Our Reimport function is a good way to make bulk changes and updates to your project.
In this article, we will outline the process of Reimporting with a CSV/Excel file. This method allows you to update many of the data points within your project like tags, dates, assignee emails etc. You can also use this method to add new tasks.
You can also Reimport a file from MS Project, Asta or Primavera, please read this article to learn more.
To do a Reimport, you need be a Project Leader or Project Admin.
Process
The first step is to download the CSV of your project. Within this file, you will find a list of all the tasks and their data points. We introduce each of these data points below.
Open the file in a spreadsheet program eg Google Spreadsheet, Excel*.
Make any edits you require. We cover which edits are possible below.
Save the file as a .csv or .xlsx
Reimport the new file
*Depending on your Excel programme, you may need to change the encoding of the file in order for Excel to display the data correct. You can follow these steps below:
open a new excel sheet
go to the tab: Data
click on 'Get external data' -> chose 'From text' / 'From text/csv'
upload your file
Choose characters as commas as delimiters and for some it may be helpful to change to Unicode UTF-8
Your project is now updated!
Data Fields
Below are the 15 fields that you will find in the CSV download which you can edit and reimport.
Primary fields
gb_id - Every existing task in LB Geniebelt is assigned a gb_id when created. This is a unique number to that task. It should not be changed or edited. If it is changed, when you reimport the file a new task will be created, while the original task will be unchanged. If you are adding new tasks to reimport, leave this field empty for the task.
Name - This is a text field which shows the Task Name.
Start Date - This shows the Start Date of the task. All dates must be formatted as yyyy-mm-dd, e.g. 2018-07-24.
End Date - This will mark the End Date of the task. All dates must be formatted as yyyy-mm-dd, e.g. 2018-07-24. *If you omit the end date the task will import, but as a Milestone.
Description - This is a text field which shows the Description field of a task. You can add any additional information to this field for users to see when viewing the task.
Progress - This is a number field which represents the Progress Percentage of the task. It should be a number between 0 and 100. Do not include a decimal.
Tags - This is a text field which will add tags to your tasks for reporting purposes. You can add multiple tags by separating them with a comma (e.g. floor1, floor2, floor3).
Assigned Email - This is a text field where you can add an email address to invite the user and to assign them the task.
Working Week - This is a number field which represents the working week for the task. Just add 5, 6 or 7 depending on what working week you want. We currently support 4 working week options:
4 = Mon - Thur
5 = Mon - Fri
6 = Mon - Sat
7 = Mon - Sun
Custom Unit Reporting fields
By default, the progress of tasks is reported in percentages. With Custom Units you can opt to have tasks reported in custom units eg kilometers, tons. There are 3 fields associated with Custom Units and they are listed below. All three need to be filled out in order for the reimport changes to succeed.
Reporting Mode - To enable Custom Units on a task, include 'custom_units' in this field.
Custom Unit Name - This is a text field which will name the type of Custom Unit that the user should report with eg kilometers, tons. This field can only contain up to 10 characters.
Custom Unit Max - This is number field which will set the max range for this task.
Things to keep in mind:
We do not support edits to Groups or Dependencies with this method.
The file will fail if you do not format it correctly.
If adding new tasks, only Name, Start Date and End Date are mandatory to get started. The order in which the tasks appear on your file will be in the order they appear in LB Geniebelt, but they will only appear at the bottom of the program, regardless if you add them in the middle of the existing tasks. You will then move them manually after Reimport.