Import data into Adobe Workfront using a Kick-Start template

Last update: Fri Feb 16 2024 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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Kick-Starts are specially formatted Excel workbooks that you can populate with data you want to import into Workfront. Adobe Workfront provides a Kick-Start template you can use to do this, as explained in Kick-Starts data importer.

This process is broken up into 3 main tasks:

First, you export a Kick-Start template as a spreadsheet file
Second, you populate the spreadsheet with your data
Finally, you import the populated spreadsheet into Workfront

Each of these procedures is outlined in the proper order in this article.

Access requirements

You must have the following access to perform the steps in this article:

Adobe Workfront plan

Any

Adobe Workfront license

New: Standard

Current: Plan

Access level configurations

You must be a Workfront administrator.

For more detail about the information in this table, see Access requirements in Workfront documentation.

Limitations

You can import large numbers of objects into Workfront using a Kick-Start template. However, consider the following limitations:

Importing data this way doesn’t update information on records that already exist in Workfront.
You can import only new records and their information.
Import no more than 2,000 records at a time to ensure that the import does not time out

Export a Kick-Start template as a spreadsheet file

When you export a Kick-Start template you receive a blank Excel spreadsheet workbook. After the spreadsheet downloads to your computer, you can use it to populate it with your information and then import it back into Workfront.

To export a Kick-Start template:

Click the Main Menu icon in the upper-right corner of Adobe Workfront, or (if available), click the Main Menu icon in the upper-left corner, then click Setup .
Click System > Import Data (Kick-Starts).

Select the types of information that you want to include.

Each option that you select represents a collection of multiple tabs in the exported spreadsheet. For example, if you select the Report option, all the necessary objects for creating a report will be included in the spreadsheet (views, filters, groupings, reports).

You can use all of the object types listed below to import data into Workfront. (The only exception is the Access Levels option. The Access Levels data sheet in an export is provided for reference purposes—it allows you to assign an access level to a new user account by ID.)

The template for each of the object types can be exported in the following file formats and contains the following sheets:

table 0-row-3 1-row-3 2-row-3 3-row-3 4-row-3 5-row-3 6-row-3 7-row-3 8-row-3 9-row-3 10-row-3 11-row-3 12-row-3 13-row-3 14-row-3 15-row-3 16-row-3 17-row-3 18-row-3 19-row-3 20-row-3 21-row-3 22-row-3 23-row-3 24-row-3 25-row-3 26-row-3 27-row-3 28-row-3 29-row-3 30-row-3 31-row-3 32-row-3 33-row-3 34-row-3 layout-auto
Object	Exports as	Sheets in the exported spreadsheet
Dashboard All dashboards in the system are available to export. You can select up to 100 specific dashboards in a single export.	Exports as ZIP file	Parameter Descriptive Text Parameter Option Parameter Group Category Parameter Category Report Portal Tab Section Dashboard Preferences
Report All reports in the system are available to export. You can select up to 100 specific reports in a single export.	Exports as ZIP file	Parameter Descriptive Text Parameter Option Parameter Group Category Parameter Category Report Preferences
Approval	Exports as Excel file	Stage Approver Approval Stage Approval Approval Process Preferences
Custom Data	Exports as Excel file	Parameter Descriptive Text Parameter Option Parameter Group Category Parameter Category Preferences
Expense Type	Exports as Excel file	Expense Type Preferences
Hour Type	Exports as Excel file	Hour Type Preferences
Team	Exports as Excel file	Team Member Team Preferences
User	Exports as Excel file. To see the full list of options, click More Options.	User Preferences
Access Level	Exports as Excel file	Access Level Preferences
Assignment	Exports as Excel file	Assignment Preferences
Company	Exports as Excel file	Company Preferences
Email Template	Exports as Excel file	Email Template Preferences
Expense	Exports as Excel file	Expense' Preferences
External Page	Exports as Excel file	External Page Preferences
Filter	Exports as a ZIP file	Filter Preferences
Group	Exports as Excel file	Group Preferences
Grouping	Exports as a ZIP file	Grouping Preferences
Hour	Exports as Excel file	Hour Preferences
Issue	Exports as Excel file	Issue Preferences
Job Role	Exports as Excel file	Job role Preferences
Milestone Path	Exports as Excel file	Milestone Milestone Path Preferences
Note	Exports as Excel file	Note Preferences
Portfolio	Exports as Excel file	Portfolio Preferences
Project	Exports as Excel file	Queue Project Routing Rule Queue Topic Preferences
Resource Estimate	Exports as Excel file	Resource Estimate Preferences
Risk	Exports as Excel file	Risk Preferences
Risk Type	Exports as Excel file	Risk Type Preferences
Scorecard	Exports as Excel file	Scorecard Question Scorecard Option Scorecard Preferences
Task	Exports as Excel file	Task Preferences
Template	Exports as Excel file	Queue Template Routing Rule Queue Topic Preferences
Template Assignment	Exports as Excel file	Template Assignment Preferences
Template Task	Exports as Excel file	Template Task Preferences
Timesheet	Exports as Excel file	Timesheet Profile Timesheet Preferences
View	Exports as ZIP file	View Preferences

Click Download.
Continue with Populate the spreadsheet template with your data to populate the blank template spreadsheet with your information.

