“Tab+N” new shortcut to create Sections

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Thanks, @Joe_Trollo, I understand that your group is not leading this, but I hope you can appreciate the cause for concern.

@Marie, could you escalate this post to the product team? @Phil_Seeman, @Bastien_Siebman, and I are all very surprised and alarmed (I consulted them to make sure I wasn’t either mistaken or overreacting). Also note @Vince_Mustachio’s concern in "Tab+N" our new shortcut to create Sections - #23 by Vince_Mustachio on CSV-export and other, non-API-related issues resulting from this change.

Because of the unannounced and now partially-implemented product change that an ending colon no longer designates a task section or subtask section, and an unclear future direction:

  1. There was no notice given and as of right now it’s not possible in the API or CSV exports to distinguish a task section due to a partial roll-out.

  2. While it will be possible eventually to use resource_subtype to distinguish, it’s not clear when, and even then code will need to change again when column-sections appear.

  3. Subtask sections are impossible to distinguish via the API/CSV now and there’s no plan to restore this in the future. This is a significant product change that was implemented without any warning.

These changes already have broken third-party apps and CSV-export-based workflows.

The API team goes to great lengths to prepare third-party developers for any changes both with detailed, advanced communications and their thoughtful deprecation framework. This UI change on the other hand, though it has great ramifications to both third-party developers and Asana customers with export workflows, came without any warning leaving us in the lurch presently, and with a significant, long-standing feature gone without notice.

We request you roll back, as soon as possible, the UI change that an ending colon no longer designates a task section or subtask section until 1) proper notification of such a change is offered, and 2) a clear plan is presented that includes exposing through the API the core feature of distinguishing subtask sections. Thanks for your consideration.

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