
  Reporter Settings | Data Source (depending on the Data Source selected)
  • Work Cache
  • Project Cache
  • Project Status Report Cache
  • Reporter Library
    
  Project Cache Mapping (depending on the list being mapped)
  • Project Statement list and the Project Cache list
    
  • Project Metrics list and the Project Cache list


• Template Changes
  • Newsfeed links no longer appear on the quick launches of out-of-the-box templates by default. Existing links will continue to work normally.

Fixes

• Firefox Support
  • BrightWork Reporter Print and Print Preview features are now working in Firefox.
  • A previously reported issue with collapsed sections in BrightWork Reporter web parts (Report Description, Report Errors and Report Profiler) when using a Firefox browser has been addressed in a new release of Firefox. If you are having issues with sections not working as expected, then ensure you are on the latest release of Firefox. This fix was confirmed with Firefox Quantum 66.0.
• Cache Refreshes (Project Cache, Work Cache, and Project Status Report Cache) no longer stop if an invalid calculated date value is being mapped to the cache.
• BrightWork Reporter Scheduled Email running on a report using [Me] to filter items, is no longer case sensitive.
• When reporting on a cache, BrightWork Reporter will no longer show in-report date filters in the column heading. This is because in-report date filtering is not supported.

BrightWork 16.10

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.10 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.10 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.10 release.

BrightWork 15.10

Security Update

To maintain compliance with U.S. Federal and State security requirements, updates to third party libraries used in BrightWork have been applied.

These security updates ensure that BrightWork remains compliant and secure. For this reason we recommend upgrading to this version or later.

Boards

Boards have been visually enhanced and can now display one, some, or all of the following on the card; a title, a user, a date, a priority, a reference number along with a progress bar.

The information displayed on the card is now automatically refreshed every time a card is dragged and dropped into a new column.

Out-of-the-box themes and how the cards look within the Board have been improved, in particular the Royal Purple theme's font sizes are now similar to other themes.

Boards now also support items in folders. If you have a Board using a list or library that includes folders, items in the folder will be available to drag and drop within the Board.

Finally, an issue that prevented a card moving to a new column after scrolling to the bottom of the Board has been resolved.

Project Cache Mapping

A new feature has been added that simplifies mapping a column from the Project Statement to the Project Cache.

When adding a column to the Project Statement and then mapping it to a column in the Project Cache, you can now use a feature that allows you to create the mapping. Changes are applied to the global Project Cache mapping file, removing the need to edit this file manually.

The mapping dialog contains a useful link to the Project Cache list (available to Site Collection Administrators only).

When manually editing the global Project Cache mapping file, syntax errors can be inadvertently added. Using the mapping feature removes this risk. However, should these syntax errors occur they are now easier to debug as the Project Cache Mapping page will identify the first invalid line and character position.

BrightWork 16.9

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.9 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.9 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.9 release.

BrightWork 15.9

Resource Allocation

• Resource Allocation is a new list in Project Request Manager.
• BrightWork Reporter reports on Resource Allocation lists by mapping the Project Request referenced to the report's 'Project' column.
• Easy configuration of project request manager to expose Resource Allocation. Resource Allocation is not in the Project Request Manager site navigation by default.
• Project Request Manager can also be configured to allow Resources Allocation using Project Roles.
• Resource Allocation items can be reported on with current project work using BrightWork Reporter.

Syncing Workflows

• SharePoint 2010 List Workflows: new, updated and deleted List workflows in templates can be synced to a project site.
• Nintex List Workflows: new, updated and deleted List workflows in templates can be synced to a project site.

For SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, and Nintex Workflows the following table illustrates how workflows behave when projects are created or design synced:

			Template Design Sync
Workflow Type	Create Project	New Workflows	Updated Workflows	Deleted Workflows
SharePoint 2010 List Workflow
Nintex List Workflow
SharePoint 2013 Workflows (List and Reusable)
SharePoint 2010 Workflows (Site and Reusable)
Nintex Workflows (Site and Reusable)
SharePoint 2013 Workflow (Site)

Boards in Templates

List Board View is now available out of the box in existing templates:

• Tasks Boards have been added to the Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates.
• Work Board has been added to the Work Tracker.

It is possible to change the column displayed on cards. Now the new column setting is retained while configuring the Board's settings.

Other Improvements

• Scheduled Email: Increased the size of the font for email body text to Calibri 11.
• Training Zone: Project Home links are renamed now when creating the projects.
• Task Scheduling: When enabling task scheduling for a task list, the option to Automatically Calculate Schedule is set to Enabled by default.
• Web Services: Create Project Web Service now supports optionally renaming the Project Home link.

Fixes

• BrightWork Reporter: Addressed issue with Project links for Project Tracker items opening in the same tab.

BrightWork 16.8

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.8 release is identical in terms of updates to the BrightWork 15.8 release and includes all its great new improvements. See below for details of the 15.8 release.

BrightWork 15.8

Boards

New web part called List Board View added. This allows you to select a list and view, select a Choice column to map to each column (for example Status), and then display the list items in a board.

Dragging cards from one column to another will update the item. Double clicking on a card will open it for editing.

Copying Workflows

• SharePoint Server 2013 Workflows: List and Reusable workflows in templates are copied when creating a project.

For SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, and Nintex Workflows the following table illustrates how workflows behave when projects are created or design synced:

			Template Design Sync
Workflow Type	Create Project	New Workflows	Updated Workflows	Deleted Workflows
SharePoint 2010 List Workflow		Coming Soon	Coming Soon	Coming Soon
Nintex Workflow List Workflow		Coming Soon	Coming Soon	Coming Soon
SharePoint 2013 Workflows (List and Reusable)
SharePoint 2010 Workflows (Site and Reusable)
Nintex Workflows (Site and Reusable)
SharePoint 2013 Workflow (Site)

Navigation ... and knowing where you are!

Project Site Name

To always be able to see the project site you are in, when you create a project site the site name is added to the left side navigation (i.e. quick launch).

This is optional and unchecking the option will cause the display of the default value of 'Project Home'.

This feature is available through a web service and the API.

Navigation

BrightWork manages projects in a hierarchy. So being able to navigate around and know where you are at all times is important.

Navigation has been overhauled to improve speed, discoverability, and to simplify the options.

• Icons are larger, clearer, and with better descriptions so people will notice them.
• Where am I? option has changed too. Gone is the Collapse All and Reset actions. Instead you have a new Refresh which will update the Where am I?.
• Where am I? will be much faster too. Results are cached locally now so you will not have to wait for the server to get you all the sites in the hierarchy each time. Can't find what you need, then Refresh.
• Creating a project now includes an option to include the project name in the quick launch.

Other Improvements

• Project Request Manager:
• Now supports adding the following BrightWork lists:
• Custom List (BrightWork)
• Project Change Request (BrightWork)
• Project Goals (BrightWork)
• Project Issues (BrightWork)
• Project Risks (BrightWork)
• Project Tasks (BrightWork)
• Project Roles (BrightWork)
• Project Teams (BrightWork)
• Project Team-Roles (BrightWork)
• Column Visibility is now available on all lists.


• Chrome Date Jumps: Chrome browser users may have noticed when editing a form and using the date picker in SharePoint that their cursor jumps to the top of the page. This annoying behavior will not happen in BrightWork.


• Training Zone: Scheduled Report Email is enabled in the Project Area and Sample Area by default. It was already enabled by default in the Training Area. This is to encourage the scheduling of emails from sites that are high up in the hierarchy.