Populate the spreadsheet template with your data populate-the-spreadsheet-template-with-your-data

Overview of the tabs (data sheets) included in the spreadsheet
Import a record
Include dates
Use wildcards
Attribute name substitution for IDs

Overview of the tabs (data sheets) included in the spreadsheet

TIP

To better understand how you will need to format the information in each column when you populate the Kick-Start template, consider doing a practice run by exporting a Kick-Start with existing Workfront data on the objects you are trying to import. For instructions, see Export data from Adobe Workfront via Kick-Starts.

When you open a blank Kick-Starts template, a number of tabs (data sheets) are available. They depend on the objects that you selected for download. Each one represents an object in the application, such as project, tasks, hours, dashboard, and users:

When you open one of these tabs, row 2 displays the fields for each object that can be set during an import. In a column header, after the word “set,” the name of the field displays as it appears in the database. These fields act as column headers.

IMPORTANT

To avoid errors, make sure of the following:

Do not delete the empty first row of a kick-start spreadsheet.
Do not delete, modify, or rearrange these fields (column headers) in any way. For example, don’t change their order or their names.
Add values to every field that displays in bold in the column header. These represent required fields.

However, if a required field contains a default value set in the system preferences, you don’t have to populate it.

For example, on the PROJ Project tab, the setCondition and setConditionType fields can be left empty, but the setGroupID and setName columns cannot.

Certain fields, including setResourceRevenue and setEnteredByID, are automatically generated by the system. If you enter data for these fields in the spreadsheet, the kick-start process will override it when you upload the spreadsheet.

Import a record import-a-record

Each row of the sheet corresponds to a unique object.

Add information in the isNew column:
- If the object you are importing is new, type TRUE to import the data in the row. This value is case sensitive and it must always be in all-upper case letters
- If the object is already in Workfront, type FALSE in the isNew column to ignore the row. This value is case sensitive and it must always be in all-upper case letters
  - Records that already exist in Workfront are not updated.
  - If you downloaded a template with data from Workfront, existing objects are already marked with FALSE.
  - If you downloaded a blank template, you do not need to add new rows for existing objects.

Add information in the ID column in one of the following ways:

If the object you are importing is new (and you typed TRUE in the isNew column), type any number for the ID. This number must be unique in the spreadsheet. For example, if you import three objects, you can give them the ID of 1, 2, 3 respectively.
If the object already exists in Workfront (and FALSE is in the isNew column), and you are importing new information about existing objects, the ID must be the alpha-numeric GUID that exists in Workfront for that object.

note tip
TIP
To find out the unique GUID of an object in Workfront, you can create a report for that object and add the ID column to the report. The value for each object in that column is the objects’s GUID.

Records that already exist in Workfront are not updated.
If you downloaded a template with data, existing objects already contain the GUID as the ID.
You can import a new object based on an existing object by changing FALSE to TRUE in the isNew column, changing the ID, and making the necessary data adjustments before importing.

Sample ID for a Group

When you import a project, you must indicate a Group ID.
- If the group already exists in Workfront, you must add its unique ID to the setGroupID field for the project.
- If the group does not exist in Workfront, you can add the GROUP Group sheet to your import file, set the isNew field to TRUE on the Group sheet, and indicate a numeric ID for the new group in the ID column. The setGroupID field for the new project must match the numeric ID for the new group.
Example: For a project, the value displayed in the setGroupID column must one of the following:
- The GUID for an existing Group in your Workfront instance
- The value (number) in the ID column on the GROUP Group sheet if you are creating a new Group during the import

Input values for the required fields and any other fields you want to populate during the import.
(Optional) To add custom data:
- Create a new column for each custom field that you want to include in the import process.
- Name each new column for its corresponding custom field as follows: DE:[Name of the custom field as it appears in Workfront]. For example, you can create the following custom field: “DE: Departments”.
- In the column setCategoryID, type the GUID of the existing custom form on which this custom field resides. This field is required when importing custom data.
- If you need to add multiple data values in the custom field, (such as radio buttons, check boxes, or lists) use the vertical bar custom data delimiter “|” listed in the Preferences tab to separate the values.
  
  Example: Type A|D under the DE:Departments column to populate department A and department D in your custom form.

Include dates include-dates

Workfront can process most date formats. However, you must ensure that the date column in the spreadsheet is formatted as a date. The import will fail if the column is formatted as general, a number, or text.

