MS Project API. Software Requirements Specification. Copenhagen, January Version 1.0

Transcription

1 MS Project API Software Requirements Specification Copenhagen, January 2016 Version 1.0

2 Revision History Date Description Author Comments 20 January 2016 Document creation Thomas Knudsen First revision

3 Table of Contents Introduction 4 Purpose 4 Scope 4 Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations 4 References 4 Overview 4 General Description 5 Solution Perspective 5 Solution Functions 5 General Constraints 5 Specific Requirements 6 File Format 6 Reading MS Project files 6 Writing MS Project files 6 Proof of Concept 6 Delivery 7 Delivery Checklist 7

4 Introduction Purpose This document is intended as a working document for software developers and designers involved in the project. Scope The project delivery is Application Programming Interface (API) library component for Microsoft Project files (.mpp) such that mpp files can be accessed, opened and changed without prior installation of Microsoft Project. The solution must be platform independent or at least work on Windows, Mac OS and the Linux operating system. The solution must handle mpp files in such way, that the files can be used by Microsoft Project later on. The functionality of the solution is described in the section below. Definitions, Acronyms and Abbreviations API: Application Programming Interface BIFF: Binary Interchange File Format References There s little documentation for MS Project files, but we believe they have the same file format as other Microsoft Office formats which is BIFF. There s a detailed specification for MS Excel here; Excel BinaryFileFormat(xls)Specification.pdf MS Project files are organised into to a few main entities (records), which are Project, Tasks, Resources and Assignments. Most of the readable content is listet in the xml documentation here; The library solution must be followed by a detailed documentation created in Doxygen: Overview This document is decided into three parts, a general description section that describes the project overall, a specific requirement section that goes into detail of what is requested and delivery check list to be used for solution delivery.

5 General Description The marked for project planning software is increasingly demanding portability between file formats. Currently three big suppliers have a huge marked share which is Microsoft Project, Oracle Primavera and Safran Project. The first is file based where the latter two store information in a database. Our company offers a viewing functionality for MS Project and Oracle Primavera. For Primvera, we are able to drill down into the database to fetch information. For MS Project, our users need to convert their project files into XML format before they can use our software. We would like to offer reading functionality directly with the Microsoft Project MPP file format. There re several ways this can be done with out the converting to XML format, but mostly it requires the user to use existing Microsoft products such as Microsoft Windows Jet engine, Microsoft ODBC or Microsoft SQL server. We would like to offer a solution that doesn t require any Microsoft installations, that can work on Qt support platforms such as Windows, Mac and Linux and works on both 32 bit and 64 bit operating systems. Solution Perspective The library will go directly into our current application just like other extensions. I will function between the file system and the data models in the application that use it. Solution Functions In general, the solution must support both reading and writing, but for this solution only reading is required. General Constraints In order for the solution to integrate with other components it needs to comply with the following constraints. The solution must be programmed in C++ using the Qt framework 5.x and by using the Qt SDK development environment Qt Creator. The Qt SDK development environment can be downloaded without costs using the LGPL license agreement from; The solution must be developed on the Windows, Mac or Linux platform.

6 Specific Requirements We believe that the MS Project file format (.mpp) is that of BIFF but we are not sure. Part of this project is also to determine the file format of project files in order to complete the project. File Format It must be established which file format is used for MS Project files. If the BIFF file is not used then which format is used. Reading MS Project files Once the file format has been verified, the solution must be able to find the locations in the file that contain information about the four main enteties: Project, Task, Resources and Assignments. Writing MS Project files Not required until Conceptual Design / Basic Design Proof of Concept The key delivery from this project is to establish a small Qt Application where the user can open different MS Project files and see project related information like the name of the project, the author and how many activities there are in the file. Demo application: MS Project reader

7 Delivery The delivery format is a zip folder class (.h and.cpp) or a set of classes written in C+ + using the libraries and constraints described above. The folder must contain the Qt creator.pro file that run the frame work. If the Qt project has advanced design settings (beyond what can be expected) a list of build setting and environment setting must be provided. Header files must be filled with detailed comments and a documentation file created in Oxygen must be provided. Delivery Checklist Upon delivery the following check list will be filled out in order to assure that the solution is put together according to the specification. All development files in a zip folder Comments in.h and.cpp files and doxygen documentation pack Full Qt creator project.pro file List of instructions for the Qt Solution can read project name, Author, and Creation Date Solution can list the number Activities in a mpp project file Solution can list the number Resources in a mpp project file Solution can list the number of Assignments in a mpp project file