Excel Import and Export

Dragon1 supports direct import of Microsoft Excel files (XLSX, XLS, and CSV) and generating architecture diagrams in the Viewer. Dragon1 also supports saving the imported data as entity objects in the repository via the Architecture Repository web application.

Upload your Excel File And Generate Diagrams in the Viewer

Dragon1 is the SaaS platform for Enterprise Architecture.

On the platform you create blueprints, landscapes, and roadmaps to support decision-making and guide innovation projects.

Popular diagrams to generate are:

Strategy Map
Business Model Canvas
Customer Journey Map
BPNM Process Diagrams
ArchiMate Diagrams
UML Diagrams (like Use Cases)

Many people are very familiar with using Excel to collect data and create reports, and professional software solutions provide Excel data exports, so you too may have a lot of data available in Excel.

You can directly upload or import this data from these Excel files and generate a diagram with it, like the one above.

How to generate an architecture diagram using an Excel sheet

To generate an architecture diagram:

Create a trial account
Login
Download an example Excel Sheet
Edit the Excel Sheet as instructed.
Go to the Import Application: www.dragon1.com/import
Click on the upload button
Select your Excel file (f.i. XLSX)
Download the .dragon1 File.
Go to the Viewer: www.dragon1.com/viewer
Upload the .dragon1 File.

Generating architecture diagrams using Excel as input is possible because of the built-in visualization templates.

The Dragon1 Chatbot uses the native AI Engine to check your data, find the right visualization templates to use, and generate diagrams and dashboards in the Viewer.

If your Excel file (XLSX) has multiple tabs, it will use all tabs in the file to import. With Dragon1 Excel import you will have a data lossless import of your data.

Example Excel File

Here is an example Excel file you can use to check the Import/Upload feature for Excel on Dragon1.

Example Excel File

This screenshot shows the Import of the example Excel file on the Dragon1 platform.

Saving Data As Entity Objects In The Repository

Dragon1 automatically creates entity objects in the repository from your imported/uploaded Excel.

For that, you need to tag the data correctly. You do that by having at least the following columns present in your import file:

uniqueid
name
title
description
class
type
bitmapimage
note

Other or extra fields will be mapped into the data attribute of an entity in the repository in JSON format.

The class name you should use is one of the 300+ predefined Dragon1 entity classes you can choose from.

Export File to Excel (XLSX or CSV)

You cannot only import/upload Excel and save data as entity objects. You can also do a full round trip: you can export any document or visualization you create as Excel so that it can be opened and edited in Microsoft Excel and next you can import the edited file from Excel again.

You can do that by choosing File > Export > Excel (XLSX / CSV) in the Architecture Repository and Visual Designer.

Architecture Center

Many user organizations use Dragon1 as Architecture Center. They create a consistent set of about 20 visualizations on the platform, publish them in the Architecture Center, and embed them on their intranet.

Often this is hard to do without the ability of the Excel Data Import/Upload and with the imported data to create models, views, and architecture visualizations.

Because the feature is available on the Dragon1 platform, you can always succeed in reusing your Excel data or exported data from other systems and quickly and easily creating an Architecture Center on your intranet with it.