Publishing permanent resource allocations to Microsoft Outlook or via SMTP email

If you have configured Asta Powerproject to publish details of permanent resource allocations automatically, details of new or changed allocations are published automatically each time an allocation is created or edited in Asta Powerproject. If you do not use automatic publication, you can publish details of allocations manually, as described below.

You cannot publish details of permanent resource allocations to Microsoft Outlook and via SMTP email in Asta Powerproject SaaS.

Publishing permanent resource allocations manually

To publish details of permanent resource allocations manually:

On the Allocation tab, in the Tools group, click the Publish dropdown and select Publish. The Select Scope and Location dialog appears.
Specify which permanent resource allocations you want to publish:

Select All to publish all of the resource allocations in the project.
Select View to publish only those resource allocations that are visible in the current view.
Select Branch to publish only those resource allocations in the current branch of the project.
Select Selection to publish only those resource allocations that are currently selected in the bar chart.

By default, the specified resource allocations are published in the manner you have specified in the Email and Publish Options dialog. If you want to publish the allocations in a different manner, select the Override default publish location check box and use the check boxes at the bottom of the dialog to specify whether you want to publish them as Outlook® appointments or tasks, or whether you want to publish them by sending automatic emails to your permanent resources. You can select more than one method of publication.
Click OK.

Dealing with problems during the publishing process

If there is a problem during the publishing process, the Results dialog appears. This dialog outlines any failures that have occurred during the publishing process, together with the reason for the failures. For example, if a permanent resource record does not have an email address set or if your System Administrator has failed to configure Asta Powerproject or Outlook and the Exchange server correctly, details of these problems would appear in this dialog.

Click Copy to clipboard to copy the information in the Results dialog to the Windows® Clipboard. You can then paste the information into an email and forward it to your System Administrator. Once any issues have been resolved, you can publish the affected resource allocations again.

Reviewing changes made by resources to their published allocations

If your permanent resources have made any changes to the appointments and tasks that have been created in Outlook following the publication of their allocations, the Resolve User Changes Properties dialog appears. The dialog lists any changes that have been made to allocations since they were published. For example, a resource could change the start and finish dates of an Outlook appointment, or the start and finish dates, the percentage complete and the total and actual work and effort of an Outlook task.

You can choose to accept or reject each change. If you accept a change, the corresponding resource allocation in Asta Powerproject is updated with the changes (unless it is currently locked to another user). If you reject a change, the Outlook appointment or task is reset to its previous state and the permanent resource is sent an email to inform them that their change has been rejected.

If a permanent resource changes the percentage complete of an Outlook task, you can specify whether you want progress on the corresponding task in the Asta Powerproject project to be updated as well as progress on the resource allocation, using the Progress tasks from allocations check box on the Email and Publish Options dialog.

If a permanent resource updates both the percentage complete and the actual effort of an Outlook task, Asta Powerproject updates the corresponding resource allocation with the actual effort value rather than the percentage complete if you choose to accept the change, and an error appears on the Results dialog that appears subsequently.

To review the changes that your resources have made to their appointments and tasks in Outlook:

Scan through the list of changes in the dialog.

Note that you can change the order in which the changes are displayed by clicking a column heading to sort the changes by that column. For example, to sort changes by task, click the heading of the Task column.
Select the Reject check box for any changes that you want to reject.
Click OK.

Editing allocations after they have been published

Editing a permanent resource allocation in Asta Powerproject after it has been published can cause a disparity between the state of the allocation as it was when it was published and its current state. For example, if you reschedule a project after publishing permanent resource allocations, the start and finish dates of the allocations may be altered.

Changing the dates of allocations after they have been published will result in Asta Powerproject erroneously reporting that resources have made changes to their appointments and tasks when they have not actually done so; the change is actually due to the allocation being edited in Asta Powerproject. If you change the date of a published allocation in Asta Powerproject, you will therefore receive erroneous notification that the resource has changed the appointment or task in Outlook. In order to allow the allocation edit to go ahead in Asta Powerproject, you will have to reject what Asta Powerproject is reporting to be the resource's change, which will result in the resource concerned receiving an email informing them that their change has been rejected - when they have not actually made any changes. It is worth informing your resources that they might receive emails of this type.

For this reason, and to maintain the integrity of the project data with the published allocations, it is good practice to avoid editing or moving a permanent resource allocation in Asta Powerproject once you have published it.

Note also that undoing actions that affect permanent resource allocations in Asta Powerproject does not affect published allocations. For example, if undoing an action results in a permanent resource allocation from being deleted from the project, this change is not reflected in the permanent resource's published allocation - ie the appointment or task that has been created in Outlook or the email they were sent upon publication of the allocation.