Importing Resources to Enterprise

[Chris]

A partner of ours has sent me a MS Project file with their resources they'd
like to use in Project Server. They've inputted data to several text fields
(text 1, text 2, etc.) that is very important to them. When importing those
resources to enterprise (using the Import Resources to Enterprise wizard) I'm
not seeing that information contained in those text fields carry over into
enterprise. When I open the resource later from the enterprise resource
pool, the text fields are empty. Am I missing something?

I've seen a couple posts listed in this forum mentioning to expose those
fields before importing, tried that, and it didn’t work. Also can’t find it
in Gary & Dale’s book.

As always, would appreciate the help. Thanks.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Chris --

When you use the Import Resources Wizard, are you mapping the local resource
Text fields to their corresponding enterprise Text fields? Let us know.

 

[Chris]

Thanks for the response Dale.

At this time, we only have about six Enterprise Resource Fields we've
created for filtering purposes. I see the text fields I want in the "Map
From" dropdown list, but only see the six Enterprise fields we created as an
option to "Map To".

Do I need to create text fields in Enterprise so I can map over to them? I
thought the predefined MS Project fields (text 1, cost 1, date 1, etc.) and
their values moved into enterprise when importing?

Thanks
--
Chris Addis
San Joaquin Valley SBU
Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company

Chris --

When you use the Import Resources Wizard, are you mapping the local resource
Text fields to their corresponding enterprise Text fields? Let us know.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Chris --

If you want to use the data in the custom local Text fields for each
enterprise resource, you must have a corresponding custom enterprise Text
field for each local field. Then you can map the data from the local fields
to the enterprise fields and import the resources along with the data you
need to manage each resource. Your original assumption about this was
incorrect, obviously. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the response Dale.

At this time, we only have about six Enterprise Resource Fields we've
created for filtering purposes. I see the text fields I want in the "Map
From" dropdown list, but only see the six Enterprise fields we created as
an
option to "Map To".

Do I need to create text fields in Enterprise so I can map over to them?
I
thought the predefined MS Project fields (text 1, cost 1, date 1, etc.)
and
their values moved into enterprise when importing?

Thanks
--
Chris Addis
San Joaquin Valley SBU
Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company

 

[Chris]

Makes sense, and I'll take appropriate steps to import those fields.

As a follow up, it appears I'll eventually need to create many of the fields
already in use in MS Project by our Business Partners. The problem is, each
business partner has come to use similar fields in MS Project for different
uses. For example BP 1 may use Text 1 for a location name. BP 2 will use
the same Text 1 field for a misc. date. And further still, BP 3 will use
Text 1 for numbers that help them filter.

Do you have a Best Practice for moving all this data (which is important to
the BP) into Project Server. I'm afraid your going to say to either recreate
all those custom fields for each BP, or have them all standardize before
importing. But I thought I'd ask.

Thanks.

--
Chris Addis
San Joaquin Valley SBU
Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Chris --

Given the complexity of the situation, I think I might opt for creating
custom enterprise fields specific to each Business Partner. Do not make any
of them Mandatory fields, however, so you can choose which fields to enter
data. The other option would be to create multiple Project Server 2007
instances, with each instance specific to each Business Partner's projects.
Hope this helps.

 

[Chris]

Thank you Dale.

I'll begin creating those fields to be imported, for each business partner.
I will, however, try to encourage a bit of standardization to help cut back
on the quantity of miscellaneous entries being made out there.

As always, thanks for your help.

--
Chris Addis
San Joaquin Valley SBU
Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company