Integrating to External Planning Tool—Exercises
Basic Data Setup
Required Data
Create a Project
Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to show you the
required data that is used in the exercises below.
- Create a project ID.
- Save your changes.
General exercise for
Creating a Project.
Building Project Plan
Purpose: The purpose of these exercise is to get familiarized with the
data that must be in place before you can do the exercises below:
- Build a sub project structure with activities.
- Assign resources to your activities.
General exercise for
Building Project Plan
General exercise for
Assigning Resources and Analyzing Resource Capacity
Main Exercise
Purpose: The purpose of these exercises is to setup the
integration, including the setup to access the external planning tool and the
setup to export calendars. Also these exercises will show you how to perform
integrations, including how to create an integration configuration, do a project
data analysis, export a project from IFS/Project to the external planning tool,
and import the project back to IFS/Project. Finally these exercises will show
you how to view the integration configuration, do a project data analysis,
export a project from IFS/Project to the external planning tool, and import the
project back to IFS/Project. Finally these exercises will show you how to view
the integration history and messages
Windows:
Integration Basic Data
Integration Configuration
Integration History
Integration Messages
Performing the Integration Setup
- Open the Integration Basic Data window, click
the Integration Setup tab and create a new record.
- Enter an integration setup identity, for example ST001, in the
Setup ID field.
- The value Primavera is automatically selected in the External
Planning Tool field.
- In the External Planning Tool Database field, enter the name of the
external planning tool database as defined in the integration setup.
(Contact your system administrator for assistance.)
- Enter the user ID with which you will be accessing the external planning
tool in the External Planning Tool User ID field and the password in
the External Planning Tool Password field. The values in these fields
will be used by the integration to log into the external planning tool and
must be valid there.
- Save the integration setup record.
Performing the Calendar Setup
- Open the Integration Basic Data window, click the
Calendar Setup tab and create a new record.
- Enter the identity of you project calendar in the Calendar ID
field, or select it from the List of Values.
- Enter a value in the Base Schedule field, or select it from the
List of Values. The base schedule is the IFS calendar schedule used to
create or update the base work week schedule for this calendar in the
external planning tool. This information is necessary if the IFS calendar
has more than one schedule.
- Optionally enter dates in the From Date and To Date
fields. If the IFS calendar has more than one schedule, the secondary
schedules that are not defined as the base schedule will be applied to the
external planning tool calendar in between these two dates.
- Save the calendar setup record.
Creating Integration
Configurations
- Open the
Integration Configuration window and create a new
record.
- Enter an integration identity, for example INT001, in the Integration
ID field.
- Enter the identity of the IFS project which you want to export or import
in the Project ID field, or select it from the List of Values.
- Select the desired direction of the integration, either Export or
Import, in the Direction field.
- The External Planning Tool field shows the external planning tool with
which the IFS project will integrate. Presently the only possible value in
this field is Primavera.
- Enter the identity of the project in the external planning tool in the
External Project ID field.
Note: If the direction of the integration is Import, the value
in the External Project ID field must exist in the external planning
tool. If the direction of the integration is Export and the value in the
External Project ID field exists in the external planning tool, this
project will be updated. If the direction of the integration is Export
and the value in the External Project ID field does not exist in the
external planning tool, the project is created.
- Optionally, select the Calendar, Dependencies,
Constraints, Resources and Resource Assignments check
boxes.
- Enter the identity of the appropriate setup to access the external
planning tool in the Setup ID field, or select it from the List of
Values.
- Optionally update the value in the Owner ID field, which is
information about the person who is considered to be the owner of the
integration configuration.
- Optionally add a note about the integration configuration.
- Save the integration configuration record.
Analyzing
Project Data and Initializing the Integration
Note: In order to test the integration messages functionality, your
project in the external planning tool or in IFS Applications must contain some
data which is not allowed in the other tool. For example, if you will be
exporting from IFS Applications to the external planning tool Primavera, you
could have at least one duplicate Activity ID in the IFS project. Another
example, if you will be importing from the external planning tool Primavera to
IFS Applications, is that you could place an activity directly under the project
(top) node in Primavera. These situations will result in an integration message
in the below exercise.
- Open the
Integration Configuration window and query for
your integration ID record.
- Select the row, right-click and click Analyze Project Data. Click
Yes to the question if you would like to start the project data
analysis.
- If there are any issues that require your attention, the project data
analysis will result in integration messages. Click Yes to the question if
you would like to view the messages.
- The Integration Messages window will open with the
messages relevant to your integration ID.
- View these messages. If you have any messages which have the value
Error in the Type field, the described issue must be rectified in
order to succeed with the integration. The integration message gives a
suggestion of where to rectify the problem, including the suggested
application in the Application field and if relevant in which
project, sub project or activity in this application.
Note: The values in the Application, Application Project ID,
Application Sub Project ID and Application Activity ID fields are
a suggestion of where the issue can be rectified, although there can be more
than one alternative on how to eliminate many situations. It is up to the user
to decide how best to handle the situations described by integration messages.
- Optionally, select a responsible person for rectifying the issue.
- Rectify the issues which have the type Error. Optionally, select
the Issue Fixed check box to indicate that it has been fixed.
- Select the row, right-click and click Initiate Import/Export. The
Compare Project Data dialog box will open and display
information about the changes that will occur to the receiving side of the
integration, if the integration is completed. It is also possible to view
any warnings or information in the Integration Messages tab of
this dialog box.
- Click OK to complete the integration and update the project on
the receiving side of the integration.
Viewing Integration History
- Open the Integration History window.
- Query, for example for your integration ID or for a specific project ID,
to view the history records.
- If a record has the Integration Messages check box selected,
right-click and click Integration Messages to view the messages
related to this history record.