[From Wrike] Automation Rule New Action: Prefix, Suffix, Change Name 🤖

Thanks Juan! Is it possible to manage prefixes/suffixes manually, outside of automation? I know about the add prefix prompt when creating from blueprints, but are there other places to manage this functionality or is automation the only way?

I'm sure it's just me, but I'm having trouble following the directions for changing a prefix name after one has already been created. Is there a video to watch? 

Furthering Allison Chase's point, having the ability to manually update or change a prefix would help immensely. 

We currently create our projects using request forms and blueprints, and we need to use prefixes to differentiate between tasks, otherwise people could have 10x tasks in their 'to-do' with the name "10 - PMA Phase 1 - Definition" for example. We use the project CAPEX ID for this to avoid very long task names.

If the project doesn't yet have a CAPEX I.D then we use a temp prefix, but this would be changed once an ID is generated. Currently we manually update each of the task names.

I've attached a screenshot example.

The missing of mass changing by hand is the reason why we are not using prefixes and say that every coworker has to have a look in whcih project the task is. Mostly that is possible as you can see it in Dashboard and Reports. But I completly agree a prefix for a complete project which can be changed afterwards by hand would be great.

@... this seems to me like a automation with potential but in order to have any function for us we have to be able to pull the prefix (or suffix) from a variable for example by a custom field value. Otherwise we have to make a separate automation for each project as each project has different prefix. Also a replace prefix/suffix action should be needed (detecting example by [ braces). As otherwise after duplicating a task from a different project gets a additional prefix.

Also I agree with Sven. Prefix in our projects is always the same for the whole project and all subfolders. So any way to change the prefix by mass editing would work for us. New tasks should have the prefix also.

Thanks a lot for sharing your feedback, everyone 🙌

Allison Chase It's also possible to add prefixes when duplicating tasks, projects, and folders; as well as when duplicating items when a request form is submitted. 

Tara Miller We don't have a video for this functionality yet; please let me know if you'd like to speak with our Support team.

Guy Murphy, Sven Passinger, Jacco Stam Thanks for letting us know your thoughts, I'll pass your feedback to the Automation Product team 👍

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

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Lisa Yes, I'd like to speak with the Support Team. Thanks!

It would be amazing if we could add a prefix from a field not just a piece of text. E.g., add a prefix of the task ID

Hi Tara Miller, I have opened a ticket with our Support Team on your behalf, one of our agents will reach out to you very soon 👍

Hi Talia Neal, thank you for your feedback, I'll share your suggestion with our Product Team. In case you have any additional questions, please let us know 🙂

Loved seeing this thread.   My firm uses the prefix functionality by language, batch, phase etc.  There are many large blueprints, so adjusting prefix manually is quite tedious.   When I saw this post about the automation I was very excited to read it.    That is a great feature, but there still exists the need to change existing as the article appears to suggest change, but I am unclear as well.   

Thanks for always continuing to improve our user experience.   Wrike just keeps getting better.   

+1 for Jacco Stam's suggestion. Pulling the prefix or suffix from another field would be immensely helpful in our workflow.

Thank you for sharing your feedback Evan Carroll, and welcome back to the Community 🙂

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

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It would be great if from form submission or as an automation; the project ID is added to the name of the project as prefix.

Is this on the roadmap? I know Wrike Integrate Lite has a recipe to do this with sequential numbering - but this is too expensive on top of pinnacle!!

Hello Karina Baird, thank you for sharing your case with us. A possible workaround could be to duplicate the project and select the option to add a prefix - this prefix could be the parent project ID:

I hope this information helps! Please, let me know if you have any additional questions 🙂

Is it possible to add a prefix as a field - so to add the task ID for example? It seems to want text only?

Hey Rhonwyn Williams, I'm not sure I understand your use case. Could you please share a bit more detail on what you'd like to do? 

