Uploading Excel Files

This page describes exactly how your Excel files must be structured so the app can parse them and run validation.

What files do I need?

You must upload three workbooks:

1. Allocations (required)
2. PLA Preferences (required)
3. TA Preferences (required)

You may also include an Assignments sheet inside any workbook (optional). If present, it will be merged with Allocations to produce the final Allocations JSON.

Accepted file types

• .xlsx (application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet)
• .xls (application/vnd.ms-excel)

Any other types will be rejected.

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How sheet names are detected

For each uploaded workbook:

• If the workbook has one sheet, its workbook filename must be exactly one of:
  • Assignments
  • PLA Preferences
  • TA Preferences
• If the workbook has multiple sheets, each sheet tab name must be one of:
  • Allocations
  • PLA Preferences
  • TA Preferences
  • Assignments (optional)

The parser will read every sheet with one of the names above from the three uploaded files.
Only three files can be uploaded: Allocations, PLA Preferences, and TA Preferences.

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Data model by sheet

Below are the required columns and shapes before parsing. Your Excel columns must map to these headers (case-insensitive; leading/trailing spaces are ignored). Empty cells become null unless otherwise noted. Every single sheet must have the headers as the first row of the excel file.

1) Allocations (required)

• Represents course-section rows without people assigned (TAs/PLAs/GLAs).
• Includes Student Hour Allocation column.

Each row must include:

Course & section

• Academic Period — string (e.g., 2025 Fall A Term)
• Section - A single string formatted like:
  CS 2022-AL01/ MA 2201-AL01 - Discrete Mathematics
  This will be pre-parsed into:
  • Course — AAAn format like CS 1102 (^[A-Z]{2,4} \d{3,4}$)
  • Subsection — like AL01, A01 (^[A-Z]{1,3}\d{2,3}$)
  • Title — arbitrary string

Scheduling & metadata

• CrossListed — boolean (see Boolean coercion below)
• Meeting Pattern(s) — string | null (free text OK)
• Instructors — string | null
• Reserved Cap — number | null
• Cap Breakdown — string | null
• Section Cap — number | null
• Enrollment — number (required)
• Waitlist Count — number (required)

1) Assignments (optional)

Same as the Allocations, but without the Student Hour Allocation column

Additionally, each row must include:

Assigned people (strings that get parsed into arrays):

• TAs — string list like:
  Doe, Jane; Smith, John
  Each entry becomes { First, Last, Locked: false, Hours: defaultTAHours }
• PLAs — same format; Hours default to defaultPLAHours()
• GLAs — same format; Hours default to defaultGLAHours()

Tip: In the people lists, newlines, tabs, and periods are normalized to commas. The canonical delimiter between people is semicolon ;. Each person is "Last, First".

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2) PLA Preferences (required)

3) TA Preferences (required)

Both sheets share the same row schema. Each row represents an assistant + their preferences and availability.

Base fields (required)

• First — string
• Last — string
• Email — valid WPI email (must end with @wpi.edu)
• Comments — string | null
• Available — boolean (see Availability normalization)

Preference columns (flexible headers)

You may include any number of extra columns where each header is either:

• A course code: ^[A-Z]{2,4} \d{3,4}$ (e.g., CS 1102)
• A meeting pattern: M-T-W-R-F letters with dashes, pipe, and time range
  Format: ^(?<days>MTWRF))\s|\s*(?<start>\d{1,2}:\d{2}\s[AP]M)\s*-\s*(?<end>\d{1,2}:\d{2}\s[AP]M)$

Example: M-T-R-F | 9:00 AM - 9:50 AM Note the | in the middle of the string.

Each extra column’s cell value is coerced to boolean (see Boolean coercion).
Any header that is not a valid course code or meeting pattern will cause validation to fail.

Availability normalization

You can provide any columns whose header starts with Available (e.g., Available, Availability, Available (A term)). All such columns are:

• Parsed to booleans and OR-ed together
• Collapsed into a single final Available boolean
• If you provide no Available* header, Available defaults to true

Boolean coercion (Preferences)

For all preference booleans (including Available and all extra columns):

• Y, YES, TRUE, T, nonzero numbers → true
• N, NO, FALSE, F, 0, empty string, null/undefined → false
• Any other string → false

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