• Nintex Forms: Project Statements can now be configured using Nintex Forms.


• Additional Cache Column Support: the three reporting caches (Project Cache, Work Cache, and Project Status Report Cache) now support cascaded lookup columns created using the third party tool from Boost Solutions. Support for this column type was included in BrightWork Reporter using Reporter definition files already.

Template updates

• Project Lite: the Health metric is now activated. This addresses an issue with the Project Status Report.
• Project Standard: Project Task lists created from the template will have their schedule calculated nightly by default. Previously this needed to be enabled manually.

BrightWork 16.7

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.7 release is identical to the BrightWork 15.7 release and includes all its great features. See below for details of the 15.7 release.
The BrightWork 16.7 release is also the release that delivers all the features added in BrightWork 15.6.

BrightWork 15.7

Project Status Report Cache

The Project Status Report Cache data source is primarily designed as an alternative to 'project status report' reports that report across multiple sites. Available in BrightWork Reporter, the Project Status Report Cache data source enables faster cross-site reporting.

The Project Status Report Cache includes several aspects such as:

• A weekly timer job used to refresh the cache.
• A custom default setting that shows only the current report from each Project Status Report list.
• Option to turn on/off the Project Status Report Cache.
• Project Status Report Cache Refresh option can be accessed from the site settings page.

Enterprise Support

Nightly timer jobs have been optimized to run more efficiently. The following nightly jobs now skip projects that are either closed or archived:

• BrightWork Metric Recalculation Timer Job
• BrightWork Task Scheduling Timer Job

Scheduled email resend attempts. If an email fails to send the scheduled emailer will try to resend it up to two more times, for three attempts in total.

Web Services

Extra web services added for additional Nintex and development use. The new web services are:

• Calculate Schedule: Calculates the schedule for a task list with scheduling enabled.
• Move Schedule: Moves the schedule for a task list with scheduling enabled.
• Update Project Metrics: Runs a metrics update for the metrics list in the current project site.
• Refresh Project Data: Runs a refresh for the current project site with parameters. These parameters can calculate schedule, refresh metrics, or refresh the work cache.

Other

• Nintex Workflow: Support has been added for Nintex Workflows with Conditional Startup Options running on Project Statement lists.
• Work Cache: Task lists in Project Request Manager sites which were created before the Work Cache was introduced now are included in the open Work Cache.
• Nintex Forms:
• Support extended so that unpublished Nintex Forms can be copied and recopied without impacting the forms.
• SharePoint Admin cmdlet added to repair lists if Nintex Forms are deleted.

Fixes

• Reporter displays SharePoint Groups in People or Group columns when presence is enabled.
• Task Scheduling issue when copying and pasting tasks in a datasheet.
• Metric History Chart renders when no metrics are available.
• Metric Tiles web part, custom links now supported from web part pages.
• The Finish action button is disabled in Edge when creating a project, until the final step.

Add-on

• User Access Export utility is available from [email protected] on request.
  This PowerShell utility crawls through BrightWork site collections and exports a CSV file containing all users with their access levels. This PowerShell only reads data from the site collection and does not make any updates.

BrightWork 15.6

More Regular Releases

BrightWork 15.6 is the first in a new quarterly release cadence. The goal for BrightWork from now on is to have smaller but more frequent updates. We're moving to this new approach so that we can be more responsive to customer needs.

Create a Project - additional Nintex Support

Improved support when creating a site from another which uses Nintex features:

• Nintex Forms in a site are now copied to the new site.
• Nintex Workflow support has improved and now also copies the "conditional start" criteria.

The following Nintex features are now copied for all instances when creating a new site:

• Create a project from a template site.
• Create a project from an existing project site.
• Create a template from a project site.
• Create a template from an existing template site.

Template Design Sync - additional Nintex Forms Support

All Nintex Forms in a template are now copied each time a template design sync is run. This resets a project's Nintex Forms to the version defined in the template.

Scheduled Email

Scheduled email has been enhanced to improve scalability.

Nightly scheduled emails now have performance improvements to help reduce the scheduled timer job's duration. This will be most relevant in larger server environments.

Fixes

• Charts now support negative numbers. This fixes a regression in release 15.5.

BrightWork 16.1

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.1 release is identical to the BrightWork 15.5 release and includes all its great features. See below for details of the 15.5 release.

Fixes

• Addressed problems of warnings in the Create Project process introduced by the January 2017 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2016.

BrightWork 15.5

Charting

Charting has taken another step to a better experience with new look charts. Among the many updates are more configuration options such as charts rendering in 3D or Polar. The new updates allow you to easily zoom, print and download charts.

Some of the other charting updates include:

• New look charts.
• 3D style is now available with pie, doughnut, column and bar charts.
• Polar style is available on: bar, column, line and area.
• This menu is included on each chart allowing you to configure, print and download an image. For Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer browsers to download an image, right-click and select Save picture as.
• Border on/off option now available.
• Zoom into a reduced set of values on charts and pan across them.
• The ascending sort order for a bar chart now starts from the bottom of the chart.
• Data labels are set to not overlap on charts.
• Legend toggle to turn it on/off.
• When only one Y-axis series is selected, the theme chosen will be applied to each value in the series.

Activity Indicator

BrightWork Reporter, List Gantt View and List Chart View web parts now have a distinctive 'working on it' icon as the web part loads or is refreshed. This provides a smoother more seamless user experience when transitioning to a new page.

Work Cache

The open Work Cache data source is primarily designed as an alternative to open work reports and issues that report across multiple sites. Available in BrightWork Reporter, the open Work Cache data source, enables faster cross-site reporting.

The Work Cache includes several aspects such as:

• A weekly timer job used to refresh the cache.
• A more frequent timer job carried out every 15 minutes to update the cache.
• Addition of views allowing for faster filtering and response time: Open Work, My Work and Issues.
• Option to turn on/off the Work Cache.
• Work Cache Refresh and Update options can be accessed from the settings page and by selecting Project on the ribbon and then click Refresh Project Data.

Project Cache

The Project Cache has been updated to include:

• Addition of new views allowing for faster filtering and response time: All Projects, Open Projects and My Projects.
• Real-time rendering, meaning faster mirroring of data to the Project Cache. We have removed the need for the frequent 15 minute timer update job by making the queue real-time.
• Refresh Project Data no longer has an option to Refresh Project Cache because this happens automatically.
• The % Complete column's format was updated to have no decimal places by default.

Training Zone

SharePoint administrators can create a training environment quickly and easily. We call this environment Training Zone and it includes all the out of the box templates, a Sample Area, and a Training Area. The Sample Area is where you can explore project sites with sample data. The Training Area is where you carry out your training using the linked training guides.

Create Project

Create Project has been updated to include more powerful defaulting.

The new default settings include:

• A unique URL generating from the title.
• The Project Manager defaulting to the logged in user.
• Templates/projects can load automatically when browse is clicked.
• Project Area level configuration settings now easily accessible.

Another change made to Create Project is the introduction of a new icon for browse.

All of these new updates and configuration settings allow for less clicks when creating projects meaning faster project creation.

