Email to Task from external service

Tips and Tricks
#1

I need some help, we want to start to use asana, but the most important thing to keep track of at the moment are picking of orders. Our inventory system is not that good at that. It is very easy to send an email with the order document. However I get an error message “We couldn’t process your email because it was sent by…” and the solutions on the forum is regarding mailing from personal email etc. I can not do the confirmation of external email thing, since I do not have an email account under the domain of inventory solution provider.

Is there another way to whitelist an external service/domain/email address?

#2

I believe the only way is to have the source email have an Asana account. Have a look at Zapier, maybe there is a solution there. Otherwise you would have to use the API to build something yourself, with the help of a developer if needed.

#3

I can have the order/inventory system write my email adress as from adress, same as gmail did previous, but it still have the origin domain in the header. No way to white list domains?

#4

There are existing topics on the subject in the forum, @Marie and @Emily_Roman will be able to help.

#5

@Bastien_Siebman, is this what you’re referring to? Receiving tasks via email from non-project members

#6

This one @Marie? Recent email security update. How to fix “We couldn’t process your email”

#7

I have been through the ones I can find without finding a solution.

For example, in the one you linked: The generic “solution” in that one assumes I have control of the mail server and can change the header. “Spoofing” the email server the mail originated from, not just which email it should show to the user the email is from. (If this is a problem for asana users, documenting how to circumvent the “security” update is a bit of a strange move. Especially since it is hard to implement for the normal user)

I have so far not found a topic with the same use case. Most have something like, “I use want to send task from my personal email”. Which is solved with adding email addresses to your account. But to do that you must verify the new account. Which I can not do. Since it is an external service.

#8

So in your case, you need to look at other solutions like Zapier for example. You could be forwarding the email to another account that Zapier is hooked onto, and create a task as a result.

#9

Thank you for your help! If I have to use another paid solution I will look into Quire and similar before continuing trying to get Asana to work for us

#10

@Simon_Svensson

Can you create inbox rules in email to solve this problem?

For instance:

  • Email your inbox linked to your Asana account from your inventory system.
  • Your inbox (based on the rules set up) recognizes this email should be sent to your Asana project, then archives the email you sent to yourself.
3 Likes
#11

@Christine_Bolton what a great idea!!!

1 Like
#12

Hi @Simon_Svensson!

I’m curious to know if you have tried this workaround, and if it was successful?

#13

Unfortunately it wasn’t. Our mail provider/server do not support it.

#14

@Simon_Svensson just a thought. Depending on the client you use (e.g. link for Outlook or link for Apple Mail it’s also possible to set up rules there. Of corse the client pc used would have to be online all of the time. But still better than nothing I assume.

#15

Thanks for the suggestion, but then we are back to self hosted services. And unfortunately the Zapier route only works for a paid tier. Asana might be a dead end for us.