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I can successfully import Asta Powerproject project files. Then I do some stuff with it. And finally I have to export the data again to Asta Powerproject.

It seems like Asta Powerproject doesn't want to import neither MPX nor MSPDI files. Is there a way to export the data to a file that Asta Powerproject can import?

Extenuate-Acronym-Bagged
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A quick test suggests that indeed Powerproject doesn't like valid MSPDI and PMXML files generated by MPXJ from a Powerproject PP file. i.e. these are files which will happily import into Microsoft Project and P6 respectively, but cause failures when an import into Powerproject is attempted.

You can see a minimal amount of failure logging in the Windows event log, but not enough to diagnose the issue. The PMXML import seems to get a bit further than the MSPDI import, and fails when the new PP file is being written. This appears to leave a log file in C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\Temp which may shed some light on what it's having trouble with.

One way to address this might be to raise a support ticket with Elecosoft: they may be able to fix the issue on their end, or at least suggest what is causing the problem.

The other way to tackle this would be to export your PP file from Powerproject as an MSPDI or PMXML file and compare the structure with what MPXJ produces. You'd then need to start replacing the Powerproject generated content with MPXJ generated content element-by-element (or vice versa) until you trigger the failure when importing... which might lead you to the problematic data. Unfortunately it'll be a bit of a painstaking process.

Jon Iles
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  • I checked the log file. It seems to be related to "original start" and "original finish". Those fields were introduced by Powerproject Version 15.0.01 [new features documentation](https://www.elecosoft.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/New-Features-in-Powerproject-Version-15.0.01.pdf) The log says that original start and finish contain invalid values. I checked the PM XML export of the Powerproject. I cannot find xml fields for this. I think I have to reach out to the Asta Support. – Extenuate-Acronym-Bagged Nov 20 '20 at 14:10
  • It seems like the version of the xmlns is the problem. MPXJ exports with this xmlns: xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/Primavera/P6/V17.7/API/BusinessObjects" Powerproject works uses: xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/Primavera/P6Professional/V15.2/API/BusinessObjects" So the Version of MPXJ is too new (17.7 >> 15.2). Is there any way to change the version MPXJ uses? – Extenuate-Acronym-Bagged Nov 23 '20 at 08:32
  • If you simply edit the namespace declaration so that it matches what Asta is expecting... will it import the file? The reason I ask is that I don't think there are breaking changes between PMXML versions (at least not that I've spotted!) – Jon Iles Nov 23 '20 at 14:04
  • unfortunately that doesn't work. But in parallel I investigated the log files and I compared the mpxj-generated and the Powerproject-generated XML files. The problem is that mpxj does not write the and tags. If I add them manually in the mpxj-generated XML-file than Powerproject imports it happily – Extenuate-Acronym-Bagged Nov 24 '20 at 12:49
  • Is this an error of mpxj, because it does not populate the tags? Or is this an error of Powerproject because it requires some optional tags? I can't find the XSD to verify myself which software isn't obeying the schema. – Extenuate-Acronym-Bagged Nov 25 '20 at 09:51
  • The XSD defines it like this: `` which I think suggests it is optional. – Jon Iles Nov 25 '20 at 16:21
  • The Powerproject Support insists that they do obey the XML schema. They argue that Primavera can import the mpxj XML-file, because Primavera itself may not obey the XML schema. I think I have to write a workaround so that the FinishDate gets copied to a new PlannedFinishDate tag resp. StartDate to PlannedStartDate. – Extenuate-Acronym-Bagged Dec 01 '20 at 07:57
  • Thanks for the update. In the sprit of making it as easy as possible to work with MPXJ, I've actually updated the code to ensure that the planned start and planned finish attributes are always populated. This change will be available in the next MPXJ version. – Jon Iles Dec 06 '20 at 12:05