The information in this article applies to:

• TeamDirection Project 2.1 through 2.1.8

Best Practices

1. It is always a good idea to backup your MSProject file before synchronizing with TDProject. This option is provided at the start of the synch process. It is helpful to save a backup copy of the MSProject file so you can refer to it as you are making changes that may affect other tasks or resources. It is also useful for comparing later effects of changes to your project data.
2. Always use the default MSProject calendar. If custom calendars are used then TDProject and MSProject may not match exactly after the synch is performed since any duration of weeks or hours are converted to days.
3. When importing or synchronizing from MSProject into TeamDirection, it is recommended you do not import more than 300 items at a time for two reasons:
• If too many tasks with links are used in a synch it will slow down the process considerably as the number of linked tasks increase.
• Making smaller sections to import also makes the final results much easier to work with and maintain.
  This can be done by organizing the MSP file so that only a specific summary task is selected for import at a time or by breaking up the original document into smaller documents each containing approximately 300 items or less.
4. TeamDirection Project does not support backward, Start-to-Start, or Finish-to-Finish links. So, before importing an MSProject file into TDProject you should do the following to the MSProject file (see below):
   
   • Remove or correct all backward links
   • Change Start-to-Finish, Start-to-Start and Finish-to-Finish links to be Finish-to-Start links or remove them.
   
   

How it Works

Synchronizing from MSProject to TDProject

Before you can synchronize with Micorsoft Project you must have MSProject 2000 or 2002 installed. The initial synchronization from an existing MSProject file into TDProject allows the user several options with regards to how the process should be carried out. These include:

• Changing the MSProject custom text field in which synchronization data is stored
• Selecting which MSProject file to synch with
• Selecting which summary task within the MSProject file to synch to (see Best Practices above)
• The direction of the Synchronization (from or to TDProject)
• Whether or not to create tasks and resources which do not exist in the destination project
• Whether to Import/Export only (as opposed to doing a full synchronization
• Whether or not to backup the MSProject file before beginning the process

Once the above options are selected, the synchronization process may begin. Since MSProject is much more complex then TDProject, TDProject does not import the importation of all possible data. The information which is imported is given in the table below.

Specifics

1. Effects of Cut/copy and Paste – If the top level summary task TDP is synching with is cut then pasted, the summary task will no longer be recognized because its MSProject ID is changed during the paste. However, users may cut/copy and paste all other tasks and summary tasks within the given synchronization scope—whether the scope is a summary task or the entire project. Provided the paste of the item is within the synch scope synchronization will recognize it and treat it as follows:
   

   • If a user does a copy and paste and keeps the original task, the original task will be the one that is synched.
   • If the original summary task is deleted then the ‘new’ copy will be used.
   • If there are multiple copies then the first copy encountered within the synch scope will be used
   • If a user wishes to make a copy and have the copy considered as a synched item then it would either need to be move outside the synch scope or the user must manually clear the custom text field that TDProject uses (by default Text20). However, in this latter case, if the item is within the synch scope it will be ’seen’ the next time the process is performed and it will be treated as new (see above)

2. MSProject must be installed – if it is not installed synchronizations will not work–since we are using automation–an appropriate message will be returned.
   
3. Only Finish-to-Start Links Supported – TDProject only supports Finish-to-Start links and will either ignore or change links imported from MSProject which are unsupported. The below comments apply to versions of TDProject 2.0 through 2.1.5 unless otherwise noted:
   
