Guild of Project Controls: Compendium | Roles | Assessment | Certifications | Membership

Tips on using this forum..

(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?

(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.

Looking Up external databases

2 replies [Last post]
Mon, 2009-02-02 12:43
Andrew Owenson
User offline. Last seen 1 year 18 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 68
Groups: None
At my company, when we are putting together a programme, we have to show the calculations in notes. Is there any way of "lookin Up" a database from within MSP and importing data into notes. I am aware of the Value list function in MSP, which would allow a standard output database to be embedded in the software, but I cannot get the description to show in the column , just the value, and I really need a coherent all in one explanation of how I got to the duration.

Andrew
Top

Replies

Fri, 2009-02-06 10:55
#1
Andrew Owenson
User offline. Last seen 1 year 18 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 68
Groups: None
Thanks for that I will have to think on it.

Many Regards

Andrew
Top
Fri, 2009-02-06 10:17
#2
L.E.N. Lewis
User offline. Last seen 2 years 19 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 Aug 2007
Posts: 47
Groups: None
You could embed a hyperlink on each task to a document describing the specific calculations. It should be possible to have a bookmark as part of the link so you could go directly to the appropriate discussion in your document. Whenever you wanted to display the justification, you’d just click on the hyperlink field for that task. It’s not a database, but it *is* a location where you can put arbitrarily complex descriptions.

Or the hyperlink could reference an HTML file on your machine. That HTML file would have the coding in it to access the database and display the contents.

You could actually connect to a database with some VBA though I’ve never tried that. The connection to the database would be non-trivial (but also well documented since I’m sure there are tens of thousands of times where people have used VBA to access a database) but, after that, the coding would be simple. So you would select the task and have a button that you could click on to launch the VBA which would access the database.

Note that in all cases, you would have to supply both the project schedule and, in the first instance the document; in the second case you’d need to supply the database, the database engine and the html page; in the third case, you’d need to supply the database and the database engine.

In short: technically - quite doable. The real issue is time: is your time as PM better invested in monitoring the project or better invested in overseeing an additional project deliverable. I’ve answered your question ... now you have to ponder your own answer to mine .
Top