Improvements

Reporter

• New look progress bar and progress indicator bar
• Project links:
• For Projects and Work Tracker projects this will open the 'Selected Project Open Work' page.
• For Project reports the 'Project Link' column is now called 'Project' and 'Project Icon Link' column is now called 'Project Link'.
• Gantt Reporting:
• Improved grouping experience with more logical left justified placement.
• Removed the need to anchor the grouping to a wide column.
• Mouse-over title to see full title of an item.
• Milestones now appear at the Finish Date as opposed to the Start Date.
• Print and Print Preview:
• Now support both Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome browsers.
• Description and Report Profiler output now appear in Print and Print Preview.
• Export: Renamed the Export options to more clearly indicate their functions.
• 'To Excel' is now called 'Static Excel'.
• 'To WebQuery' is now called 'Dynamic Excel', this is now the first option.
• 'To Xml' is now called 'Xml'.
• Reporter settings:
• Data source selection options have changed to include the Work Cache and options to select cache views.
• Selecting the Project Cache no longer has built-in Shared Filters to filter to open projects. This is because there is now an option to select the Open Projects view, which is a faster alternative.
• When Work Cache or Project Cache are deactivated they will not appear in the list of data sources in the Reporter Configuration page.
• Retention Duration is the new name for Enable Caching on the Reporter configuration page. This is to avoid confusion with the Project and Work Cache features.
• Depending on the report or chart type selected the icon displayed will reflect the report or chart type.
• Performance:
• Presence on groups can be turned on and off.
• Reports that use a List Query Template of Default List (also known as Web Query Template) no longer have the option to select sites and sub-sites as this is not necessary for this report type.
• Scheduled Emails now top-align all rows as they would appear in a report.
• Report XML is available again as an option for the Report Scope for reports in the BrightWork Reporter Library and Custom Location.

Templates

• Projects and Work Tracker:
• If you select a project link from a report it will open the 'Selected Project Open Work' page. Previously this opened the Project item.
• Project Lite:
• Project Status Charts page in the Issue Metrics web part the 'Red' label now changed to 'Late'.
• Health Indicator metric no longer active in Project Lite templates.
• Project Structured:
• Project Status Charts page in the Issue Metrics web part the 'Red' label now changed to 'Late'.
• Metrics:
• Time metric now compares its value to the Planned Finish Date as opposed to Customer Required Date when determining if the project is late.
• Customer Required Date is no longer an Active Metric.
• Promoted Links:
• Set Initial Dates step has been removed.
• The order of the remaining items has been updated, and the icons for steps 3,4 and 5 have been changed to 2,3 and 4.
• Project Request Management: Assigned To column is hidden when the Project Request is approved.
• Projects Area and Project Office: Project Cache reports updated to use new Project Cache views.
• Projects Area, Project Office and Portfolio reports: The following default project reports now contain the same columns and chart settings when using the Project Cache:
• Project - Status Charts
• Project - By Status
• Project - By Manager
• Project Metrics:
• Every instance of 'Estimated Cost to Complete' in metric descriptions has been renamed to 'Remaining Cost'.
• Task metrics across the Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates now filter out Summary Tasks when calculating.
• Health Indicator metric no longer active in Project Lite templates.
• Work Tracker: this template has been updated. Due Date is now called Finish Date. The original Finish Date column has been hidden and renamed Planned Finish Date.
• Out-of-the-box reports:
• 'Cost' calculation formula has now been updated.
• 'Created' column date format has been reset to the default settings.
• 'Item Description' has been renamed to 'Description' in the Open Work report.
• Project and Work Reports: Project Area, Project Office and Portfolio now have Presence turned off by default on columns. This improvement will make these reports faster.

Other

• List Chart View: Processing performance ​of List Chart View web part improved for large reports. For example, we have observed an eight-fold decrease in rendering time.
• More robust metric ID tile validation.
• Safari and other Mac updates:
• Scroll bars now rendering on Scheduled Emails from BrightWork.
• In BrightWork Reporter filtering the add new filter icon now renders when editing report filters.
• Help Tab now moves to accommodate the scroll bar.
• API and Web Service improvements:
• Added a web service around the Create Project API. This exposes the Create Project feature to tools such as Nintex Workflow.
• Metric Scorecard:
• When you are selecting metrics, in-active metrics no longer appear in the list for selection.
• Existing Scorecards that contain in-active metrics will no longer display them.
• The Enhanced Help has been split into four separate features which can now be activated and decactivated at a site collection level. The four features are:
• BrightWork Enhanced Help
• BrightWork Help Movies
• BrightWork Help Tab
• BrightWork Help Walkthroughs
• Project Status Reports now support hyperlink columns on the new Status Report form.

Obsolete

The following features have been deprecated:

• Program Management Office: has been retired in favour of the Project Office. Existing Program Management Office sites will continue to work as normal, but you will no longer be able to create a new out of the box template in the Templates Area. This decision was made to encourage the use of the Project Office template which is the most appropriate template for this purpose.
• 27 reports have become completely obsolete. The reports affected are outlined in this topic.
• 22 Template Agile reports have become obsolete. To find out more on the affected reports see the following topic.

Fixes

• Project Team-Roles (Unknown)\(Unknown) datasheet issue resolved.
• Metric History Chart: Show last number of intervals now shows the number of interval specified.
• Create Project: corrected on-page description.
• Video Panel no longer renders on the Reporter Settings page.
• List Chart View and List Gantt View's 'Edit CAML Filter' feature is now supported in Firefox, Edge and Chrome browsers.
• Filtering by People/Group columns in Reporter can now be done on Chrome and Edge browsers.
• Scroll bars now appear in Print and Print Preview mode on Edge and Chrome browsers.
• Disabled Project column sorting in Work Reports, until a more accurate sort function is available.

15.5.1

• Metric History Chart now renders Quarters and Years correctly.
• Upgraded Site Collections now have the correct Project Cache view filtering.
• Training Zone script enhancements.
• Better handling of parallel Work Cache refreshes.
• Additional supports for Firefox browser.

BrightWork 16.0

BrightWork on SharePoint 2016

The BrightWork 16.0 release is identical to the BrightWork 15.4 release and includes all its great features. See below for details of the 15.4 release.

BrightWork 15.4

Task Scheduling

The new Task Scheduling feature allows you to apply simple scheduling to your task lists. You can use the scheduler to move and calculate the dates on multiple tasks and promote data from the tasks to summary tasks and metrics.

The scheduler is lightweight and easy to use, and is not a direct substitute for Microsoft Project. If you need complex scheduling, using Microsoft Project alongside our Project Structured template is a fantastic way to take your schedule management to the next level.

Metric Tiles Web Part

The new Metric Tiles web part puts metrics right where you want them. Add the web part to your project to easily show key metrics and increase visibility to your team.

Scorecard Themes

Themes have been added to the scorecard web part. You can now pick from pre-defined themes, or simply tailor your scorecards exactly how you want.

Create Project Revamp

The Create Project process is now even easier to use. Projects are now created using an elegant and simple step-by-step interface. This interface can then be configured and streamlined, giving you more control over your project creation process.

Improved Charting

Charts have had some great updates!

The Metric History Chart, List View Chart and BrightWork Reporter Charting have several new and exciting features:

• Charts now support up to 10 items, up from the previous 4.
• New themes have been added to make your charts shine.
• A new color picker has been integrated so you can tailor your charts to your exact specifications easier than ever.
• Charts have had an appearance improvement too and now sport a modern flat style.
• Chart y-axis settings now use the same format as the values if the value formats are the same. So if you use % values, then the axis stays as %, or if your values are in $, then your axis will be in $ too.
• The List Chart web part now has the "Enable categorization for this column" checkbox checked by default.
• We have retired the older BrightWork Chart Provider and now use Microsoft Chart Control by default.

