Importing a project

Ganttry opens the schedules owners and other planners send you: Microsoft Project XML, Primavera P6 XER, and Excel or CSV spreadsheets. It works out what kind of file you gave it from what is inside, not from its name. When a newer copy of the same MS Project or P6 schedule arrives, it can update your project in place instead of starting over.

Where to find it#

• Import… on Home.
• File ▾ → Import file… in the editor, or Import… on Home or on the Open a project page.

When you belong to more than one company or group, the import asks where the new project should live.

Started from Home or from an empty Projects page, an import that brings in a new project, or adds rows to the open one, closes the page and shows that project in the editor.

How Ganttry reads a file#

Ganttry looks at a file's content, not its extension, so a file with the wrong name never dead-ends. Anything it can't identify for certain opens the spreadsheet wizard, with a short note saying why.

It can open:

• a Ganttry project file (saved with Save a copy (JSON));
• Microsoft Project XML — in Project, File → Save As → XML;
• Primavera P6 XER — in P6, File → Export → XER. Ganttry reads XER but does not write it;
• Excel (.xlsx) or CSV spreadsheets, through the wizard.

A native .mpp file can't be read — it is a closed format. Ganttry says so: in Microsoft Project, choose File → Save As → XML, then import that file. An old .xls workbook needs saving as .xlsx or CSV first.

Every warning, before you import#

Anything that won't come across as it was is a warning, and you see every one of them before anything is imported:

• An MS Project or P6 file opens a window with the project's details, then every warning under a count such as This file has 14 warnings., in a list that scrolls inside the window. Nothing is imported until you press Import as a new project (or Update, below).
• A spreadsheet: when you press the wizard's last button, Ganttry checks the rows first. If it finds warnings, it imports nothing yet: it lists them all above the buttons — This file has 15 warnings. Nothing is imported yet. — and the button becomes Import anyway. Press it to import exactly those rows, or change a column choice first; any change checks again. A file with no warnings imports at once.

The status line then says how many came in, such as Imported "Bridge 12 bid" as a new project — 27 tasks — 15 warnings.

Microsoft Project XML#

An MS Project XML file brings in:

• tasks and the outline;
• all four link types with lag;
• all four constraint types — Must Start On, Start No Earlier Than, Must Finish On and Finish No Later Than — and deadlines. A Start No Earlier Than date stays in force even when a predecessor also drives the task: the task starts on the later of the two, as in MS Project and P6. A Must Start On date holds even when the logic wants a later start, and the conflict is flagged. Other constraint types (As Late As Possible, Start No Later Than, Finish No Earlier Than) are skipped, with a warning;
• % complete, actual dates and the status date, which becomes the data date;
• WBS codes as Activity IDs, and the calendar, including hours per day.

Calendars from MS Project#

Task calendars that at least one task uses come across as named calendars, with their working weekdays and their holidays (the non-working exception days). Extra working days, and anything a calendar inherits from a base calendar, are not imported. Every calendar uses the file's hours per day. At most 20 task calendars import — tasks on the others use the project calendar, and the import warns you to review their dates. A calendar with no working days at all imports as Monday to Friday, with a warning.

Primavera P6 XER#

A P6 XER file brings in:

• the WBS as summary rows;
• all four relationship types with lag;
• the project calendar — workweek, holidays, extra working days and hours per day;
• durations, milestones and % complete, with the remaining duration of activities in progress (P6 keeps physical % and remaining work separate);
• activity IDs, actual dates and the data date;
• P6 constraints, mapped onto Ganttry's four types;
• the P6 calendars that tasks use, as named calendars.

It warns about anything it had to simplify, such as calendar data it couldn't read or a constraint type Ganttry doesn't have. A file with several projects imports only the first.

Excel and CSV: the wizard#

A spreadsheet opens the column-mapping wizard, with a preview of the rows.

• It matches common headings on its own: Name, Duration, Manhours, Predecessors, % complete, Deadline, Cost (also Amount, Total or Budget), Assigned To, Equipment, and WBS or outline level for the hierarchy — and construction words too: Cost Code or Bid Item → Activity ID, Phase → WBS, Labor Units → Hours, Superintendent or Foreman → Assigned To.
• Built-in mappings for Primavera P6 activity spreadsheets and Microsoft Project table exports apply themselves when their headings are found.
• Save a mapping as a named Preset — one for your estimating system's exports, say — and pick it next time.
• Columns that match nothing can come in as your own text columns: tick them in the list of unmatched columns, and rename them if you like.
• A Start date becomes a Start No Earlier Than pin, which stays in force when a link is added.
• A date without a year comes in as this year's. A date it can't read is left out, with a warning such as Row 3: couldn't read start date "Feb 30".
• Assigned To comes in as names only — it isn't matched to accounts. Equipment is a comma-separated list such as 2x Excavator, Roller?; unlike Crew, a leading number is part of the machine's name.

A spreadsheet can land as a new project or be added to the open one — the last button says which: Import as a new project, or Add to followed by the open project's name. Adding to a project reuses one of your columns with the same title instead of making a second.

Updating a project in place#

When a newer MS Project XML or P6 XER export of the same project arrives — the monthly update cycle — the import offers Update with your project's name, next to Import as a new project. A review groups what the file adds, removes and changes, with a checkbox for each group, then applies it as one undo step. Its changes table shows the first 200 changed fields, then a Show all N changes button, with your file's count, for the rest. The file's own warnings were listed in the window before. The review lists only the warnings from matching the file to your project, such as a source ID the file repeats or a different project ID, under a count such as This update has 2 warnings.

Ganttry matches tasks by the file's own task identity, remembered from the first import. So tasks you created in Ganttry — and your notes, colors, crew, equipment, assignments, quantities, costs and your own columns — are never touched by an update, and links you drew to Ganttry's own tasks survive too. Task order and the outline follow the incoming file.

A spreadsheet can't update in place, because its rows carry no lasting identity: it always lands as a new project or is added to one.

Who can use it#

Admins and Editors import schedules into the companies and groups they belong to. See Who can see and do what.

Good to know#

• Read the warnings before you import — they name anything that won't come across as it was.
• To send a schedule back to MS Project or P6, export MS Project XML — see Print and export. Baselines don't come back in from that file.