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Imported XER is resetting progress

12 replies [Last post]
Phil Bedford
User offline. Last seen 1 year 10 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 18

Hi,

Im having a weird issue whereby I am exporting an XER of a project that has been progressed, changing it to a .txt file then opening it in Excel to "bulk add" activity codes. I then save the file, change it back to an xer and import the project.

Everything works perfectly APART from the schedule now has no progress. Logic remains the same, new activity codes are there - everything is good except all progress has reset back to 2010!

Ive since checked the .txt file and the export does contain all the correct dates for Act Start/finish etc etc - but for some reaon these are getting lost during import?

 

Any ideas?

Phil.

Replies

Zoltan Palffy
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Joined: 13 Jul 2009
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if its just assigning the code VALUES to the activiies that can be easily done with an export of the activites and the codes from  P6 to excel 

then populate the code values in excel and import back into P6

if you are createing NEW codes (NOT CODE VALUES) thats is a difffernt sory and depengin on what version of P6 that you are using you could possibley use SDK for that 

Phil Bedford
User offline. Last seen 1 year 10 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 18

Thanks Zoltan, my main reason is to save me adding around 500 activity codes manually - I have them already in an Excel table so it would just be a copy/paste.

I'll give the file parser a go, although I seem to remember the ;last time I used it I had all sorts of errors...

Zoltan Palffy
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Joined: 13 Jul 2009
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1st let me ask why you want to do this ? What is your main objective ?

2nd you can use the file parser to get what you want

here is the link to 2 different version depending on what version of excel that you use

https://www.planacademy.com/using-primaveras-xer-file-parser-import-wbs-from-excel-without-the-sdk/

P6xerFileParserBuilder.xls – MS Excel 2003 and prior

xerFileParserBuilder_2007 – MS Excel 2007 and later

Phil Bedford
User offline. Last seen 1 year 10 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 18

OK, so a bit of an update.

It seems that it doesnt matter if I add any codes or anything so this can be ignored - the real issue is ithat would appear that between changing the .xer file to .txt file, opening it in Excel as a tab delimited text file - saving it as a tab delimited text file and returning it to a .xer file and importing, something is going wrong as all dates are reset to Jan 00, no progress, no actuals.

Ive tried updating an exisitng schedule & creating a new one, this is on 2 separate databases from 2 separate PC's (one client and one my own) and both return the same problem.

Is there any other way of converting a file from .xer to txt other than altering the file type, as clearly something is getting corrupted when I make this change.

 

The strange thing is, if re-open the .xer in excel, all the dates are as they should be!

Zhang Haixiang
User offline. Last seen 3 years 27 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 14 Apr 2005
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Hi,

I think CSV - Comma Separated Values is not the correct file format for a XER file.

I always use Tab delimited txt file format.

Zoltan Palffy
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buildign codes has NOTHING in the world to do with progress

Raymund de Laza
User offline. Last seen 30 weeks 6 days ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Nov 2009
Posts: 762

Make sure the Impoted File is statused with In-Progress or Completed status.

Zoltan Palffy
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since that option is greyed out it appears thats you do not have the rights to make this change

are you the adminstrator of this datbase if so go to Admin Security profiles and go to global profiles and highlight the profile name that is checked (End user) and make sure that under Has Privilege ALL the boxes are checked. Click on the Project Profile and highlight the profile name that is checked (Project Manager) and make sure that under Has Privilege ALL the boxes are checked.

 

if you are not the adminstrator then have the adminstrator give you the proper rights

 

Phil Bedford
User offline. Last seen 1 year 10 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 18

Hi David,

Im actually importing as a new project, for some reason the option to add to existing is greyed out.

and yes, 0% complete with all start dates reset (back to 2010 for some reason)

Ive attempted to save the file as a delimited CSV and renamed it as an XER (as per Barrie's instruction on Tensix) however when I try to import the file, P6 claims it is not a valid XER.

David Kelly
User offline. Last seen 1 year 37 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Oct 2004
Posts: 630

Are you importing it into the same project, with no changes to the project level settings?

When you say "no progress" - that is no % completes AND no start dates?

Phil Bedford
User offline. Last seen 1 year 10 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 23 Jun 2016
Posts: 18

Thats basically what Ive done Zoltan - the codes come back fine, its just the progress loss thats got me confused.

 

I used this method:

https://tensix.com/2018/05/how-to-load-activity-code-values-into-primavera-p6-from-excel/

Zoltan Palffy
User offline. Last seen 3 weeks 3 days ago. Offline
Joined: 13 Jul 2009
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not sure you can do it that way 

why not build the codes in p6 

then export to excel 

populate in excel 

then import code values from excel back into p6