Template Retirement

We have decided to retire a few older and underused templates. It wasn't an easy decision, but we feel that deactivating the older templates will allow us to focus more on our core and most popular templates like Project Standard and Projects and Work Tracker. Any projects you have that are based on the removed templates will still function exactly as they did before, but you will no longer be able to create new projects based on the templates from the site definitions.

The templates affected are:

• IT Project Manager
• Issue Office
• Issue Manager
• Agile Software Manager

We recommend that you migrate to one of the core templates like Project Office or Project Standard for your ongoing project management needs.

Core Template Revamp

Project Lite, Project Standard, Project Structured, and Project Office templates have been polished and are now easier than ever to use.

• The "Get started with your project" promoted links have moved on top of the tabs to encourage people to remove them after initial set up.
• Added a Metric Tiles web part with key project metrics.
• Cleaned away some clutter by removing web parts like Project Name, Project Description and Project Announcements.
• The Project Standard template now has the task scheduler active out-of-the-box.

Non-English Languages

As of BrightWork 16.0, we no longer ship non-English versions of BrightWork directly. Language translations may be purchased through our partners however. For more information, please see the BrightWork Language Partners page.

Improvements

There have been improvements made in several key areas:

Templates

• Due Date has been repositioned in forms to logically come after Start Date, and terminology has been unified to globally use "Due Date" instead of "Date Due".
• Promoted links across templates now give you quick access to the Edit Manual Metrics page.
• Project Statement reporting in the Work Tracker template is now turned off by default.
• The Project Risks list now defaults to sorting by Exposure in the Project Structured and Project Standard templates.
• The Overdue Items metric is now active and configured by default in Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates.
• The My Tasks, All Tasks and Columns, Active Tasks (Datasheet), Gantt Chart and All Items views in new Project Standard templates have been upgraded to support the new simple scheduler. Existing templates can be upgraded using the upgrade feature.
• Scorecards on new out-of-the-box templates now show new themes by default.
• Metric Tiles web parts pre-configured with useful metrics have been added to the out-of-the-box Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates.
• The Rank column has been hidden by default in the Project Lite, Project Standard, and Project Structured templates. This makes the templates a little cleaner out of the box.
• The % Complete manual metric in the Project Lite and Project Standard templates is now formatted to zero decimal places by default.
• The Project Structured template now has a new Owner Role field in the Tasks list. It is hidden by default.
• In order to better support scheduling in Project Standard, the default sorting of the Tasks - Gantt view has been deactivated, as sorting restricts task list re-organization.
• The Gantt Chart view in the task lists of Project Lite, Project Standard and Projects and Work Tracker now have the predecessors column active by default.
• The columns on the Project Standard task list have been re-ordered to reflect the new scheduler. Duration, Remaining Duration and Actual Duration have been moved up to make them easier to access.
• The All Items and My Tasks views in Project Standard now show % Complete out-of-the-box.
• The Predecessor column is now available to add to Projects and Work Tracker views.
• The Template Used column in the Project Statement is now hidden by default. The affects the Work Tracker, Project Office, Projects and Work Tracker, and Program Management Office templates.
• The Summary Task (Sync), Milestone (Sync), and Critical (Sync) columns are now hidden by default in the Project Structured template to improve readability.
• The EstWorkAtCompletion and DurationVariance metric indicator icons visibility status is now set to False by default in the Project Structured template. This avoids unexpected results when indicators automatically rollup to other metrics like Health.

Metrics

• The new item link on the Projects Metrics list will now allow you to create any of the four metric types.
• The Apply Metric Value option in metrics will now default to today's date.
• The Manual Metrics page now uses the same sorting sequence as the current view.
• Three scheduler related metrics have been either added or renamed in the Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates. These metrics are Duration, Actual Duration and Remaining Duration. Project Structured had its existing Duration metrics renamed and has a new Duration Variance metric added for extra control. Metric captions in reports and lists have been adjusted to fit the new naming convention.
• The Issues and Late Issues metrics are now activated by default for the Project Lite template.

Reporting

• Document reports now show various document related details like Version, File Size and Checked-in status.
• A new color picker gives you more control over the look of your charts and scorecards.
• Metric scorecard text and icons are now centered for improved readability.
• List and Reporter icons have had an upgrade and are now clearer.
• The Metric History Chart and Metric Scorecard web parts no longer require the metrics list to be selected.
• List Query Templates can now be removed directly from the report editor by clicking the Remove link next to the template details.
• The New Project Status Report form now shows images for metric indicators, instead of URLs.
• A new report has been added to the Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates: Work - Change History. This report details recent changes made to items in the project.

Admin

• You can now activate or deactivate Scheduled Email functionality directly from the Project Settings or BrightWork Settings page.
• Scheduled emails can now be configured to allow users with 'Contribute' access to schedule report emails from the Project Settings or BrightWork Settings pages.
• The Project Request Manager template and the Project Area now have commonly used settings available from their BrightWork Settings pages.
• The Projects and Work Tracker template now has commonly used settings available from its Project Settings page.
• Create Project now defaults to no longer showing the Project Link on the parent site's Quick Launch.

Misc

• Help articles now allow you to give feedback on their content. This helps us iterate and improve our documentation.

Fixes

• The Scorecard now correctly respects the "fill in missing data points" value.
• The default column type for the Requested By, Reviewer and Approver columns in Project Request Manager have changed to a "People Only" column from the previous "People and Groups".
• BrightWork Reporter chart labels now show the correct display types.
• Team-Role names are now correctly computed in the datasheet view.

15.4.1

These changes were only applied to 15.4.26.0 (or later builds).

• Scheduled email no longer processes groups/people that are invalid within the site collection.
• Print and print preview support for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers.
• Create Project Wizard text change.

BrightWork 15.3

Improved Status Reporting

Project status reporting in BrightWork is now better than ever. We have created a new list type, Project Status Report, which features a new column mapping feature that makes it easy to bring in data from your project statement, project metrics, or the previous status report. Whereas before you might have had to delve into SharePoint Designer to customize your status reports, now everything is just a few clicks away.

Templates now use the new Project Status Report list and have default reports pre-configured, but you should experiment and customize them to match the data you need to report on.

Navigation

Navigation is now easier than ever thanks to the new Navigation Controls. This site feature gives you three new navigation buttons:

These controls let you move directly up a level in your hierarchy, open a dialog to show your current location in the whole site collection, or open breadcrumbs.

Project Ribbon

The new Project Ribbon feature is a handy way to see and update project data. Activated by default on new Project Lite, Standard and Structured templates, it features a quick link to the project statement, a new interface for editing manual metrics, and new ways to refresh project data and update common project settings.

Manual Metrics

You can now edit your project's manual metrics right from the project ribbon, or by using the list ribbon. This is a handy way to quickly update your project status without having to search through the metrics list.

Making manual metrics more maintainable has enabled us to convert more number and date values in the templates from static values to metric values, with all the benefits that provides (history, charting, reporting, etc.).

Project Settings

Many common project settings have been consolidated to a single page. From this page you can activate or deactivate several settings like sub-site creation, showing the project ribbon, or including or excluding your project from reports.

New Guidance and Help

In this release, the new user experience has been improved and it is now much easier to get help and understand the interface.

At the top of certain key pages in BrightWork you'll see a guidance area. This block has three quick start videos that give you an overview of BrightWork, perfect for the brand new user.

