Import Project Timeline Items from a Spreadsheet

This topic offers guidelines on creating a spreadsheet template in Microsoft Excel for importing existing project timeline items into Project Center.

You can access the sample project timeline spreadsheet template supplied with Project Center in the following location: C:\Program Files\Newforma\Twelfth Edition\Project Center\Templates\Import_TimelineItems_Template.xlsx

You must be a Project Center administrator to perform this procedure.

Field descriptions

• Subject – Required.

• StartDate

• StartTime

• EndDate – Required if StartDate is given. Not required if calendar item type is Milestone.

• EndTime

If no dates are specified, the calendar item will only show up in the Event Log view of the Project Timeline activity center and will show up as Not Scheduled.

• Alldayevent – Defaults to false if no value is given.

• Attendees – Can be in a valid email address format or project team member name. This field will also accept the values “Entire Project Team” or “Internal Project Team.” If either of these values are set, they have to be the only values in the field.

• Keywords – A list of keywords for the timeline item; delimited by a semi-colon. Must match keyword list if user not allowed to edit keyword list.

• Comments

• Location

• Calendar item type – type of timeline item; valid values are: Milestone, Event, Holiday, Phase.

• Event type – If the MilestoneType is Event, the EventType text must match an event type in the project.

• Supporting docs – List of full UNC paths to any file type separated by asterisks.

• Source descriptor – For internal use only, please leave blank.

• Source primary key – For internal use only, please leave blank.

• Recurrence type – The time base for the frequency of the corresponding appointment's reoccurrences - can be daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Recurring holidays are not supported.

• Recurrence range – The type of the recurrence range - can be noenddate, occurrencecount, or endbydate.

• • Noenddate means the occurrence will go on indefinitely. Occurrencecount uses the value in "recurrence occurrence count," which is the number of recurrences. Endbydate uses the value in "recurrence end" as the end date of the recurrence. If there is a recurrence type, the default value is Noenddate.

• Recurrence end – The recurrence's end date. This field is only valid if recurrence range is end by date.

• Recurrence month – The month (as a number) on which the corresponding appointment reoccurs. Valid only for a yearly recurrence.

• Recurrence occurrence count – How many times the appointment occurs. This field is only valid if recurrence range is occurrence count.

• Recurrence periodicity – The frequency with which the corresponding appointment reoccurs, with respect to the Recurrence Type property. For example, if the Recurrence Type is daily, and 2 is entered, the event will occur every other day.

• Recurrence weekdays – The day/days in a week that the corresponding appointment reoccurs on. The valid values are everyday, weekenddays, and workdays, or any combination of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The everyday, weekenddays, and workdays values cannot be combined with anything else.

For recurrences with a type of monthly or yearly, multiple <recurrence weekdays>, <WorkDays>, <WeekendDays>, and <Everyday> values are not supported.

• Recurrence week of month – The occurrence number of the week in a month for the recurrence pattern. Valid only for monthly and yearly recurrences. The possible values are none, first, second third, fourth, or last. For example, if you want the second Thursday of every month, use the value second.

• Recurrence day number – The ordinal number of a day within a defined month. For a monthly recurrence, use values between 1 and 31. For example, if you want day 22 of every month, use 22.

To create an import file for the project timeline and import it

1.     Make a backup copy of your existing spreadsheet with the data.

2.     Edit the spreadsheet and fill in the required data:

• Remove any extra rows.

• Determine how your fields map to Project Center fields (you can rearrange columns to match Project Center columns).

3.     Copy your data columns to the Import_TimelineItems_Template.xlsx file, replacing the sample columns with your own information.

4.     The Event Type - Delete and Calendar Item Type - Delete tabs include the keyword list values for the Event Type and Calendar Type fields. Change any of the existing values by simply typing a new value in the same cell.

For information on extending the list with additional values, please refer to Add Keyword Values to a Spreadsheet Template.

5.     Edit the field values based on the information given in the Field descriptions section above.

6.     After you finish editing the Import_TimelineItems_Template.xlsx spreadsheet, import it into a Project Center project by opening the Project Timeline activity center and clicking Timeline Utilities > Import > Meetings from Spreadsheet (as shown here) from the Tasks panel to open the Select Spreadsheet dialog box.

7.     Locate the spreadsheet, then click Open.

8.     After it is imported, the Import Log dialog box opens showing any import errors. Fix any errors that appear in the spreadsheet, then re-import it.

The import will not succeed until all errors are addressed.

9.     After the spreadsheet is imported, each row in the spreadsheet becomes a timeline item, and the items appear in the appropriate views. A summary of what was imported appears after you import the file.