TIP

The most popular format is the MM/DD/YYYY format.

For example: 07/10/2023.

Workfront also accepts time values as part of the date.

For example: 07/10/2022 01:30 or 07/10/2022 1:00 PM.

If you omit a time in the date, Workfront does one of the following:

Assumes that the time is 12:00 AM. In order to see the date result you expect, the system timezone must match your time zone.
If it is on an object that is associated with a schedule, the time defers to the earliest time that the schedule allows.

NOTE

When using a UNIX time stamp you must include three additional zeros at the end of the value.

For example, if your time stamp is 7336899000, you would input 7336899000000 in the cell.

Use wildcards use-wildcards

You can use the following wildcards when populating your Kick-Start template spreadsheet:

Wildcard

Behavior

$$TODAY

When used on a setDate field, this wildcard sets the date as midnight on the day when you import the Kick-Start.

You can modify the wildcard using the standard syntax allowed with the wildcard on a filter.

Example: If you want a project to start on the Monday of the week it is imported on, regardless of the day you actually perform the import, you could use $$TODAYbw. This sets your project's planned start date as 12:00 AM on Sunday. Since the schedule for the project probably doesn't allow work at that time, it will start at 9:00 AM Monday morning.

$$NOW

When used on a setDate field, this wildcard sets the date according to the moment when you create the record during the Kick-Start import.

You can modify the wildcard using the standard syntax allowed with the wildcard on a filter.

Example: If you want a project to start 3 hours after it is imported, you could use $$NOW+3h.

$$USER.ID

When used on a setAssignedToID or other userID based field, this wildcard assigns the work or otherwise associates the record with the individual performing the import.

$$CUSTOMER

This wildcard was added specifically for Kick-Start user imports. When a Workfront account is created, a user with the System Administrator access level is created. The username assigned to the default administrator can be used as a prefix when creating other users in the account.

Because usernames must be unique across all customers, this is useful when you have several individuals with very common usernames such as John Smith, who might have a username "jsmith." By prepending the username assignment with the default administrator username, you guarantee that each username is unique (for example: $$CUSTOMER.jsmith).

Tip: A more elegant way to ensure that usernames are unique system wide is to input the individual's email address in the setUsername field.

Attribute name substitution for IDs attribute-name-substitution-for-ids

Though it is a best practice to use IDs whenever possible, sometimes it’s inconvenient to cross-reference IDs from one sheet to another when setting a setAttributeID value. You can reference values by name simply by changing the column header.

Examples:

Project import

When importing projects, set the setGroupID of the projects by going to the GROUP Group sheet, making note of the respective Group IDs, and pasting them in the correct cells (setGroupID column) on the PROJ Project sheet.

This is feasible when working with only a few groups and projects, but if you are working with several of each, it’s not practical.

To do the Attribute Name Substitution for the example described above, you change the setGroupID column header to #setGroupID GROUP name. You can then reference each project’s group by name.

note note
NOTE
The option to use Attribute Name Substitution is limited to references for existing records only. You cannot use name substitution for objects you are creating in the same import.

User import

When importing users, fill in the setRoleID from a list of roles on the ROLE Role tab.

Some of the Role IDs are for records that already exist in the account, and others are being created during the import.

For the new user records assigned to existing roles, you can use name substitution. For the new user records assigned to newly imported roles, you cannot.

Here is how you can use both methods on the same import file:
- Add a column in the spreadsheet to the left of the setRoleID column.
- Name the new column #setRoleID ROLE name.
- For role assignments to existing records, input the role names in the #setRoleID ROLE name column.
  
  For role assignments to new role records, input the ID you assigned on the ROLE Role sheet in the setRoleID.

Import the spreadsheet data into Workfront

After you populate the Excel template with your data, you can upload its data into Workfront.

The Kick-Start import supports the following file types:

Excel (.xls or .xlsx)

Zipped (.ZIP) file (that contains only .xlsx or .xls files)

note note
NOTE
You must use a .ZIP file when importing Excel spreadsheets that reference the following objects:
Reports Documents Avatars View, filter, or grouping property files
When using a zipped import file, the .ZIP file must have the same name as the .xlsx or .xls file, and all files must be at the same structure level (no folders).

To import the template spreadsheet data into Workfront:

Click the Main Menu icon in the upper-right corner of Adobe Workfront, or (if available), click the Main Menu icon in the upper-left corner, then click Setup .
Click System > Import Data (Kick-Starts).
In the Upload data with Kick-Start spreadsheet section, click Choose File, then browse to and select the populated spreadsheet.
Click Upload.

If the Excel file takes longer than 5 minutes to upload to Workfront, the application times out and Workfront cannot upload the file.

Try importing your data in smaller batches of objects.
(Conditional) If you are using Workfront Fusion, you can now turn on your FLOs or scenarios.

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