As you move around your BrightWork site collection now, you'll start to notice guidance tips popping up. Any new users on your site collection will receive a guided tour of BrightWork and SharePoint. This should ease people into the new environment and help acclimatise them to their workspace.

We also introduced a new help window to give you help right on the page. Just click the ? tab on the right hand side of the screen to open the panel.

Template Changes

BrightWork templates have been refreshed and standardized. The out-of-the-box templates are now more consistent across the various templates and updated to include new features.

BrightWork Reporter Gallery Folder

BrightWork reports for the out of the box templates now exist in a new folder, called Gallery, in the BrightWork Reporter Library by default. This means that you can now make a change to a report used by a template and have the change instantly reflected in all of your templates and web parts. This feature removes the hassle from updating many reports with the same changes.

Note that future releases of BrightWork will maintain these reports such that:

• If a report is not updated locally it will always use the latest version from BrightWork
• If a report is updated locally, the upgrade process will maintain the report as appropriate

Project Lite

• "Create a Project" is now disabled by default. This option can be re-enabled using the Project Settings page.
• More manual metrics have been included by default.
• The Project Statement link has been removed. Use the new Project Ribbon to access your Project Statement.
• A link to the Project Metrics list has been added to the Quick Launch.
• The Tasks by Status chart has been added to the home page.
• The Project Metrics list's Active Items view has been updated for better readability.

Project Standard

• "Create a Project" is now disabled by default. This option can be re-enabled using the Project Settings page.
• More manual metrics have been included by default.
• The Project Metrics list's Active Items view has been updated for better readability.
• The Project Statement link has been removed. Use the new Project Ribbon to access your Project Statement.
• A Tasks by Status web part has been added to the home page.
• The 'Add Goals' tile has been removed and the remaining tiles reordered.

Project Structured

• Improved performance when syncing between Microsoft Project and tasks lists with a large number of tasks.
• "Create a Project" is now disabled by default. This option can be re-enabled using the Project Settings page.
• The Project Metrics list's Active Items view has been updated for better readability.
• The Project Statement link has been removed. Use the new Project Ribbon to access your Project Statement.
• The Work Summary chart on the home page has been replaced with the Tasks by Status chart.
• Email and Wiki links have been removed.
• "Post Mortem" has been renamed "Lessons Learned Survey" for clarity.
• The "Update Quick Launch" and "Add Goals" tiles have been removed and the remaining tiles reordered.

Work Tracker

• "Create a Project" is now disabled by default. This option can be re-enabled using the Project Settings page.
• Work and Cost now show in the Closed Items report.

Projects and Work Tracker

• Date Due column added to Projects and Work Tracker template issue forms.

Project Office

• Quick launch items have been re-organized for consistency.
• Removed "Update Quick Launch" promoted link tile.
• Updated the My Activity report to be consistent with other reports.

Project Area

• Project Areas no longer default to using the Project Cache out-of-the-box.

Note: This can easily be switched to use the cache reports. Learn more...

• Updated the My Activity report to be consistent with other reports.

General Template Changes

• The new Project Status Reports list now includes the Title in the default view.
• Resource reporting has been standardized across templates.
• The resourcing page "Resourcing - Export" is changed to "Export All" for greater clarification. Tip! This is a great way to get the data from your project in a single file.
• Metrics and Scorecard web part default settings have been tweaked to cover more scenarios out-of-the-box.

Improvements

• Project metrics can now be synced using Design Sync.
• Web parts on common BrightWork Pages can now be synced using Design Sync.
• Creating a project and performing a template design sync support InfoPath list customizations.
• Create a Project can be enabled or disabled directly from a project using the new Project Settings page.
• List Item Reports and Resource Reports can use alternate row highlighting for emphasis. Edit the reporter web part settings to activate this.
• An information event is now logged when design syncing a change to an existing BrightWork Page.
• Better support for number formatting in charts.

Fixes

• Friendly and Standard date formats now sync correctly using copy project.
• Design syncing no longer creates sync log messages around the theme syncing when it has not been changed.
• Printed documentation no longer includes the page URL by the side of embedded links.
• Viewing a metric version history item now displays the correct information.
• Simplified the conditions for filtering Projects in Trouble and addressed a filtering issue.
• Metrics Scorecard web part no longer adds the current month if no values exist and Fill in missing data points remains unset.
• The Created Date of Metric History Chart versions now always return as the local time instead of UTC time.

Changed/Removed

• The "All Issues" report has been made obsolete and replaced with an improved "All Issues" report.
• Risks metric items now use the "Active items" view instead of the "All items" view.
• The Navigate Up icon has been removed from new site collections and superseded by the Navigation Helper Controls. It is still available as a site feature.
• On manual metric forms, when entering a percentage value for a metric, previous versions required values in decimal format: 0.5, 0.76 etc. Now you enter the whole number, e.g. for a value of 50%, enter 50.
• Project Link and Project Link Icon columns no longer show in Work and Issue Reports if there is a Parent Project column in the report.

BrightWork 15.2

Project Request Manager

The new Project Request Manager template gives you the tools to handle project requests from draft to creation. You can track the progress of a project through the chain of drafting, reviewing, ranking and approving. At any point you can send the project back a stage to allow for further refinement of the project request. This replaces the now deprecated Requests Area.

For the purposes of reporting, Project Requests are treated like Work and so will appear in work and issue reports and other similar reports.

Projects and Work Tracker

The Projects and Work Tracker template is for tracking several projects and their tasks, issues and documents in a single site. This is a simple way to manage several small projects without having to create separate sites for each one.

The template uses a new Project column and you may wish to change your reporting from grouping by Site Name to grouping by the Project column for consistency.

The New Help

If you're an existing user of BrightWork, you will notice that the help has changed! We have rebuilt the help from the ground up to be faster, friendlier and fully mobile responsive. There is now a new FAQ section where you'll find quick step-by-step guides and short videos helping you with common tasks. And if you're looking for more detailed information, the new Go Deeper section gives you all the technical knowledge you need to succeed with BrightWork.

You should also note that the BrightWork Help now comes in two flavours: Online and Offline. The Online version is enabled by default and will contain all the latest articles, while the Offline version should be used if you do not have internet access. You can toggle between these two versions by using the option in the More Help drop-down menu on your local Getting Started page.

Improvements

• All Gantt, Scorecard, List Charting and Metric Charting web parts can now use the ribbon for easier access to the configuration and refresh controls.
• The BrightWork Reporter, List Chart and List Gantt web parts have a report information icon in the header. This popup window shows details about the report or web parts.
• You can now enter a manual metric in the past by specifying a date. This value is picked up by the Metric Scorecard and Metric History Chart. An example use for this feature is if you need to enter total sales for October but it is now November. You can use the Apply Metric Value option to apply the metric to a date in October.
• Numbers on metric history charts now show two decimal places.
• The Metrics History Chart can now show as a Bar or Column type.
• You can now export list data from a specific view. This is particularly useful if you want to move list data from one project to another, such as moving only open anomalies across projects. This feature is also useful if you wish to only export selected metrics from a project site, as you can set up a filter to only include the metrics you want and export from there.
• When you import a list, you can now include users.
• The Project Standard template now includes metrics for Cost, Actual Cost, Estimated Cost to Complete, and Planned Cost. These are inactive by default.
• BrightWork Help is now available by using the Site Settings menu.

