Wrike Integrate - Example recipe to copy a task with subtasks where the subtask sort order needs to remain consistent
Our use case:
We have a Wrike request form that allows staff to request help from our IT team. This form allows the submitter to select from a list of topics, one of which allows them to request a replacement ID/access badge.
If the reason for this replacement request is that the badge was lost or stolen, we also need to open a Security Incident task (where the task/subtasks are pre-defined as a template task that needs to be copied).
Our solution:
- The reason for badge replacement is recorded in a task-level custom field called Badge Reason. This information is populated by the request form.
- A second custom text field called Wrike Integrate allows us to identify new tasks vs. updated tasks. This field is always blank for new tasks created by the request form.
- A Wrike Integrate recipe triggers on New/Updated tasks in the folder where badge replacement requests are created by the request form, where the Badge Reason field is either Lost or Stolen, and the Wrike Integrate field is empty. This recipe copies a Security Incident template task (with a number of ordered subtasks) into a different team's space, then updates the badge replacement task that triggered the recipe to add text to the Wrike Integrate custom field (so additional changes to the badge replacement IT task don't trigger the recipe again).
The challenge... when Wrike Integrate loops through the subtasks, it apparently does so in reverse order, so the subtasks on the copied task initially appeared in reverse order and had to be manually re-organized.
We revised our recipe to solve this problem, so the subtask order on the new Security Incident task matches the subtask order on the template task.
Example Wrike Integrate recipe:
If anyone else needs to accomplish something similar, here's a community recipe we shared that shows how to copy the task then loop through and copy the subtasks in the correct order. (This example recipe doesn't include any trigger conditions or actions that rely on custom fields, since those are unique to our Wrike Integrate account.)
Thanks a lot for posting this, Laura Boylan 🙏 I'm sure this will be helpful to the community!
Soraya Jung this is not a Wrike to Wrike trigger, but take a look at this post by Laura - it shows how teams can use it for different purposes 👐
Lisa Community Team at Wrike Wrike Product Manager Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Lisa Wrike Team member Become a Wrike expert with Wrike Discover
Laura Boylan I've stumbled across this brilliant wee work-around and just thought I'd mention that it may be possible to get around the reverse order by actually building out the Template task in reverse order, therefore (in theory) as the loop iterates through the subtasks it should add them in the original order. Not sure if this works for your use case at all though...
Also, curious about whether dependencies can be managed with this "copy" workaround you came up with? (i.e. can Predecessors and Successors be transferred across, as well as durations, etc to maintain the dependencies and their links...
Hi Nick Shorter - I should have mentioned in my initial post that we did use the reverse order within the template task initially... unfortunately it was confusing for the staff that needed to manage the template task with ongoing updates, hence our need to find an alternative solution.
It's been quite a while since I've looked at this recipe! I haven't attempted using it for dependencies but I expect with some experimentation you should be able to achieve what you're looking for. I've been constantly impressed with the power of Wrike Integrate, and have found very little we can't accomplish with it, given enough creative thinking.