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From: Dale Fye on 20 Jan 2010 10:08

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

From: JohnR on 20 Jan 2010 10:46
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

"Dale Fye" <dale.fye(a)nospam.com> wrote in message
news:47F99EF6-4C01-490A-BCC1-CABD54F8D068(a)microsoft.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
>


From: JulieS on 20 Jan 2010 11:07
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

On 1/20/2010 10:08 AM, Dale Fye wrote:
>
> 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
>
From: Rod Gill on 20 Jan 2010 14:47
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




"Dale Fye" <dale.fye(a)nospam.com> wrote in message
news:47F99EF6-4C01-490A-BCC1-CABD54F8D068(a)microsoft.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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> signature database 4791 (20100120) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
>
>
>

__________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4791 (20100120) __________

The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

http://www.eset.com



From: Dale Fye on 21 Jan 2010 11:32
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.

----
Dale



"Dale Fye" wrote:

>
> 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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