Fixes

• Project Cache items no longer appear in the recycle bin.
• If a Quick Launch Project Statement link has been modified and contains '?id=', creating a new project will now retain the full link.
• When creating a project from a template, or using the Copy Project feature, if a Data View or Data Form web part exists, the homepage design of the copied project no longer resets to the out-of-the-box default.

Changed/Removed

• The Project Requests list (790) has been deprecated. The new Project Request Manager template uses a different list number: 737.
• The Project Request area has been removed. Instead, you should use the new Project Request Manager template for your project requests.
• Many obsolete reports have been made ready for removal in the next release. If you are still using them, you are advised to change them to the appropriate new version.

BrightWork 15.1

Schedule BrightWork Reporter Emails from the Ribbon

You can now schedule BrightWork Reporter Emails from the Reporter Ribbon. Previously, this required administration access to the server.

Suggested uses for this include:

• Sending all users a weekly email of their overdue work
• Sending all users a weekly email of recently added items
• Sending a single user a list of all overdue work
• Send managers a weekly email of projects in trouble

BrightWork Reporter Project Cache Data Source

The new Project Cache report data source, available in BrightWork Reporter, ensures that cross-site Project reports load almost instantly. The Project Cache data source is primarily designed as an alternative for reports that used the All Project Summaries report definition.

Custom Column Properties in List Item Reports

In Gantt; List Item and Resource reports, you can now set the following properties on columns in personal and shared reports:

• Custom Caption (not available for Icon columns)
• Caption Visibility
• Column Width
• Presence information visibility for User columns

BrightWork Report Information Window

The new Report Information Window allows users to see information about the current report from the ribbon, such as whether the report is personal or shared, whether the report is real-time or using the cache, or which filters, if any, have been applied.

Other New Features and Changes

• BrightWork Version number now available on the Site Collection-level BrightWork Settings page.
• Issue Reports now include Project Tracker items that have had their Issue Indicator selected.
• The Issue Description column from non-Issue items (e.g. Tasks) and the Description column from Issue items are now mapped to a single Issue Description column in Issue Reports.
• Web Name changed to Site Name in the BrightWork user interface.
• Links added via the Recent heading on templates are no longer included in Design Sync or Copy Project.

New Reports

• Projects in Trouble (created using the All Project Summaries report).
  This report is available on: new Project Office templates; new Project Management Office templates; new empty Portfolio sites; and new Project Areas.

Deprecated Features

The following features are no longer supported or available in BrightWork for SharePoint 2013.

Project Schedule List

The Project Schedule list has been deprecated and withdrawn from the BrightWork User Interface. The list will continue to function in existing Project Schedule-based projects and templates, but it will not be possible to add the list (even via the list template gallery) to a new BrightWork template.

Obsolete and Withdrawn Reports

A number of BrightWork Reporter reports have been marked as obsolete. These reports will be removed in a later release.

Obsolete and Withdrawn Web Parts

• List Metrics
• List Query Results

BrightWork 15.0

New Project Tasks List

The Project Lite; Project Standard; Project Structured; and Work Tracker templates now use the new SharePoint Project Tasks list that offers a better user interface and more reliable and improved syncing with Microsoft Project Professional 2013.

Improved Project Structured Setup

The extra Column Mapping between Microsoft Project and the Tasks list in the Project Structured template that used to have to be done on all new Project Structured templates is now automated.

Timeline and Project Summary Web Parts

The Project Lite; Project Standard; and Project Structured templates now include the new SharePoint Timeline and Project Summary (called Task Summary in BrightWork) web parts.

The Timeline web part shows the Task list items added to it in a time line.

The Tasks Summary web part displays summary information about the contents of the Tasks, such as the next task due and how may days till it is due and the number of late items. It also includes a Timeline.

Type your drop-down text here.

Navigate Up

BrightWork sites include the Navigate Up feature that was hidden in SharePoint 2013. This feature is activated by default on all sites in a BrightWork site collection and can also be activated on any site on the server on which BrightWork is installed.

Enhanced BrightWork Copy Site

BrightWork Copy Site continues to offer advantages over the native SharePoint Solution Gallery. With the Solution Gallery, the below items maintain a relationship with the original site and do not get updated to point at the new site. With BrightWork Copy Site, they get updated.

• Related Items in Tasks lists
• Timeline Web URL
• Site-relative URLs in Promoted Links

Promoted Links

The Getting Started tiles are now served by the Promoted Links list.

New Licensing System

BrightWork for SharePoint 2013 uses the new SharePoint Farm ID based licensing system.

SharePoint Newsfeed

BrightWork site collections created on SharePoint Server installations have full Newsfeed integration.

Deprecated Features

The following features are no longer supported or available in BrightWork for SharePoint 2013.

Project Schedule List

The Project Schedule list has been deprecated and will be withdrawn from the next version of BrightWork on SharePoint 2013.

This means that the IT Project Manager w Schedule and Business Project Manager w Schedule templates have also been withdrawn.

For users who want an automated work breakdown structure, we recommend using the Project Structured template in conjunction with Microsoft Project Professional 2013.

BrightWork for SharePoint 2003 List Types

Certain BrightWork legacy list types from BrightWork on SharePoint 2003 are no longer supported. These lists have not been used in our templates for many versions so any remedial action is unlikely to be required.

The list types that are no longer supported are detailed below. These list types were replaced with list of the same name in BrightWork for SharePoint 2007 - see here for all supported list types.

• 760 Project Statement (BrightWork)
• 763 Project Goals (BrightWork)
• 764 Project Issue (BrightWork)
• 765 Project Risks (BrightWork)
• 766 Project Change Request (BrightWork)
• 770 Project Deliverable (BrightWork)
• 771 Project Phases (BrightWork)
• 772 Project Milestones (BrightWork)
• 773 Project Task (BrightWork)

List Summary Pages

SharePoint 2013 does not support list summary pages and therefore all BrightWork lists no longer have them.

Web Parts

The following List Summary Page BrightWork web parts are no longer available in BrightWork for SharePoint 2013:

• List Metrics
• List Query Results

Summary Items Gantt Report

The Summary Items Gantt report is no longer available in the Project Structured template. This is due to the structure of the new Project Tasks list.

BrightWork 14.4

Metric Scorecard Web Part

The Metric Scorecard web part enables you to display the history of multiple metric items from a specified Metric list.

The Scorecard web part can also show a trend icon that indicates if the Metric has recently changed for better or worse.

The Metrics Scorecard web part has been added to the Project Dashboard tab on the Project Office; Program Management Office; Project Lite; Project Standard; and Project Structured templates.

Projects Tracker now in Project Office

The Projects Tracker site template has been withdrawn and a new Projects Tracker list has been added to the Project Office template. This means simpler hierarchies and high-level project reporting where and when you need it.

The new Projects Tracker list is also available as a list template that can be added to any BrightWork site or template.

Reporting has also been updated to better support the Projects Tracker list. A new column type called Project Link is available in all Project Summary reports - see below for more information on the Project Link column.

Existing Projects Tracker sites will continue to function as before; however, we recommend that you migrate your data in existing Projects Tracker sites to a Projects Tracker list in a Project Office.

Project Link Column

A new type of column called Project Link has been added to reports to make reporting on items in a Projects Tracker list easier. The Project Link column can discriminate between projects in the Projects Tracker list and projects that have their own site.

The column is available either as a text link, called Project Link or as an icon, called Project Link Icon. This column is now used by default in all Project Summary reports.

