The latest release of the Primavera P6 suite (Revision 8.2 December 2011) brings another change to the way the Professional client functions depending on whether you are installing it in an EPPM or P6 Professional environment. While this change is definitely for the better, it has generated a little confusion, so we’ll clarify things for you right now.
In our previous blog, we discussed the fact that the Primavera P6 Optional Client R8.1 only works on an EPPM database schema and a P6 Professional client only works on a P6 Professional database. If you attempted to connect the P6 Optional client to a P6 Professional database, you got an incompatible database error and visa versa.
Primavera P6 Professional for EPPM
The change for R8.2 is this: a single installation of the P6 Professional Client will now connect to an EPPM database or a P6 Professional database and run with appropriate functionality.
You no longer have to install two separate versions of the client to connect to the required database schema. The same Primavera P6 Professional R8.2 client will allow you to connect to whatever schema you need.
Note the language in this following snapshot of the installation setup dialog under the Typical button: “for use with an existing EPPM or Professional database”.
Therefore the P6 client software is now smart enough to determine what type of schema it’s connecting to, and load the functionality accordingly.
Show me!
Once again, we thought you might appreciate seeing the results of a simple test we performed to clarify exactly what happens when you connect the P6 Professional client to an EPPM and then a P6 Professional schema.
P6 Professional connected to an EPPM database:
Note the missing Admin menu and absence of some enterprise options in the Enterprise menu.
The same installation of P6 Professional connected to a Professional database:
Note the presence of the Admin menu and full enterprise options such as Enterprise Project Structures, OBS, Project Codes and so on in the Enterprise menu.
While this doesn’t give you the option to perform administrative functions on the EPPM database using this client, it does make it easier to install the software and manage project data in multiple databases regardless of their type.
Summary
The P6 Professional Client now connects to an EPPM database or a P6 Professional database combining the capabilities of previously two different products, Primavera P6 EPPM Optional Client R8.1 and Primavera P6 Professional R8.1. Combining these products is a vast improvement and should certainly clear up a lot of confusion. You can read about the prior version of Primavera P6 EPPM Optional Client R8.1 here in a previous blog.
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