Is it possible to create a swimlane chart automatically from import from Excel?

Question

Hey all - newbie alert..

I am trying to create a BPM with swimlanes = roles/resources

Is it possible create this automatically from the import file, or do i have to go in an drap/drop to the various swimlanes?

I have the data already in a table/ node list  and edge list and think it would be cool to become the sultan of swimlanes BPMs by creating them quick and automatically.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, it is currently not possible to create swimlane/table/BPMN pool nodes through Excel import.

Comments

too bad - life would have been a lot simpler with this functionality.
(I have some 1000+ nodes which need to put swimlanes)
I'll add it as a functionality request

Answer 2

I just tried this. I imported an XLSX with some nodes and edges in groups. Then in yEd I used "Treat Groups As Swimlanes". It arranged the groups like swimlanes, but not using actual Swimlane symbols. Selecting the groups and "applying" the swimlane symbol didn't work.

Shame, it would be awesome to be able to do that!

Comments

In which way did "applying the swimlane symbol" not work? yEd 3.16.2.1 converts each group node into a distinct swimlane node. Were you expecting yEd to convert multiple group nodes into one shared swimlane node?

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Hi Thomas, the comment above was from me.
Yes, each group node was converted into a swimlane node with multiple columns.

When I import my test data, I get 4 groups (Q1-4), with the months in the correct group. January is out on its own (correct). The edges are correct.

When I select the group nodes, and apply the swimlane node shape, I get the following:
4 swimlane nodes, each with 2 columns. Jan is still on its own. The other months are in the columns of each group swimlane. I can't tell why the swimlanes have two columns.

It doesn't matter though - the behavior is correct.
As you say below, it can't be done at this time. I think I will up-vote the feature request though.

Answer 3

Have you tried using PlantUML? It's a bit cruder, but you can use new activity syntax to create swimlanes in text.

http://plantuml.com/activity-diagram-beta

You'd have to do some text processing, but if your nodes and edges are in a spreadsheet or data table, that shouldn't be too difficult.

I'd be interested to see how you get on. matthewpettyuk@gmail.com

Comments

Thanks Matthew!
That looks really cool and  - all important - very easy to use.
I'll look closer into when i get back to work on mondayC