How to deal with multiple user accounts for a zap (Asana example) ?

Hi @lamatekinc 

Try the concept of a lookup table:

Hi @Troy Tessalone thank you for the fast reply. I’m not sure a lookup table will work, can the actual account used in a zap be parameterized? 

It doesn’t appear so from what I can see. So the way Asana works is because my asana account is the account used in the connection I am always the assigned by user. My first step is a SQL query so I have the actual user ID from Asana already. I just was wondering if there’s a way to pass another account to actually connect into the app without cloning it. Asana unfortunately does not have “Assigned by” as a field in their connection. Currently I’m just adding them as a follower on the task. 

@lamatekinc 

The Asana API does not support setting the Assigned By, only the Assignee.

Asana API: https://developers.asana.com/reference/tasks

What is the reasoning for needing the Assigned By to be different?

Trying to manage 30+ Asana accounts is not advised, plus you then need to handle new/removed Asana accounts.

Have you explore using native Asana Rules?

https://help.asana.com/s/article/rules?language=en_US

@Troy Tessalone Thanks for the reply. The reason I need the assigned by to be different is everything gets “assigned by” my account, but I am simply using this account for the connection. I’m not involved in the task or projects and  I’m being notified and involved in every task that gets assigned through zapier, so it floods my Asana workflow when I use it for my own projects and tasks. 

Additionally, Asana has some features where it’s nice to see what you’ve assigned, separately from being a follower. But that’s a minor wish in this. 

I would like to have a service account that is just used for zapier, but unfortunately Asana’s pricing model goes from 30 users to 40 and I can’t justify the extra cost for this purpose. I do appreciate the feedback. I will likely just deal with annoyance for the time being. 

Hi @lamatekinc 👋

I had a quick look at Asana’s API docs and it looks like they’ve got a Remove followers from a task endpoint. Just wondering, if you could use an API Request (Asana) action to send a request to that Remove followers from a task endpoint to get yourself removed as a follower on the task that’s been created? 

Granted, it might not prevent any initial notification you might receive about the creation of the task but should help to prevent any subsequent notifications for activity on the task later on. Do you think that approach might work? 

Thanks @SamB I’ll make use of that as a workaround. Thank you both for answering my question about using separate accounts on zaps. We have this issue for Asana, but for others like Chatra as well where the user login is the connector. Appreciate the help and ideas. 

Happy to help @lamatekinc! 🤗 Hopefully that workaround will do the trick in the meantime. 🤞

We have this issue for Asana, but for others like Chatra as well where the user login is the connector.

I’m not seeing any actions available for the Chatra app on Zapier and all it’s triggers look like they should be able to trigger for messages/conversations created by all agents, not just the one that’s connected to the Zap. So is the issue that it’s not doing that and is in fact only triggering for messages/conversations created by the specific agent account that’s connected to the Zap?

If so, it may be worth reaching out to our Support Team to flag this as a potential bug so that they can get a bug report opened up on your behalf. You can report potential bugs from here: https://zapier.com/app/get-help

Looking forward to hearing from you on this!

@SamB I was premature in mentioning Chatra with this issue. I assume it will come up in other apps in the future, but the issue we had we Chatra I have resolved with their team. They don’t push any real data in while testing the zaps so that threw me for a loop. The Zap ended up working when published even though I couldn’t verify it in testing. Thanks again for the help. 

Ah, I see! Thanks for clarifying that ​@lamatekinc. Glad to hear the issue with the Chatra app is sorted. I’m so pleased the Zap is working now. 🎉

Seems like you’re all set for now but if you need any further help please do reach back out to the Community. In the meantime, happy Zapping! ⚡