Unlimited Field Mapping for OnePager 7.0

About Unlimited Field Mapping

Unlimited Field Mapping (UFM), provided in OnePager Pro and Express versions 6.0 and later, is a vastly more efficient way to bring additional source plan fields into a chart after you've created and edited it. With UFM, a chart has access to all source plan fields. Field Mapping is defined as the use of a source plan field for a particular OnePager purpose. There are more than 25 OnePager purposes from Baseline Finish Date to Unique task/milestone identifier. With this feature, you can easily refer back to your source plan and access changed fields for your chart. For example, you can populate a Text field in Microsoft Project and then use that Text field to present data in an Text Column after the chart was first created.

Further, OnePager Pro gives you a more efficient way to change the field mapping for eight (8) of the most frequently used OnePager Pro presentation purposes. For OnePager Express, there are seven (7) such presentation purposes because it omits display of critical path information. All this is explained further below.

Using Unlimited Field Mapping – A Microsoft Project Example

Suppose we use a source plan called BlueGrass Project Plan. If we look at the source plan field headings from this Microsoft Project source plan they would look like this:

Along with the typical Task Name, Duration, Start date and Finish date fields and some others, there are two flag fields (Flag20 and Flag10) and a text field (Text10) which appears to be used to specify the task's estimated risk. If we create a simple chart using the standard Single Project Gantt View – Detailed Template Properties form and Flag20 to control the import, we get a chart that looks something like this:

To see where the Unlimited Field Mapping first comes into play, let’s look at the Chart Properties form’s Rows/Swimlanes tab and one of the dropdown lists that contain field names from the source plan. An example from the Rows/Swimlanes tab is shown here:

In the dropdown list above all the field names from the Microsoft Project source plan that were imported when the chart was created as shown ABOVE the dotted line. The fields listed BELOW the dotted line are all available to OnePager with Unlimited Field Mapping. For the sake of this example, let’s suppose that we want to use additional data from our Microsoft Project source plan shown above. Our purpose in this example is to access the new data from Microsoft Project (e.g., Text10 field) and use the data to populate an text column in the updated chart. To accomplish this chart update, we need to tell OnePager Pro that we want to use the Text10 field for the purpose of creating an Text Column. This is done by accessing the Chart Properties form's Rows/Swimlanes tab, navigating to the Text Columns control group, checking the Left#1 sub-tab's Display data from checkbox to ON Then, use the dropdown window to the right to select the Text10 entry as shown here:

When you are finished establishing the controls for the Text Column, click OK on the Chart Properties form. OnePager Pro now accesses your Microsoft Project source plan, imports the data in the Text10 field, and re-configures the chart to look like this:

You can edit the Text Column header by changing it from Text10 to Risk Assessment, perhaps. The same methods applies when your source plan is Microsoft Excel and you are using OnePager Express.

The Template Properties Form’s Field Mappings Tab

The Field Mappings tab in the Template Properties form has several purposes. Among these purposes is the selection of source plan fields that can be used later on with the chart, selection of fields for some presentation purposes, and to identify an optional field for field splitting. The Template Properties' form's Field Mappings tab, simplified the remapping using this tab for eight (8) OnePager Pro column purposes (seven (7) for OnePager Express), and supports the field splitting controls. In addition, there are Task/Milestone Identity controls to assist with Unique ID issues discussed elsewhere in this Wiki.

OnePager Pro

The Field Mappings tab in the Template Properties form for OnePager Pro looks like this:

The eight dropdown lists shown in the upper part of the form above are common uses that our customers need most frequently, but there are other important presentation purposes on the Rows/Swimlanes tab and the Task Bars and Milestones tab's of the Chart Properties form.

Each dropdown list contains the Microsoft Project source plan fields of data types appropriate for its purpose. For example, the Critical-path purpose allows only Boolean and Numeric fields, whereas the dropdowns in the Date Fields group contain only date fields and the Percent-Complete purpose allows only numeric fields. The Field Splitting group in the Field Mappings tab of the OnePager Pro Template Properties form works in the same way as it did in previous versions of OnePager Pro.

For more information on Splitting and parsing columns, please see the article at: Splitting and Parsing Fields-OnePager Pro

The Unique Id control in the Task/Milestone Identity Mapping control group shows the Microsoft Project source plan field that OnePager Pro used when it first created the chart. This feature is available to assist advanced OnePager Pro users for updating charts when they have copied one Microsoft Project source plan into another. The Task/Milestones Identity Mapping control group is also found on the Chart Properties form's Field Mappings tab, but it is disabled there because you cannot change the Unique Id after a chart is created.

OnePager Express

The Field Mappings tab in the Template Properties form for OnePager Express looks like this:

The seven (7) dropdown lists shown in the upper part of the form above are the common uses that our customers need most frequently, but there are other important presentation purposes on the Rows/Swimlanes tab and the Task Bars and Milestones tabs of the Chart Properties form. The dropdown lists here contain field headings found on the active Microsoft Excel source plan when the Template Properties form is accessed. Each dropdown list has two components divided by a dotted line. The fields above the dotted line are properly classified as to data type when the chart was created. The list of fields below the dotted line are those remaining source plan fields that can not be accurately classified. A typical dropdown list of source plan fields for the OnePager Express Field Mappings tab in the Template Properties form might look like this:

The Field Splitting control group in the Field Mappings tab of the OnePager Express Template Properties form works in the same way as it did in previous versions of OnePager Express.

For more information on Splitting and parsing columns, please see the article at: Splitting and Parsing Fields-OnePager Express

The Unique Id field in the Task/Milestone Identity Mapping control group shows the Microsoft Excel source plan field that OnePager Express uses when it first created the chart and then retains for all future updates. The Task/Milestone Identity Mapping control group is also found on the Chart Properties form's Field Mappings tab, but it is disabled there because you cannot change the Unique Id after a chart is created. As a note, please take a look at the paragraph just above the Field Mappings control group title in the tab for both OnePager Pro and Express. Whenever you make a change to the Task Name, Percent Complete, and Critical fields in the Template Properties form’s Field Mappings tab, OnePager updates the corresponding fields in the Gantt Bar Decorations control group of the Task Bars and Milestone tabs.

The Chart Properties Form’s Field Mappings Tab

Using Unlimited Field Mapping on the Chart Properties form, you can change Field Mappings after chart creation. The Chart Properties form’s Field Mappings tabs for OnePager Pro and Express mirror the Field Mappings tabs in their respective Template Properties forms. As an example, suppose we change the Chart Properties form’s Field Mappings tab’s Finish dropdown to use the source plan’s Start field as shown below:

If the chart looks like this before the above change is made:

After the Finish dropdown window is changed to show the Start field, the chart looks like this:

Changing the usage of the Finish dropdown to read Start tells OnePager that the Start and Finish dates are the same and that the task bar should be represented as a milestone symbol as shown above.

Related Links

Basic Workflows (Portal)

Conditional Formatting (Portal)

Using the OnePager "Data" Tab's "Selected file(s)" Button

OnePager Express Import of Data from Microsoft Excel

Understanding Charts and Snapshots for OnePager Pro

Understanding Charts and Snapshots for OnePager Express

Advanced Tab for OnePager Pro-Reset Unique Ids on Update

Splitting and Parsing Fields-OnePager Pro

Splitting and Parsing Fields-OnePager Express

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