If you are a fan of automation, you probably quickly realized that even if Asana has triggers and actions available natively, it doesn’t always have what you need. But maybe Zapier or another tool does. You might even want to code the action or the trigger yourself.
Until recently, you would have been stuck. But this is not the case anymore, for 2 reasons.
Asana released an “Incoming Web Request” trigger, allowing you to start your automation somewhere else and finish it in Asana, to use native actions.
We at iDO created the “Outgoing Web Request” action you can use to finish your automation elsewhere! It works to call a zap, call your own server etc… The best part is: it is free to use!
To implement our custom made actions, simply create a native rule, and in the Action editor, make sure to click on the “External actions” and search for it.
This is exactly what I was looking for. When using Zapier, I was disappointed at some of the “limited” built-in triggers for Asana. Now I can use Asana Rules to create a more specific trigger (e.g,. a specific custom field changes to a specific value) and have it send to the Outgoing Web Request.
Then I can use that web request as a “Catch Hook” trigger in Zapier to kick things off the rest of the way.
Are there any limitations I should be aware of, other than the fact that it only returns the Asana task ID that triggered it?
I don’t believe we have limitations. I was not able to stress test it fully, but because our server receives a ping and then simply does an http request, there shouldn’t be any limit. I don’t know if I mentioned it somewhere, but if you plan on going nuts in terms of volumes, let me know, because if I see a massive spike in terms of server resources, we might decide to put some limitations in place.
@Bastien_Siebman - this webhook is helpful with getting my custom fields. But i’d also love to get some fields such as start on, due on, plus the description, task name, and task type.
Why doesn’t the POST request include task name, due date and other default fields?
And why are all the Custom Fields labeled by their format? (I.e. Custom Field Text Value) This makes it so that all custom field text values get bundled up in a single line in Zapier. Why not print the custom field name instead WITH the value next to it?
I’m thankful for this app, but this functionality feels crucial for it to work, and yet isn’t there.
The initial idea of this custom action we created was simply to call your zap or server, and then you can request Asana yourself and ask for whatever field you want. This way, our call is fast and lightweight. Otherwise, if we listen to everyone, we need to either let you decide the fields, or the payload will grow bigger and bigger.
We already included the custom fields, using the exact format spit out by the API. Not sure what @finfred is referring to since those fields are sent using the official API format.
Hi! I’m trying to set up this step but I haven’t managed to get the custom fields to pass to Slack. I am using the variable convention noted, and I’m having trouble figuring out why it isn’t working as I expect. Can you help with this? Thank you!
@Julian_Goldman I am the creator of this action. I am not sure the format I use to pass the custom fields is exactly what Slack is expecting. Do you know the format they expect? I pass the fields as they come out of the API.
Dear @Bastien_Siebman we would like to use this action, but our company has a strict privacy policy.
I couldn’t find anything specific regarding this Asana action in your privacy policy.
Could you confirm that the post request is directly send from the Asana server to the server configured in the Outgoing Web Request action?
If not could you elaborate how this action works?
@Bastien_Siebman I was struggling to figure out what the fields are coming out of the API. Once I know what is actually being sent in JSON format, then I can move forward on what the hookup needs to be.
Hi, @Bastien_Siebman !
Thanks for the helpful rule actions.
Our team is trying to set “Get request” action, but somehow the error keep happening after put in the URL which says “We were not able to retrieve authentication for the user who installed the rule. Please create another rule or edit the existing rule.”.
I set the rule with the Super admin accounts.
Still can’t figure out what to do with the authentication problem.
Could you please let me know how I can solve this?
Asana released an “Incoming Web Request” trigger, allowing you to start your automation somewhere else and finish it in Asana, to use native actions.
