Microsoft Project has historically been used to help project managers track and manage the project schedule. Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project Central build on the Microsoft Project scheduling engine and focus on team collaboration. With Microsoft Project Central, team members can communicate not only with project management but also with each other. Microsoft Project Central also eases the tracking process and provides tools for team members to view project status. Participation is no longer limited to just the project manager.

Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server allows the storage and retrieval of nearly any kind of information—information that can be used by applications such as Microsoft Outlook® or Microsoft Outlook Express. Given these attributes of Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server and its ability to work with communication tools, integrating it with Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project Central provides two benefits:

1. Enhanced e-mail access to project information. Delivering project-related information to team members in e-mail enhances the effectiveness of Microsoft Project Central.
2. Storage of heterogeneous project information. Microsoft Project is designed to store schedule-related information. However, Microsoft Project doesn't provide a way to store a variety of other types of information as Microsoft Exchange does. For example, as a project progresses, project managers and team members create documents, generate key e-mail messages, and carry on discussions about project information. Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server can store these types of information.

Summary

This article discusses high-level integration of Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. The following two related articles provide detailed information for integrating features of Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project Central with Exchange. The articles explore opportunities available for using Microsoft Exchange 2000 to deliver project information to team members and for using the storage facilities available in Microsoft Exchange 2000 to encourage information sharing:

• Copying Microsoft Project Central Inbox Messages to an Exchange 2000 User Mailbox
• Copying Microsoft Project Central Tasks to an Exchange 2000 Task List

Using the Collaboration Features of Exchange 2000

This section discusses general opportunities for extending Microsoft Project 2000 to provide team collaboration. It describes some of the essentials of the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Web Store, and it discusses some areas in which Microsoft Project can be extended to take advantage of these features. Finally, it includes a list of ideas about ways that you can use Microsoft Exchange to extend the capabilities of Microsoft Project.

This section is not intended to replace the Microsoft Exchange 2000 documentation. See the Microsoft Exchange 2000 documentation for additional information on the topics in this section.

The Microsoft Exchange 2000 Web Store

The Microsoft Exchange 2000 Web Store is a highly versatile storage engine. It can be used to store, share, and manage many types of data including Microsoft Office documents and e-mail. The Web Store can then make stored items available for retrieval using a number of methods including the following:

• OLE DB/ADO. Use ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO) to return objects stored in the Web Store.
• HTTP/WebDAV. All items in the Web Store can be retrieved using HTTP. WebDAV enables you to work with the extensible properties in the Web Store.
• File system. All Web Store items can be retrieved using a file system share.
• MAPI. Messaging Application Programming Interface.
• IMAP4. Internet Message Access Protocol version 4.0.
• POP3. Post Office Protocol version 3.0.

The variety of retrieval methods allows powerful Web-based, e-mail-based, and Microsoft Windows®-based applications to use the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Web Store.

To provide more than just a file-system-like storage location for files, the Web Store provides for the definition of schemas. Schemas are XML-based descriptions of content that is stored in the Web Store. These descriptions allow use of DAV SQL to search for Web Store objects that meet a certain criteria.

For more information on the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Web Store see the Exchange 2000 Server Technology Preview.

Other Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Features

In addition to the Web Store, Exchange 2000 has several new features that you can use to create knowledge management solutions that integrate with Microsoft Project 2000. These features include workflow and Web Store forms.

The Microsoft Exchange 2000 workflow engine allows you to create workflow processes. Workflows are commonly used for processes such as document review, forms routing, and issue tracking. Microsoft Exchange 2000 provides you with events, forms, and a workflow designer tool that allows you to quickly create workflow applications.

With Exchange 2000 Web Store forms, you can override the default view of an item in the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Web Store. These forms render a new view of any item in the Microsoft Exchange Web Store using HTML 3.2 compliant forms. You can customize the forms registry in Microsoft Exchange to define the content that should be viewed using each form.

For more information on these features, please refer to the Microsoft Exchange 2000 documentation and the Exchange 2000 Server Technology Preview.

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Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project Central

Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project Central provide several ways of storing extended information. Both tools support adding hyperlinks to content. Both tools allow you to specify a fixed number of custom fields for storing data such as text, numbers, flags, and dates. Other sections of this Microsoft Project 2000 SDK describe techniques that allow you to further specify extensions to the data models of both tools to provide an even greater level of customization.

All of these techniques can be used to integrate with Microsoft Exchange 2000. Custom fields and hyperlinks can be used to point to Web Store items and Web Store folders.

Microsoft Project/Exchange 2000 Integration Ideas

The list below describes ideas for building on the capabilities of Microsoft Project 2000 to integrate Microsoft Project work with knowledge work.

• Create a tool (perhaps an add-in to Microsoft Project 2000) to create Web Folders on Microsoft Exchange 2000 and associate the folders with tasks or projects. Store information such as project-related e-mails or documents in these folders.
• Create a tool from Microsoft Project Central that allows users to post documents associated with tasks into a project-specific or task-specific Web Folder. When documents are posted, tag each content item with information, such as the project name and task name, to facilitate future content search and retrieval.
• Use the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Web Store, Web Store Forms, and the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Workflow Engine to create an approval process for posting and accepting project-related documents.
• Write a feature that forwards an overdue reminder over e-mail to a resource's manager when a task is more than x days overdue.