Reference numbers for tasks

I can’t believe Asana doesn’t feel the need to have task numbers easily configurable and displayed. Have you not worked on a task tracking system before?

Take Jira for example, they have a task number compromised of the project code, and a number. So as per Erik_Graham’s, and other examples above, an example task number would be BC-213.

I could say in a meeting “Everyone look at BC-213”, or I could ask a client who’s not explaining it to me properly, “Please give me the task number, you’ll see it in the email subject, and it will start with ‘BC-’.”
Or I could search my emails for ‘BC-213’, and quickly find all discussions pertaining to this task.
I could ask my clients and staff to include ‘BC-213’ in all correspondence, so as to avoid future confusion.

Why some some people would feel that a task id is not necessary, is beyond me. Unfortunately, this is a deal-breaker for me.

Unfortunately, further. For each of the the tracking systems I’ve tried recently (Asana, Jira, Trello), there is always some kind of silly way of doing things, or lack of a basic feature, making me not want to use the system.

I’m probably just going to create my own one on Gravity Forms, or maybe just stick to Google Sheets. Or maybe I should invest in a rival to Asana, listen to what people need, and make myself an overnight millionaire.

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Hi David,

Thanks for the support on this topic. The fight continues to get our task numbers!!

We are too far invested into Asana with thousands of tasks to go elsewhere now. Good luck in your quest!

Cheers,
Erik

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Our use case goes as follows:
Asana is being used to manage development tasks. When they pick up a task from Asana they need some unique id to use as an identifier when they start making code changes based on the ticket. Task Titles tend to be too long and often contain characters that cannot be used in code branch names. The Task ID is great, except that you cannot come back to Asana and search against it.

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Hi James, that is exactly the issue for us also. We are using it to track enhancements to our software between us (support) and the developers and it is a bit of a quagmire without reference numbers.

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it’s also good for code checkins. Devs can create a git branch with the ticket no, check in and comment re: # and then the the code change reference is in the ticket. Plus what’s been said above about referencing ticket nos.

Please also note this thread: Can a Task have an automatic assigned ID number? - #10 by Zdenek_Sladek

This is to Asana Support, as this string has been going on for a long time. You now allow Custom Fields with numbers. Thank you. We are now using that for our ticket numbers that correspond to our support ticketing system.

Here is the issue. If I search for one of these numbers in the Search box on top, I get no result. The ticket number has to be in part of the ticket. Please have the search also search the Field Numbers.

Thanks,
Erik

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Sorry, to clarify, I mean the number has to be in the Task for the search to work.

Agreed, totally. I did not realize this shortcoming of custom fields and it is really disturbing.

Mods, this type of request really needs to be elevated. It seems your software & data architects do not realize that when an Asana user goes to the trouble to create a custom field and populate it with DATA, it is because they care a lot about those pieces of info. If we care about data, we want to be able to find it, hence we want to search.

TBH, I have been working with databases for more than three decades (and Asana is a database with a friendly UI and a bit of workflow), and I cannot recall ever seeing a database where data in user-created fields is unsearchable. It is stunning. :open_mouth:

I would be interested to hear from Asana if there is any method to retrieve or view data in a custom field other than just find the task it is associated with through some other means, then open the Task and view the contents of the field.

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Go here to vote for the ability to have custom field data be searchable!

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Thanks Stephanie for the support on this!

Thanks Phil, I voted for it!

Erm pasting a URL every time you talk to your team to discuss a task is not practical. You tell your developers, designers and testers the id number

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Hi Jonathan,
We started using ASANA recently and one of the ways to enter tasks quickly was via forms.
The tool that we used to create these forms was JOTFORM. When you create the form you have the option to add a number field that would increment when you apply the form.
For example in our case we have MR-14, MR16, etc.
So every time someone applies that form a new number is generated.
However, since this is populating fields (which by the looks of it are not searchable, please correct me if I am wrong…) it may not be of use to you unless you link the form field to populate your body text which is searchable. Just an idea…
Hope it helps.

George

Actually you can search for that number … I was wrong.


So this maybe a solution for you…

George

Here is the type of widget you will have to select in JotForm to have a Unique ID type that will increment the numbers you put in.


Here is another picture of how it comes to us.
image

Thanks George for the support on this post. That might be a solution for our enhancement request process from clients. At least we would get some type of reference number that is searchable.

It still boggles my mind that Asana has built a database that can search its own reference numbers that are placed in a url, but the only way to get or see that reference number is to find the task first and copy/paste the 16 digit reference number from the tail end of a url. My passwords aren’t even that long.

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This thread is more than a year old, with no resolution in sight. Boggles my mind!

Hi Peter, yes over a year and Asana does not seem to care about this one. If we were not so heavily invested in the number of projects and tasks in the system we would have found something else that had the ability to have reference numbers. They are spending more time on their own sales process by sending email after email to members of my own team to see if they want to upgrade. Asinine.

Hi Erik, I try using the Task ID on the search bar, and it’s actually display the task. Did you try it recently?

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