You can easily import your task templates from tools like MS Project, MS Excel, CSV, or OpenDocument files. The option is available in Gantt and Scope modules.

Box admins and Jira admins can import tasks from a file. When the Permissions for everyone option is enabled, every logged-in user can import tasks from a file.

To import tasks from a file:

1. Expand the Add task + drop-down menu.

2. Select Import tasks from file.

Open

Upload a file

The maximum file upload size is 300MB. The following file types are supported:

• .mpp

• .mpx

• .xls

• .xlsx

• .ods

• .csv 

Import data from MS Project

Once you import a file from MS Project, all columns with data will be automatically detected.

To import tasks:

1. Expand the Add task + drop-down menu.

2. Select Import tasks from file.

3. Upload a file.

4. Select how the tasks should be converted:

   1. Jira work items (parents will be converted to default issue types)

   2. Jira work items (parents will be converted to epics)

   3. BigPicture basic tasks

5. Select the Jira space where the tasks will be created. For more info, see the Select Jira space section below.

6. Add Jira labels to identify imported tasks.

7. Enable Add labels as an additional filter for the box scope if you want the entered labels to be added as filters on the Work items from Jira page.

8. Decide whether the ASAP mode for dependencies should be on or off.

9. When ready, click Import.

Open

To see a real example, watch the video below.

Import data from MS Excel / OpenOffice

When importing MS Excel or OpenOffice files, you need to define the columns corresponding to the imported data. To simplify this step, BigPicture tries to recognize the column names and completes the fields accordingly.

To import tasks:

1. Expand the Add task + drop-down menu.

2. Select Import tasks from file.

3. Upload a file.

4. Select how the tasks should be converted:

   1. Jira work items (parents will be converted to default issue types)

   2. Jira work items (parents will be converted to epics)

   3. BigPicture basic tasks

5. Select the Jira space where the tasks will be created. For more info, see the Select Jira space section below.

6. Add Jira labels to identify imported tasks.

7. Enable Add labels as an additional filter for the box scope if you want the entered labels to be added as filters on the Work items from Jira page.

8. Match the columns from the selected file to the corresponding task fields. You can set the relationships between tasks (Parent row and Link columns).

9. When ready, click Import.

Open

Import tasks without dates

The import mechanism allows to support tasks with a single date or undated tasks in the file. These tasks will be imported with one date or without dates.

Supported fields 

The table below presents the supported fields for particular files. 

Select Jira space

To carry out the import successfully, you need to define a Jira space where the imported issues should be created. Tasks are visualized in BigPicture and must exist somewhere in Jira itself. 

You can:

• Use one of your current spaces. New issues will be added to the existing ones.

• You can also set up a new, empty Jira space in advance. It is possible to create a new Jira space using the Create with shared configuration option. This will result in copying the Jira space setup (permission, notification, issue security, workflow, work item types, issue type screen, and field configuration). For more information, refer to the screenshots below.

XLSX data format

If the .xlsx file has been created by exporting BigPicture data, it can be easily imported.

Otherwise, ensure that data is formatted in the following way:

Open

Start date, End date - can be read in the following formats:

• yyyy-MM-dd (e.g. 2021-12-31)

• dd-MM-yyyy (e.g. 31-12-2021)

• MMM/dd/yyyy (e.g. Dec/31/2021).

Parent Row - the Excel row in which the parent of the task is

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Open

Link - a cell with dependencies/links, for example, 16FS-1 or 21SS+1, where:
16, 21 - pointer to Excel's row with the linked task;
FS, SS - link type:

• FS - finish to start;

• SS - start to start;

• FF - finish to finish;

• SF - start to finish.

• -1/+1 - link lag in days.

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In this case:

• The target of a link is in row 33

• Start to finish link

• 0 lag days

Open

Open

Possible problems and solutions

The Import from file option is greyed out. 

The scope type dictates whether the option is available. If a box was created using a box type with own scope, the option is available. 

For boxes with sub and none scopes, the Import from file option is unavailable.  

Required fields

Make sure that all fields have been set to optional in the Jira field configuration before importing a file. 

The process of making this adjustment is demonstrated below.

