Field Mappings Tab for Smartsheet in OnePager Version 7.1

Overview

Illustrations used in this article are from a Smartsheet source plan where the original project scheduling data were uploaded to Smartsheet from a Microsoft Excel source plan using the OnePager Bundle Standalone edition.

What Is Unlimited Field Mapping?

The Unlimited Field Mapping feature lets you use a source plan column that is not already available to you in the Chart Editor. The feature allows you to avoid going back to the Template Properties form to map additional columns for the specific purposes you need without having to recreate a new chart. Having to recreate a new chart is cumbersome and inefficient, especially if you already invested time editing the original chart before you realized that you needed another source plan column.

The Unlimited Field Mapping (UFM) feature is a vastly more efficient way to bring additional source plan columns into the Chart Editor after you've created and edited your chart. With UFM, the Chart Editor can access all source plan columns.

Field Mapping is defined as the use of a source plan column for a particular OnePager purpose. There are more than twenty-five (25) OnePager purposes from Baseline Finish Date to Unique task bar/milestone symbol identifier. You can easily refer back to your source plan and access changed columns from the Chart Editor.

For example, you can populate a Text column in your Smartsheet source plan and then use that column to present data in a Text Column after the chart is first created. Further, OnePager gives you a more efficient way to change the field mapping for eight (8) of the most frequently used OnePager presentation purposes.

For more information on Field Mapping, please see the Frequently Asked Questions topics at: Field Mapping

The Field Mapping Tab

Since the Unlimited Field Mapping feature allows you to access all columns from Smartsheet source plans at any time in the life cycle of a chart, the Field Mappings tab no longer needs to map columns to extra purposes that are just carried along in case you need them.

The Field Mapping tab focuses on common OnePager purposes that users can map to Smartsheet columns after a chart is created. Note, however, that other important OnePager purposes are on Rows/Swimlanes, Task Bars, and Milestones tabs. Some purposes such as Task Name, Percent-Complete, and Critical Path appear both on the Field Mapping tab and on the Task Bars and Milestones tabs. For Smartsheet source plans there are eight (8) purposes named in the Field Mappings tab: (1) Percent-complete, (2) Critical-path segments, (3) Task label, (4) Start date, (5) Finish date, (6) Baseline start date, (7) Baseline finish date, (8) Deadline date.

The Field Mappings tab for the Chart Properties form is shown below:

For more information on the Unlimited Column Mapping feature, please see the article at: Unlimited Field Mapping

Special Considerations for the Task/Milestone Identity Mapping Feature

The Field Mappings tab shows the Smartsheet column currently being used for the Task/Milestone Identity Mapping feature. In the Chart Properties form, the Task/Milestone Identity Mapping is disabled but tells you which Smartsheet column is being used. The Task/Milestone Identity Mapping column being used is specified in the Template Properties form to act as an alternate Unique ID column for OnePager UPDATE operations. You can change it to whatever column you want, but it is your responsibility to make sure that the chosen column has a unique value for each task you plan to import and display in OnePager. Having duplicate values in the Unique ID field causes task bars to be omitted and/or misidentified later on when you are doing updates of the chart.

For Smartsheet source plans the convention is to use the SmartsheetTaskID column for this purpose. The SmartsheetTaskID column is a virtual column generated by OnePager when the Smartsheet source plan is imported. OnePager assures that each Smartsheet row entry has a unique value for SmartsheetTaskID. For this reason Template Properties forms distributed with OnePager for Smartsheet have the Unique Id control preset to SmartsheetTaskID.

Special Considerations for the Field Splitting Feature

OnePager continues to support Field Splitting with the control on the Field Mappings tab in the Template Properties form and Chart Properties forms. Field Splitting can be performed on any source plan string type field with comma-separated components imported before the chart is created. It cannot be changed once a chart is created, though its value is shown in the Chart Properties form to remind you of the splitting that is active in the chart.

Field Mappings

There are four (4) controls groups found on the Field Mappings tab.

Basic Mappings

Within the Basic Mappings control group there are three (3) basic columns already established that can be remapped. You can use any Smartsheet column of the appropriate type corresponding to the Basic Mapping column named for the dropdown.

