Microsoft Office Project 2003 OLE DB Provider Reference

Overview

This document provides the information necessary to access Microsoft Office Project 2003 data using the Project OLE DB Provider. In addition to describing the Project OLE DB Provider table structures, this document details additional information about the Project OLE DB Provider, and provides sample Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) code.

Important Features of the Project OLE DB Provider

Important features of the Project OLE DB Provider include:

• Friendly field names have been added to the Project OLE DB Provider (for example, TaskConstraintDate). Friendly field names allow the database to be localized and allow custom reports to be created in languages other than English. In addition, users should see field labels in their localized languages.

  Note  Field labels are not displayed in languages other than English when Project is running in enterprise mode.

• Support for timephased data through the addition of 15 new tables, 5 each for assignments, resources, and tasks, broken out by minute, hour, day, week, and month.

  Note   The database uses a consistent format for all timephased table names: tableTimephasedBytime (for example, AssignmentTimephasedByMinute).

• Enterprise and non-enterprise modes for the Project OLE DB Provider. Enterprise fields are noted in the table descriptions with an E in the left column. Enterprise fields are available only in Microsoft Office Project Professional   2003.
• Additional support for Office Web Components.

Specifics

Some aspects of the Project OLE DB Provider are unique and should be noted to prevent unexpected results:

• There are four data types: text, number, Boolean, and date [as it appears in the interface (for example, 12/27/1999 10:30 AM)].
• Duration fields return minutes * 10 (for example, 8 hours is 4800) and Work fields return minutes * 1000 (for example, 8 hours is 480000).
• Dates that would be be displayed as NA in the interface are returned as 0.
• A formula in a custom field that would be displayed as #ERROR in the interface return the default value for the field.
• Custom fields where no value has been set return the default value.
• Custom field indicator fields where no indicator has been set return "-1".
• Work values for material resources are returned in the units defined in the interface, rather than minutes * 1000.
• Using SELECT without WHERE returns null resource and task rows. Supplying WHERE does not return these same rows, even if they would otherwise qualify.

Additionally, the provider supports three registry keys that determine the number of seconds that must elapse before certain time-out conditions occur. These keys can be found under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\MS Project\OLE DB Provider subkey of the registry:

Note  Before you edit the registry, make sure you understand how to restore it if a problem occurs. Editing the registry incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system.

Limitations

The current implementation of the Project OLE DB Provider has some limitations:

• Read/write access is not supported.
• Multi-table queries are not supported; you must use a separate query for each table you want to access.
• Access to the Project OLE DB Provider is with forward-only cursors; forward-only recordsets don't support methods such as MovePrevious, MoveFirst, or MoveLast. Also, forward-only recordsets don't support the use of the RecordCount property.
• Joins are not supported; however, shaped recordsets can provide similar functionality by making relationships that had not previously existed between keys, fields, or rowsets. It is also possible to create hierarchical recordsets in a tabular format. For more information, see "Microsoft Data Shaping Service for OLE DB" in ActiveX Data Objects Help.
• The following operators are not supported: ANY, LIKE, and IS NOT.
• The following aggregate functions are not supported: Sum, Avg, Min, Max, Count, and StDev.
• The Project OLE DB Provider has a timing mechanism that tells you when to unload files, but doesn't do this until a load event happens. If the TimeBeforeUnload value is set to 1, the provider won't check to see if there is a stale file until it tries to open another file, creating a read-lock on the file. To avoid this issue, create a dummy file that attempts to force the provider to load a nonexistent file when you are finished with your current project. This unloads the file you were just working on and places the read-lock on the dummy file.

Sample code using Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects

Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) provides simple access to the Project OLE DB Provider through a set of objects, events, methods, and properties. Likely scenarios for ADO operations include accessing the provider on your computer and accessing it from Project Server.

Accessing the Project OLE DB Provider on your computer using ADO

This sample accesses a Project file on your computer and displays some assignment information from the project.

Note  For the sample to compile, you must add a reference to the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.1 Library or later to your project. For more information, see the topic "Set a Reference to a Type Library" in Microsoft Visual Basic Help.

Sub Connect()
    Dim conData As New ADODB.Connection
    Dim rstAssigns As New ADODB.Recordset
    Dim intCount As Integer
    Dim strSelect As String
    Dim strResults As String
    
    conData.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Project.OLEDB.11.0;PROJECT NAME=" & FILE_NAME
' To connect to a Microsoft SQL Server file, you must also supply User ID and Password arguments
'    conData.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Project.OLEDB.11.0;User ID=jsmith;Password=MyPass5;  & _
          PROJECT NAME=" & FILE_NAME
    
    conData.ConnectionTimeout = 30
    conData.Open

    strSelect = "SELECT ResourceUniqueID, AssignmentResourceID, AssignmentResourceName, TaskUniqueID,  & _
          AssignmentTaskID," " AssignmentTaskName FROM Assignments WHERE TaskUniqueID > 0 ORDER BY  & _
          AssignmentTaskID ASC"
    rstAssigns.Open strSelect, conData

