Specific Task to Trigger Rules (rather than all tasks)

[Getz_Pro]

Rules are very powerful but can easily level up their power by allowing tasks and subtasks to trigger a rule rather than rules applying globally within a project.

This is simply just another layer of condition.

If (task link(s) == condition {
execute rule
}

Would be nice to select a rule from the ellipse within a task so I can create the rule and as I have tasks that need to trigger it, I can easily add to rather than opening the rule each time.

Use Case:
I only want certain tasks, such as milestones, to add a comment within the task once marked completed.

@VP milestone completed

should not execute on every task

This can be used to trigger a Slack to a channel.

Yes, you can add to the rule triggers ‘Milestone completed’ as you do Approval completed, but there are so many other uses for triggering rules from certain tasks that we can set up rather than waiting for the option to be added to Asana.

I’ll add other use cases here as I think of them:

Use Case Two:
When a subtask is an approval. Currently subies don’t trigger rules so if part of a workflow within a task is getting an approval, this will be handy.

Use Case Three:
There is a rule for Task no longer waiting >> Set due date, however, this is global to the project. I prefer to set this up on a per task basis as not every task is due the same number of days out. I prefer when(task(s) == no longer waiting){set due date} You can of course add a secondary trigger for assignee. So only tasks completed with this assignee, but that isn’t perfect either.

[Marie]

Great feedback @Getz_Pro and thanks for taking the time to share your use case too, that’s even more important I’ll make sure to bring this up with our Product Team, and I’ll kee you posted here once I’ve an update on this topic!

[Getz_Pro]

@Marie I am adding use cases as I think of them. Two more added now.

[Jason_Burks]

Setup: We are a Marketing Agency and have a Board with Columns for each phase all our work typically goes through. In Creative, With Client For Review, In QA, Etc. We then have one Card per project with sub-tasks for all the steps of the projects, with due dates, comments, and assignments happening there.

Request: The addition of rules is amazing. But it considers the overall board to be the project, there are some agile steps to trigger if something is moved to a column. But what would be nice is to setup Rules based on the card (which are the projects in our setup). That way for one card, maybe creative assignments goes to one person, but for another card/project the creative assignments goes to someone else. The escalation team may differ, etc. Having the ability to copy a rule set one card to another then edit would also help. Because the same team may work on the other card, or maybe the same team but one person is changed out, so the edit is helpful. Long story short, just being able to get a little more granular to accommodate would be amazing.

[anon46332317]

Rules have two portions the trigger and the action. It would be great if rules also had criteria, conditions, or a filter to only run the action on specific tasks that meet the criteria. Such as if a specific email address is contained in the description.

[Emily_Roman]

Thanks for sharing your feedback with us @anon46332317! We already have a thread on this topic so I’ve gone ahead and merged your post with Specific Task to Trigger Rules (rather than all tasks) - #5 by Trevor_Carlston to centralize feedback!

[Getz_Pro]

Hi @Jason_Burks

In the interim, you may want to consider creating a custom field with each ‘project’ name. Then use a rule against that field to set assignee.

You can also conjoin Rules for your escalation.
Triggers (all must apply)
Custom Field ‘Project’ is set to {project/column name}
Custom Field ‘Status’ is set to BLOCKED
Action
@mention someone

Copy Rules or more so having Global Rules is a huge miss on Asana’s part.

Hope that helps.

[Getz_Pro]

Having to scrape through a description would be a mess probably.

You can conjoin rules using the + button. Be sure to set whether you want all or any of the triggers to apply.

[Spratt_Consulting]

Having rules/automation at the task level would be extremely useful. My organization represents 100’s of clients, each client has a team, and each matter we work on for that client becomes a project with sets of task/subtasks. We can’t make use of much/any of the built in rules/automation from Asana due to the nature of rules being at the project level. Many of our task/subtask stacks are repetitive/formulaic and using rules for those would be such a time saver.

[anon41829596]

Hi all,

Just checking if there was any news regarding rules at a task level.

For example : I’d love to be able to assign a rule to our Client Review tasks so that 2 days before I get a reminder that feedback is due soon.

Currently rules exist at a project level but not at a task level. I’ve seen a number of people asking about this so it can’t be such a bad idea!

[Phil_Seeman]

Hi @anon41829596,

No news to report on this request, sorry.

[anon13864905]

Howdy Asana Team! Following up here to see if there was any movement on this feature? Having rules at the task level would be incredible.

[Will_Brumas]

Any developments on this feature? This would help our organization a ton!

[Will_Brumas]

I am specifically looking for a rule function that would run as:
Trigger: all the tasks under a certain section have been completed
Action: Specific Milestone gets marked as complete

[anon55373545]

Hi @Will_Brumas,

You may be able to achieve this with the current functionality in Asana.
Step 1: Set up your tasks and sections - here is my example with two sections, one for the tasks and another for the milestone.

Step 2: Make the specific milestone task dependent on the completion of the tasks that are connected to it.

Step 3: Create a new rule with the following set up:
Trigger 1: “Tasks added to a section” (optional) (choose the section that your milestone task is in)
Trigger 2: “Task is no longer blocked” (ie. when the dependent tasks are completed)

Action 1: “Complete task”

[Will_Brumas]

Wow, thank you!!! This is great

[Fred_Yang]

Any movement on this functionality? Would love to have task-specific rules. Our use-case:

• When a task is complete, the only way to inform the assignee of the next subsequent task is to set a rule to add a comment to a task when it’s unblocked so that all contributors get an email

This is our current workaround but would like the ability to send emails/Slack messages to specific people when specific tasks see movement (completed, files attached, comments, etc.)

Attempted to integrate Slack but the above example only allows me to send a Slack message to one person or a channel. Would be great to send a Slack message to the assignee of each task instead.

[anon33610468]

Rules are useless as set up currently. Please add task specific rules. We use a template and each task could use a rule but making the rules universal makes rules utterly useless.

[Getz_Pro]

@anon33610468

Rules are useless as set up currently

I use Rules with great success on many client accounts. Never a project without at least 1 rule. I also use compound triggers to get down to the task level as needed.

Task specific rules, that is a rule that is triggered via one or more task links, would be helpful for sure, but hardly utterly useless.

[mgmt]

@Getz_Pro can you elaborate on the “compound triggers to get down to the task level” comment?

I’m creating a project template with multiple sections and tasks and I want to trigger rules for each task to assign to employees, set due dates and then trigger other tasks once some are completed. Anyways, I really need task level functionality, unless I’m missing something and there’s another way to accomplish what I’m trying to do, which sounds like maybe there is by your comment.

Thanks!