Using Built-In Asana Forms

Asana has a forms module which comes in handy for allowing non-Asana users to easily create tasks by submitting the form. Asana forms are available for Asana customers on the Premium, Business, or Enterprise plan. Some features like branching, header customization, confirmation message customization are only available on Business or Enterprise plans.

Asana forms work well for very simple usage, but have limitations:

  1. Asana forms can't be used to set dynamic start and due dates
  2. The styling and customization options are fairly limited
  3. Task name format is rather limited
  4. Asana forms don't support a multi-step layout

Using FormCrafts to make Asana Forms

This is where FormCrafts comes in. FormCrafts is a powerful drag-and-drop form builder that allows you to make highly customizable forms. FormCrafts has built-in integration with Asana which allows you to create Asana tasks on new form responses, just like Asana forms do.

What can FormCrafts do that Asana forms can't?

  1. Auto-create a form based on your Asana project
  2. Set dynamic task start date and task due date
  3. Set dynamic task assignee and task followers. For example, if a particular form value is Option A then task assignee should be jack@example.com, or you could add the form responder as a task follower.
  4. Customize the task name. For example, New Employee - [Name] - [Department]
  5. Create the task in one or more projects. You can also choose to add tasks to specific sections within projects.
  6. Create a task as a sub-task
  7. Pre-fill form values via URL attributes
  8. Create multi-step Asana forms
  9. Accept multiple file attachments

In the tutorial below we will learn how to create a simple form in FormCrafts, and connect it to Asana. After that we will learn how to implement the above advanced features in our form.

How to Create an Asana Request Form

Say we have a project called Brand Redesign and we want to create a request form to allow people to submit design suggestions. We need people to fill out their personal info, select the suggestion type, and enter some comments.

Create a new request form

Create a free account on FormCrafts.com here. On your dashboard click on New Form -> Blank Form and enter a name.

On the form edit page you can add some basic fields via the Add Field button on the top-right.

  1. Add a Text field and enter the form title with some description text
  2. Add a One-line-text field for the Name, and an Email field
  3. Add a Checkbox field for Suggestion type
  4. Add a Comment field for Comments

Our Asana brand redesign suggestion form should look like this:

Asana brand redesign suggestion form
Asana brand redesign suggestion form

Configure task creation in Asana

Our form is ready to accept responses. Now we need to enable the Asana addon on the form so we can automatically create tasks based on new responses. Go to Addons (top-left) -> General and click Enable next to Asana. Follow the steps in the pop-up window to authorize FormCrafts.

Once that is done you can select the workspace you are on, and then the project / section you want to add new tasks to. In our case we want new tasks to be created in the Brand redesign campaign project, under the Suggestions section.

Enable Asana addon on the form
Enable Asana addon on the form

Now we need to configure how the created task would look like. Let's begin with the task name. Under (form field) select Custom Text, and under (Asana field) select Task name. Click Add. Now, type in New suggestion where it says Type ... This means all new tasks will have the task name New suggestion. We will learn later on in this tutorial how to create dynamic task names.

Create two more field mappings.

  1. Map Suggestion type (under form field) to Suggestion type
  2. Map Response summary (under form field) to Task note
Asana field mappings
Asana field mappings

Response summary basically summarizes all form data, and adds it as a note to the task. Before we test the form, we need to look at our Suggestion type field. This is a checkbox field, and we need to ensure that the options for this field match the options in Asana. An easy way to ensure this is: Edit the Suggestion type field. Next to Options List click on Autofill -> Asana -> Suggestion type.

Mapping Asana custom fields
Mapping Asana custom fields

Our Asana form is ready. You can click on Preview (top-right) and submit the form. It should create a new Asana task in your account.

Advanced Asana Form Features

Auto-create an Asana project form

FormCrafts has a form wizard feature which allows you to auto-create a form based on the Asana project structure. The wizard will add fields to your form, and correctly map them to Asana project fields. To use the form wizard, go to Addons -> General -> Asana and click on Auto-create a form based on my project.

Select the fields you want in the form and click Create my form. Note that this will over-write your existing form.

Set dynamic start and due dates

FormCrafts allows you to set a task start date and a task due date. You can specify a fixed date, like 2020-06-15, or you can use a readable date string like +14 days (which would make the task due 14 days after it was created), or next Thursday (which would make the task due on the first Thursday after creation).

Some other valid date string examples are:

now
10 September 2000
+1 day
+1 week 2 days

Go to Addons -> General -> Asana. Under (form field) select Custom Text and under (Asana field) select Start on. Click Add. Where it says Type ... you can type in the date, or a readable date string like above.

You can follow the same steps to set the task due date.

Asana dynamic start and due date
Asana dynamic start and due date

Set dynamic assignee and followers

By default our task will have no assignee and no followers. FormCrafts allows you to configure the assignee and followers / collaborators in different ways. For this example, we want the assignee to be joe@example.com. We want two followers: the first one being jane@example.com, and the second one being the form responder.

Select Custom Text under (form field) and Task assignee under (Asana field). Click Add. Now type in joe@example.com where it says Type .... Follow the same steps to add a Task follower with the email jane@example.com. Next we will map the Email field to Task followers and click Add. This would make the second follower the form responder.

Asana dynamic task assignee and task followers
Asana dynamic task assignee and task followers

Set a dynamic task name

In the tutorial above we used New suggestion as the Task name. If we want the Suggestion type to be a part of the Task name we could modify the Task name to be:

New suggestion - [Suggestion type]

Using a field label in square brackets allows us to reference the field's value. In this manner we can use any field as a part of our Task name.

Add task to multiple projects

When configuring the field mapping there is an option that says Add task to project(s) / section(s). This allows us to specify the projects and sections where we want to add the task. You can select multiple projects and sections.

Create a task as sub-tasks

In addition to adding a task across projects, you can also create a task that is a sub-task of another task. Firstly, we need the ID of the main task. When you view a task in Asana the URL looks like this:

https://app.asana.com/0/projectID/TaskID

The long number at the end is the Task ID. Let's say the task ID here is 12345. In FormCrafts, go to Addons -> General -> Asana. Select Custom Text under (form field) and Task parent under (Asana field). Click Add. Where it says Type ... enter 12345.

Asana form create sub-task
Asana form create sub-task

Pre-fill form values

FormCrafts allows you to auto-populate form values via URL attributes. Click here to read how it works.

Create a multi-step Asana forms

Multi-step forms are a powerful feature. FormCrafts has built-in support for multi-step forms, and it can be enabled on any form. Learn how to create multi-step Asana forms.

Accept multiple file attachments

Add a file upload field to your form via Add Fields. Next, go to Addons -> General -> Asana and check the option Attach uploaded files to the task.

When you click on the newly added file upload field you can configure the file types you want to accept, their maximum size, and the maximum number of files you want to accept. Users can attach multiple files on the same field. Individual files are limited to 25mb.

Dependent fields and form branching

You can show a certain field or set of fields based on another field's selection. In Asana this is called branching. In FormCrafts we call it conditional logic. FormCrafts' conditional logic is more powerful since it allows you to create nested dependent fields. You can also use conditional logic to:

  1. Trigger Asana task creation based on conditions
  2. Change the form redirect page
  3. Send emails to certain addresses

Learn more about using conditional logic in your forms.

Embed forms anywhere

There are many ways to share your FormCrafts form. You can share a customized form link like this one:

formcrafts.com/a/my-form

You can even claim your sub-domain:

company.formcrafts.com/my-form

Forms can also be embedded on any website, or CMSs like WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, Webflow etc ... Learn how to embed forms inline on a website. You can even embed forms as pop-up forms on any website.