    Do While Not rstAssigns.EOF
        For intCount = 0 To rstAssigns.Fields.Count - 1
            If (Not IsNull(rstAssigns.Fields(intCount).Value)) Then
                strResults = strResults & "'" & rstAssigns.Fields(intCount).Name & "'" & Space(40 -  & _
                    Len(rstAssigns.Fields(intCount).Name)) & vbTab & CStr(rstAssigns.Fields(intCount).Value) & vbCrLf
            End If
            
            If (IsNull(rstAssigns.Fields(intCount).Value)) Then
                strResults = strResults & "'" & rstAssigns.Fields(intCount).Name & "'" & Space(40 -  & _
                    Len(rstAssigns.Fields(intCount).Name)) & vbTab & CStr("") & vbCrLf
            End If
                   
        Next
        strResults = strResults & vbCrLf
        rstAssigns.MoveNext
    Loop
    
    conData.Close
    
    Open "C:\My Documents\Results.txt" For Output As #1
    Print #1, strResults
    Close #1
        
    Shell "Notepad C:\My Documents\Results.txt", vbMaximizedFocus

End Sub

Project OLE DB Provider tables

The tables exposed through the Project OLE DB Provider are shown in the following list. Their columns (fields), data types, descriptions, and values (where appropriate) are detailed below.

• Assignments
• AssignmentTimephased by Minute, Hour, Day, Week, and Month
• Availability
• BaselineTaskSplits
• CalendarData
• CalendarExceptions
• Calendars
• CostRates
• CustomFieldGraphicalIndicators
• CustomFields
• CustomFieldValueList
• CustomOutlineCodeFields
• CustomOutlineCodeLookupTables
• Predecessors
• Project
• Resources
• ResourceTimephased by Minute, Hour, Day, Week, and Month
• Successors
• Tasks
• TaskSplits
• TaskTimephased by Minute, Hour, Day, Week, and Month
• WBS

Note  Field names in the table descriptions that are formatted in bold indicate that the field is common to more than one table.

Note  Enterprise custom fields, available only in Project Professional 2003, are identified in the table descriptions with an E in the left column.

Indicator symbols

The following indicator symbols are available in Project:

Assignments

This table contains assignment data and links an assignment to its associated tasks and resources.

Assignment Timephased by Minute, Hour, Day, Week, and Month

The Project OLE DB Provider supports timephased data. There are five assignment timephased tables, one each for minute, hour, day, week, and month. The database uses a consistent format for all timephased table names: tableTimephasedBytime, for example, AssignmentTimephasedByMinute. These tables return timephased data for all assignments by minute, hour, day, week, or month from the earliest start to the latest finish.

Availability

This table is normally used in conjunction with the Resources table to obtain resource availability information.

BaselineTaskSplits

This table stores baseline split information for a specific task.

CalendarData

Along with the existing Calendars and the new CalendarExceptions tables, CalendarData stores all calendar information stored in the Project OLE DB Provider.

CalendarExceptions

Along with the existing Calendars and CalendarData tables, this table stores all calendar information in the Project OLE DB Provider.

Calendars

Calendars are used to define standard working and nonworking times. Projects must have one base calendar. Tasks and resources may have their own calendars, but any task or resource calendar must be based on a base calendar. This table stores basic calendar data.

CostRates

This table is normally used in conjunction with the Resources table to display the cost rates tables for a resource. This table can also be used in conjunction with the Assignments table to get information about the cost rate table being used by an assignment.

CustomFieldGraphicalIndicators

This table is normally used in conjunction with the CustomFields table to get the setting for those custom fields that have graphical indicators associated with the field.

CustomFields

This table is used to get all the settings for a custom field. To edit these fields, the enterprise global template must be checked out.

CustomFieldValueList

This table is used to get the lookup table values for custom fields that have a value list.

CustomOutlineCodeFields

This table contains the mask for each of the custom outline code lookup tables.

OutlineCodes

This table is used to get a list of lookup table values for custom outline code fields.

Predecessors

This table is normally used in conjunction with the Tasks table to display detailed information about predecessor tasks.

Project

This table provides access to the project-level settings on Project Information (Project menu), Options (Tools menu), and Properties (File menu) dialog boxes. For the fields of the Project summary task, access the Tasks table using a value of 0 for the TaskID column.

Resources

This table contains information related to resources.

Resource Timephased by Minute, Hour, Day, Week, and Month

The OLE DB Provider supports timephased data. There are five resource timephased tables, one each for minute, hour, day, week, and month. The database uses a consistent format for all timephased table names: tableTimephasedBytime, for example, ResourceTimephasedByMinute. These tables return timephased data for all resources by minute, hour, day, week, or month from the earliest start to the latest finish.

Successors

This table is normally used in conjunction with the Tasks table to display detailed information about successor tasks.

Tasks

This table stores the information about the tasks that make up a project.

TaskSplits

This table stores the start and finish dates for a task split.

Task Timephased by Minute, Hour, Day, Week, and Month

The Project OLE DB Provider supports timephased data. There are five task timephased tables, one each for minute, hour, day, week, and month. The database uses a consistent format for all timephased table names: tableTimephasedBytime, for example, TaskTimephasedByMinute. These tables return timephased data for all tasks by minute, hour, day, week, or month from the earliest start to the latest finish.

WBS (work breakdown structure)

This table stores WBS code definitions as well as WBS code settings for a project. These are the same definitions that are created in the WBS Code Definition dialog box (Project menu, WBS submenu, Define Code command).