xerparser 0.2.8

Parse a P6 .xer file to a Python dictionary object.

xerparser

A simple Python package that reads a P6 .xer file and converts it into a Python dictionary object.

Disclaimer: this package is only usefull if you are already familiar with the mapping and schemas used by P6 during the export process. Refer to the Oracle Documentation for more information regarding how data is mapped to the XER format.

Install

Windows: pip install xerparser
Linux/Mac: pip3 install xerparser

Usage

xer_to_dict(file: str | bytes) -> dict

Import the xer_to_dict function from xerparser and pass a .xer file as an argument.

from xerparser import xer_to_dict

file = r"/path/to/file.xer"
xer = xer_to_dict(file)

The xer_to_dict function accepts .xer file passed as type str or type bytes.
The file and table data will be parsed and returned as a Python dictionary object contining the file and table data from the .xer.

Keys / Attributes

["version"] -> Version of P6 the .xer file was exported as.
["export_date"] -> Date the .xer file was exported from P6 (datetime object).
["errors"] -> A list of potential errors in the .xer file based on common issues encountered when analyzing .xer files:

• Minimum required tables - an error is recorded if one of the following tables is missing:

  • CALENDAR
  • PROJECT
  • PROJWBS
  • TASK
  • TASKPRED

• Required table pairs - an error is recorded if Table 1 is included but not Table 2:

  P6 Table 1	P6 Table 2	Notes
  TASKFIN	FINDATES	Financial Period Data for Task
  TRSRCFIN	FINDATES	Financial Period Data for Task Resource
  TASKRSRC	RSRC	Resource Data
  TASKMEMO	MEMOTYPE	Notebook Data
  ACTVCODE	ACTVTYPE	Activity Code Data
  TASKACTV	ACTVCODE	Activity Code Data

• Non-existent calendars assigned to activities.

["tables"]: Dictionay of each table included in the .xer file.
Examples: PROJECT, PROJWBS, CALENDAR, TASK, TASKPRED, etc...
The table name (e.g TASK) is the key, and the value is a list of the table entries, which can be accessed the same as any Python dictionary object:

xer["tables"]["TASK"]
# or
xer["tables"].get("TASK")

Each table entry is a dictionary object where the key is the field name (e.g. task_id, task_code, and task_name) from the table schema.

for task in xer["tables"].get["TASK", []]:  
    print(task["task_code"], task["task_name"])  # -> A1000 Install Widget

Example Code

from xerparser import xer_to_dict  

file = r"/path/to/file.xer"
xer = xer_to_dict(file)  
xer["version"]  # -> 15.2  
xer["export_date"]  # -> datetime.datetime(2022, 11, 30, 0, 0)  
xer["errors"]  # -> []  

xer["tables"].get("TASK")  # -> [{"task_id": 12345, ...}, {"task_id": 12346,...}]  
len(xer["tables"].get("TASK",[]))  # -> 950