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Google Sheets and Asana integration: a new row in Google Sheets appears as a new task in Asana. Privacy policy issues

  • 15 June 2023
  • 6 replies
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Userlevel 1

Dear all, I would kindly ask for your help.

 

I am trying to create a google sheets integration to asana. A new row in google sheets should appear as a task in asana. I’ve read Zapiers’ privacy policy: it states that view only access to google sheets is sufficient enough for this integration. When I have read a topic about asana integration, it’s also stated that there is no special permission required for asana integration. The thing is that Zapier requires full admin access to both apps. How can I give a view only access?

 

Thank you very much in advance!

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Best answer by SamB 15 June 2023, 13:21

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6 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Hi @Yury Sultanov, welcome to the Community!

With Google Sheets triggers View Only access is sufficient to see new rows and changes that are made. But for Create, Update, and Find/Create types of actions Full Edit permissions are required, this is so that the Zap will be allowed to create/edit rows in the Google Sheets account.

Similarly, if you’re connecting to the Asana app with an account that has view only access then it’s not going to be possible to perform any actions that involve making changes (like adding a task) as those would require edit permissions. It’s possible to connect an account that has comment-only access but that would limit the Zap to only be able to edit tasks that have been assigned to the Asana account connection that is used in the Zap. See Individual user project permissions

I know that’s not the answer you were hoping for but hope that helps to clarify why higher access permissions are needed in order for a Zap to create a task in Asana.

Userlevel 1

@SamB, Thank you very much for your answer!

As I understood, I can give view only access to google sheets (if I just want a new google sheet row to be added as a task to asana) and I have to give full access to asana. It perfectly works for me. The thing is that Zapier requires the full access to google sheets as well. Can I somehow select view only access for google sheets?

Thank you one more time!

Userlevel 7
Badge +11

You’re welcome @Yury Sultanov!

Ah, I did some further looking into it and it looks like things have changed for some Google Sheets triggers! I found an internal note that mentions that some of the Google Sheets triggers are instant, rather than polling triggers so that’s potentially why it’s wanting to have full access. With instant triggers the Zap has to subscribe to webhook events so I suspect that might be why they would need to have write access to the Google Sheet.

So for the triggers marked as Scheduled, meaning they are polling triggers (highlighted below) I’m thinking you should be able to use an account with view only access:
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But for the ones marked as Instant, those would require edit permissions. 

Do you happen to have a Google Team Drive or is the spreadsheet already on a shared Team Drive?

If so, as a workaround I’m thinking you could potentially move the spreadsheet to a shared Team Drive (if it’s not on one already). Then change the Zap to use the relevant Team Drive version of the trigger - e.g. New Spreadsheet Row (Team Drive). That way the Zap should be able to connect using a Google Sheets account with only view access. I’ve not tested this theory out myself so if you give that a try and it works please let us know. I’d be very interested to know whether that definitely solves it! 🙂

Userlevel 1

@SamB, thank you one more time!

The google sheets file is already in Team drive. I have tried to create different Zaps with scheduled Triggers, but, unfortunately, it still requires full access. I am attaching here the screenshots:

Anyway, thank you for your help one more time!

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi there @Yury Sultanov,

I’m jumping in to see if I can help!

If you'd like to restrict your Zap's access to just one particular spreadsheet, simply create a new Google account and share the spreadsheet with that account, making sure to give it view-only access.

When you connect the Zap to this new account, it'll be able to see, edit, create, and delete spreadsheets and files created by that specific Google Account. However, it will only have read permissions for the shared spreadsheet since the account doesn't own it - it just has viewing access.

I hope this helps! 😊

Userlevel 1

@ken.a ,

thank you very much for your answer!