Part 3 · Projects, time and knowledge

Schedule (Gantt)

Draw a project or service proposal timeline as bars, publish it to customers without an account, and exchange it as PDF, image or Microsoft Project.

Symbifox 18.0 (September 2026 catalogue) · Modules: Échéancier · Revised 2026-09-12

The Échéancier (schedule) application draws over time what your projects already contain: one bar per task, one lane per stage or per person, a red line on today's date. It is for the people who coordinate an engagement and have to show where it stands, internally and to the customer. The concrete result is a timeline you can read at a glance, which prints, exports and shares through a private address. Nothing is entered twice: the dates come from the tasks, or from the lines of a schedule drawn separately.

Overview#

A schedule is a calendar reading of a body of work. Symbifox knows two kinds. The first is built on a project: each task becomes a bar, from its Début planifié (planned start) to its deadline. The second is a standalone schedule, where you enter lines by hand without creating any task. That serves to illustrate a service proposal or a rollout plan without cluttering your projects. Both kinds are drawn, exported and published the same way.

Three notions come up throughout. The lane is the horizontal grouping of bars: the project stage, the milestone, the person responsible, the company, or nothing. The milestone is an event with no duration, marked by a diamond. Progress is the dark part of the bar, and each lane shows its count of completed lines and its percentage.

The main screen shows the chosen project's timeline, with its full toolbar.

On this screenshot, the Projets (projects) or Autonomes (standalone) toggle chooses the source, and the drop-down list chooses the project. Regrouper (group by) chooses the lane, while Jour, Semaine and Mois (day, week, month) change the scale. The percentage sets the display size, and Export produces the files. The “À planifier” and “En cours” lanes carry their count, here 0 of 3 and 0 of 4.

The application feeds on Project: the dates, the assignees, the stages and the milestones come from there. A line's planned hours travel in the exports, unrelated to the hours actually logged in Timesheets. Sharing with the customer goes through the portal described in Contacts.

Configuration#

Access and permissions#

Two levels exist, on the Échéancier line of each person's user form, in Settings › Users & Companies › Users.

Settings#

The application has no configuration screen. Its two settings live on each project, in the Échéancier tab of its form. Regroupement de l'échéancier (schedule grouping) sets the lane used when the schedule opens, here and on the portal. Échéancier publié (schedule published) opens or closes the private address. The display size, for its part, is set on screen and is not remembered: it follows the screen, the image and the SVG, never the PDF, whose drawing is calibrated for print.

The colours, the logo and the tagline of the files produced are read from the company record. Nothing needs setting: see Settings and brand identity.

Base data#

Before drawing, gather the following:

• a project with dated tasks, or a standalone schedule with its lines;
• on the tasks, a Début planifié wherever the real date matters, otherwise the schedule estimates it and says so;
• the project stages or the milestones, if you plan to group by one or the other;
• for a standalone schedule, the names of the lanes, in free text: a phase, a work package, a team.

Getting started#

This walkthrough opens the timeline of a Boréal project, corrects an estimated date, then produces a PDF in the company's colours.

1. Open Échéancier. The timeline of the last project you viewed appears.
2. In the toolbar drop-down list, choose Boréal's internal project. Seven lines appear, grouped by project stage.
3. Find a bar whose left edge is dotted: its start date is estimated. Hover over it to read where the date comes from.
4. Open the matching task in Project › Tasks › All Tasks, enter the Début planifié, then select Save.
5. Go back to Échéancier and select the refresh button in the toolbar. The dotted edge is gone and the bar starts on the right date.
6. In Regrouper, choose Responsable (person responsible). The lanes become people.
7. Select Export, then the PDF format.

Result: a vector PDF downloads, with Boréal's logo and colours, showing exactly the timeline you have on screen.

Common tasks#

Open a project's schedule#

A project's timeline can be viewed from the application, from the project, or from a task.

1. Open Échéancier › Échéancier.
2. Check that the toggle is set to Projets.
3. Choose the project in the drop-down list.
4. If needed, change the scale with Jour, Semaine or Mois.

Result: the bars redraw at the requested scale. From a project form, the Échéancier shortcut button at the top of the form opens the same screen; from a task, the schedule opens on the task's project.

Give a task a start date#

Without a start date, the schedule assumes one. This field puts an end to the guesswork.