The dropdown list for the Task label column is shown in the example below:

Selecting a different Smartsheet column from the dropdown list tells OnePager to go back to the Smartsheet source plan, retrieve the data for that column, and use that data for the purpose of the chart. This re-acquisition of Smartsheet source plan data is done when you click Apply on the Chart Properties form which keeps the Chart Properties form visible or when you click OK which closes the Chart Properties form. The current chart is updated accordingly in the Chart Editor. The process for the other Basic Mapping columns for Critical-path segments and Task labels is the same as shown above for Percent complete.

Date Mappings

There are five (5) Date Mappings purposes in this control group that are available to be remapped. You can use any Microsoft Excel date field that can be accessed in the individual dropdown lists as shown in the example below:

As with the selections in the Basic Mappings control group, selecting a different Smartsheet columns from the dropdown list tells OnePager to go back to the Smartsheet source plan, retrieve the data for that column, and use that data for the designated the OnePager purpose in the chart. This re-acquisition of Smartsheet source plan data is done when you click Apply on the Chart Properties form which keeps the Chart Properties form visible or when you click OK which closes the Chart Properties form. The current chart is updated accordingly in the Chart Editor.

Task/Milestone Identity Mapping

Task/Milestone Identity Mapping for Smartsheet

In the Chart Properties form, this control group is informational. The control group is disabled in the Chart Properties form but the Unique Id window shows the setting previously or currently set in the Template Properties form’s Field Mappings tab. As such, the window is for information purposes only and cannot be changed.

The Task/Milestone Identity Mapping control group is shown below:

The SmartsheetTaskID column shows the Smartsheet column that OnePager used when it first created the chart. This feature is provided to assist advanced OnePager users update charts that were created from source plans where portions of one Smartsheet source plan were copied into another. When OnePager updates a chart, it needs to identify each task and milestone that is being imported and find out if it already exists in chart. This is how OnePager preserves the formatting of the task bars/milestone symbols and places them in the same row/swimlane where they resided before the update.

You can control what values of SmartsheetTaskID appear in your Smartsheet source plan when you copy data into that source plan. As a result, Smartsheet source plans that had data copied into them can have problems preserving OnePager's formatting and row/swimlane positioning. To solve this problem, OnePager lets you define and use a substitute Smartsheet source plan column as an alternative Unique Id for uniquely identifying tasks. You are then responsible for guaranteeing that these column values are preserved when data is copied from one Smartsheet source plan to another. You are also responsible for making sure that there are no duplicate values in the field designated for this alternative Unique Id column usage.

The alternate SmartsheetTaskID can be set in one of two places:

1) In the Template Properties form's Field Mappings tab and

2) In the OnePager Choices form's second page by clicking the Edit current template... button.

We strongly recommend that you set the alternate SmartsheetTaskID in the Template Properties form rather than with the OnePager Choices form because this ensures that all charts use a consistent alternative SmartsheetTaskID column.

Reset Unique Ids On Update

The Reset unique ids on update checkbox is disabled in the Advanced tab of the Chart Properties form and cannot be enabled. The disabled checkbox is provided in the form for consistency so that you see that it is there. This feature can be enabled as a last resort under the situation where you are attempting to merge Smartsheet source plans from different physical files into a single source plan where the Smartsheet SmartsheetTaskID's do not match.

Contact OnePager Support for information on how to use this rarely-used feature by referring to the article at: Getting Support and Contacting OnePager

For additional help, please go to the following link to the OnePager Frequently Asked Questions page: Selecting a Custom Unique ID.

If you encounter difficulties, contact our Support Team at support ticket, by e-mailing us, or by calling +1.303.779.0344.

Field Splitting

As with the control group discussed previously, the Field Splitting control group is disabled but shows the Smartsheet column currently set in the Template Properties form as the field participating in field splitting. As such, the window is for information purposes only and cannot be changed. For most OnePager distributed Template Properties forms for Smartsheet, this window is blank.

The Field Splitting control group is shown below:

For more information on Splitting and parsing columns, please see the articles at: Splitting and Parsing Columns for Smartsheet Source Plans in OnePager

Related Links

Unlimited Column Mapping

Advanced Tab for OnePager -Reset Unique Ids On Update

Splitting and Parsing Fields-OnePager Pro

Splitting and Parsing Fields-OnePager Express

Splitting and Parsing Columns for Primavera P6 Source Plans in OnePager

Splitting and Parsing Columns for Smartsheet Source Plans in OnePager

Getting Support and Contacting OnePager

Selecting a Custom Unique ID

Field Mapping

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