Back in 1910, famed engineer and management consultant Henry Gantt first developed the concept. It played a key role in the construction of the Hoover Dam. While your project management needs are likely a tad less monumental, the Gantt chart is a great tool for helping take your project from Point A to Point B, as seamlessly as possible. Next, there's Microsoft Planner. Txkf x plane 11. Unlike Microsoft Project, Planner is included as part of Microsoft 365 for no extra cost, and it's a lot simpler to learn to use. That said, it is designed for.
- Microsoft Excel Gantt Project Planner
- Microsoft Project Planner Gantt Chart
- Gantt Project Planner Excel
Hey Planner, your Gantt chart is missing!
Ever since Planner got introduced in Office 365 it has been missing a key feature – a simple Gantt chart. As of today, the Planner Team is 'thinking about it', but it seems they are pushing customer towards Microsoft Project for more 'complex features' (not that a simple Gantt chart falls in that category, but anyway). There is a UserVoice here, if you want to give it a vote!
But what if you still want a Gantt chart integrated with Planner, without switching to Microsoft Project? SPFx to the rescue, once again!
High-level requirements and prerequisites
I have been implementing this kind of solutions several times now – and the basic requirements are the same – 'Just give us a simple overview of the tasks in a Gantt-style'. So this blogpost is all about giving you some inspiration!
The high-level requirements for this solution was:
1) We need a simple way of showing Planner tasks in a Gantt chart
2) Use Planner (because it's easy to understand and use) and reflect the changes in Planner immediately to avoid end-user confusion
3) Read-only mode, because we prefer doing modifications in Planner!
4) Easy to set up and use, no additional configuration steps
Preqreuisites
The solution is built to work on a group connected modern SharePoint Team site with a Planner plan associated. The easiest way to do this is to create your group, go to the SharePoint site and add a new 'Plan' using the '+ new'-button.
This gives you two things:
1) A Planner plan associated with your group
2) A link in the left menu to the 'Planner integration' (in form of a SharePoint layouts page). This gives your end-users the ability to work on the Plan without ever leaving SharePoint (which we SharePoint enthusiasts appreciate!)
The solution
Microsoft Excel Gantt Project Planner
The solution ended up being built using the following:
Express courier international inc. * SPFx 1.8.2 (because 1.9.0 brought some issues with the hosted workbench. See issue here).
* A React webpart using DHTMLX Gantt library (the free version).
* Microsoft Graph API to get the Planner for the current group site, the buckets and the tasks eventually.
* Reusing the modern SharePoint theme for coloring.
The out-of-the-box Planner plan (integrated with SharePoint)
High-level requirements and prerequisites
I have been implementing this kind of solutions several times now – and the basic requirements are the same – 'Just give us a simple overview of the tasks in a Gantt-style'. So this blogpost is all about giving you some inspiration!
The high-level requirements for this solution was:
1) We need a simple way of showing Planner tasks in a Gantt chart
2) Use Planner (because it's easy to understand and use) and reflect the changes in Planner immediately to avoid end-user confusion
3) Read-only mode, because we prefer doing modifications in Planner!
4) Easy to set up and use, no additional configuration steps
Preqreuisites
The solution is built to work on a group connected modern SharePoint Team site with a Planner plan associated. The easiest way to do this is to create your group, go to the SharePoint site and add a new 'Plan' using the '+ new'-button.
This gives you two things:
1) A Planner plan associated with your group
2) A link in the left menu to the 'Planner integration' (in form of a SharePoint layouts page). This gives your end-users the ability to work on the Plan without ever leaving SharePoint (which we SharePoint enthusiasts appreciate!)
The solution
Microsoft Excel Gantt Project Planner
The solution ended up being built using the following:
Express courier international inc. * SPFx 1.8.2 (because 1.9.0 brought some issues with the hosted workbench. See issue here).
* A React webpart using DHTMLX Gantt library (the free version).
* Microsoft Graph API to get the Planner for the current group site, the buckets and the tasks eventually.
* Reusing the modern SharePoint theme for coloring.
The out-of-the-box Planner plan (integrated with SharePoint)
Microsoft Project Planner Gantt Chart
This is our preferred way of working with Planner, as we keep the user in SharePoint and have no context switching.
. and here is the Gantt overview:
Gantt Project Planner Excel
Key features
* Ready-to-use webpart with no additional configuration steps needed.
* No login for the end-user, because we use the Graph client and webApiPermissions within SPFx.
* Integration with Planner using Microsoft Graph API (Planner endpoint) and filtrering away invalid tasks (e.g. tasks that doesn't have a start- or due date or that is already completed).
* A two level visualization with buckets(grey) and tasks (red) within each and the ability to expand/collapse buckets.
* Assigned to is resolved using the Microsoft Graph API (users endpoint).
* Visualization of tasks progress (the faded coloring on the task ifself) and automatically calculation of total bucket progress. This is based on the Planner 'Progress' field, which is either 0, 50 or 100 (Completed).
* Duration in day-unit and total duration calculated for each bucket based on the tasks within.
Conclusion
Building a solution like this really shows me the true strength of the SPFx development model, where we can build and ship highly requested features in no time! So start building yours today!
If you have any questions or want to reach out, please share by leaving a comment. #sharingiscaring
