Project Server Data Access Dilema

P

Prodigal Son

Hi,

Sorry for the long post please be patient and read through.

In the company I am working for we have just set up project server 2003 to
allow resources to enter actual hours for the project. Previous to this we
used SharePoint to record time and the time was manually entered into the
project plans at the end of the week. This data was also inputted into an
access database and used to produce reports.

The potential problem we are facing now is that we dont know what the best
way to easily access the data in project server is. How can we query the data
in server between certain dates and for certain tasks so that we can see what
time each resource has charged for each day. This data then will allow us to
produce all our essential reports that have been previously produced.

I have looked at PDS but this doesn't seem an option as I have been told by
the support department. Project server uses windows authentication so that
users can log on with their enterprise IDs. I have used PDStest.exe to try
and get sample data from project server but all I receive is incorrect login
error (5002). Support has told me that this option is not a good option (I
dont see why) and that the database server for project is located on a
different machine so PDS won't work (this also doesn't seem logical to me).
Can I only log on to PDS using Project server authentication rather wndows
authentication? Is it true that PDS won't work if the database is located on
a seperate machine?

If PDS is not the best option is there any other way to get at the data. The
only other way I can see is if I remotely log on to the server download the
project files and save them as xml files. As you can see this will create a
lot more work on a weekly basis and would prefer to avoid this.

I don't have access to the database server so I dont think that this is an
option but I am not definate.

Sorry for the long post but I would really appreciate your input and
opinions on this matter. If you have any solution or have had similar
experiences I would love to here them.

Thanks in advance

Paul
 
R

Rod Gill

Don't learn or use PDS. PDS was inherently inadequate as proved by the fact
PDS has been completely replaced by PSI in PS2007! Your best solution is to
read from the MSP_VIEW tables in Project Server. Details of them and their
fields are in pjsvrdb.htm (it's in one of Projects program folders and the
project Server CD). Create a View in SQL Server to read all the data you
want (you can link to this View from Access in your current Access reporting
tool if wanted). When you upgrade to Project Server 2007 in the future,
simply edit the View in SQL Server to read from the new project server
Reporting Database and your reporting will continue as usual.
 

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