Write outline codes with mpxj to a xml file and import it to ms project 2003/2007

Question

Has anybody got mpxj and outlince codes to work with ms project 2003 or 2007?

I tried to export outline codes with the following code:

ProjectFile project = new ProjectFile();
Task task = project.addTask();
task.setOutlineCode1("outlineCode1");

The resulting xml looked something like this:

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/project">
..
<ExtendedAttributes>
    <ExtendedAttribute>
        <FieldID>188744096</FieldID>
        <FieldName>Outline Code1</FieldName>
    </ExtendedAttribute>
</ExtendedAttributes>
..
<Tasks>
    <Task>
        ..
        <ExtendedAttribute>
            <FieldID>188744096</FieldID>
            <Value>value</Value>
        </ExtendedAttribute>
        ..
    </Task>
</Tasks>
</Project>

But i could not find any outline codes in the imported project ..

When i add outline codes to a project manually, the resulting xml file also looks different from the above:

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/project">
..
<OutlineCodes>
    <OutlineCode>
    <FieldID>188744096</FieldID>
    <FieldName>Outline Code1</FieldName>
        <Values>
            <Value>
                <ValueID>1</ValueID>
                <ParentValueID>0</ParentValueID>
                <Value>value</Value>
            </Value>
            ..
        </Values>
        ..
</OutlineCode>
</OutlineCodes>
..
<ExtendedAttributes>
    <ExtendedAttribute>
        <FieldID>188744096</FieldID>
        <FieldName>Outline Code1</FieldName>
    </ExtendedAttribute>
</ExtendedAttributes>
..
<Tasks>
    <Task>
        ..
        <OutlineCode>
            <UID>1</UID>
            <FieldID>188744096</FieldID>
            <ValueID>1</ValueID>
        </OutlineCode>
        ..
    </Task>
</Tasks>
</Project>

So it seems to me that i am missing some important steps in the export procedure?!

Answer 1

I've looked through the source of MPXJ and done a quick test of my own, and it doesn't look like you are doing anything wrong. As far as I can tell it just doesn't support OutlineCodes in the way that MS Project needs.

As you discovered, it outputs them as normal ExtendedAttributes, but the MSPDI schema defines a set of OutlineCode elements specifically for storing these (as you can see in the xml created by MS Project). Actually, the OutlineCode element stores a reference to a lookup value defined in the Project, rather than storing the value directly.

Your best bet is to log a bug over on SourceForge, and get Jon (the creator) to have a look.