I’m using @Bastien_Siebman’s handy Custom Field Explorer so I can perform some spring cleaning on my Asana projects and have identified that the API appears to return values in Drop-down Custom Fields that are no longer there anymore. It is my understanding that Bastien’s tool doesn’t filter anything so the API must be returning this ghost option.
I’ve performed some manual checks and it doesn’t appears as though I have any tasks assigned to criteria that is no longer available within the drop-down. Beyond making sure my data is accurately represented, I also want to ensure this won’t count against my limitation of 100 items per drop-down field. Thanks for the guidance and support, in advance!
In every instance I have found that the “extra” value is labeled as “Option 2” as seen in this example:
Yeah, so when you “delete” a custom field dropdown (“enum”) option in the Asana UI, it doesn’t actually delete the field in the data store, it just marks it as “Disabled” - from the docs:
It is not possible to remove or delete an enum option . Instead, enum options can be disabled by updating the enabled field to false with the PUT /enum_options/enum_option_gid endpoint. Other attributes can be updated similarly.
On creation of an enum option, enabled is always set to true , meaning the enum option is a selectable value for the custom field. Setting enabled=false is equivalent to “trashing” the enum option in the Asana web app within the “Edit Fields” dialog. The enum option will no longer be selectable but, if the enum option value was previously set within a task, the task will retain the value.
@Bastien_Siebman, you might want to either hide disabled options in your Explorer, or maybe add a column to show if they’re enabled or disabled.
Now we get to the $64,000 question, which is not answered in the docs, so we ask the Wizard: @Ross_Grambo, are disabled enum options counted in the 50-option limit, or no?
@Bastien_Siebman with the changes to your Custom Field Explorer, I like the idea of having the ability to see what enum options are disabled. Perhaps a separate option or “version” of the tool? Where this is beneficial is to see where dropdowns might be set to enum options that are no longer available. Those appear like this in Asana:
