How To: Write XER files

XER files have been imported and exported by Primavera software since the earliest days of P6 and this format is still often the preferred way to move schedule data between instances of P6 even today.

Writing XER files

The sample code below illustrates how to write data to an XER file.

JavaC#

package org.mpxj.howto.write;

import org.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import org.mpxj.writer.FileFormat;
import org.mpxj.writer.UniversalProjectWriter;

public class XER
{
    public void write(ProjectFile project, String fileName) throws Exception
    {
        new UniversalProjectWriter(FileFormat.XER).write(project, fileName);
    }
}

using MPXJ.Net;

namespace MPXJ.Samples.HowToWrite;

public class XER
{
    public void Write(ProjectFile project, string fileName)
    {
        new UniversalProjectWriter(FileFormat.XER).Write(project, fileName);
    }
}

Writing Multiple Projects

MPXJ supports writing multiple projects to an XER file.

JavaC#

package org.mpxj.howto.write;

import org.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import org.mpxj.writer.FileFormat;
import org.mpxj.writer.UniversalProjectWriter;

import java.util.List;

public class XER
{
    public void write(List<ProjectFile> projects, String fileName) throws Exception
    {
        new UniversalProjectWriter(FileFormat.XER).write(projects, fileName);
    }
}

using System.Collections.Generic;
using MPXJ.Net;

namespace MpxjSamples.HowToWrite;

public class XER
{   
    public void Write(IList<ProjectFile> projects, string fileName)
    {
        new UniversalProjectWriter(FileFormat.XER).Write(projects, fileName);
    }
}

Note that when writing multiple projects to an XER file, all projects must share the sample ProjectContext. This is normally the case where the projects have been read from the same source.

Using PrimaveraXERFileWriter

If required, the PrimaveraXERFileWriter class can be used directly, which provides access to additional options, as described below.

Charset

By default XER files written by MPXJ are encoded using the Windows-1252 character set. If you need to use a different character set, the setCharset method can be used to achieve this, as illustrated by the code below.

JavaC#

package org.mpxj.howto.write;

import org.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import org.mpxj.primavera.PrimaveraXERFileWriter;

import java.nio.charset.Charset;

public class XERCharset
{
    public void write(ProjectFile project, String fileName) throws Exception
    {
        PrimaveraXERFileWriter writer = new PrimaveraXERFileWriter();
        writer.setCharset(Charset.forName("GB2312"));
        writer.write(project, fileName);
    }
}

using System.Text;
using MPXJ.Net;

namespace MPXJ.Samples.HowToWrite;

public class XERCharset
{
    public void Write(ProjectFile project, string fileName)
    {
        var writer = new PrimaveraXERFileWriter();
        writer.Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding("GB2312");
        writer.Write(project, fileName);
    }
}