Excel Integration - Handling Server Updates
Contents
Introduction
This section describes a proposal for handling updates made to plan dates in revision workflows using DrawMGT's web interface. This is to solve the problem that plan dates entered via a browser are overwritten by the plan date calculations in the Excel spreadsheet.
Plan Date Calculations
In the Excel spreadsheet, the plan date for a revision's workflow step is calculated based on:
The plan date field associated with the following workflow step, or the T0 field for last workflow step
The delta field associated with the workflow step
Normally the plan date calculations are performed in the Excel spreadsheet and the results are stored in the DrawMGT database. Using the Excel spreadsheet, the plan dates fields are always calculated and the results are displayed in read-only columns. The plan dates can only be changed indirectly by changing the T0 and delta fields. This means than the plan dates and delta fields for a series of revisions are always consistent.
The plan dates and delta information can also be viewed and updated using using DrawMGT's web interface. When using DrawMGT's web interface it is possible to save plan dates and delta fields without regard to the calculations performed by the Excel spreadsheet. Thus, when using a browser it is easy to create inconsistent data, where plan dates do not match those that would be calculated by the Excel spreadsheet.
The problem is that when workflow information is read into the Excel spreadsheet, plan dates values from the database are ignored and replaced by values calculated locally in the spreadsheet. The result is the loss of any plan date information entered via the browser that is not consistent with the T0 and delta values.
The problem is compounded because the T0 field, the initial value from which all the plan dates are calculated, is stored in a used defined field in the DrawMGT database and can only be entered and updated via the Excel spreadsheet. This means that all currently entered plan date values are at risk of being overwritten by the Excel spreadsheet.
Proposed Solution
The proposed solution has two parts:
Augmenting existing plan date data with consistent T0 and delta values
- Highlighting inconsistent plan dates in the Excel spreadsheet giving users the chance to correct it
Augmenting Existing Plan Date Datas
The plan date data currently stored in the production database does not have any T0 or delta values associated with it.