"Filtering" the Resource list?

[Larry]

Is there a way to programmatically limit the items
presented when assigning resources to a task? I have a
shared resource pool that could pontentially contain
hundreds of people. Optimumly, I'd like to limit the
selections to only the department(s) I have placed in
the "Text" fields of the Task. Is there a better approach
that I could use? I'm not "married" to my current
approach.

Thanks in advance.

Larry

 

[John]

Larry,
Yes it is possible and there are probably several ways to get there
however you will not be able to limit the selection by using the "assign
resource" button on the toolbar. It depends on how your organization is
structured. If for example the resources for a particular department are
limited to that department only, then perhaps resource grouping can help
narrow the field. I'd have to play with that idea to nail down the
details. Another approach might be to use a custom field to create a
drop down selection list made up of only the resources available to a
given department. This will probably require some VBA code to set it up
and to assign the resources once they are selected.

Hope this helps to at least get you started. Maybe someone else has more
ideas.

John

 

[Larry]

Thanks for the thoughts John. I'm currently creating a Userform with a
combobox containing the departmental resources. My thought is to write VBA
code to populate the combo with the appropriate entries, constrained by the
contents of the "Task.Text1" field, and then more code to assign the
selected resources to the task.

The idea of resource groups had occurred to me, but I couldn't think of a
way to implement it with the base functionality of Project. I haven't found
a way to use groups to limit the number of items in the standard resource
selection controls.

 

[John]

Larry,
I wasn't sure about Grouping myself - I never use it but I thought I'd
throw the idea out there if you hadn't already looked into it. It sounds
like you are on a good path with your userform and that should work
fine. I was thinking more along the lines of creating a drop down in a
custom field that would then be queried by the VBA code to assign the
resource but again, I didn't work out any details.

John

 

[Larry]

John,

I've decided to go ahead and create resource entries for all of the people
involved because it's important that they have trackable calendar information
in the backend database (Access currently, but will ultimately be MSDE/SQL
Server).

In each resource entry I will put user's department in the Group field. I'm
going to use an event (to be determined) to present the "scheduler" with the
custom form containing a combobox populated with only those resources
(people) where the Group (department) matches the Task's assigned department
(Text1 field). I then take the selection from the combobox and use the
ResourceAssignment to assign the Resource to the Task.

I just have to figure out which Event to connect it to, or I'll create a
menu/toolbar selection to call up the form.

Thanks for your input. It really helped.

Regards,

Larry

 

[John]

Larry,
I've only done one userform although it was a rather complex one. I set
it up to be started from a custom menu item and it worked great although
it could be set up so it starts with the Open Event. Either way, it
looks like you on a path to success. Good luck.

John