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.

  1. Create a project ID.
  2. 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:

  1. Build a sub project structure with activities.
  2. 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

  1. Open the Integration Basic Data window, click the Integration Setup tab and create a new record.
  2. Enter an integration setup identity, for example ST001, in the Setup ID field.
  3. The value Primavera is automatically selected in the External Planning Tool field.
  4. 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.)
  5. 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.
  6. Save the integration setup record.

Performing the Calendar Setup

  1. Open the Integration Basic Data window, click the Calendar Setup tab and create a new record.
  2. Enter the identity of you project calendar in the Calendar ID field, or select it from the List of Values.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Save the calendar setup record.

Creating Integration Configurations

  1. Open the Integration Configuration window and create a new record.
  2. Enter an integration identity, for example INT001, in the Integration ID field.
  3. 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.
  4. Select the desired direction of the integration, either Export or Import, in the Direction field.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.

  1. Optionally, select the Calendar, Dependencies, Constraints, Resources and Resource Assignments check boxes.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Optionally add a note about the integration configuration.
  5. 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.

  1. Open the Integration Configuration window and query for your integration ID record.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. The Integration Messages window will open with the messages relevant to your integration ID.
  5. 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.

  1. Optionally, select a responsible person for rectifying the issue.
  2. Rectify the issues which have the type Error. Optionally, select the Issue Fixed check box to indicate that it has been fixed.
  3. 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.
  4. Click OK to complete the integration and update the project on the receiving side of the integration.

Viewing Integration History

  1. Open the Integration History window.
  2. Query, for example for your integration ID or for a specific project ID, to view the history records.
  3. 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.