Project Reporter Help: Directory data sources

Contents : Administering Project Reporter : Managing data sources and projects
Directory data sources

You should use a directory data source if your projects are not saved in a database such as Oracle or SQL Server. The appropriate file format to use for project data depends on the platform where you have the Project Reporter server installed:

If the server is running on Windows computer, and you use Microsoft Project 98, 2000, or 2002, you should save your projects in the .MPP format, or the .MPD format, one project per file (if you store multiple projects in a single .MPD file, you must use an ODBC data source for Project Reporter to be able to load all the projects).
If the server is running on a non-Windows platform such as Linux, you should export your project files to the .PRX format, using the macro provided with Project Reporter.
You should only use the .MPX file format if you have no other choice — for example, if you are using software other than Microsoft Project.

Once you create a directory data source, any new project files placed there will appear in Project Reporter's administration interface, so that you can load them. Once a project has been loaded, if the project file is updated on the server, it will be reloaded automatically so that Project Reporter users will see the updated information.

Using UNC names for directory data sources

If the Project Reporter server is running under Microsoft Windows, you can use UNC names (e.g. \\MyServer\projects\mpd) to refer to directories for .MPP, .MPD, .PRX, or .MPX files; however, this may cause problems in some cases when loading projects, due to the slower speed of file operations over the network. If the data source directory is on the same computer as the Project Reporter server, you should refer to it using a conventional path (e.g. c:\projects\mpd).