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Project Online connector: get resource names for a task

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Posted on by PaulD1

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I'm using the Project Online connector and the Lists tasks step. I want to pull the same data as is displayed in the Task view of Project Online (e.g. Task Name, Duration, Start, Finish, Duration, % Complete and Resource Names).

Under Dynamic content I can find all these except for Duration and Resource Names.

By pasting the JSON returned by the List tasks step into a JSON viewer (http://jsonviewer.stack.hu/) I can see that Duration is returned and I can grab it simply by referencing

item()['Duration']

Question 1: Why don't all available/applicable options (such as Duration) show in Dynamic content? Is this a bug?

Even when I look at the returned JSON, I cannot find Resource Names. This is appears to be a complex field allowing multiple entries and referencing a resources table in Project Online. Searching in the JSON for names of resources I know are assigned to the tasks yields nothing and there is no property with 'resource' in the name.

Question 2: How do I get the Rource Names assigned to a Project?

Question 3: Where/how can I get information on what data I can pull from Project Online (and other connections)? Dynamic content is not reliable and even viewing/searching the underlying JSON doesn't always help, as with the example of Resource Names. Is there a central repository documenting the various connectors that is hidden beyond my googling/binging abilities?

Thanks!

Paul

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Building flows

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v-yuazh-msft on at

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Hi @PaulD1,

Could you please share a screenshot of the configuration of your flow?

Could you please explain more details about the JSON viewer?

Please share more details so we would try to provide a proper workaround for you.

Best regards,

Alice

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PaulD1 2,914 on at

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Here you can see that 'Duration' is not listed in the Dynamic content list, however, it can be added by manually entering the expression item()['Duration'] after which it even appears with the proper Project logo.

Why does this not appear in Dynamic content?
I'm finding missing entries in Dynamic content a lot. I have to run a test in Flow, copy the JSON Output (generally by adding a compose step where the input is the output from a step such as List Tasks) then paste that into one of the JSON viewers available online to check what is really available, or copy to a text editor and do a search for field names or data that I think should be included.

Hope this makes clearer the issue I'm trying to highlight.

Thanks
Paul

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v-yuazh-msft on at

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Hi @PaulD1,

As you said, the 'Duration' is not listed in the Dynamic content list ,and it can be added by manually entering the expression item()['Duration'] after which it even appears with the proper Project logo.

The 'Duration' is not listed in the Dynamic content list because the 'Duration' value is come from the array "Returned project" in the From field of "Select" action, the 'Duration' value is been saved in an item in the "Returned project",however, the "Select" action couldn't analysis the columns in the array "Returned project" just when the "Returned project" dynamic content is insert in the from field.

And if the manually enter the expression item()['Duration'] in the action, when the flow runs, the flow would analysis the columns in the "Returned project",and the expression item()['Duration'] in the action would be recognized as a column in the array "Returned project".

Best regards,

Alice

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PaulD1 2,914 on at

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Thanks Alice

I guess what I am trying to understand is, why is the Dynamic Content so unreliable? Other fields from the Returned Project array appear - what is the difference between Duration and those other fields that are populated in Dynamic Content? Is this acknowledged as a bug and is it being worked on?

I'm really impressed by the capabilities of Flow and the integration between services that it allows, but we can't be experts on every service available and so should be able to rely on the interface to correctly expose the available data/capabilities. As a relative newbie to flow I find it very inconvenient to have to 'play detective' to investigate all the fields returned rather than just those that show up in Dynamic Content.

Thanks
Paul

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Community Power Pla... on at

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Hi,
Were you able to retrieve the Resource Name value? I am not able to retrieve it as well.
Thanks

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PaulD1 2,914 on at

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Hi @Anonymous

No - I haven't found a way to get the resource name yet, concentrating on other requirements and hoping Resource Names won't be required or will be available when/if we need them!

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FastTrack 96 on at

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Also looking for a solution - really disappointing that there is no support on this...

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Community Power Pla... on at

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I am also looking for to retrieve the Resource ID but no way. Looked around the google for hours but no help at all.

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Community Power Pla... on at

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anyone figure this out yet? Still stuck in August 2020...

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FastTrack 96 on at

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Hi,

got stuck there some months ago and gave up.

I know that Enterprise resources are linked to a task via a resource ID and that a resource field of a task contains an array of these IDs.
The Resource table should be available via SharePoint http request pointing to the proper XML string, something like this I guessed
https://xyz.sharepoint.com/sites/pwa/_api/ProjectServer/EnterpriseResources('0edc75d1-f670-e911-afd7-983b8f0779fb')/Assignments

Best you try the API in Internet Explorer or another XML viewer :
https://xyz.sharepoint.com/sites/pwa/_api/ProjectServer/...

To understand the table structure have a look here:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/project/project-odata-api/m-p/218694
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/project-odata/jj163529(v%3doffice.15)

For me it got way too complicated, so If you find a solution I bow for you!

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