Project Task Notes

[DavidC]

I need to use the Project Task notes in a specialised
report that I have developed using Access by saving the
project file as a databaes. I have the code to convert
the long binary data that the notes are stored in to a
recognisable string. The issue I have recently discovered
is that I have had the converted notes bearing no
resemblance whatsoever with the 'real' notes as entered
into Project. It appears that within the long binary code
there is some 'hidden' information. I have come to that
conclusion through viewing the raw converted data and the
sanitised data ( all the hieroglyphics such as \par, \f1
\fs16 etc removed). The issue then that I have is firstly
is there any information on what all the hieroglyphics
associated with the long binary data represent, and how is
the notes saved in long binary format that would mean old
deleted notes may still remain yet hidden within the data.

One other piece of information that may give an indication
as to the cause of the problem. I am given to understand
that most of the notes were 'written' in Excel and then
copied and pasted into the task notes field of Project.
Many of the notes have both VBCR and exceed 255 characters.

A typical converted notes is:

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang5129{\fonttbl{\f0
\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\f0\fs16 Remove, clean and inspect.
Bench test and set 0.5 Bg, reassemble. Make test flange if
needed.\par
}
yet after cleaning it up the result is this:

both the HP/LP pressures

no resemblance at all.

I proper conversion and clean up is this (the next task)

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang5129{\fonttbl{\f0
\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Arial;}}
{\colortbl ;\red0\green0\blue0;}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\cf1\f0\fs16 Record HP and LP lube oil
pressure.\par
}

Record HP and LP lube oil pressure.

Any ideas or suggestions would be most gratefully received.

Regards

DavidC

 

[Mark Durrenberger]

I have a suspicion that the notes are stored in rich text format (RTF) so
you'll have to convert from RTF...

Mark

--
_________________________________________________________
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
________________________________________________________

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

 

[DavidC]

Yes I believe you are right. The conversion formula is:

rtf = StrConv(.Fields("TASK_RTF_NOTES"), vbUnicode)

where the result 'rtf' is the converted notes shown in my
original posting.

DavidC

 

[Mark Durrenberger]

I can't tell from your post - can I assume that the problem has been solved?

Mark

--
_________________________________________________________
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
________________________________________________________

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

 

[DavidC]

No. I have not yet resolved the problem. In a nutshell
it is finding that after converting from RTF to a string
using the Access code

StrConv(.Fields("TASK_RTF_NOTES"), vbUnicode)

the result shows what is in the notes field in Project,
but after removing the "}" and other formating identifiers
preceeding the 'real' note, I am left with words which do
not appear anywhere in the converted result. This only
happens on one or two out of 300+ task notes, so it seems
that it is old data left behind when that note was
overwritten or deleted and new data written in.

In my original posting I copied in two samples, the first
where the converted notes have the correct words, yet
after removing all the formating information the result
bore no resemblance to the converted string. the secodn
example shows another task note (same words different task
though) where the result after removing all the formating
information is the words as written in the task note.

So where I am having difficulty is:
what does the various formating code such as \par, \f1 etc
mean?
and
where is the spurious data coming from. It must be in the
long binary data yet it doesn't show when converted but
does as the end result after removing all the formating
stuff. I use a routine of finding the last} and removing
everything after it, then finding the first space after
the next } and removing everything before it. This always
leaves the correct note where the notes have been typed
into a new project. But in this project for some reason I
am getting this aboration in the data.