@David_Ruder You’re so generous to offer! We spent some time cleaning a file for you but in the process, we realized that one can’t use a task name as a dependency if it includes a comma, because the importer reads the comma as a separator. We can work around that! Thank you so much for offering to help!
Thank you this is very helpful!!
It appears you can only create dependencies to Tasks and Sections already above the current row. No skipping around among sections - create them all in order. Dependencies must flow from top to bottom.
Hi @Phil_Seeman , kindly help me out.
I follow the instructions as the link, its display Dependents in List, but when I go to Timeline, its show as independents task. How can I set its dependencies in Timeline also? Many thanks
In List:
In Timeline
Hi @Trang_Dang1,
The “dependencies” showing in the list view are not actual Asana dependencies (which is why they don’t show as dependencies in the timeline). What it looks like your CSV import did is create a custom field called “Dependents” which to Asana is just a text field that has no special meaning to it.
You’ll need to go back to the import process and figure out what you need to change to have it create real dependencies. I’m afraid I’m not a CSV import expert; @LEGGO, might you have any tips on how to properly create dependencies on a CSV import?
@Phil_Seeman is spot on with what is happening with your import. Now we just need to figure out why that is the case.
@Trang_Dang1 it looks from the image you have done everything correctly as outlined in the Asana Guide, as it pertains to dependency mapping. The main points being that data in the Dependents column should correspond to the dependent task names exactly and dependent tasks should be located above the current row.
If you want to message me a sample of your import file (csv) I’ll gladly take a quick look to see if anything else seems off they might be causing this behavior.
@Trang_Dang1 thanks for sending the CSV file. It appears that the issue is the way in which Asana has chosen to identify when there are multiple “blocked by” dependencies for a task. They use the comma as a delimiter for this so that is why you are unable to select the Dependents column as the one defining how dependencies will be mapped due to the error:
In your case, for the “Apply for routine” task Asana thinks there are 3 dependencies:
- Implement the trial
- feedback
- revise
instead of just the one dependency of: Implement the trial, feedback, revise
I have posted this issue here: Unable to map dependencies using the CSV Importer when the "blocked by" dependency includes a *comma* in the Task Name
if you replace your commas with a semicolon or hyphen, for the time being, in your CSV then everything maps perfectly! I do hope this is addressed because I personally think commas are more common when starting actionable task names in Asana. IMO a semicolon would be more appropriate delimiter (or some other uncommon character)