Read the contents of a Primavera P6 XER file using Python.

Xer-Reader makes it easy to read, parse, and convert the data in a XER file to other formats.

Refer to the Oracle Documentation for more information regarding how data is mapped to the XER format.
Tested on XER files exported as versions 15.2 through 19.12.

Windows:

pip install xer-reader

Linux/Mac:

pip3 install xer-reader

Import the XerReader class from xer_reader.

from xer_reader import XerReader

Create a new instance of an XerReader object by passing in the XER file as an argument. XerReader can accept the file path represented as a str or pathlib Path object, or a Binary file received as a response from requests, Flask, FastAPI, etc...

file = r"/path/to/file.xer"
reader = XerReader(file)

• data [str] - The contents of the XER file as a string.
• export_date [datetime] - The date the XER file was exported.
• export_user [str] - The P6 user who export the XER file.
• export_version [str] - The P6 verison used to export the XER file.
• file_name [str] - The name of the file without the '.xer' extension.

check_errors() -> list[str]
Checks the XER file for missing tables and orphan data, and returns the results as a list of errors.

• Missing tables can occur when an entry in Table 1 points to an entry in Table 2 but Table 2 does not exist at all.
• Orphan data occurs when an entry in Table 1 points to an entry Table 2 but the entry in Table 2 does not exist.

delete_tables(*table_names: str) -> str
Delete a variable number of tables (table_names) from the XER file data and returns a new string (Does not modify XerReader.data attribute).

In the following example the tables associated with User Defined Fields are removed from the XER file contents and stored in a new variable new_xer_data, which can then be written to a new XER file:

new_xer_data = reader.delete_tables("UDFTYPE", "UDFVALUE")

with open("New_XER.xer", "w", encoding=XerReader.CODEC) as new_xer_file:
    new_xer_file.write(new_xer_data)

get_table_names() -> list[str]
Returns a list of table names included in the XER file.

get_table_str(table_name: str) -> str
Returns the tab seperated text for a specific table in the XER file.

has_table(table_name: str) -> bool
Return True if table (table_name) if found in the XER file.

to_dict() -> dict[str, Table]
Returns a dictionary with the table name as the key and a Table object as the value.

to_csv(file_directory: str | Path, table_names: list[str], delimeter: str) -> None
Generate a CSV file for each table in the XER file. CSV files will be created in the current working directory.
Optional file_directory: Pass a string or Path object to specify a folder to store the CSV files in.
Optional table_names: List of tables names to save to CSV files.
Optional delimeter: Change the default delimeter from a tab to another string (e.g. a coma ",").

reader.to_csv(table_names=["TASK", "PROJWBS"], delimeter=",")

to_excel() -> None
Generate an Excel (.xlsx) file with each table in the XER file on its own spreadsheet. The Excel file will be create in the current working directory.

to_json(*tables: str) -> str
Generate a json compliant string representation of the tables in the XER file.
Optional: Pass in specific table names to include in the json string.