MSP: After saving project, project remains locked / target error

Products

• Clarity PPM SaaS
• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

After saving a project back from Microsoft Project (MSP) to Clarity, the project remains locked. Sometimes a Target error is generated in MSP with the error "Thread was being aborted". Is this due to corruption during saving?

Symptom 1: Target Error: "Thread was being aborted." The project also remains locked in Clarity

This happens if the project is still saving when MSP is closed. The size of the project may impact whether this error occurs or not. (IE # of baselines, assignments, and tasks)

Steps to reproduce:

1. Export a project from Clarity to MSP
2. Save the project back to Clarity
3. Once you get the 'Project Successfully Saved' message, click OK right away, and then immediately click the top x in the right-hand corner to close completely out of MSP

Expected Results: The project is unlocked in Clarity and there is no error message upon closing MSP.

Actual Results: A target error that starts with "Target: System.Object InvokeDispMethod (System.String, System.Reflection.BindingFlags, System.Object"  referencing: "Error: Thread was being aborted" and the project remains locked in Clarity.

Screenshot of error below:

Symptom 2: Project remains locked after save, but there is no Target error in MSP

This happens if you close the project quickly after the save.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Export a project from Clarity to MSP 
2. Save the project back to Clarity
3. Once you get the 'Project Successfully Saved' message, click OK right away
4. Immediately click the second x in the right-hand corner to close the project, but not close out of MSP entirely

Expected Results: The project is unlocked in Clarity.

Actual Results: The project remains locked in Clarity. 

Environment

Release: All 

Component: Clarity Microsoft Project Integration / Connector

MSP New Driver

Cause

This can happen if MSP or the project in MSP is closed out quickly after a project is saved back to Clarity. The unlock process may still be running. This error can be ignored and will have no impact to the data being saved back to Clarity.

Resolution

Avoidance:

Wait a few seconds before closing MSP (or the project in MSP) after saving. A few seconds is typically enough time to wait even with larger projects (with large xml sizes).

If you see this issue after waiting a few seconds before closing MSP or the project, see MSP interface performance slowness with Clarity. If that doesn't help, open a case with Broadcom support. 

If you do run into the issue: 

1. The data is saved back to Clarity so there is no loss of data to be concerned with. 
2. You may need to unlock the project in Clarity if the project is still locked by clicking the Unlock button on the project (found on the Classic Clarity version of the project).

Additional Information

See MSP Integration known issues