Disable Link Column in Gantt and Resource Reports

The Disable Link Column feature, previously only available in List Item Reports is now also available in Gantt and Resource Reports.

Better Report Sorting and Naming in BrightWork Server Gallery

The BrightWork Server Gallery menu on the Reporter Settings page now shows the most commonly used reports first. The most commonly used reports have also had the Template prefix removed from their names.

Auto-Fill URL when Creating a Template or a Portfolio

When creating a Template or a Portfolio, the URL name field is automatically populated based on the site name. This feature was not enabled on the Create Project page is it would have meant an increased likelihood of breaching the 256 character SharePoint URL path length limitations.

Getting Started Tiles on Template Home Pages

The Project Office; Project Lite; Project Standard; and Project Structured templates now have Getting Started tiles on the Project site home page. The purpose of these tiles is to make it easier for new Project Managers to get up and running with BrightWork and to help with setting up certain templates. They also give experienced Project Managers a project ramp-up checklist.

Removing the web part that delivers these tiles is easy. The grey tiles on the Project Office and Project Structured are there to help with initial setup of the templates and should be removed before using them to create sites.

Reporting Updates

Report on Folders

BrightWork Reporter now supports reporting on folders (e.g. Discussions, Document Libraries etc.). This option must be enabled in the Report Editor.

Report on Groups

It is now possible to report on SharePoint Groups in reports that have Presence enabled (the default setting).

Exclude Project Statement from Reports

It is now possible to mark a site so that it's Project Statement is not included in reports but other list items in the site are included. You might want to do this with non-project sites in the hierarchy, for example, a site created to manage every day work items.

Filter on Metric Status Indicator

It is now possible to filter (e.g. show only projects with an In Danger Health status) and sort on Metric Status Indicators. To facilitate this, a number of columns have been added to the All Project Summaries report.

• Customer Sat. Ind. Status
• Health Ind. Status
• Issues Ind. Status
• Process Ind. Status
• Quality Ind. Status
• Risk Ind. Status
• Scope Ind. Status
• Team Sat. Ind. Status
• Time Ind. Status

New Reports

• All Risks
  This report displays all risk items from the BrightWork Risks list, sorted by 'Exposure', 'Rank', 'Priority' and 'Status Indicator'. It is available from the Quick Launch on the Project Office; Program Management Office; Projects Area; and Project Portfolio.
• My Projects
  This report uses a shared filter to shows only the projects where the logged in user is the Project Manager. It is available from the tabs on the Project Office home page and is created from the All Project Summaries report.

Template Updates

The four main BrightWork templates(Project Lite; Project Standard; Project Structured; and Project Office) have had some subtle enhancements and improvements added to make them all the better for project management. Most of these improvements are described above; however, this section is just to highlight the improvements to each template.

General (all templates)

• Scorecard on Project Dashboard tab
• Metric simplification - some metrics have been removed and others have been deactivated - review the Supplied Metrics topic to get a better understanding of how they now work.
• Getting Started Tiles

Project Lite

• Simpler Project Statement
• Project Status Report list

Project Office

• Risks report
• Projects Tracker List

Project Standard

• Risks Report

Project Structured

• Risks Report
• BrightWork Sync Macro dialogs localized to Spanish, Norwegian, German and French
• Project Structured Task list now supports syncing tasks to Microsoft Project that have a Deferred or Waiting status

BrightWork 14.3

We are delighted to add new and exciting features with this release of BrightWork 11 for SharePoint 2010.

Note:

The features introduced in BrightWork 11 require no specific action - they will all automatically be available to you. If you are upgrading from a version before BrightWork 10, you should also review Adding BrightWork 10 Features.

Template Design Sync

The new BrightWork Template Design Sync enables you to make design changes in a BrightWork Template and pull the changes into sites that were created using the template. The type of changes that can be synced include:

• New Lists

• Updates to existing lists, such as:

• • List Settings

  • New List Columns

  • New List Views

• Site Home Page

• Quick Launch

The Template Design Sync also allows you to remove unmatched design features from the site.

Unmatched design features are features in the site that are not in the template. This can happen for two reasons:

• The feature was removed from the template
• The feature was added to the site

For the full list of design changes that can be synced, see the About Design Sync topic.

To support the Design Sync, you can also determine which sites were created from a template.

BrightWork Reporter Tools

The new Reporter Tools ribbon introduces a range of easily accessible features, activated by just clicking on a report.

Refresh

The refresh button enables you to override caching settings to ensure the version of the report you are seeing is the most up-to-date. It also enables you to refresh a report without having to refresh all the other elements on the page, such as other reports and web parts.

Personal Views

Users can now create their own version of a report and set it up the way they want to. The personal report is saved and users can toggle between the default shared report and the personal report.

Personal setup options include:

• Columns

• Grouping

• Sorting

• Filters
  The new BrightWork Reporter Filter Editor enables you to create cross-list and cross-site report filters as easily as creating a filter in a list view.

• Totals

Grouping and Totals Toggle

If a report has Grouping and/or Totals enabled, you can temporarily turn them off.

Share

All of the BrightWork Reporter sharing options are now instantly accessible via the Reporter Tools ribbon.

Shared Settings

Users with the correct level of access can configure the shared report (i.e. the report everyone sees) with the same options available in the Personal Report section, including creating cross-list and cross-site report filters.

In-Report Filtering and Sorting

List Item and Resource Reports now have in-report dynamic column sorting that enables you to sort reports alphabetically; numerically; or chronologically.

You can also filter on List Name and Web Name and on the following column types: Choice; Lookup; and User

Support for Nintex Workflows in Copy Site

BrightWork are delighted to announce that workflows created with Nintex Workflow 2010 are supported in the BrightWork copy site processes.

French Language Pack Availability

BrightWork now supports French.

Templates:

• All Home Page and Quick Launches have been given a consistent appearance to match the style adopted with Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates

• All List Item, Gantt and Resource Server Gallery reports now default to open items in a Dialog

• Work Tracker list has been reworked for better reporting integration and icon usage

• The Program Management Office template now comes with a set of tailored metrics

Other Updates

• Metric History Chart: X-Axis can now have a set number of Intervals

• Create Project is no longer an option in a template in the Templates Area

• Project Office Portfolio layout updated to be more like the Project Office template

• Project Area layout updated to be more like the Project Office template

• By Status tab added to Program Management Office, Project Office Portfolio and Project Area home pages

BrightWork 14.2

We are delighted to add new and exciting features with this release of BrightWork 10 for SharePoint 2010.

Note:

Most of these new features are automatically available and require no action from you. See Migrating to BrightWork v10 for information about getting the new features into your existing templates.

New Metrics List

The new Project Metrics list gives you the capability to easily define, capture, track and report on metrics for single projects or for multiple projects in a Project Office. BrightWork templates come pre-loaded with sample metrics to give you a fast start.

The metrics can be automatically calculated or manually entered. You can define warning and danger ranges for particular metrics and associate icons with these ranges.

The Metrics History Chart graphs the history of number metric by day, week, month, quarter or year. BrightWork Reporter Project Statement reports can include metric data.

Four types of metric are available:

• Manual Number Metric
• Calculated Number Metric
• Manual Date Metric
• Calculated Date Metric

New Templates

The Project Lite, Project Standard and Project Structured templates have been finalized and added to the Site Definition menu in the templates area. The Project Office template has also been updated.

These new templates all contain a Project Metrics list pre-populated with Metrics tailored to their level of complexity.

