Storing information in user-defined tables
You can use Server Admin, which is supplied with Asta Enterprise, to add your own user-defined tables to data sources, for use in projects stored within the data source. You create user-defined tables in Server Admin and use them to store information against objects in Asta Powerproject. You can specify the types of Asta Powerproject object that can use each user-defined table, for example tasks, picture annotations or cost centres. You then specify the fields and user-defined enumerators that you want to use as columns in the table. Each user-defined table can contain a number of fields and user-defined enumerators.
For example, you could create a user-defined enumerator called Priority and define values of High, Medium and Low. You could then add this to a user-defined table which is associated with tasks and use the enumerator to specify the priority of tasks in Asta Powerproject. Alternatively, you could create a user-defined enumerator called Manager and define values relating to the names of your Managers. You could then add this to a user-defined table which is associated with cost and income rates and use the enumerator to specify the person that sets the cost and income rates of your permanent resources. Adding a string field called Telephone to the user-defined table would enable you to record the telephone number of each Manager.
User-defined tables appear as tabs on the Properties dialogs of the Asta Powerproject objects with which they are associated. For example, if a user-defined table called Manager is associated with picture annotations and calendars, it appears on a Manager tab of the Picture Annotation Properties dialog and the Calendar Properties dialog. You enter information into a user-defined table in rows, with each table containing as many rows as you want. The information you enter into each table is stored against the currently-selected object. For example, if you enter information into a user-defined table relating to a calendar, then select a different calendar, the user-defined table updates to display information relating to the calendar that is now selected.
You can use the fields within user-defined tables to link objects, for example tasks and resources, to external documents. You do this by creating 'URL'-type fields within user-defined tables. You can then enter hyperlinks to external documents, or to webpages on the internet or an intranet, into these fields in your projects.
You can filter on some fields within user-defined tables. For example, if a user-defined table contains a field called Part Number, you can filter your project to concentrate on particular part numbers. Whether you can filter on a field within a user-defined tables is defined in Server Admin. You can also display information from user-defined tables in the spreadsheet.
You can search for permanent resources using the information that is stored in user-defined tables that are associated with the 'Resource Skill' object type, using Resource Search. Refer to Resource Search Help for details of how to do this.
You cannot use user-defined tables for local projects (.PP files).
Refer to Server Admin Help for details of creating user-defined tables in Server Admin.
The structure of a user-defined table
A user-defined table is a grid. The columns in the grid are defined by the fields and user-defined enumerators that are set up within Server Admin: each field and user-defined enumerator forms a column. If a field has a default value, this is because one has been defined in Server Admin for the field. You do not have to enter information in some fields, while others are compulsory. Again, this is defined in Server Admin.
The name of the tab on which the user-defined table appears is the name of the table, as defined in Server Admin. The name of each column is the name of the field contained within the column, as defined in Server Admin.
A user-defined table can comprise as many rows as you like. You insert, delete and change the position of rows within Asta Powerproject, using the buttons on the tab.
User-defined tables differ from user-defined fields in that you can only enter information into a user-defined field for an object once within Asta Powerproject; you can enter information into a field within a user-defined table as many times as you like by adding a new row to the table.