@nowline/export-msproj

@nowline/export-msproj

Microsoft Project XML export. Projects a Nowline AST onto Microsoft Project's import schema (.xml, the format that opens directly in MS Project Standard / Pro and imports cleanly into Project Online and Project for the Web). Pure strings — no Node-only dependencies.

License: Apache 2.0 Part of: lolay/nowline monorepo Spec: specs/handoffs/m2c.md § 8

Install

pnpm add @nowline/export-msproj @nowline/export-core

Usage

import { exportMsProjXml } from '@nowline/export-msproj';

const xml = exportMsProjXml(inputs, {
    projectName: 'Q1 2026 Plan',
    startDate: '2026-01-06',         // YYYY-MM-DD; anchors relative roadmaps
});

// `xml` is a UTF-8 XML string. Save as roadmap.xml.

CLI:

nowline roadmap.nowline -f msproj -o roadmap.xml
nowline roadmap.nowline -f ms-project -o roadmap.xml   # alias

.xml is intentionally not an inferred extension — nowline -o roadmap.xml without -f msproj exits 2 with a "use -f msproj" message because XML is ambiguous (could be SVG-XML, generic XML, etc.).

Output shape

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/project">
  <Name>Q1 2026 Plan</Name>
  <StartDate>2026-01-06T00:00:00</StartDate>
  <Calendars>
    <!-- Standard base calendar (Mon-Fri, 8h) + Standard resource calendar -->
  </Calendars>
  <Tasks>
    <Task><UID>1</UID><Name>Auth refactor</Name>...</Task>
    ...
  </Tasks>
  <Resources>
    <Resource><UID>1</UID><Name>Sam</Name>...</Resource>
    ...
  </Resources>
  <Assignments>
    ...
  </Assignments>
</Project>

Calendar fidelity

Per spec Resolution 6, this exporter emits a single Standard base calendar (UID="1", Mon–Fri 08:00–12:00 / 13:00–17:00, weekends off) plus a Standard resource calendar (UID="2") that every <Resource> references. This matches Microsoft's own default template and reliably imports across MS Project versions.

Nowline's richer calendar: modes (full for 7-day weeks, custom for per-region holidays / half-days) are not projected into the export — duration math is recomputed against MS Project's Standard calendar so a duration: 2w item lands on the same 10 working days you'd see in Nowline's default business calendar.

Lossy export policy

The following Nowline features are dropped from the export:

• label, style, custom status definitions
• footnote annotations
• description directives (the bridge to <Notes> is reserved for a future milestone)
• Custom calendar configuration

When any drops occur, the exporter emits a single stderr summary line (via the CLI; the library function returns the XML and lets the caller decide). Per Resolution 9, --strict does not escalate; lossy export always succeeds.

The export is one-way only — there is no MS Project XML → Nowline importer. Round-tripping is a future-milestone concern.

Options

Option	Default	Notes
projectName	roadmap title	<Name> element.
startDate	inputs.today or 2026-01-05	Anchors relative-only roadmaps. Defaults to today if set, otherwise 2026-01-05 (a deterministic Monday) so tests are stable.

Determinism

• No new Date(). The anchor date is options.startDate → inputs.today → fixed 2026-01-05 fallback.
• Calendar UIDs are fixed (1, 2); Tasks/Resources are numbered sequentially in AST order.
• Snapshots in test/__snapshots__/ regenerate via vitest -u. A secondary test asserts the root element name and namespace.

License

Apache-2.0.