Mapping task assignee

By importing from .mpp files, the system maps information about task assignees, so imported values are correct. To make sure the Assignee value is imported correctly, double-check if the value in the Resource name field in the .mpp file is the same as the value in the user's full name field in Jira (the case of characters will be ignored).

If there is no user match, the Assignee field will be set to Unassigned.

Circular link dependencies

Once the file is imported, the application will not create strong dependencies if the circular dependency is identified (circular dependencies also include parent dependencies). 

Link ID

• Link with missing ID

• Missing Parent Task ID

Period check failure

The start date is later than the end date. 

You can easily import your task templates from tools like MS Project, MS Excel, CSV, or OpenDocument files. The option is available in the Gantt and Scope modules.

Box admins and Jira admins can import tasks from a file. When the Permissions for everyone option is enabled, every logged-in user can import tasks from a file.

To import tasks from a file:

1. Expand the Tasks menu.

2. Select Import from file.

Open

Upload a file

The maximum file upload size is 300MB. The following file types are supported:

• .mpp

• .mpx

• .xls

• .xlsx

• .ods

• .csv 

Import data from MS Project

Once you import a file from MS Project, all columns with data will be automatically detected.

To import tasks:

1. Expand the Tasks menu.

2. Select Import from file.

3. Upload a file.

4. Select how the tasks should be converted:

   1. Jira work items (parents will be converted to default work item types)

   2. Jira work items (parents will be converted to epics)

   3. BigPicture tasks

5. Select the Jira space where the work items will be created. For more info, see the Select Jira space section below.

6. Add Jira labels to identify imported tasks.

7. Enable Add labels as an additional filter for the box scope if you want the entered labels to be added as filters on the Work items from Jira page.

8. Decide whether the ASAP mode for dependencies should be on or off.

9. When ready, click Import.

Open

To see a real example, watch the video below.

Import data from MS Excel / OpenOffice

When importing MS Excel or OpenOffice files, you need to define the columns corresponding to the imported data. To simplify this step, BigPicture tries to recognize the column names and completes the fields accordingly.

To import tasks:

1. Expand the Tasks menu.

2. Select Import from file.

3. Upload a file.

4. Select how the tasks should be converted:

   1. Jira work items (parents will be converted to default work item types)

   2. Jira work items (parents will be converted to epics)

   3. BigPicture tasks

5. Select the Jira space where the work items will be created. For more info, see the Select Jira space section below.

6. Add Jira labels to identify imported tasks.

7. Enable Add labels as an additional filter for the box scope if you want the entered labels to be added as filters on the Work items from Jira page.

8. Match the columns from the selected file to the corresponding task fields. You can set the relationships between tasks (Parent row and Link columns).

9. When ready, click Import.

Open

Import tasks without dates

The import mechanism supports both single-date and undated tasks in the file. These tasks will be imported with one date or without dates.

Supported fields 

The table below presents the supported fields for particular files. 

Select Jira space

To carry out the import successfully, you need to define a Jira space where the imported work items should be created. Tasks are visualized in BigPicture and must exist somewhere in Jira itself. 

You can:

• Use one of your current spaces. New items will be added to the existing ones.

• You can also set up a new, empty Jira space in advance. It is possible to create a new Jira space using the Create with shared configuration option. This will result in copying the Jira space setup (permission, notification, work item security, workflow, work item types, work item type screen, and field configuration). For more information, refer to the screenshots below.

XLSX data format

If the .xlsx file has been created by exporting BigPicture data, it can be easily imported.

Otherwise, ensure that data is formatted in the following way:

Open

Start date, End date - can be read in the following formats:

• yyyy-MM-dd (e.g. 2021-12-31)

• dd-MM-yyyy (e.g. 31-12-2021)

• MMM/dd/yyyy (e.g. Dec/31/2021).

Parent Row - the Excel row in which the parent of the task is

Open

Open

Link - a cell with dependencies/links, for example, 16FS-1 or 21SS+1, where:
16, 21 - pointer to Excel's row with the linked task;
FS, SS - link type:

• FS - finish to start;

• SS - start to start;

• FF - finish to finish;

• SF - start to finish.

• -1/+1 - link lag in days.

Open

In this case:

• The target of a link is in row 33

• Start to finish link

• 0 lag days

Open

Open

Possible problems and solutions