Control Center - Rename Project

Andreea G.

Hi!

My project name is project # + customer + project type. Sheets are project # + customer, per the BP set-up. I'd like to change the project # of an already provisioned project, project name and all sheets) How can I do that?

I'd like my intake sheet and reporting to still match so I don't want to just rename the sheets.

Brian_Richardson

Would be a good one to add to the Product Enhancements pile here on Community!

Brian_Richardson

Control Center cannot rename files once they are provisioned, so you'll need to rename them by hand. You can change the name in the intake sheet to pass that name through in the data, but that won't change the names of your sheets/reports/dashboards/folders.

Scott Peters

Hello @Andreea G. - All advice from Smartsheet Consulting is… Don't go there. When we make a mistake early in a project (like mis-spelling a project name), we archive it as canceled and provision a new project. Sometimes there is a request to rename, and the effort to archive/re-provision and copy content from old to new must be weighed against the risks and effort of renaming. So far, here are my findings:

If you use a single tier blueprint, meaning each project is in its own workspace:

1. Rename the Workspace
2. To @Brian_Richardson 's point, rename each project asset one at a time. Make sure to check every subfolder, and rename every sheet, report, and dashboard
3. If any of your sheets have forms, the name of the form may need to be renamed (only applies if you left the sheet name as the default as the default name of the form when it was first created)
4. If you use Dynamic View, rename each View manually. Renaming sheets, reports, and dashboards does not affect the name of a Dynamic View
5. If you use WorkApp, rename each page of the WorkApp manually. Renaming sheets, forms reports, dashboards, or Dynamic Views does not affect the name of the assets in WorkApp
6. Rename the Project in your Intake sheet (project name column)
7. If you have any fields in your metadata or intake sheets that are URLs pointing to a key asset such as a project dashboard, you will also need to update the URL Display Text. Our Control Center config writes the URL to our intake sheet, and then links it to the metadata. Be sure to edit at the source so as not to break any cell links created by Control Center
8. If you have any project rollup summary sheets, you will need to edit the project name there as well
9. Update the project name in Control Center (Edit Project Profile Data). Similar to updating a blueprint, if your project name field is a linked field, "updating" the project picks up your intake sheet changes, even though you do not actualy type any edits into Control Center

If you use a 2-tier blueprint, meaning each project is in a program:

• Instead of renaming the Workspace, rename the individual project folders
• Rename the Project in the related program's 'Project Program Summary Rollup', probably found in the Workspace/Program Folder/Admin Folder
• All other steps apply

Worth Noting:

1. The name of the project in Control Center will NOT change, I have not found a way to do that
2. If you have any reports that use these sheets as a source, they will update dynamically with no issue. However, if any of your reports has a filter using the 'Sheet Name Equals / Contains, etc.' concept, your report may break
3. Your Control Center Archive scripts will only display the original project name. your archive summary sheet will reflect your new project name, but the archive logs will reflect the original project name
4. I have not tested the order of these steps, other than the obvious that step 9 (updating Control Center) cannot occur until you rename the the project in your Intake sheet
5. Because We use a 2-tier blueprint, I was not able to test Portfolio Workapps

Brian_Richardson

omg. Great write up but honestly I would advise starting over rather than going through all that!!

Andreea G.

@Brian_Richardson @Scott Peters thank you so much for your responses! I knew I had to rename each asset at a time, and I also updated the Intake Sheet. Updating the Intake Sheet helped with updating the Metadata sheet of course, but not the URLs and the Workapps. I was hoping these get updated when I hit the update reporting button. But I agree, so much manual effort is not worth it. The problem I have is when there has been work done already in the sheets, they cannot simply be replaced.

I hope Smartsheet comes up with a better way for renaming in the future.

Brian_Richardson

Would be a good one to add to the Product Enhancements pile here on Community!