Permission issues - participant can't asign values to custom fields

[Matthias_Walther]

Hello,

I’m having two permissions issues:

(1) We have a project, where we share cards with people outside of the project, but they are part of our organization. When I add them as participants to cards, they can update the description, add comments and even create subtasks and they can asign the default fields like the responsible person, the deadline etc. But they can’t assign values to custom fields. Why is that? Doesn’t make sense to me and I don’t see any option to change this behaviour.

(2) When I make an account a participant of a card, it obtains the rights mentioned in (1). However, if they additionally get comment rights on the whole project (board), they lose the right to create subtasks. They can still make comments, as that’s a project wide right for them now. But they lose card specific rights of a participant. That’s odd, rights and permissions should stack up, not overwrite each other.

Best,
Matthias

[Andrea_Mayer]

Welcome to the Asana Community Forum @Matthias_Walther

@Matthias_Walther

But they can’t assign values to custom fields. Why is that? Doesn’t make sense to me and I don’t see any option to change this behaviour.

Can you please check if these fields are local or if they are added to the organizations field library?
More info here:
https://help.asana.com/hc/en-us/articles/14110099577883-Custom-fields#:~:text=Custom%20fields%20let%20you%20add,work%20happening%20across%20their%20organization.

Also are the custom fields you are referring to added to this project directly or the values appear as the task is multi-homed into this project (but the relevant field was added in the other project)?

2. That has to do with project and task permissions.
   In one scenario you describe the person is added to one task directly, meaning they will gain full access to the task and subtasks.

Adding somebody to the project means the permission level set there applies to all tasks and subtasks in this project:

Project permissions

Now the example you mention can you please check if the task is added to this project only or to an additional as well?

[Matthias_Walther]

Hello Andrea,

thanks for your reply!

@Andrea_Mayer

Can you please check if these fields are local or if they are added to the organizations field library?

Both. At least one field is local to this project, and I also found a global one. By the way, this shouldn’t make any difference. We’re not talking about administrating the project, we’re talking about using Asana to organise our daily business here. Usage should be independent of setup.

@Andrea_Mayer

the task is multi-homed into this project

The test task was specifically created to test this issue. It is part of one project only.

@Andrea_Mayer

Adding somebody to the project means the permission level set there applies to all tasks and subtasks in this project:

Of course. I give the person, I add to the project, project wide permissions. However I also give the person I add to a task, taskwide permission. And they are taken away the moment I add the person/account to the project. I consider this a bug, because permissions should be given independently, and not overwrite one another.

[Andrea_Mayer]

@Matthias_Walther

By the way, this shouldn’t make any difference.

For guest users a bunch if things are different. I remember a couple of discussions such as this one.``

@Emily_Roman

For example, if the project is private, the custom fields are local (only part of this project) and you are only added as assignee of one task, you won’t be able to see the fields.

@Matthias_Walther

However I also give the person I add to a task, taskwide permission. And they are taken away the moment I add the person/account to the project.

If a task is assigned they will have more abilities such as reassigning the task for example, etc since they are basically responsible for the task and will also see it in their my tasks.

[Matthias_Walther]

@Andrea_Mayer

For guest users a bunch if things are different. I remember a couple of discussions such as this one.``

Please read my post again. We were talking about fields, not user accounts.

@Emily_Roman

For example, if the project is private, the custom fields are local (only part of this project) and you are only added as assignee of one task, you won’t be able to see the fields.

This is not true. A user that is not part of the project and is then made a participant (not assigned, just added at the very bottom, don’t confuse that please) in the task, can see everything and even change a lot of things like the description. However, he can’t edit the custom fields.

@Andrea_Mayer

If a task is assigned they will have more abilities such as reassigning the task for example, etc since they are basically responsible for the task and will also see it in their my tasks.

I’m quite sure you did not understand the issue here. Please read my post again. The answer does not in any way make sense.

I’m talking about a set of permissions A given by project membership and a set of permissions B given by being a participant of a task. However, in Asana, permission set A annihilates permission set B and the user loses permission, when the intention is to give him more permissions.

[Andrea_Mayer]

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Yes, so I did test a few scenarios now.

Guest User A is added to a task as a follower in project B.
Guest User A will be able to edit the assignee, due date, subtasks, etc but he won’t be able to edit the custom fields or see them, apart from the ones that have something selected but then it will show as locked

This is what I (as a full org user) see:

This is what the guest user sees:

---

Now I am assigning the task to the Guest User A
This is what the guest user sees now:

The custom field section looks the same but the user can now delete the field and value from the task.

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Now I am adding the Guest User A to project B with comment access.

This is what Guest User A sees when they are a follower of a task within the comment only access project B:

And this is what Guest User A sees when they are assignee of a task within the comment only access project B:

They will now be able to make changes to custom field selections.

Now if Guest User A reassigns the task back, this message will pop-up

Then the guest user will have the same access as per above screenshot (comment access only)

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I understand where you are coming from regarding it being confusing that users have more access to a task within a project they only have comment-access only too, but as far as I understand this has to do since the task then also shows in their My taskx and then the task access applies.

@Matthias_Walther

However, if they additionally get comment rights on the whole project (board), they lose the right to create subtasks.

Ok so for this yes it is correct and indeed a bit weird that they can add subtasks if they are just collaborator of a task but once they get comment only access to the project they cannot add them unless the task is assigned to them.
Might also have to do with the fact that before the task shows to them as if it would be a standalone task (as they don’t even see the project it belongs to) but yeah I agree this can be a bit confusing indeed.