Merging SAP PS with MS Project

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Introduction

This article reviews a subroutine for building the Microsoft Project hierarchy from an SAP PS project.

SAP PS is a part of the SAP ERP system used by most of the fortune 500 companies. The SAP PS module is highly integrated with other SAP modules including FI, Controlling, MM, HR, Capacity Planning, Plant Maintenance, etc. SAP PS is a highly detailed project control tool. MS Project is the tool of choice for working a project, with a team, at a task level (rough project planning).

Merging these two systems usually entails using very expensive third party software such as Impress or Pipeline software through a custom development process. A standard alternative is to use the free, SAP provided, OpenPS interface as the integration mechanism. Problematically, the OpenPS interface is non-configurable.

The code provided will integrate an SAP PS project into MS Project, in both directions, at a task level. You can create a new MS Project from SAP PS, insert new tasks in MS Project that are uploaded to SAP PS, create new tasks in MS Project that are not uploaded to SAP PS, or create new WBSs and Network-Activities in SAP PS that are transferred to the target MSP project.

Creating the MS Project Hierarchy from SAP PS data

The first step is to get the project data from SAP. This C# code uses the SAP Net Connector 2.0 with .NET 3.5 to make a call to SAP's “BAPI_PROJECT_GETINFO” function. It returns all the data we need. The Code Project website already has an excellent article outlining this method at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/Connect_SAP_from_VS2008.aspx.

The subroutine GetTaskHierarchy accepts two arrays from the preceding data call, and populates our control structure arTaskHierarchy. We get the superior WBS Hierarchy by processing the array arWBSHRCY. Next, we get the Network-Activity Hierarchy by processing the provided arNtwkActy array and integrating the two.

The code

public void GetTaskHierarchy(CSAPData.BAPI_WBS_HIERARCHIETable arWBSHRCY,
                             CSAPData.BAPI_NETWORK_ACTIVITY_EXPTable arNtwkActy)
{
    CTaskHier buffTask = new CtaskHier();
    int iCount = 0;
   // Remove all values in the Task Hierarchy “List” collection
    arTaskHierarchy.RemoveAll(Item => Item != null);
    //Process WBS hierarchy
    for (int I = 0; I < arWBSHRCY.Count; i++)
    {
        CtaskHier oWBStask = new CtaskHier();

        // Start at the root
        if (I == 0)
        {
            oWBStask.Level = 1;
        }
        else
        {  // Check if the “Up” member is different
            if (arWBSHRCY[i].Wbs_Element != arWBSHRCY[i].Up)
            {
                //Get the level of the “Up” ElementID
                foreach (CtaskHier t in arTaskHierarchy)
                {
                    if (t.ElementID == arWBSHRCY[i].Up)
                    {
                        oWBStask.Level = t.Level + 1;
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        oWBStask.TaskID = I;
        oWBStask.ArrayPtr = I;
        oWBStask.TaskType = TaskType.WBS;    
        oWBStask.ElementID = arWBSHRCY[i].Wbs_Element;
        oWBStask.SubID = “”;
        arTaskHierarchy.Add(oWBStask);
        oWBStask = null;
    }

    //Process Networks and Activities
    // Note: Networks with no Activities are not processed
    iCount = 1;
    for (int I = 0; I < arNtwkActy.Count; i++)
    {
        // Get the level of the associated WBS
        foreach (CtaskHier t in arTaskHierarchy)
        {
            if (t.ElementID == arNtwkActy[i].Wbs_Element)
            {
                buffTask = t;
                break;
            }
        }
        CtaskHier otask = new CtaskHier();
        //We insert after the found WBS
        otask.TaskID = buffTask.TaskID + iCount++;
        otask.ArrayPtr = I;
        otask.TaskType = TaskType.Activity;
        otask.ElementID = arNtwkActy[i].Network;
        otask.SubID = arNtwkActy[i].Activity;
        otask.Level = buffTask.Level + 1;
        otask.TaskDesc = arNtwkActy[i].Description;
        arTaskHierarchy.Insert(otask.TaskID, otask);
        otask = null;
    }

The end result, loaded in a MS DataGrid, is shown below:

Interfacing with the MS Project application is done by creating a VS C# “Project 2007 Add-In” project. An article describing this can be found at: http://zo-d.com/blog/archives/programming/making-the-move-from-vba-to-vsto-in-microsoft-project.html.

The figure below shows our results. Note that task #6 is flagged as a non-SAP task, and hence will not be transferred into SAP.

It’s worth noting that our CTaskHierarchy array will be iterated over and searched extensively in our code. To facilitate this, this class is derived from the IEnumerable collection class. Searching in the array is enhanced through the addition of a C# “delegate” to the class. CodeProject has a good article describing this method, at: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/mcpp/csdeleg01.aspx?display=Print.

Sample code: The delegate find call

public CTaskHier Find(String sType, String sID, String sSubID)
{
    return arTaskHierarchy.Find(delegate(CTaskHier obj)
    { return (obj.TaskType == sType && obj.ElementID == sID && 
              obj.SubID == sSubID); });
}