1. Go to Project › Tasks › All Tasks.
2. In the search bar, apply the Sans début planifié (no planned start) filter.
3. Open a task.
4. Enter the Début planifié.
5. Select Save.

Result: this task's bar loses its dotted edge, and the Origine du début (start origin) field now shows Début planifié instead of an estimate.

Change how bars are grouped#

The same timeline reads differently depending on the lane chosen: by workflow, by person, by milestone.

1. Open Échéancier › Échéancier and choose the project.
2. Open the Regrouper list.
3. Choose Étape du projet (project stage), Jalon (milestone), Responsable, Société (company) or Aucun (none).

Result: the lanes re-form and each one recalculates its count and its percentage. To keep this choice as the opening grouping, including on the portal, carry it over to Regroupement de l'échéancier, on the project's Échéancier tab.

Export a schedule#

The five outputs are drawn from the same calculation as the screen, which guarantees a file identical to what you see.

1. Open the schedule you want.
2. Set the grouping and the scale.
3. Select Export.
4. Choose the format: PDF, PNG image, SVG, spreadsheet or Microsoft Project file.

Result: the file downloads, with the company's logo and colours. The PDF and the SVG stay sharp at any size. The spreadsheet gives one line per task with its dates, its progress and its planned hours, and the Microsoft Project file reopens in Project or in OpenProject.

Publish a schedule to the customer#

Publishing opens a private read-only address that you give to people who have no account. Prerequisite: the Gestion et publication level.

1. Go to Project › Projects and open the project form.
2. Open the Échéancier tab.
3. Select Publier au portail (publish to portal).
4. Select Afficher l'adresse complète (show the full address) and copy the address.
5. Send the address by email.

Result: the page opens for anyone who has the address, with the same timeline and the same files to download. A customer who already has a portal account needs nothing: a button appears on their project page and a card in their customer portal.

Close or renew a published address#

Closing the page and changing its address are two separate actions, and that is deliberate.

1. Open the project form, Échéancier tab, or the standalone schedule's form.
2. To close without changing the address, select Retirer du portail (remove from the portal).
3. To cut off the links already handed out, select Régénérer le token (regenerate the token).

Result: after Retirer du portail, the address refuses access to everyone, and you can reopen later with the same address. After Régénérer le token, the old address is worth nothing and a new one takes its place.

Create a standalone schedule#

A standalone schedule shows a timeline without creating tasks: in a quote, in an implementation plan, in front of a committee.

1. Go to Échéancier › Échéanciers autonomes (standalone schedules).
2. Select New and enter the Nom (name).
3. Choose the Client (customer), the Responsable and, if needed, the Projet cité (referenced project).
4. In the Lignes (lines) tab, select Add a line, then enter the Couloir (lane), the Ligne (line), the Début (start) and the Fin (end).
5. For an event with no duration, check Jalon: the end date is then ignored.
6. Repeat for each line, then select Save.
7. Select Ouvrir l'échéancier (open the schedule) to see the drawing.

Result: the schedule appears in the list, with its number of lines and its status. No task is created, no project is touched, no hours are counted.

Here is the form of a Boréal standalone schedule, published to the portal.

Chain two lines of a standalone schedule#

A line that waits for another one gets an arrow on the drawing, without you having to draw it.

1. Open the standalone schedule, Lignes tab.
2. Open the line that depends on another.
3. In Précédée par (preceded by), choose the line or lines that come before it.
4. Select Save.

Result: on the drawing, an arrow links the end of the previous line to the start of the next one. The schedule reschedules nothing for all that: it reads the dates, it does not recalculate them.

Import an existing timeline#

A timeline already kept in Microsoft Project, in OpenProject or in a spreadsheet can be brought in without re-entry. Prerequisite: the Gestion et publication level.

1. Go to Échéancier › Importer (import).
2. Select Upload your file and choose the file.
3. In Échéancier cible (target schedule), choose an existing standalone schedule, or leave it empty to create one named after the file.
4. Select Lire le fichier (read the file). A summary of what the file contains and the list of lines read appear.
5. Clear Retenir (keep) on the lines to leave out.
6. Check Remplacer les lignes existantes (replace the existing lines) to start fresh, or leave it cleared to add to the lines already there.
7. Select Importer.

