@Matt_Bramlage or @Alexis Is there a reason that Team and Section are not part of the CSV export? Or am I getting this wrong. A free user said that CSV export is only available for Premium? Is that correct?
Thanks
I have a second free account I use for demoing and it seems to have the ability to export CSV files.
I believe that the CSV Export File has a potential bug described as follows.
If you request all tasks and subtasks assigned to an individual and they are assigned a subtask but not the parent task, the CSV file will not show the Project that the subtask is in (even though if you open the subtask it shows that it is is in the Parent Project). The CSV filet treats it as though their is no project. It will show the parent task (which is not assigned to the individual in my example) but then leaves the project blank. This is a definite bug or error in the CSV file export as you cannot sort by Project in a spreadsheet… Their is clearly a project assigned to the subtask but the column for project shows blank. I am trying hard to develop a tool to improve hard copy reporting which has been a fairly significant complaint that I am planning on giving away for free but this kind of makes it incomplete. I have already mentioned that CSV exports do not include Team and Sections, so these missing components combined with the bug make it difficult.
I would respectfully request that Asana, please confirm my observations and let me know if this is the kind of thing that is going to be on the roadmap for correction so I can determine whether to complete the tool. Thanks
Hi Jim! Alas this is not a bug. The CSV doesn’t show which project the subtask belongs to because subtasks don’t actually belong to any project by default. They must be explicitly homed in the project in Asana if this is needed (adding them to the main project task list).
For additional clarification:
CSV exports are available to both free and premium users. Advanced Search is only available to premium though. CSVs always have the same format, regardless of whether they are a project or search export. They have the following columns:
Task ID
Created At
Completed At
Last Modified
Name
Assignee
Due Date
Tags
Notes
Projects
Parent Task
and finally a column for each custom field. An export from search would include custom fields from all associated projects in search.
CSVs do not include a “Team” or “Section” column. Sections appear just like a task in the CSV, but will have a colon ( : ) at the end of the task name.
If a task is a subtask, its parent task will be indicated in the Parent Task column. The Parent Task column is the only real way to determine if it is a subtask from the CSV file.
@alexis A few questions then:
- I don’t think that subtasks can be assigned to multiple projects correct? they would need a parent task.
- On the attached screenshot it does show the name of the project in the subtask so why wouldn’t you populate the subtask with the project?
- If the assignee is not assigned to the Parent task, there is no way in the CSV file to find the Project(s) that the parent task is assigned to if you are searching on assigned to a person as the parent task does not show up. Thus I have a dangling subtask, with no way to link back to a project only to the parent, but the Parent is nowhere to be found in the search other than the subtask because the parent is not assigned to the requested advanced search.
Am I missing something? Thanks for the detailed explanation.
Happy to help!
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You can assign a subtask to one or multiple projects by using the shortcut Tab+P
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As for the why, I’m not sure why this decision was made. But the subtask does need to be assigned to a project to appear in the way you’d like it to.
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I believe assigning to a project solves this problem?
Let me try, why doesn’t the subtask have a + and pencil like the parent task does for adding projects.
Thanks
@alexis I hope you can see why it was confusing to me by the screenshot of the sub-task.
. The Project automatically shows up but yet what you are saying is it is not really in the subtask but needs to be added with the Tab P because the + and pencil are missing. This is very confusing even to an old (length of use and age) user like me. I think the proper solution is that subtasks should automatically have at least the project of their parent and then you can add more projects to them as needed.
Thanks
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@alexis I do think that Sections would be much easier to be columnar in the tasks that are under them versus a standalone line. This would be much easier to use in google sheets and other report writers and CSV conversion tools as it would be directly connected to tasks which in reality is what they are there for.
@Alexis Support wrote me back and said they are working on subtasks inheriting Parent projects. That would help. Still suggest for consideration section be in a column with tasks in the section. Thanks again
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Bridge24 for Asana is offering the export of your tasks, subtasks, comments and documents to Excel or CSV. It’s available to all accounts (free and premium). Check bridge24.com/asana
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I’m curious why the Description column is exporting into CSV as “Notes”. Doesn’t make sense for UI and export not to match.
Excluding a Section column from the CSV perhaps made sense with only List views, but now with Boards, the Section is even more crucial to the organization of Tasks. In fact Tasks and Subtasks can be in different Columns, but doesn’t seem to be visible in the Export.
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Why in export (json) comments don’t exist?
It’s possible to export comments using the API! Take a look at the documentation here Build an app with Asana
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I think a tool like ASANA can’t think its customers need to use API to
export their datas.
Anymay I’ll check it: thanks.
When I try to export my project to CSV, the parent task field is empty even though my tasks have dependencies. Has anyone encountered this?
Are you saying a subtask does not show the parent or are you thinking a dependent task should show its precedent task. Very different. I am not sure a CSV export of a dependent task will show its precedent task.
Thanks James. I exported both Parent and dependent tasks and see no information in the “Parent Task” column. I would expect to see the parent task IDs in the rows where I have assigned tasks as “dependent on” a certain task (ie. Parent task).
Ok I figured it out - Parent Task here is actually for subtasks not for dependencies - I assumed wrong. Lookks like the export does not export dependencies. Thanks!