Any good Project Programming resources/books?

[Chris Alm]

I need to implement an import/export to SQL Server/from a .mpp project file
solution for a system at my job. This application/system a VB.NET app.

I am thinking of going the .NET Com Interop path to pull out the information
from a project file but am not sure if this is the best way to do it.

Any help and guidance is greatly appreciated, especially any good resources
like books/articles/web sites.


Thanks
Christian
MCAD, MCDBA

 

[JackD]

You are aware that Project can save to a SQL server database aren't you? If
so, read the document titled projdb.htm which should be on a project cd or
any computer with Project installed. You can also use OLEDB to read, but
not write, project files.
There is a good link to the Proj98 VBA documentation here:
http://mvps.org/project/links.htm

and more recent information on this page.

http://mvps.org/project/vbacode.htm

 

[Chris Alm]

JackD,

No I was not aware that project can save to SQL Server database but I dont
think that is going to work for my situation. The app that I was talking
about is an internal ASP.NET app. Having Project hit the database directly
without going through the web app is going to be a maintenance headache dont
do you think (lots of users).

The idea is that they will upload their .mpp project file (i'll use a
template of course) and once its received on the server side, I'll parse it
(Com Interop) and update the database appropriately.

If there is a better way of doing this, please let me know. I'm very open to
suggestions.

Thanks
Christian
MCAD, MCDBA

 

[JackD]

If it is internal, I'd just have them save their file to a database. Then
you can work with it from there.

If they are going to go to the trouble of uploading the project files and
then you parse them, wouldn't it be easier for them to simply run a macro in
project itself which extracts the data you want and writes the result to
your database? That would eliminate one step.

There are many ways to handle this. Without knowing what it is you are
extracting it is hard to recommend one or the other.

 

[Chris Alm]

JackD:

I dont think that would be the best way to tackle this because it isn't
really internal to just my organization. It is for several other
organizations using a software product that we make and sell to them and
maintain for the most part (about 13 different orgs). They use different back
ends; Oracle 9i and Sql Server 2000. All the database connection information
is different for each org, and who knows when they will change that
information. Having to go out and update macro for every user just because
they moved a database from one machine to another would be too much of a
hassle.

I think your idea is good one, but its just not going to work here.

If I do it on the server side, I can use my existing datalayer which is
build for both types of DB platforms and save the information out of the .mpp
appropriately.

The only information I need to pull out of the mpp is the Tasks and certain
column information. I will also need to maintain the hierarchy of the tasks.

I am going to go through the links you first posted now hopefully I can find
some good information on how to get to the data I need through Com interop
with project objecs.

Thanks,
Christian
MCAD, MCDBA