Availability
Overview
It is possible to import a list of time logs 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 time entries from CSV are the "Manage system settings" global permission and "Time entries - Add own / Add for someone else" permissions enabled in your project access level.
Important
It is not possible to update existing time logs during the import process; all imported time logs are added as new ones. For all imported time logs unique IDs are generated during import.
Import wizard
You can have time logs 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:
- Entry Date
- Duration
- Description
- Billable
A portion of a source CSV file might look like this:
Entry Date,Duration,Description,Billable
5/19/2010,3,Test TimeEntry 01,true
5/20/2010,4,Test TimeEntry 02,true
5/20/2010,5,Test TimeEntry 03,false
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 data a CSV file.
Importing a list of time entries
Note
It is currently not possible to import time logs into multiple projects and activities at once; you can only select one project and one activity.
To import a list of time entries, follow these steps:
- Go to Activity Center | More actions (
) | Import from CSV.
- Select Time Entries from the "Import list of" drop-down list.
- From a drop-down list in the User field, select the user you wish to import the time logs to.
- From a drop-down list in the Project field, select the project you wish to import the time logs to.
- From a drop-down list in the Activity field, select the activity you wish to import the time logs to.
- Once in the Import time entries screen, click on "Choose file", and find the source CSV file.
- Select a list separator.
- Select the Skip first line of the file checkbox (refer to the second note above) if required.
- Click "Next".
- Perform field mapping, i.e. link fields of time logs being imported with Birdview ones. Use "Add fields" to get new fields to map.
- Click "Import".
You will get a message ‘Import completed. X records were imported successfully.’ 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.