Linking Access 2007 to Microsoft Project 2007

[Dale Fye]

I have an application that tracks various projects with milestones and other
dates. My client is interested in visually depicting some of this
information, and would like to try using Microsoft Project.

They have created a small Project file with data they extracted and manually
entered into project. What we now want to do is figure out how to either
link Project to Access to use the Access tables directly, or to use Access to
identify "differences" between their data and what exists in the application.

Does anyone have any experience in this area?

What is the format of a "Project" file.

Anything I should know before I go blindly stumbling into this?

 

[JohnR]

A few years back, I created an Access Application that took data from an
Access Dataabase and made entries/updates to a Microsoft Project. I started
by learning the Project Object Model. Here is a link to it.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb179353.aspx

 

[JulieS]

Hello Dale,

Project 2007 cannot directly read Access 2007 (.accdb files), only
Access 2003 (.mdb files). If you search this newsgroup for "Access
2007" you'll see several recent posts on some of the challenges on
importing data.

As far as trying to maintain two sets of the same data -- I'm not sure
it's worth it. Project is a very good scheduling engine -- not natively
what comes with Access without some development. That being said,
Project (like Access) has a fairly steep learning curve and if your
client wants to use it well, an investment into learning the product up
front, will pay off significantly in both the accuracy of the data being
generated as well as holding down on missteps and frustration.

We're certainly happy to help you (and your client) along in the
learning path as much as we can, but finding a reliable consultant and
trainer for Project would be a good first step. Through this newsgroup,
you'll find a number of folks who are trainers/consultants in Project
who would be happy to have an "off-line" conversation, I'm sure.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Rod Gill]

Unless your Access database is structured exactly as Project needs it then
the only way to read data from any database in Project 2007 onwards is using
VBA code, either in Access to push data to Project or in Project to pull
data from Access. Project 2003 and earlier does have an ODBC link and you
can create a map to map fields in Access to fields in Project. This does not
link data, but does import to Project.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project - http://www.project-systems.co.nz

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see: http://www.projectvbabook.com

I have an application that tracks various projects with milestones and
other
dates. My client is interested in visually depicting some of this
information, and would like to try using Microsoft Project.

They have created a small Project file with data they extracted and
manually
entered into project. What we now want to do is figure out how to either
link Project to Access to use the Access tables directly, or to use Access
to
identify "differences" between their data and what exists in the
application.

Does anyone have any experience in this area?

What is the format of a "Project" file.

Anything I should know before I go blindly stumbling into this?

----
Dale


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[Dale Fye]

Guys,

Appreciate your responses. I would really like to avoid having two separate
data sources (and the work required to keep them synchronized). Our
application is currently written in Access, using SharePoint lists as the
data source (long story).

Given the comment that Project cannot read from Access unless the data is in
the right format, the question becomes, how can I use Access to
view/manipulate the data that is in a Project file? Or can I?

If I can, then I could add/delete/change data in the Project file directly
from Access. This would obviously require some knowledge of the Project
Object model, but more importantly, a knowledge of the project data structure.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Dale,

As Rod Gill noted, unless you are using Access 2003 (which you aren't)
you'll need to read and manipulate the data through code. JohnR posted
a link to the information on MSDN about the data access model.

I'll also put in a strong plug for investing Rod's excellent book on
Project VBA. See:

http://www.projectvbabook.com/


Julie

 

[0]

Unless your Access database is structured exactly as Project needs it then
the only way to read data from any database in Project 2007 onwards is
using VBA code, either in Access to push data to Project or in Project to
pull data from Access. Project 2003 and earlier does have an ODBC link and
you can create a map to map fields in Access to fields in Project. This
does not link data, but does import to Project.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project - http://www.project-systems.co.nz

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see: http://www.projectvbabook.com






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signature database 4791 (20100120) __________

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hallo