The Project Standard and Project Structured templates contain a Project Status list for maintaining a project snapshot history.

The Project Structured template leverages and extends the Microsoft Project Professional 2010 to SharePoint sync capability.

Web Part Settings section on Reporter Settings page

The new Web Part Settings section on the BrightWork Reporter, List Chart View and List Gantt View web parts means you can now specify the report title and the report chrome type from the settings page (as opposed to the web part tool pane).

List Items Open in Dialog

BrightWork Reporter now enables you to open and edit items in the pop-up dialog. This means you can view and edit individual list items and stay in the context of the page or report you are on. Most importantly, this works across sites and lists, meaning you can edit items in different lists and sites from the one location in a site collection.

This feature has been enabled by default in many of the default template reports.

Report off External Lists and SharePoint 2010 Custom Columns

The BrightWork Reporter, List Chart View and List Gantt View web parts now report off the External List. This means you can display content that comes from Business Connectivity Services (BCS) Enterprise content types in your reports.

This change also means that the web parts can report on the new SharePoint 2010 columns such as the Decimal column in the external list, the Managed Metadata column, the Recurrence and All day event columns, the Rating column and the Workflow Status column etc.

New Number Icon Column

The new Number Icon Column allows you to map image files to values in a number column in a BrightWork list. For example, you could use it to let you know when the project is over or under budget.

You can display the icon on the list item, in views and in BrightWork reports.

New Gantt Themes

The following new themes are now available in Gantt Reports and in the List Gantt View and Project Schedule Gantt View web parts:

• Critical
• Forest

Other Enhancements

• When editing a report in the Report Editor, the report name is now displayed at the top of the page.
• BrightWork Reporter can now report on Workflow Status and Moderation Status columns.
• The following new reports have been added:
• • Template Project Status Report - Between Dates
  • Template Project Status Report - Current
  • Template Work - Closed Recently
  • Template Work - Closed Work
  • Template Work - My Assigned Work
  • All Metrics
  • Metrics Active
  • Metrics Active and Show Indicators

Retired Templates

The following templates have been retired and will no longer be available from the Site Definition menu in the Templates area:

• Blank Project
• Commitment Manager (replaced by Project Lite)
• Business Project Manager (replaced by Project Standard)

BrightWork 14.1

Color Picker for Charts

The new Custom X Fields style feature means BrightWork Reporter Charts and the List Chart View web part now include the ability to assign a color to a value returned by a chart.

For example, many BrightWork lists include Red |Yellow | Green columns. Previously, the colors assigned to these values depended on the selected theme - now you can ensure that they match - see example.

Specify Over-Allocation Color in Resource Reports

Resource reports now include the ability to specify the color used to indicate over-allocation in Resource reports.

New Copy Site Feature

The BrightWork Create Project; Create Template; and Create Portfolio pages have been rebuilt to give greater reliability; flexibility and functionality.

The main change to be aware of is that you can specify the lists and libraries whose content (i.e. list items and documents) you want to include. This means you can copy a site and opt to include the essential default content such as BrightWork pages and tabs but exclude items from lists such as the Project Schedule or Project Tasks.

For a more in-depth description, please see About BrightWork Copy Site.

Spaces in BrightWork Reporter URLs are now Encoded

Users of certain non-Outlook email clients (e.g. Lotus Notes) occasionally experienced issues when clicking on links in emailed reports. This was due to spaces in the URLs. These spaces are now encoded in the same as SharePoint alerts, e.g. with a '%20'.

Project Office Portfolio now a Site Definition Template

The Project Office Portfolio template is now available as a site definition template from the Portfolios area.

Gantt Reports when no Dates Exist

Gantt reports with Exclude items when the 'Start Date' is not set selected, and no dates specified in any item, now display all items. The main benefit of this is that the Project Summary (Gantt) reports, on the home pages of sites created using a Project Schedule-based template, are always populated with data - click here for screenshots.

% Complete Project Schedule Values for Summary Tasks now Map to Microsoft Project

The % Complete values returned in Project Schedule summary tasks are now the same as would be returned by Microsoft Project.

BrightWork 14.0

BrightWork are delighted to add new and exciting features with this release of BrightWork Release 9.0 for SharePoint 2010.

SharePoint 2010 Compatible

BrightWork has been fully ported to the new SharePoint 2010 platform.

Reporting

Specify the Sites to Report

You can now specify a list of sites to query on the Reporter Settings page. This means you can have a report in a rollup site that is limited to only report on certain sites in the hierarchy.

Hierarchical Gantt for SharePoint Project Tasks List

The List Gantt View web part Display Hierarchy option means that you can display a Microsoft Project 2010 plan synced to a SharePoint Project Tasks list in a single Gantt view (the native SharePoint Tasks list does not have the option to view the entire plan in a single Gantt view).

SharePoint Gantt View Improvements

Some changes have been made to better support the native SharePoint Gantt View. These changes include:

• Hide Type column

• Hide Attachment column

• Hide all icons columns (for example, Priority Code, Status Code etc.)

• Hide any check boxes (for example, Issue Indicator)

Choice Indicator Icon Columns Supported in List Gantt View

Choice indicator icon columns now display the correct icon in the List Gantt View web part (previously only text was displayed).

Disable Link Column

You can now disable the link column in a List Item Report.

Debugging Reports

Managing reports in environments with many sites, lists and custom reports can occasionally be an arduous administration task. With that in mind we have added two system reports to BrightWork Reporter that will make this a much easier task.

Report Profiler Report

The Report Profiler displays a report on all the sites and lists queried by an instance of a report, including how long individual sites and lists take to query. This can assist you when you are trying to improve the performance of a report.

Report Locations Report

The Reporter Locations report, run from the BrightWork Reporter library, details every location the specific report is used in the BrightWork site collection. This means you can establish where a particular report is being used before deleting or editing it.

New BrightWork Site Collection Home Page

The home page of a newly created BrightWork Site collection has been updated to give some color and out-of-the-box functionality.

Some additions include:

• Links to Site Hierarchy
• Announcements
• Support Links
• Contacts
• Project Calendar
• Next Steps
• Training Links

Portfolios

Portfolios now allow you to include the sub-sites of a site added to a portfolio. This means that you can add a Project Office to a portfolio and all its existing sub-sites and any subsequent sub-sites will automatically appear in the portfolio.

Projects

Create Projects from Solution Gallery

You can now use the BrightWork site creation form to create a BrightWork site from a BrightWork site added to the Solution Gallery.

This means you can allow users to create project sites with lower levels of permission than is normally required to create a BrightWork site.

Details Passed to Project Statement and Project Schedule

• The Title you enter when creating a project or template is now also passed to the Project ID (in the Project Statement) and the Title of the Project Schedule Summary Item (if a Project Schedule list exists in the site).

• The optional Description you enter when creating a project or template is now passed to the Description column in the Project Statement.

BrightWork Web Parts Prevented from Being Closed

To ensure best performance you cannot close certain BrightWork Web parts - you must delete them. This is because a web part that is closed continues to perform (e.g. execute queries etc.).

Quick Launch Heading Links in Templates

The Quick Launch heading links have been updated to provide a better user experience. In most cases, the heading link now points to the first item below the heading. Some exceptions are outlined below:

• Reports - links to the BrightWork Pages library that contains the individual report web part pages.
• IT Project Manager with Schedule and Business Project Manager with Schedule - the Control heading on both of these templates points to the default All Items list view page for the Project Schedule.