MS Project Import / Export

Roadmap — 0.5

This feature is designed and documented but not yet shipped. Target release: 0.5.

TruePPM can import project schedules from Microsoft Project XML (.xml) and binary (.mpp) files, and export any project back to MS Project XML. This page documents which MS Project fields are mapped, which are silently ignored, and what warnings to expect for edge-case inputs.

Import formats

Format	Extension	Parser	Notes
MS Project XML (2003+)	.xml	parse_xml	Preferred path; human-readable; supported by MS Project 2003–365, ProjectLibre, GanttProject, Primavera interop
MS Project XML (pre-2003)	.xml	parse_xml	Same parser; handles missing XML namespace
MS Project binary	.mpp	parse_mpp → parse_xml	Converted to XML by MPXJ CLI before parsing; requires Java 11+ and MPXJ_JAR_PATH

XML field-coverage matrix

Project-level fields

MS Project XML field	TruePPM field	Status
<Name>	Project.name	✅ Mapped
<StartDate>	Project.start_date	✅ Mapped
<Title>	—	⬜ Ignored
<CreationDate>	—	⬜ Ignored
<FinishDate>	—	⬜ Ignored
<DefaultStartTime>	—	⬜ Ignored
<DefaultFinishTime>	—	⬜ Ignored
<MinutesPerDay>	—	⬜ Ignored
<MinutesPerWeek>	—	⬜ Ignored
<DaysPerMonth>	—	⬜ Ignored
<Calendars>	—	⬜ Ignored
<ExtendedAttributes>	—	⬜ Ignored
<OutlineCodes>	—	⬜ Ignored

Task-level fields

MS Project XML field	TruePPM field	Status	Notes
<UID>	internal mapping key	✅ Required	UID 0 (project summary) is always skipped
<Name>	Task.name	✅ Required	Tasks missing a name are skipped with a warning
<Duration>	Task.duration	✅ Mapped	ISO 8601 duration; converted to working days at 8 h/day
<OutlineNumber>	Task.wbs_path	✅ Mapped	Dot-separated WBS code (e.g. 1.2.3)
<OutlineLevel>	hierarchy depth	✅ Mapped	Used for parent/child detection
<Milestone>	Task.is_milestone	✅ Mapped	1 → is_milestone=True; milestone duration is always imported as 0
<PercentComplete>	Task.percent_complete	✅ Mapped	Integer 0–100 → decimal 0.0–1.0
<Notes>	Task.notes	✅ Mapped	Free-text notes
<Start>	Task.planned_start	✅ Mapped	Date portion only; time component ignored
<PredecessorLink>/<PredecessorUID>	Dependency.predecessor	✅ Mapped
<PredecessorLink>/<Type>	Dependency.dep_type	✅ Mapped	0→FF, 1→FS, 2→SF, 3→SS
<PredecessorLink>/<LinkLag>	Dependency.lag	✅ Mapped	Tenths-of-minutes → working days (4800 = 1 day)
<ID>	—	⬜ Ignored
<Summary>	—	⬜ Ignored	Summary status derived from WBS hierarchy
<Finish>	—	⬜ Ignored	Derived from start + duration after CPM
<WBS>	—	⬜ Ignored	Modern WBS field; OutlineNumber is used instead
<GUID>	—	⬜ Ignored
<CalendarUID>	—	⬜ Ignored
<LagFormat>	—	⬜ Ignored	Lag always interpreted as tenths-of-minutes
<ExtendedAttribute> values	—	⬜ Ignored	Custom fields are not imported

Resource fields

MS Project XML field	TruePPM field	Status
<UID>	internal mapping key	✅ Required
<Name>	Resource.name	✅ Required
<MaxUnits>	Resource.max_units	✅ Mapped
<GUID>	—	⬜ Ignored
<EmailAddress>	—	⬜ Ignored
<NTAccount>	—	⬜ Ignored
<CalendarUID>	—	⬜ Ignored

Assignment fields

MS Project XML field	TruePPM field	Status
<TaskUID>	TaskResource.task	✅ Required
<ResourceUID>	TaskResource.resource	✅ Required
<Units>	TaskResource.units	✅ Mapped

Duration encoding

MS Project XML stores duration as ISO 8601 strings. TruePPM converts to whole working days using an 8-hour working day:

MS Project duration	Working days	Notes
PT0H0M0S	0	Milestone (zero-duration task)
PT8H0M0S	1	Standard 1-day task
PT16H0M0S	2	2-day task
P3D	3	PnD format (less common)
P1DT8H0M0S	2	Mixed days + hours

Dependency type mapping

MS Project <Type>	TruePPM dep_type	Description
0	FF	Finish-to-Finish
1	FS	Finish-to-Start (default)
2	SF	Start-to-Finish
3	SS	Start-to-Start

Unrecognized type values default to FS.

Resource matching

When importing resources, TruePPM first searches for an existing Resource record with a name that matches case-insensitively. If a match is found the existing record is reused (no duplicate created). If no match exists, a new Resource record is created.

Import warnings

The import summary includes a warnings list for non-fatal issues:

Condition	Warning message
Task has no name	"Task UID {n}: missing name, skipped"
Dependency references an unknown predecessor	"Predecessor UID {n} not found, skipping dependency"
No tasks found in the file	"No tasks found in MS Project file"

Export

TruePPM exports projects to MS Project XML 2003+ format. All tasks, dependencies, resources, and assignments are written. Fields exported per task:

UID, ID, Name, Duration (hours), Start, Finish, OutlineNumber, OutlineLevel, Milestone, PercentComplete, Notes, PredecessorLink (with Type and LinkLag).

Resources: UID, ID, Name, MaxUnits. Assignments: UID, TaskUID, ResourceUID, Units.

Configuration

MPP import (MPXJ)

Binary .mpp import requires Java 11+ and the MPXJ CLI JAR:

# Default path (matches Docker image default)
MPXJ_JAR_PATH=/opt/mpxj/mpxj-cli.jar

# Override via Django settings or environment variable

See Configuration for full environment-variable reference.