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 net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.mpxj.writer.FileFormat;
import net.sf.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);
    }
}

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 net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.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 XERChatset
{
    public void Write(ProjectFile project, string fileName)
    {
        var writer = new PrimaveraXERFileWriter();
        writer.Encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding("GB2312");
        writer.Write(project, fileName);
    }
}