Filtering Material Resources

[Neil]

In the 'resource sheet' view the field 'type' identifies "Material" or "Work".

I want to filter out some resource types with (or before) export(ing) data,
and hoped the field 'Resource Type' in the 'Gantt chart' view would identify
whether a resource is "Material" or "Work". It doesn't.

How can I filter / query MS Project to identify what 'type' a resource is
labelled as (equivalent to the 'resource sheet' field 'type')?

 

[Rod Gill]

In Task views you can't. The only resource fields you can use are Resource
Name, initials and Group. So what you can do is duplicate the resource type
field in the initials or Group fields and filter by them. You could also
enter values into initials or Group so that material resources are
recognisable and therefore filterable. EG use Group of Material for Material
Resources.

 

[mm]

This seems to indicate that if I wanted to assign both material and work
resources to a task, they would have to coexist in the same resources field.
It would be nice to be able to have materials assigned and people assigned
and have them listed separately.

Anyone have a suggestion to work around this?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[John]

This seems to indicate that if I wanted to assign both material and work
resources to a task, they would have to coexist in the same resources field.
It would be nice to be able to have materials assigned and people assigned
and have them listed separately.

Anyone have a suggestion to work around this?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,
No, I'm not real sure how you inferred that from Rod's response. What
Rod was trying to explain is that some fields are unique to tasks, some
are unique to resources and some are unique to assignments and a few
fields are common. Task views (e.g. Gantt Chart) will only show fields
that are unique to tasks or fields that just happen to be common among
more than one object (i.e. task, resource or assignment). Rod was simply
saying that the Resource Type field is unique to resource views and
therefore cannot be shown directly in a task view. He further suggested
that you take a common field such as Resource Initials and code it to
uniquely identify the type of resource. Then it can be filtered in a
task view.

With regard to assigning both material and labor resources to a task,
that most certainly can be done (although I generally prefer to assign
them to separate task lines in my project plans). When you assign
resources to a task, select both the labor resources and the material
resources. They will show up appropriately in the Resource Names field.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[mm]

Sorry, I might have misunderstood Rod's point, but your answer seems to
confirm my initial belief. (though I might ahve misundestood that too)

The problem I was having was that typically, I have only one person
assigned, but lots of materials. So, if I kept them all as resources, all
showing in the resource names field, it would be hard to find the person
amonst all the materials.

It sounds like your suggestion might be to separate them into distinct
lines, but what I was wanting to do was keep them on the same line, but
distinct columns.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[John]

Sorry, I might have misunderstood Rod's point, but your answer seems to
confirm my initial belief. (though I might ahve misundestood that too)

The problem I was having was that typically, I have only one person
assigned, but lots of materials. So, if I kept them all as resources, all
showing in the resource names field, it would be hard to find the person
amonst all the materials.

It sounds like your suggestion might be to separate them into distinct
lines, but what I was wanting to do was keep them on the same line, but
distinct columns.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,
OK, I understand. Using the single task approach does make it a little
more complicated to do what you want but it is still possible. I would
probably use VBA to parse the Resource Names string to separate the
material and labor resources and then assign a spare flag field as
appropriate so it could be filtered. You could of course also use a
filter directly but if you have more than a few (5 or less) items you
want to find, a filter by itself will get very complex in a hurry. Aside
from using VBA, (maybe that's not your thing), you could customize a
spare field with a formula that does the parsing. It too can get complex
so perhaps a series of formulas in multiple custom fields would simplify
things. This process could also be used to write the separate resource
names into individual spare [text] fields.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[mm]

Thanks John, that does help; I think I could figure out the VBA for that.
The one thing I didn't get was what the flag was for. And just to confirm, I
would parse the materials and/or people into separate customizable text
fields?

Sorry, I might have misunderstood Rod's point, but your answer seems to
confirm my initial belief. (though I might ahve misundestood that too)

The problem I was having was that typically, I have only one person
assigned, but lots of materials. So, if I kept them all as resources, all
showing in the resource names field, it would be hard to find the person
amonst all the materials.

