How To: Read SureTrak files

A Primavera SureTrak installation stores project data as a database consisting of a number of individual files. In a typical SureTrak installation files for a number of different projects live in a single projects directory. A SureTrak user can back up an individual project to create an STX file, which is a compressed archive containing all of the files from a single project.

Reading STX files

The simplest way to read an STX file is to use the UniversalProjectReader:

JavaC#

package org.mpxj.howto.read;

import net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.mpxj.reader.UniversalProjectReader;

public class SureTrak
{
    public void read() throws Exception
    {
        UniversalProjectReader reader = new UniversalProjectReader();
        ProjectFile project = reader.read("my-sample.stx");
    }
}

using MPXJ.Net;

namespace MPXJ.Samples.HowToRead;

public class SureTrak
{
    public void Read()
    {
        var reader = new UniversalProjectReader();
        var project = reader.Read("my-sample.stx");
    }
}

You can work directly with the SureTrakSTXFileReader by replacing UniversalProjectReader with SureTrakSTXFileReader, although this offers no particular advantage as there are no additional configuration settings available on the SureTrakSTXFileReader class.

Reading a SureTrak directory

If you are working with a directory containing SureTrak project data you have two options. If you know that the directory only contains a single project, you can use the UniversalProjectReader:

JavaC#

package org.mpxj.howto.read;

import net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.mpxj.reader.UniversalProjectReader;

public class SureTrakDirectory
{
    public void read() throws Exception
    {
        UniversalProjectReader reader = new UniversalProjectReader();
        ProjectFile project = reader.read("my-suretrak-directory");
    }
}

using MPXJ.Net;

namespace MPXJ.Samples.HowToRead;

public class SureTrakDirectory
{
    public void Read()
    {
        var reader = new UniversalProjectReader();
        var project = reader.Read("my-suretrak-directory");
    }
}

If the directory happens to contain multiple projects the UniversalProjectReader will simply read the first one it finds, in alphabetic order.

If you know that the directory you are working with contains multiple projects, you will need to use the SureTrakDatabaseReader class.

JavaC#

package org.mpxj.howto.read;

import net.sf.mpxj.ProjectFile;
import net.sf.mpxj.primavera.suretrak.SureTrakDatabaseReader;

import java.util.List;

public class SureTrakListProjects
{
    public void read() throws Exception
    {
        // Find a list of the project names
        String directory = "my-suretrak-directory";
        List<String> projectNames = SureTrakDatabaseReader.listProjectNames(directory);

        // Tell the reader which project to work with
        SureTrakDatabaseReader reader = new SureTrakDatabaseReader();
        reader.setProjectName(projectNames.get(0));

        // Read the project
        ProjectFile project = reader.read(directory);
    }
}

using MPXJ.Net;

namespace MPXJ.Samples.HowToRead;

public class SureTrakListProjects
{
    public void Read()
    {
        // Find a list of the project names
        var directory = "my-suretrak-directory";
        var projectNames = SureTrakDatabaseReader.ListProjectNames(directory);

        // Tell the reader which project to work with
        var reader = new SureTrakDatabaseReader();
        reader.ProjectName = projectNames[0];

        // Read the project
        var project = reader.Read(directory);
    }
}

As the example above shows, the SureTrakDatabaseReader class provides a method which lists the names of the SureTrak projects it finds in a directory. You can then select which project you want to load, and call the setProjectName method of the reader to make this selection. You can then call the read method passing in the name of the directory, and the reader will extract data for the selected project.