Re: MS Project import/export

[Kurt Maute <kurt maute us>]

On Fri, 2007-03-16 at 12:26 +0300, Victor wrote:
> Hello, Kurt,
> 
> thank you for your response and sorry for my late reply, I was away
> for several weeks,
> please see my comments below.

np - I've been travelling as well.

> Kurt Maute us wrote:
> > 
> > One reason why I didn't pursue this further was the MS announcement that it was going to move toward xml format as their native file format for MS Office - my presumption was that the same would follow for Project (anyone know if any of this has come to pass yet?).
> >   
> Seems that MPP is still used as native format in MS Project 2007, it
> has been modified in 2007 version according to this link:
> http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/page.php?id=5255
> As for other MS Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) - yes, they
> will use Open XML and, as I know, there is Open XML to/from Open
> Document Format converter.

Yeah, I took a look into it as well and discovered the same.  So I think
you're right to pursue mpp import since native xml format is a ways off
yet (if they do it at all).

> > True - another way to go would be to get the windows version in
> > really good shape and add features so there's no reason for folks on
> > either platform to bother with MS Project at all.
> The problem is that nobody at business-side want to install and learn
> new products like Planner.

'nobody' might be a bit strong - but I see your point


> > There are some other complications, though.  Some of the features of Planner aren't designed the same way as MS Project (for instance, MS Project doesn't have the concept of a day type in their calendar, so import of their calendars don't work), so compatibility will always be a problem unless we turn Planner into an MS Project clone (or offer some sort of 'compatibility mode'.
> > 
> > I personally don't like that idea, since it would forever limit our choices in how (and whether we should) implement new features.
> > 
> > Don't get me wrong - I'm all for offering compatibility tools, so long as we keep our freedom and independence.  We just have to manage people's expectations about the limitations of the import/export features we provide.  Otherwise we'll be stuck in 'it doesn't work like MS' - land.
> >   
> Me too, I don't like the idea to make a "MS Project clone" ! Let's
> talk about some kind of import and export - maybe some (very specific
> and not so frequently used) features are incompatible between Planner
> and MS Project, but I think that most of core features are similar.

ok, the main issues with xml import were:
Calendars - MS has no concept of a day type - unless they've added it in
2007 (high severity)
Resource Groups - Data stored in different manner (medium severity)
Properties - MS did not save them to the xml file (minor)

So MS Import compatibility issues should be handled in this order.

>From there, we could start to look at functional differences in the
tools, and see what makes sense to address.

> > Yeah, the best way would be to reengineer MPP import/export in libplanner natively, but it would be good to see compatibility added in MPXJ.  More options - good.  Less options - bad.  ;-)
> Jon, MPXJ developed, have written yesterday that he has added the
> reading from Planner format - so it would be possible to convert from
> Planner to MS Project. I am going to test this.
> Of course, more options is always better, choice is always good! MPX
> is Java application and I like Java, but many people do not like to
> install Java, so they could use Planner without Java.

That would be great!
-- 
Kurt Maute <kurt maute us>