How you can fully customize the description of a form submission task

[Bastien_Siebman]

When a form is submitted in Asana, a task is created. The description of this task contains the answers from the form, but the look and overval layout are quite off-putting. Let’s see how we can use the new Rule action “Set task description” to customize it!

Step 1 - Create a form

Let’s take, for example, a project where we want to collect all requests coming from an Asana form that we share with our clients:

This form contains text fields, a single-select field, and a multi-select field. All form fields are linked to a custom field in the project.

This is how it appears in the form editor:

For the purpose of this test, we do not want to copy all responses to the task description. Therefore, we have disabled the relevant option in the form settings:

Step 2 - Build a Rule

Once the form is ready, we can focus on creating the appropriate Asana Rule. We are looking for an automation that will populate the task description using the custom fields as a data source.

The initial steps to configure are the trigger and conditions: our Rule should be triggered when a new task, originating from the form, is added to the project:

Next, we are prepared to determine the appropriate action. We intend to modify the task description, making this the correct choice to select:

To ensure that it retrieves data from custom fields, we click on the description field to display all options. Then, clicking on the “+” [plus] button, we can select “Variable”.

Next, we click on “Custom fields” and add the desired ones as a data source for the task description, one by one. This will result in something like:

To ensure that the final task description is clearer, we can add additional text, formatting, or any other necessary information according to our needs. For example:

Now, this is how the whole Rule looks like:

Please note: we have renamed it to clearly state its purpose.

Let’s save the new rule and test it!

Step 3 - Test it

Now, let’s submit a sample request using the form we have created and observe the results of our tests on Asana.

• Form submission:
  

  

• Task in Project view:
  

  

• Task description:
  

  

[Arthur_BEGOU]

Awesome tips, thanks @Bastien_Siebman

Small idea : Add emojis for an extra nice description formatting

Client name:
Email:
Plan:
Product requested:

[Eike_F]

Hey everyone,
I build a food order and reservation form.
If you book a room at the company, you get the form and can choose between warm/cold drinks and warm/cold food.
If u choose food, the order is also transferred to the catering company which supplies the company.
You can also book seats or backrooms in different cafeterias at different locations in the city.

The catering company just gets the right amount of information which they really need.

You can do big things with forms. I would like to have an Update of this feature to make it more individual and adjustable.

[Yisel_Novikov]

This is a fantastic tip! Saves so much time from copying and pasting information in task descriptions.

[Bryan_TeamKickstart]

@Bastien_Siebman - excellent tip here! Also allows you to be more selective about which items show up in the task description instead of all or nothing.

And, I also don’t love the rigidity of how the task gets named. So, you could also use a rule to rename the task in an easier to read fashion with the variable data in whatever order you want.

Great, great ideas here Bastien. Thanks for sharing! Nice work!

[Lakievia_Lucky_Johns]

Thanks for sharing this great tip!