• Backward links cause dates to be moved out — Synching from an MSProject file which contains backward links causes the start date of the task being linked to (receiving the link) be changed to come after the end date of the originating task. This has the effect of moving the end date out. This was changed in 2.1.8 (see below)
• Starting in TDProject 2.1.8 backward links will be ignored – No link will be created in TDProject when synching from MSProject and the link will not by overwritten when synching back out to MSProject (unless one was added to TDProject at this exact location).
• Start-To-Start (SS), Finish-To-Finish (FF), and Start-To-Finish (SF) links not supported – TDProject only allows Finish-to-Start links (the end of the originating task links to the start of the succeeding task. In TDProject 2.1.5 and earlier all links are changed to be Start-To-Finish links. This has the effect of creating backward links which are then treated as described in the preceding paragraph, and may cause the finish date of the project to be pushed out considerably.
• Starting with TDProject version 2.1.8 unsupported links are ignored – When synching from MSProject no link will be created if a SF, FF or SS links exists in MSProject, and when synching to MSProject the existing SF, FF or SS link will be left as is. Only Finish-To-Start links are not ignored.
  
4. Split tasks display differently – In MSProject split tasks are displayed with a dotted line between the first part of the task and the ending of the task rather than with a solid task bar running from the start to the finish of the task. In TDProject, split tasks are displayed with a solid task bar going the entire period of the task just like any other task.
   
5. Synching Level – by default, the entire MSProject file will be synchronized into TDProject. However, the user may select to synch only with a specific summary task. In this case, all data associated with tasks and summary tasks under the summary task selected will be synched to TDProject: this is recommended for large MSP projects.
   
6. MSProject Contraints not supported – TDProject does not support any of the constraints that MSProject allows. If a task has constraints in MSProject and the user synchs it to TDProject there is nothing in TDProject which prevents users from violating the constraints. When the user then synchs back to MSProject the results cannot be guaranteed.



7. In TDProject 2.1.5 and earlier the Notes are not synched. This is because TDProject does not support the inserting of objects into a project notes. To avoid loss of data the notes field was not synched



8. Starting in 2.1.8, the notes field will be synched only if the user specifically selects that option – TDProject still does not support objects in the Notes field. So, if the user selects to synch the notes field all object referenced in the notes field will be ignored, and if the option to synch notes is left on when the project is pushed back out to MSProject, objects imbedded in the notes will be lost.



9. Moving Synched Tasks – If you have synched with an MSProject summary task then move one of the tasks out from under the summary task, that task will cease being synched.
   
10. Default Deletion Selections – When a user synchs TDP examines the destination project (or summary task) and each task is checked to see if it has a corresponding task in the source project. If it does not then the user is asked how they want to deal with MSProject. They may have been added as new tasks in the destination project or they may have been deleted from the source project.

    • If the user is synching from TDP to MSP then we examine the custom text field contents of ‘extra’ tasks and determine if the task had at one time been synched (i.e. does it have synch data). If the task was at one time synched then we, by default, mark the item in the deletion selection screen for deletion.
    • When synching from MSProject to TDP, we have no way to determine whether or not the extra tasks were ever synched and therefore cannot make any default selections.

11. Timing of summary tasks – When synching a summary task from TDP to MSP, if the summary task starts AFTER the TDP summary task, the user will be told that they cannot do this. This is because there may be problems with MSProject if we try to move the MSP summary task backwards in time–if it has predecessors, for example.

    Synch Options screen all options are restored to the last value selected except for the “Import/Export” checkbox. Import/Export is considered an infrequent operation and needs to be explicitly designated.

    TDProject only supports one type of link – TDP only supports links which go from Finish Date of one task to the Start Date of the next task. If a user employs other synch types in MSProject these links will simply be created in TDProject as Finish to Start links. When synching back to MSP, the links in MSProject may be changed to the standard Finish-to-Start link type.

12. Synched and Non-synched Tasks – The way tasks in MSProject are treated when synched or non-synched is:

• The synchronization process ignores any tasks outside the synch scope.
• When re-synching out to an MSProject file, the user will be given the opportunity to delete any tasks in the MSProject file which are not in TDProject
• When re-synching from an MSProject file to TDProject , tasks which exist in MSProject but not in TDProject will be created in TDProject

13. File extension – All MSProject files used in synching are given an extension of “mpp”; files with other extensions are not allowed.