How to import lanes and columns from excel

Question

I'm trying to import data for a phased swim lane diagram from excel to yED. The phases should become columns in yED. Currently I'm using a complicated work around. In short: I import groups for each cell of the table layout, manually add a Table node, manually move each group in the structure view so the Table becomes its parent, manually reposition each group to the target cell in the Table, ungroup the groups and run the swimlane layout. How can I do this more elegantly? Result is shown in image below:

With groups for all objects in one lane, a hierarchical left to right layout gives visually great results in lanes, but phases are ignored. Result in shown in image below:

 

Alternatively: would it be possible to add functionality for a second (vertical) grouping?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, yEd does not support importing swim lanes/table cells from Excel spreadsheets. I.e. your approach you already use is probably the best you can do.

I am afraid I am not clear on what you mean with "phases are ignored". Could you upload a screenshot of a (manually arranged) desired result and the actual result? That said, yEd's pool and table nodes support multiple rows as well as multiple columns and yEd's Swimlane and BPMN layout algorithms both respect multpile rows and multiple columns. I.e. it is already possible to have a second vertical grouping by adding additional columns to a pool or table node.

Comments

Thank you for your quick reply. I'll try to upload 2 screenshots to clarify "phases are ignored". This applies to the situation that all elements in a lane are considered 1 group and hierarchic layout is used to create lanes.

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Thank you very much for the screenshots. I now understand what you are aiming at. Unfortunately, it does not change my previous answer (there is no better way than what you are already doing).