Bulk uploading of data is recommended when initially implementing PPO thereby ensuring that all take-on data is captured.
The following are Terms & Conditions with regards to bulk uploading:
- Bulk uploading is only available during implementation at a new client;
- Bulk uploading is not available as an ongoing/monthly service;
- Bulk uploading will only be performed if more than 100 items should be uploaded at once;
- The information that must be bulk uploaded should be submitted in the format specified below.
- Bulk uploading is a billable service and will be charged for according to the time required to upload. Please ask for a quote when sending through your bulk upload sheet.
- To request a bulk load you need to log a support ticket.
Format of the upload sheet
The information that needs to be bulk uploaded should be submitted in the form of an excel spreadsheet (see attached example) and should be formatted according to the specifications given below. All fields and custom list options required for the bulk upload should already be configured on PPO before the bulk upload can be completed.
1. Row 1 on the spreadsheet should show the captions of all the fields you wish to upload. Take special note of required fields (fields greyed out on the add and edit screens) as these need to be included and completed in full in order for the upload to be processed successfully.
Fields, where no data should be captured, can be omitted (in this example Cell Phone has been omitted) from the spreadsheet, provided they are not required in PPO.
2. Row 2 on the spreadsheet should show the PPO field names for each of the captions in Row 1. PPO uses PPO field names to keep track of each field in PPO, i.e. no matter what the caption of a field is changed to, the PPO field name will always remain the same.
The PPO field names can be found on the Data Field >> List page under the Administration menu item.
The spreadsheet will then show the field caption and field name for each field on the entity:
3. Row 3 should show the field type and, if applicable, the length allowed for each field. This is to ensure that only numbers are entered in numeric type fields, custom list items are entered for custom list fields, etc. Field lengths should also be adhered to as the upload will fail if a text field holds more characters than permitted in PPO. The field type and length (if applicable) can be found on the Data Field Edit page.
This information is also important because some fields have specific formatting rules.
4. Resource list type fields: Where a resource name is to be imported (for example, as the project manager or project sponsor or issue assigned to) the resource display name should be replaced by the resource key as it appears in PPO.
For example, if Ravi Naidoo is to be the Project Manager in a project list bulk upload:
We will find Ravi Naidoo’ key in the URL when viewing Ravi’s resource record on PPO:
And replace the display name on the excel spreadsheet with the key:
5. Custom list type fields: If the field refers to a custom list, the complete custom list should already be loaded onto PPO. For example, if you are doing a project list bulk upload and you are using a custom list field to show the project phase, all options referred to in the data you want to upload for the project phase should already be uploaded as custom list items in PPO.
Each custom list item in PPO has a key (similar to the keys referred to for resources). When you are referring to a specific value for a custom list type field (such as phase or status) replace the value on the spreadsheet with the custom list item key as found on the Custom List View Page.
6. Yes / No type data fields: For all Yes / No (Check box) data fields, substitute Yes / True with “-1” and No / False with “0”.
7. RAG Indicator type fields: Substitute the colors for RAG indicators as follows: GREEN = 3; AMBER = 2; RED = 1; Grey = 0.
8. Date type fields: Dates should be in the format yyyy-mm-dd (use the cell format function in Excel) and all dates should be valid dates.
9. Numeric type fields: Ensure that only numbers are captured (no commas, currency symbols or alphas). If any non-numeric characters are included in numeric type fields, the upload will fail.
10. If a particular field value is empty, leave it blank.
11. The spreadsheet should contain no formatting, with the exception of date type fields
Once the spreadsheet is completed with all the required information, it should be submitted to the PPO Support Team by logging a support call from your PPO Home Page.