Importing tasks from a MS Project file into Aidi’s scheduling tool – Aidi

Aidi enables users to import existing project schedules from existing MS Project files (.mpp). This step-by-step guide explains how to import tasks and details which values from the MS Project file will be imported into Aidi.

1. How to import tasks from a MS Project file?

Go to the Schedular/Tasks screen
Select the menu More.
Select Import a scheduler.
Select Import MS Project

Navigate to the MS Project file you want to import and click Open.

The tasks from the selected MS Project file will be automatically added to the schedule of the selected project.

2. Required Permissions

Your user role needs to have the ‘Write’ permission on Schedule/Tasks. If you don’t have permission, please contact your system administrator.

3. What fields are imported from the file into Aidi?

Format of supported files and maximum size

The following file extensions are supported:

.mpp (default MS Project file extension)
.xml

Currently, there is no limitations regarding the file size, but we would recommend having a file size less than 10MB.

What variables from MS Project are imported?

Here is the list of variables we import from MS Project for each task:

MS Project properties	Mapping in Scheduler	Description of variable
ID	External id (note visible in the interface)	Internal task identifying number
Notes	Note	Task notes
Text	Description	Task description
Progress	Progress	% of task progress
Start_date	Start_date	Starting date of task
Duration	End_date (calculated)	Aidi uses the duration to calculate the end date (see bellow)
EarlyFinish (if applied)	End_date	If applied in MS project, the early finish date is applied to the planned end date
Parent	Parent	If the task has a parent, the id of the parent is imported to respect the work breakdown structure
Links	Dependencies	If the task has dependencies, they are imported in the Dependencies section of each task

How are durations imported?

Unlike MS Project, we do not store duration in the system, we dynamically calculate the End_date instead.

Here is how the End_date is calculated:

Duration	Rules applied at import
If the Duration is 0 in the MS Project import file	End_date = Start_date The task type is set to milestone
If the EarlyFinisih date is not defined in the MS Project import file	The EarlyFinish date is not defined in Aidi
If the Duration is greater than 0 and EarlyFinish is not defined	End_date = Start_date + Duration

Variables not imported into Aidi

The following variable are not imported into Aidi from the .mpp or .xml file:

Open
Ressource
Work time

4. Important recommendations

It is not recommended to export a schedule produced in Aidi, import into MS Project and then re-import the same schedule into Aidi. The importing / exporting features are designed to work in a single direction: either importing the schedule from MS Project to Aidi or exporting the schedule form Aidi to MS Project.

That being said, it is possible to import several times the same scheduler from MS Project into Aidi if the tasks remain the same. This will allow the user to update the dates in Aidi without manually editing every task. In fact. Aidi will recognize the MS Project IDs and will update the Aidi scheduler accordingly. This is particularly interesting when a Project manager receives an updated schedule from the Entrepreneur for example.