Working with Tasks

Sometimes it is not possible to complete a task as scheduled, and it needs to be split into two or more parts. Microsoft Project supports task splitting, and Aspose.Tasks for .NET provides the same functionality programmatically.

Splitting Tasks

The SplitParts property exposed by the Task class is used to determine the split parts of a task whereas SplitTask method exposed by the ResourceAssignment class is used to split a single task into multiple parts. SplitParts returns a collection of split parts whereas SplitTask method accepts start date, finish date and calendar arguments to split the task.

Splitting and Viewing Tasks in Microsoft Project

In Microsoft Project, you can split a task as follows:

  1. Select a long task that you want to divide.
  2. On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click Split Task.
  3. Click at the point on the task bar where you want the split to occur.

Split tasks are displayed in the Gantt Chart view and are linked by a dotted line.

Example: Creating and Splitting a Task

The following example demonstrates how to create a project, add a task, assign a resource, and split the task programmatically:

 1// Create new project
 2Project splitTaskProject = new Project();
 3
 4// Get a standard calendar
 5Calendar calendar = splitTaskProject.Get(Prj.Calendar);
 6
 7// Set project's calendar settings
 8splitTaskProject.Set(Prj.StartDate, new DateTime(2000, 3, 15, 8, 0, 0));
 9splitTaskProject.Set(Prj.FinishDate, new DateTime(2000, 4, 21, 17, 0, 0));
10
11// Add a new task to root task
12Task rootTask = splitTaskProject.RootTask;
13rootTask.Set(Tsk.Name, "Root");
14Task taskToSplit = rootTask.Children.Add("Task1");
15taskToSplit.Set(Tsk.Duration, splitTaskProject.GetDuration(3));
16
17// Create a new resource assignment and generate timephased data
18ResourceAssignment splitResourceAssignment = splitTaskProject.ResourceAssignments.Add(taskToSplit, null);
19splitResourceAssignment.TimephasedDataFromTaskDuration(calendar);
20
21// Split the task into 3 parts.
22// Provide start date and finish date arguments to SplitTask method which will be used for split
23splitResourceAssignment.SplitTask(new DateTime(2000, 3, 16, 8, 0, 0), new DateTime(2000, 3, 16, 17, 0, 0), calendar);
24splitResourceAssignment.SplitTask(new DateTime(2000, 3, 18, 8, 0, 0), new DateTime(2000, 3, 18, 17, 0, 0), calendar);
25splitResourceAssignment.Set(Asn.WorkContour, WorkContourType.Contoured);
26
27splitTaskProject.Save("CreateSplitTasks_out.xml", SaveFileFormat.XML);

Example: Viewing Split Tasks

The next example shows how to identify split tasks in a project and print their details to the console:

 1Project project = new Project("New Project.mpp");
 2
 3// Access task 
 4Task splitTask = project.RootTask.Children.GetById(4);
 5
 6// Display split parts of task
 7SplitPartCollection collection = splitTask.SplitParts;
 8foreach (SplitPart splitPart in collection)
 9{
10    Console.WriteLine("Index: " + splitPart.Index + " Start: " + splitPart.Start + " Finish: " + splitPart.Finish);
11}

Key Notes

FAQ

Q: Can a task have more than two splits?

Q: Does splitting affect task duration?

Q: Can split tasks be merged back?

Q: Is this feature supported for recurring tasks?

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