MPXJ – How To: Read Primavera PMXML files

How To: Read Primavera PMXML files

Primavera P6 can export data in an XML format known as PMXML.

Reading PMXML files

The simplest way to read a PMXML file is to use the UniversalProjectReader:

import net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.mpxj.reader.UniversalProjectReader;

...

UniversalProjectReader reader = new UniversalProjectReader();
ProjectFile project = reader.read("my-sample.xml");

Using PrimaveraPMFileReader

You can work directly with the PrimaveraPMFileReader by replacing UniversalProjectReader with PrimaveraPMFileReader. This provides access to additional options, as described below.

WBS is Full Path

Currently the WBS attribute of summary tasks (WBS entities in P6) will be a dot separated hierarchy of all of the parent WBS attributes. In this example, root.wbs1.wbs2 is the WBS attribute for wbs2 which has the parents root and wbs1. To disabled this behaviour, and simply record the code for the current WBS entry (in the example above wbs2) call the setWbsIsFullPath method, passing in false, as illustrated below.

import net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.mpxj.primavera.PrimaveraPMFileReader;

...

PrimaveraPMFileReader reader = new PrimaveraPMFileReader();
reader.setWbsIsFullPath(false);

Multiple Projects

A PMXML file can contain multiple projects. You can ask MPXJ to read all of the projects contained in the file:

import net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.mpxj.primavera.PrimaveraPMFileReader;

...

PrimaveraPMFileReader reader = new PrimaveraPMFileReader();
InputStream is = new FileInputStream("my-sample.xml");
List<ProjectFile> files = reader.readAll(is);

The call to the readAll method returns a list of ProjectFile instances corresponding to the projects in the PMXML file.

There is a variant of the readAll method taking a Boolean argument which determines if cross-project predecessors and successors are linked together. For example, if we have Project A with Task 1, and Project B with Task 2 and Task 1 is a predecessor of Task 2, when the linkCrossProjectRelations argument is set to true, Task 1 will appear as a predecessor of Task 2 despite the two tasks appearing in different projects. If linkCrossProjectRelations is set to false (or any of the other methods are used to read data from an PMXML file), Task 1 and Task 2 will no be linked.

The sample below shows how readAll can be called with the linkCrossProjectRelations argument set to true:

import net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.mpxj.primavera.PrimaveraPMFileReader;

...

PrimaveraPMFileReader reader = new PrimaveraPMFileReader();
InputStream is = new FileInputStream("my-sample.xml");
List<ProjectFile> files = reader.readAll(is, true);