Automating the Project creation in Clarity

[Anon Anon]

Currently we are using clarity v13.2. 

To create a projects into clarity we have a support team, and they have been provided with excel template filled by users for whom the projects wants to be created in clarity.

As of now we are doing it manually by reading the excel data and filling it into clarity.

Is there anyway to automate it ? so that the manual work will reduce.  

 

Does anybody has experienced this before?  can you please help me to fix this out.

[Deactivated User]

Establish the minimum data required for project creation.

Create an Excel sheet with formulas to turn that into xml. One record  to one file. Put the source data in the same sequence you get your data for new projects.

Copy paste your new data.

Manually XOG

 

Create a java script to turn you Excel into xml and do the XOGing.

 

Use an XML editor that can read the Excel to create the xml files and manually XOG in.

 

Create a GEL script to read the Excel and write with XOG into Clarity.

 

Use a third party Excel integration tool.

 

Use a more versatile third party integration tool.

[Anon Anon]

Hi,

Thanks for the initial guidance, now we got an idea to startup this analysis.

Here is the minimal XML data to create a project via XOG.

 

Source XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<NikuDataBus xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../xsd/nikuxog_project.xsd">

  <Header action="write" externalSource="NIKU" objectType="customObjectInstance" version="13.2.0.472">

<args name="overrideAutoNumbering" value="false"/>

</Header>

  <Projects>

    <Project name="XXFinProject_test_auto numbering"  description="XX Financial Project" start="2016-01-01T00:00:00" finish="2019-06-02T00:00:00" active="1" />

  </Projects>

</NikuDataBus>

 

and we got thie error:

<XOGOutput xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../xsd/status.xsd">

<Status elapsedTime="0.001 seconds" state="FAILURE"/> 

<Statistics failureRecords="0" insertedRecords="0" totalNumberOfRecords="0" updatedRecords="0"/>

<ErrorInformation>  

       <Severity>FATAL</Severity>  

       <Description>Exception while processing client request</Description>  

       <Exception type="com.niku.xog.XOGException">main node not found customObjectInstances</Exception> 

</ErrorInformation>

</XOGOutput>

 

Can someone please help this out to fix it (Auto numbering issue) ?

Please share the XML to create a project with minimal data fields via this XOGing process.

[Deactivated User]

I should try to leave out

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

 

and if that does not help try XOG Bridge from ITRoi if that is allowed in your orgnization.

[mike2.2]

ITROI has some cool tools and the XOG bridge is great.

 

The above is not a paid endorsement (I cannot be bought, but I can be rented), but a statement from one who has used some of their tools. 

 

Frederico Pena is always happy to demo his tools.

 

Mike

[David Morton]

In the "header" part of the xml it should be objectType="project" not objectType="customObjectInstance"

 

You can't (well you shouldn't) try to "guess" at XOG syntax ; use the CA-provided "prj_projects_read.xml" to read out a project from your system ; that will tell you what xml you need to form to write one back into your system. (The xog read will include lots of attributes that you might not need though, but the syntax will be exactly what you need)

[Deactivated User]

First guy to actually look at the file ;-)

[David Morton]

Well I looked at the error message (which is always a good idea!) and it said "main node not found customObjectInstances" - and so I thought that that was a pretty strong clue as to at least one significant problem (since we weren't talking about custom object instances at all)

[Deactivated User]

Would you not agree that one of the perquisites for success in XOGing is tha ability to read and understand the error messages?

[David Morton]

I think one of the prerequisites for anything is reading the error messages!

[Andrew M]

Some of the XOG error messages can be a little cryptic at times

[mike2.2]

And also reading examples, and the manuals.

[Andrew M]

If you don't want to give project create rights, you could instead create a custom object and then create a project from that. ( i.e. create the xml to XOG or use the OTTB object mapping)

I recently did this and works really well.

What's great is that it will cope with any post steps you need. (approval chains, templates, rights, emails, cost plans etc)

Also because it's in the system to start with, upfront data validation is easier.

[knaph02]

I like this approach - it is quick, clean, needs no GEL knowledge and it is auditable. You could also look at using Ideas to capture the detail and convert to a project (sounds vaguely familiar).

[Andrew M]

I'm going to be honest, you probably will need basic Gel knowledge for the post steps.

Creating the project is the easy bit , to get the benefits you need to solve the end-end process.

 

Here's the outline of my process to create based on a custom object. I can't share the process.

The process is triggered from the action menu for the selected instances

Keep in mind upfront validation in the object instance and build performance and error handling into the process

 

 

I hope this is of use!

 

Start

Check if should convert

• has it been reviewed,
• check if already converted

Lock from further changes - system action

Create the project via XOG (based on template chosen)

• write in the metadata
• update the edit rights for requestor (requestor may not be PM)
• write in the object id of the custom object instance to the project (for later use)
• check if was converted(if not error handling)

Update status of custom object via XOG

• Write back project id
• set to converted
• Remove edit right instance of requestor (give view)
• unlock
• error handling

additional users needing access (skip if none) via XOG

• update edit instance rights to project

Send emails - gel (explains all post steps they need to take, governance etc)

• email pm (cc requestor) - check what type of project, send different email based on rules
• support post steps - based on rules, exceptions which need manual intervention
• additional users - similar to pm email, but let's them know about change in rights.

Error handling - Not processed

• unlock
• change status
• reset the review flag

Finish

[Deactivated User]

... but the end point was

"I recently did this and works really well."