Import from spreadsheets

Ontime allows importing a rundown from a spreadsheet written elsewhere (eg. Excel or Google Sheets).

Follow here to see the Google Sheet template in the screenshot.

Google Sheets

Maybe you are trying to import data from Google Sheets?

The data structure is exactly the same and the documentation below relevant, but some extra steps are needed to authenticate Ontime with Google.
See the guide

Importing data

For a successful import, there are a few conventions to follow.

1. Ontime reads a single worksheet
2. You can have as many columns as necessary, Ontime only imports the columns you request
3. You will provide a reference of the spreadsheet column names on import
4. Ontime creates a rundown entry for every row on the table (see exception in Timer type notes)
5. The times can be either an Excel time field or a short text entry as described in the smart entry feature eg: 00:10:15 or 10m15s

See below the expected data types of the rundown data

Note: Field names are not case-sensitive: both Title and title would be recognised on import.

| Event Field | Data Type | Default value | | :---------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :----------------- | | Start | Excel time | string | 00:00:00 | | Link start | boolean | false | | End | Excel time | string | 00:00:00 | | Duration | Excel time | string | 00:00:00 | | Cue | string | "" | | Title | string | "" | | Skip | boolean | false | | Note | string | "" | | Colour | string (# hex colour or named css colour) | "" | | End action | none load-next play-next | none | | Timer type* | count-down count-up clock block skip group group-end milestone none | count-down | | Count to end*| boolean | false | | Time warning | Excel time | string | 00:02:00 | | Time danger | Excel time | string | 00:01:00 |

Timer type and skipping import

The Timer type column extends the possible values for timers.

Where a timer count type can be count-down count-up clock count-down.
Adding a value block to this field, creates a Block event.

Any value added here that is not one of the above (eg: skip or production), will prompt Ontime to skip importing this row.

Count to end

The count to end property can be used to tell Ontime that this event should always count to its scheduled end, regardless of its start time.

Custom Fields

Ontime allows importing any amount of custom fields.
You will need to provide the title of the relevant columns on import.

For each field provided, Ontime will create a custom field and add the data in the excel table row to the event.