Availability
Overview
It is possible to import a list of projects from a CSV (comma separated values) file. The CSV file have to be properly formatted with a character, such as a comma, used to separate the data. The import wizard provides sample CSV files that can be downloaded and used as a guide. It is a good idea to have a test run with a limited number of rows in the file before moving to massive import.
In this article
Requirements
The minimum requirements for importing projects from CSV are the "Manage system settings" and "Add projects" global permissions enabled in your access level.
Important
It is not possible to update existing projects during the import process, e.g. by matching IDs or names in the CSV file; all imported projects are added as new ones. For all imported projects unique IDs are generated during import.
Import wizard
You can have projects stored as a CSV file imported to Birdview using a wizard.
To be imported to Birdview, a CSV file should have values in their respective places and separated by a list separator (default is a comma). An example of CSV file fields:
- Project name
- Project description
- ID
- Start date
- End date
A portion of a source CSV file might look like this:
Project name;Description;ID;Duration;Start date;End date
Configure;project1;20;;25;6/5/2007;6/20/2007
Develop;project2;21;30;6/5/2007;6/18/2007
Test;project3;22;40;6/5/2007;6/17/2007
As you can see, the first line contains the names of fields the values correspond to. Whilst it is useful for some purposes, it may wreak havoc during import. For this reason, you will have the option to skip the first line while importing a CSV file.
Importing a list of projects
To import a list of projects, follow these steps:
- Go to Activity Center | More actions (
) | Import from CSV.
- Select Projects from the "Import list of" drop-down list.
- Select a space in which new projects will be created.
- Select a workflow.
- Click Browse, and find the source CSV file.
- Select a field separator.
- Select the Skip first line of the file checkbox (refer to the note above) if required.
- Click Next.
- Perform field mapping, i.e., link fields of projects being imported with Birdview ones. Use "Add field" to get new fields to map.
- Click Import.
You will get the Import completed successfully message if import has been successful.
Note
If you are planning to import a large set of data, it's always best to do a test import, with just a few lines of data and if it looks ok then do the rest. To do things this way, you will want to split your CSV into two files, 1st with just a few records and 2nd file with the rest. Do the test on the 1st file and then do the full import on the 2nd file.