String or binary data would be truncated.

Just helped a client to upgrade Primavera Expedition V7 to Primavera Contract Manager V12. Then my client reported to me they received the error below in random:

SQLServerException: String or binary data would be truncated.

Checked the JBoss log, I got the full error below:

2010-05-30 10:59:57,281 INFO [STDOUT] DatabaseMgrSessionBean.executeUpdate the update statement is : UPDATE rqch SET rqch.change_number = '00005', rqch.change_date = '2010/05/26' , rqch.title = 'CCO #04-R1 Berth 3 Loading Cage Roof', rqch.additions = 0.0, rqch.deductions = 2733.000, rqch.chng_master_key = '000XXJZEK2169000000000file', rqch.chng_sys_item_type = 'CO', rqch.created_system = 'WEB', rqch.last_edit_system = 'WEB' WHERE rqch.master_key = '00057KdEK1010000000000CPM0'
2010-05-30 10:59:57,296 INFO [STDOUT] ERROR - DatabaseMgrSessionBean.executeUpdate SQLException :
2010-05-30 10:59:57,296 ERROR [STDERR]
com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerException: String or binary data would be truncated.

After further analyzed the SQL statement, I found the title field in rqch table is too short (varchar(32)), I changed it to varchar(80), and "String or binary data would be truncated." error disappears.

There was an error in communicating with Excel Calculation Services

Tried to install MOSS 2007 and integrate Primavera With MOSS 2007. However, I got the error message below when testing Sharepoint Server 2007 with Excel Services:

There was an error in communicating with Excel Calculation Services http://sharepoint2007:56737/SharedServices1/ExcelCalculationServer/ExcelService.asmx exception: The request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized. [Session: (null) User: MyLocalDomain\administrator].

I tried all recommendations I got from Internet about this error in the Sharepoint 2007, including using Kerberos authentication, but none of them works. However, I got a tip from an article from Microsoft about using authdiag.msi, I installed authdiag.msi and it detected the error below:

AllowKeepAlive: NTLM requires KeepAlive connections

Then I jumped to IIS Manager, and checked Enable AllowKeepAlive option for all Sharepoint Websites. Immediately, my Sharepoint 2007 was able to open an Excel Workbook in the report dashboard, and the annoying error of "The request failed with HTTP status 401: Unauthorized. " had just gone. My life was saved.

How to find Primavera P3 users

Primavera P3 is very old now, but some people still use it. Some time you may forget what user is registered for the P3 login. Here is how to find it:

Browse to your P3 PC, and go to c:\p3win\p3work, open the file named userfil.p3 using a Hex editor such as WinHex and Ultra-Edit, starting from offset 00000820, 8 bytes for user name. You can even remove the password in this file.

How to find Primavera P3 users

Primavera P3 is very old now, but some people still use it. Some time you may forget what user is registered for the P3 login. Here is how to find it:

Browse to your P3 PC, and go to c:\p3win\p3work, open the file named userfil.p3 using a Hex editor such as WinHex and Ultra-Edit, starting from offset 00000820, 8 bytes for user name. You can even remove the password in this file.

Do you know Primavera Applications?

I did not know about Primavera until I got a job deals with primarily Primavera based applications. If I ask you what software is widely used in project management for large projects, and you properly say MS project. Yes, MS Project definitely is one of the applications, but I can tell you Primavera should be the most powerful one.

Primavera is acquired by Oracle in the year of 2008, and its product line includes Primavera Project Management, Contractor, Contract Management, Risk Management, Earned Values Management, and Portfolio Management, and so on. I think the most popular software are Primavera Project Management and Contract Management. The current Primavera Project Management software is called P6, latest version is P6 Version7, and old versions include P5, P4, P3EC, P3. The latest version of Primavera Contract Management is V13, and early version is called Primavera Expedition.

To learn more about Primavera applications, please visit Oracle.com.