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

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It would be good in the automation tool to be able to select the task ID as an option for the Prefix on a task

Hi Rhonwyn Williams, thank you for your feedback, I've passed it on to our Product Team 👍

This automation isn't really helpful for what we need.

We have projects created from blueprints through the request form.

We want each task within that blueprint that is recreated from the request form to have a variable pre-fix–in our case we want the project name to be pre-fixed to every task.

For example our blueprint might have the following tasks: 
- Design
- Content
- Review

We currently have to manually add the project name pre-fixed to those tasks, otherwise our team has no idea what they are being requested to "design" or "review" because the project name is not affixed to the task name.

Is there some way around this or is this something in the roadmap? Even if it was through this automation, but you had a dropdown of options like "task id", "project name", "assignee" or whatever in order to easily add a custom pre-fix through automation.

Nicole S We have the same challenge as you described above and manually add a shortened project title as a prefix to the task title to give designers and copywriters more context to their tasks. We also use an abbreviation for Campaign Name and Year. 

Example:

"[HO23] 12.20 Landing Banner Design"

"[HO23] 12.20 Landing Banner Copy"

It seems like a lot of repetition, and we would also like a way to simplify the prefixes on task titles.

Hi Nicole S and Bob Heiden, thank you for your comments, I've shared them with our dedicated team and will keep you updated in case any changes are implemented.

I understand this option might not be ideal, but a possible workaround could be to duplicate the item to add the relevant prefix: 

Please, let me know if there is anything else I could help you with 👍

Hi Juan,

The issue raised here is for projects that ALREADY have a prefix, such as Bob's example: "[HO23] 12.20 Landing Banner Design". 

Upon duplicating this project and selecting to add a different prefix, you will end up with TWO  prefixes on all of your tasks: "[new prefix][HO23] 12.20 Landing Banner Design" which is not the desired outcome.

We need a way of replacing the existing prefix and a new one.

I hope that clears it up.

Thanks

Hi Patrick Gilbert, thank you for your reply, it helps us better understand the case. I've shared these additional details with our dedicated team 👍

We use Wrike for our Engineering Change process. Each change is assigned a unique prefix for tracking. Once the request is approved for change, we assign a unique prefix ID to the request.  For example, a request of 'Change the Widget' becomes 'R-001 Change the Widget' when the request is approved.  I would like to set up a rule that states when the status changes to Approved, then the Name Changes which adds the prefix to the request.  Is this possible?

Hi Amy DiRuzza 👋 Could you please let me know if you are using Approvals? Here's how an automation rule setup can work in your case:

The trigger will be when an approval finishes with a decision:

And the action to "Change name":

When you click on the "Change name" option, you'll be able to add a prefix there:

I hope this helps!  

Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover

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This would be extremely helpful for us as well.  Our projects are structured like this.  Parent project/project phase/task/sub task.  It would be wonderful if we could set an automation, that gives the sub project (phase) a prefix that is driven off of the project name.  So for example, if I have the project name as "Client # 150", than i would love for my phases to auto update to give it the name Client #150 - Engineering Phase, Client #150 - Manufacturing Phase, etc. etc.

I feel like we are half way there.  I can add the prefix and manually change it but it would be great to fully automate with a sequence.  For example, a change request of 'change the widget' is approved, then it moves to the next step and has the prefix assigned 'R-001'.  A new change request comes in 'make the widget blue', then it moves to the next step and has the prefix assigned 'R-002'...and so on.  

Kyle Martin Amy DiRuzza thank you for sharing your use cases with us! I've passed your comments on to our Product Team 👍

This is a great step forward, but using the change name automation to add a suffix doesn't work as a solution for my team because one can only add simple text. What we need is the ability to add the project name to the end of a task or subtask (created manually or from a blueprint). Whether it requires Automation or could simply be an alternative option to adding a prefix when creating tasks from blueprints, it would make our views, dashboards, reports and calendars so much more useful. If we add the project name as a prefix, the actual task name is often truncated and not easy to view without extra clicking or resizing.