It sounds like your suggestion might be to separate them into distinct
lines, but what I was wanting to do was keep them on the same line, but
distinct columns.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,
OK, I understand. Using the single task approach does make it a little
more complicated to do what you want but it is still possible. I would
probably use VBA to parse the Resource Names string to separate the
material and labor resources and then assign a spare flag field as
appropriate so it could be filtered. You could of course also use a
filter directly but if you have more than a few (5 or less) items you
want to find, a filter by itself will get very complex in a hurry. Aside
from using VBA, (maybe that's not your thing), you could customize a
spare field with a formula that does the parsing. It too can get complex
so perhaps a series of formulas in multiple custom fields would simplify
things. This process could also be used to write the separate resource
names into individual spare [text] fields.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[John]

Thanks John, that does help; I think I could figure out the VBA for that.
The one thing I didn't get was what the flag was for. And just to confirm, I
would parse the materials and/or people into separate customizable text
fields?

Mike,
You're welcome and thanks for the feedback.

The only reason I mentioned using flag fields was because your original
post mentioned using a filter. Oftentimes a spare flag field is used to
identify certain tasks or resources that may not lend themselves to a
simple filter. However, it sounds like parsing the information into
multiple spare text fields will better meet your needs.

John

Sorry, I might have misunderstood Rod's point, but your answer seems to
confirm my initial belief. (though I might ahve misundestood that too)

The problem I was having was that typically, I have only one person
assigned, but lots of materials. So, if I kept them all as resources,
all
showing in the resource names field, it would be hard to find the person
amonst all the materials.

It sounds like your suggestion might be to separate them into distinct
lines, but what I was wanting to do was keep them on the same line, but
distinct columns.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,
OK, I understand. Using the single task approach does make it a little
more complicated to do what you want but it is still possible. I would
probably use VBA to parse the Resource Names string to separate the
material and labor resources and then assign a spare flag field as
appropriate so it could be filtered. You could of course also use a
filter directly but if you have more than a few (5 or less) items you
want to find, a filter by itself will get very complex in a hurry. Aside
from using VBA, (maybe that's not your thing), you could customize a
spare field with a formula that does the parsing. It too can get complex
so perhaps a series of formulas in multiple custom fields would simplify
things. This process could also be used to write the separate resource
names into individual spare [text] fields.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

:

This seems to indicate that if I wanted to assign both material and
work
resources to a task, they would have to coexist in the same resources
field.
It would be nice to be able to have materials assigned and people
assigned
and have them listed separately.

Anyone have a suggestion to work around this?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike,
No, I'm not real sure how you inferred that from Rod's response. What
Rod was trying to explain is that some fields are unique to tasks, some
are unique to resources and some are unique to assignments and a few
fields are common. Task views (e.g. Gantt Chart) will only show fields
that are unique to tasks or fields that just happen to be common among
more than one object (i.e. task, resource or assignment). Rod was
simply
saying that the Resource Type field is unique to resource views and
therefore cannot be shown directly in a task view. He further suggested
that you take a common field such as Resource Initials and code it to
uniquely identify the type of resource. Then it can be filtered in a
task view.

With regard to assigning both material and labor resources to a task,
that most certainly can be done (although I generally prefer to assign
them to separate task lines in my project plans). When you assign
resources to a task, select both the labor resources and the material
resources. They will show up appropriately in the Resource Names field.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP


:

In Task views you can't. The only resource fields you can use are
Resource
Name, initials and Group. So what you can do is duplicate the
resource
type
field in the initials or Group fields and filter by them. You could
also
enter values into initials or Group so that material resources are
recognisable and therefore filterable. EG use Group of Material for
Material
Resources.

--

Rod Gill
Project MVP
Visit www.msproject-systems.com for Project Companion Tools and
more


In the 'resource sheet' view the field 'type' identifies
"Material"
or
"Work".

I want to filter out some resource types with (or before)
export(ing)
data,
and hoped the field 'Resource Type' in the 'Gantt chart' view
would
identify
whether a resource is "Material" or "Work". It doesn't.

How can I filter / query MS Project to identify what 'type' a
resource is
labelled as (equivalent to the 'resource sheet' field 'type')?