Generate File and Validate, Generate File

The only difference between the Generate file and validate and the Generate file processes is that the Generate file and validate option validates the incoming data.

Notes

• You will need Microsoft Office Project installed on your machine in order to run a Generate file and validate or Generate file process.

• The .mpp must be saved before running the interface, or changes will be lost.

• Regardless of why you are running generate/validate (for example, WBS Descriptive, WBS Schedule Estimates, BCWP, Milestones), if records/rows in MSP are hidden, those hidden records will not be processed. They must be unhidden and saved prior to running generate/validate.

• If both autospread and time-phased will be used within one .mpp file, then the estimate identifier field must be mapped at task level because having both time-phased and autospread within one task is not supported.

• MSP Link does not support embedded or linked projects. These must be brought in separately.

• If MSP is open when the process starts, you will see some of the processing in MSP (for example, cells being highlighted) during the process. Once the process is complete, the interface closes MSP.

MSP 2000 Note

If you are using MSP Link with MSP 2000 and your .mpp contains a macro, the interface process is halted and an MSP dialog is displayed asking the user whether to enable or disable the macro. You may select either the Enable or Disable button and the process will continue.

To prevent this dialog from being displayed, complete the following steps:

1. Go to Tools » Macro » Security to display the Security dialog.

2. Select the Security Level tab.

3. Select one of the following:

4. High — so no unsigned macros are allowed to run.

5. Low — so that all macros are allowed.

4. Click OK to save changes and close the Security dialog box.

The Generate file and Validate or Generate File process

To run a Generate file and Validate or Generate File process, complete the following steps:

1. From the Menu Manager window, select the Interfaces tab and click on the MSP Link icon.

2. Select a project from the drop-down list.

3. Under Interface Process, select either Generate file and validate, or Generate file from the Type drop-down list.

4. Fill in all other necessary fields. See Interface Conditioning Options for field descriptions.

5. Under the Interface Process section, click on the Mapping File Name Criteria field.

6. Select Mappings to create a new mappings file (See Creating a New Mappings Definition for further details), or

7. Select Browse to open an existing mappings file (See Opening a Saved Mappings Definition and Editing a Saved Mappings Definition for further details).

6. Once all the conditioning options and mappings fields are completed, click on the running man, or select Tools » Run Interface to start the process.

The .mpp must be saved before running the interface, or changes will be lost.

Initial Information Check

An initial information check is performed. If any of these checks are found to be invalid, the error messages are displayed in the viewer for the Generate file process, or in the Output Format that is indicated in the conditioning options for the Generate file and validate or Import processes. The process is then discontinued.

• Generate file and validate, Generate file processes

• Is Microsoft Office Project installed on the computer?

• Is the MSP Task Filter Name valid?

• Is at least one import selected?

• Is the MSP file valid?

• Is the mappings file valid?

• Does the mappings file contain mappings for all of the selected import types?

• Does the mappings file contain mappings for all required fields?

• Is BCWP selected to be imported? If so, then the mappings file should have either Cumulative Percent Complete or Cumulative BCWP Amount mapped.

• Is Cumulative Percent Complete mapped and do you have multiple tasks for the same WBS ID? If so, then Task BAC must also be mapped.

• Is Milestones selected?

• Is Identify Milestones By set to ID? If so, there needs to be a mapping for Milestones ID.

• Is Identify Milestones By set to Description? If so, there needs to be a mapping for Milestones Description.

• Is Identify Milestones By set to Symbol/Description/Schedule Date? If so, there needs to be a mapping for Milestones Symbol/Description/Schedule Date.

• Is Time-Phased Estimates or Autospread Estimates selected?

• Is either time-phased labor or time-phased material mapped? One or the other has to be mapped.

• Is either autospread labor or autospread material mapped? One or the other has to be mapped.

• The initial information check is now complete and the Generate File process continues:

• The MSP Filter is applied to the data (if applicable).

• The data is processed according to the mapped fields' criteria. If a mapped field is invalid, an error message is written to the Validation Report.

• The Interface checks to see if tasks need to be summarized to a WBS element. Tasks are summarized if their unique identifier is the same. For example, in WBS Schedule, tasks with the same WBS ID will be summarized by taking the earliest Start date and latest End date of all tasks.

• Generate File and Validate only - The data coming in from MSP is validated and any errors and inconsistencies are written to the Validation Report.

• If Generate File was selected, no data validation occurs.

• The Replace Values conditioning option is checked to see if all data or only changed data should be imported:

• If Replace Values is set to All data, all MPM mapped field data is replaced by the imported MSP data.

• If Replace Values is set to Changed data only, only mapped field data that has changed between MSP and MPM, when compared against MPM, will be written to the generated file and imported into MPM.

• A generated file (.gen) is created and saved to the location specified in the Generated File Name line of the MSP Link.

• A Validation Report is created and can be viewed in the format selected in the Output Format conditioning option.

Related Topics

Import

Batch Processing