Cannot update task start and finish date using XOG

[Petr Zak]

Hello,
we've got a problem on one of our customers production environment. We need to update start and finish dates on tasks using XOG and it does not work, the dates simply don't change, despite everything seems to be ok. The update message is simple as this:

<NikuDataBus xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="../xsd/nikuxog_project.xsd">  <Header action="write" externalSource="NIKU" objectType="project" version="6.0.11"/> 
<Projects> 
<Project name="project01" projectID="prj01"> 
<Tasks> 
<Task name="Timesheet Task" taskID="Timesheet" outlineLevel="1" start="2018-01-03T00:00:00" finish="2019-11-15T00:00:00"/> 
</Tasks> 
</Project> 
</Projects> 
</NikuDataBus>

When we send it, there is no error at all, XOG output states SUCCESS and correct number of updatedRecords, there is no error or other related message in any of the logs either, but the dates do not change. If we try to update another attribute (for example task name) using the same XOG message, it gets updated without any problem. Changing the date or dates manually through user interface also works ok without any problem.

Version is 15.7.0.212, but on the test environment of the same customer, which has the same version and the whole setup should be (almost) the same, everything works flawlessly.

We tried sending different messages, e.g. with time set to some hours after midnight, sending only one of the dates etc., but result is still the same. We also tried to send totally wrong date (e.g. start="2018-99-99T00:00:00") and result was again the same, no error on incorrect date anywhere.

Anybody has any idea on what to try or where to look for the problem? Thanks a lot in advance.

Best regards,

Petr Zak

[Jose Ignacio Mugica]

HI Petr,
Could you check if the tasks do have assignments?

If the Task has Assignments, you will need to align Assignment dates too

For example, Task start January 8th, Finish August 12th.
Assignments dates are same as task ones.
When you change Finish to be August 11th and XOG IN, Finish will not be updated to August 11th.
Because Assignment Finish is set to August 12th.

To change the task finish, change also the assignment dates.

XOG out a project with tasks and assignments, set the task as well as assignment data to new date and XOG it back IN

Regards

[Petr Zak]

Hello,
thanks very much for your help, the problem was exactly that the tasks have assignments and we didn't update assignments dates.

Best regards,

Petr

[Jose Ignacio Mugica]

Hi Petr.
Also remember basic rules:
1. If the tasks assignments do have actuals, then the Start date is read-only and can not be edited.
2. If the assignments do have actuals and ETC is zero, the finish date is read-only and can not be edited
Regards
Joxi

[Petr Zak]

Thanks again for this, it helped us a lot.

Petr

[Jose Ignacio Mugica]

My pleasure Petr :)