sp gantt view

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EndUserSharePoint.com: Can I do multiple Gantt views of a single project list?

Gantt chart for WSS 3

IntelliGantt Plus


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I have added a column for "Duration" on a Project Task list. I would then like to calculate the Start Date based on the End Date minus Duration which would result in the Gantt chart automatically updating with the new Start Date if a Duration is changed. Is this possible with "out-of-the-box" Sharepoint?

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Hi Barry,

In order for the gantt view to work, the start date has to have a column type of "Date and Time" (it cannot have a column type of calculated). To test that hypothesis - I created a Date and Time column called "Test Start Date" and associated that as the start date in the gantt view. When I did that, the gantt vew worked correctly. When I set the Calculated column called "Start Date" to the start date in the gantt view - it stopped working.

When I say associate with the gantt view, I mean that in the gantt view properties (try creating one), there is a section to associate a column in the list with the start date on the gantt view.

In the scenario SaraO was examining I would take the following steps to create the process:

1. In the browser, create a default Project Task List.
   
2. Create a column called "End Date" with a column type of Date only.
   
   
3. Create a column called "Duration" with a column type of Number (with no decimal places).
   
   
4. Create a column called "Calculated Start Date" with a column type of Calculated. Set the formula to be "[End Date]-[Duration]". NOTE: Format the column as a DATE.
   
   
5. In SharePoint Designer 2007 (SPD), create a new workflow.
   
   
6. Set the workflow to run everytime an item is changed.
   
   
7. Have the workflow set the value of the Start Date column to equal the value of the Calculated Start Date column.
   
   
8. Save the workflow.
   
   

Now what should happen is when a user updates a project task list item, the workflow will take the value of the calculated column and copy it to the start date column. This should allow the gantt view to work correctly and the date to be calculated by taking the end date and subtracting the duration.

IF you really know your workflow design in SPD, you could eliminate the Calculated Start Date column and perform the calculations using variables in the workflow. One variable for the End Date, one variable for the Duration, etc. I haven't tested this but in theory it should work fine. Personally, if you don't mind the extra columns, I would leave it in. Sometimes when a workflow fails, I like to have the value stored in column so I can easily compare the results to analyse what went wrong.

I hope that makes things clearer.

Actually, this is a good example of using what was probably not an intended 'feature' of workflow.

I use workflow in a situation where we enter and process RFQ data into Quote data into Sales Follow-up data over 3 sets of work scenarios. We capture the data once into the RFQ list, then when the workload gets passed to the appropriate workcenter it gets copied via the workflow into the Quote list and once the quote is finished and passed out to sales for follow-up it gets copied via workflow into the Sales_Followup list. Each list uses what information it needs and adds whatever it gets from user input and is stored.

Then, when we need to create a activity report we link to the lists via Access and make the relations via a common field (in this case quote_no) to turn the 3 lists into a relational database that is realtime.

Maybe a little kludgy (and try to explain the concept of a 'workflow' to the users....) but in reality it works fine.

The example mentioned in this thread opened up some new idea
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