Generate Gantts dynamically on browser request?

[dgmoore]

All,


Does Server 03 include a capability for generating Gantt charts in gif
format in response to a browser request?


We currently employ a process for publishing to the web (intranet)
program management information including schedules. The process employs
Project to generate imagemapped Gantt charts to provide drilldown from
summaries to detail schedules and from detail schedules to milestone
detail pages. This is a batch process that runs daily, and we are
looking for a way to move to a dynamic page capability. In addition to
Gantts, the pages integrate a great deal of ancillary information drawn
from Oracle and SQL Server databases, so it seems unlikely that a
process based on Project Server would be practical for our needs.


One of our sysadmins has suggested that Server 03's expanded
capabilities might help in this regard - I am posting here to see if
anybody might be able to shed some light. Can anybody point me to
detailed info on how Project Server generates and displays Gantts
dynamically (I need to publish to a web server for public access and am
not looking for PWA info, or any solution that requires CALs, accounts
or logins)?


Thanks
Dave
david dot moore at ngc dot com

 

[Earl Lewis]

Project server (project web access really) down not offer the ability to create .gif files at the click of a button. Sorry.

This is something that probably could be done by a programmer with the right skills but it is not available out of the box.

Curios. Why do you need a .gif file of the Gantt chart when anyone can login to PWA and see the Gantt chart live?

Earl
All,


Does Server 03 include a capability for generating Gantt charts in gif
format in response to a browser request?


We currently employ a process for publishing to the web (intranet)
program management information including schedules. The process employs
Project to generate imagemapped Gantt charts to provide drilldown from
summaries to detail schedules and from detail schedules to milestone
detail pages. This is a batch process that runs daily, and we are
looking for a way to move to a dynamic page capability. In addition to
Gantts, the pages integrate a great deal of ancillary information drawn
from Oracle and SQL Server databases, so it seems unlikely that a
process based on Project Server would be practical for our needs.


One of our sysadmins has suggested that Server 03's expanded
capabilities might help in this regard - I am posting here to see if
anybody might be able to shed some light. Can anybody point me to
detailed info on how Project Server generates and displays Gantts
dynamically (I need to publish to a web server for public access and am
not looking for PWA info, or any solution that requires CALs, accounts
or logins)?


Thanks
Dave
david dot moore at ngc dot com

 

[dgmoore]

Earl,
As my original post indicates, we need to publish these charts (which,
btw, have to be imagemapped) along with a great deal of other data to a
very large intranet population - no PWA, no CALs, no logins. We are
already doing this with static pages - I'm looking for a way to make it
dynamic, but am struggling with how to generate Gantt gifs on the fly
in response to a browser request.
Thanks
Dave

 

[Earl Lewis]

Dave,

OK, "Gantt gifs on the fly in response to a browser request" of what? The project server database? What web server? What application server platform? If you're going to try to do this without project server you need to answer those questions for starters - and that's just the most fundamental questions.

Imagemapping is a whole different ballgame. You need to figure out how to generate your images first.

I think I understand what you're driving at but what you're asking would amount to a very serious application development effort. You would basically be reinventing project web access to your custom specifications.

Sorry but I don't think you're going to get any kind of useful answer on any newsgroup.

Earl
Earl,
As my original post indicates, we need to publish these charts (which,
btw, have to be imagemapped) along with a great deal of other data to a
very large intranet population - no PWA, no CALs, no logins. We are
already doing this with static pages - I'm looking for a way to make it
dynamic, but am struggling with how to generate Gantt gifs on the fly
in response to a browser request.
Thanks
Dave

 

[dgmoore]

Earl,

We have developed and deployed a series of very extensive "schedule web
sites" for a number of major programs (schedules consisting of
thousands of tasks).

These sites comprise thousands of html pages and many hundreds of Gantt
charts generated via MSProject using data pulled from a variety of
databases (Oracle, SQL Server, Access, MSProject).

Each of these sites is updated offline daily and posted to its
respective web server as a set of static pages. Users call up the web
site and browse the pages, which include Gantt charts in gif format.
The Gantts are imagemapped to provide drilldown from summary schedules
to detailed schedules, and from detailed schedules to individual
milestone detail pages (this is done by using the same recordset
employed in building the Gantt to add the imagemap to the html page
that displays the Gantt). Updating each of these sites takes 15-20
minutes daily, plus time to ftp the results to the web servers.

We are undergoing some infrastructure changes and have been asked to
determine if we can make this process dynamic, so a Gantt or html page
doesn't get generated unless somebody asks for it. So, basically, I'm
trying to see if we can take our existing static process and make it
dynamic - the html pages are a no-brainer, but the question of how to
generate a Gantt on request so it can be served on an html page remains
problematic. I was wondering if the process by which Project Server
displays Gantts to PWA users could be adopted in some way to do this.
We have extensive development expertise using MSProject, but no
detailed understanding of how Project Server generates Gantts for
display to PWA users.

Thanks
Dave

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

Doing this live is beyond my skill set! However, How about a process run
nightly that opens each schedule in Project from Project Server and saves a
..gif file of the schedule. You will need timescale settings for every
project because a 1 year project will need a very different timescale to
show the whole project, unless you are only concerned with the next month or
two. VBA is the fastest and most powerful solution.

Now you have all your GIF files and can publish them in the morning.

In my experience most schedules are only updated once or at most twice a
week and if necessary the odd one or two can be produced and published
manually.

 

[dgmoore]

Rod,

I agree - I've considered a hybrid approach like you describe, where we
generate the Gantts in batch mode and build the html pages dynamically.
We are currently generating our static pages and Gantts using VBA in
an Access environment, with MSProject producing the Gantts (I set the
timescale for each Gantt on the fly based on the earliest and latest
dates in each recordset). Anyway, one concern I have is that - when new
tasks get added to a schedule, which happens all the time - the image
map on the dynamically generated html page will be out of sync with the
static gif, so clicking on the Gantt will take the user to the wrong
destination. Furthermore, most of the processing time consumed in
updating these sites daily is spent on the Gantts - the html pages get
cranked out at a rate of 5 or 10 per second, while the Gantts are
produced at 1 or 2 per second. This being the case, we wouldn't save
much time or resources by producing the gifs in batch mode and the html
pages dynamically.

I appreciate your comments - I've been reading your posts for a long
time and have respect for your knowledge and ideas.

Thanks
Dave

 

[Rod Gill]

My main point is that this approach provides a 'low' technology path to
produce a GIF. You can also say Gantt chart images are only updated nightly
and that the Task details below are more accurate.