Result: the lines you kept are written to the target schedule, with their lanes, their dates, their progress, their milestones and their links.

The dialog opens on the choice of file and states the two formats it can read.

The menus, one by one#

Échéancier: grouping menu, visible only to people who have at least the Lecture level.

Échéancier › Échéancier: the timeline itself, on the project or standalone schedule chosen in the toolbar. This is the application's home screen, shown earlier. The toolbar carries the Projets or Autonomes toggle, the selector, Regrouper, the three scales, the display size, the refresh button and Export. Under the title, a line announces the number of lines and the period covered.

Échéancier › Échéanciers autonomes: the list of schedules drawn outside projects, with the Nom, Client, Responsable, Début, Fin, Lignes, Portail (portal) and Statut (status) columns. Boréal has only one, a service proposal in three work packages for Papeterie Trois-Rivières, published to the portal. Useful filters: Les miens (mine), Publiés au portail (published to the portal), En cours (in progress), Archivés (archived). Groupings by Client, Responsable and État (state).

Échéancier › Importer: the import dialog, described earlier. It opens directly in a window, with no list first, and is offered only at the Gestion et publication level.

Project › Échéancier: the same entry, placed in the Project application to keep it at hand while working on tasks.

Reference#

Fields of the standalone schedule form#

Fields of a schedule line#

Fields of the Importer un échéancier dialog#

Fields added to the task and the project#

Reports and exports#

• PDF: vector drawing calibrated for print, with the company's logo and colours.
• PNG image: for a slide or a meeting report.
• SVG: sharp at any size, with the logo embedded if the logo is itself in SVG format.
• Spreadsheet: one line per task, with dates, progress and planned hours; it can be re-imported as is.
• Microsoft Project file: readable by Project and by OpenProject, and re-importable here.

Each output downloads, or is filed as an attachment on the project or on the schedule. The same files are offered to the customer on the published page.

Automations#

The schedule runs no background job and sends no email. Two things still happen on their own: a missing start date is filled in with the best available estimate, always flagged by a dotted edge, and the chaining arrows are drawn from the declared dependencies.

Public pages and portal#

• The published page shows the timeline read-only, with download buttons for the PDF, the image, the SVG, the spreadsheet and the Microsoft Project file.
• A customer who has a portal account sees an Échéancier button on their project page and a Mes échéanciers (my schedules) card in their customer portal.
• Three locks guard the page: the private address, the Publié au portail box, and the same check on the files as on the page.

Modules that extend this application#

Understanding#

One calculation, six displays. The screen, the PDF, the image, the SVG, the spreadsheet and the Microsoft Project file all come out of the same geometry calculation, done on the server. The browser repositions nothing on its side: it asks for the coordinates and draws them. That is what guarantees the printout looks like the screen, down to the line. The price of this choice is a round trip to the server when you change scale.

An assumed date is never hidden. Odoo Community gives tasks no start date. Rather than invent one silently, the schedule takes the best source available and announces it: dotted edge on the bar, origin named in the tooltip, Origine du début field on the task. The added field carries the same name as its equivalent in Odoo's Enterprise edition, so that a migration loses nothing.

The schedule reads, it does not write. No bar moves with the mouse. Dates are changed on the task, or on the line of the standalone schedule. This choice prevents an unlucky drag from rewriting deadlines that other screens, other reports and other people rely on.

Publishing is a decision, not a side effect. The private address exists from creation, but it gives nothing while the publication box is cleared. The refusal does not come from the interface, which could be worked around: it comes from the data rules. And the files are guarded like the page, otherwise guessing the address of the PDF would be enough to get around everything.

What the schedule does not do. No critical path, no automatic scheduling, no resource levelling. These features are costly to get right, and few twenty-person organizations ask for them. Microsoft Project's binary format is not read either: only a library written in Java can do it, and Project knows how to export the format that is read here anyway.

Troubleshooting#

See also#

• Project: the tasks, stages, milestones and dates that the schedule draws.
• Timesheets: the hours actually spent, next to the planned hours.
• Contacts: the portal accounts of customers who consult a published schedule.
• My desk, Dashboard and Progress: the progress path, offered as a grouping.
• Settings and brand identity: the logo and colours reused by the exported files.