Kickstart 101 - importing tasks

[GregBe1]

I'm trying to import tasks using the Kickstart, and for some reason I cannot get the planned hours (or duration) to be set. The tasks get imported successfully as far as creating subtasks, percent complete, and predecessors, but I can't get the duration or planned hours set. I've attached a screenshot of the excel file I'm using. Can anyone tell me why I can't get these values populated? Thanks.

[DavidCo3]

Hi Greg, To set the Duration, you need to put the 'H' (or 'D' etc) in the 'setDurationType' column, and not in the 'setDurationUnit' column. Not very intuitive but it works for me! When doing this, it automatically sets the Planned Hours to the same as the Duration, which may be fine for you. I have never had any luck over-riding this and importing a different number of Planned Hours. Someone else can likely advise on this part. You'd think it might be simiar to the solution above, but there is no equivalent 'setWorkType' column. Regards, David

[GregBe1]

My first reaction was, "You're kidding me, right?". It doesn't make sense - it's the wrong column. It also doesn't match the documentation. I don't even know how you find out that would work. Anyway, it *kind of* worked. A couple of points: It set the duration correctly for all but my subtasks. Any idea on why they didn't get set? It also didn't set ANY of my Planned Hours, just duration. If using this method (putting the duration unit in the duration type column, how do you set the duration type? (meaning S for Simple, A for Calculated Assignment, etc.) The interesting thing is that for my subtasks, I noticed that the Duration type was set to simple, and the other tasks were set to "Calculated Work". This may be why my subtasks didn't get their Duration set.

[DavidCo3]

Hi Greg, I found out through desperation and experimentation. I had a huge number of tasks to migrate from another system and I wasn't going to do it via the UI. I think you're right about why the Duration didn't set on your subtasks. That actually explains how it set the duration automatically for mine. :) Cheers, David.