Custom fields by task type
in progress
Ivan Villa
Problem:
Custom fields can become messy when you have different types of work (tasks) within the same lists. For example, having a bug, feature, and an epic task all in the same list would cause them all to have the same custom fields, even though I would want specific ones for each type.
Other issues arise when fields that should only belong to the top-level task spread down to all its subtasks.
Ask:
Custom fields should have the option to be added to a custom task type itself.
- Whenever I create a new task of that type, it will come along with all its custom fields.
- Those fields will not spread to any task that is not of that type.
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Ivan Villa
Hey Everyone 👋
I know there is a good number of people looking forward to custom fields by task type. I wanted to share this demo video I made for those in the beta, going over what custom fields by task type will bring.
Feel free to ask any questions!
If you signed up for the beta, we are working on some remaining items so we can further roll things out, but this is the team's focus!
Paul Wade
Love seeing that this is showing IN PROGRESS.
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Bas Hammendorp
We would also be greatly helped with this!
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Kyora Veira
Is there currently active for those in beta?
Zack Fink
This will be great for managing our Web Design projects since we have Website Subpages as Subtasks, but we also have regular tasks for each Subpage in there.
Todd Brown
Can't wait for this to be released! The demo video is definitely from a local instance- I wish my web instance were so fast as his!!
Ivan Villa
Todd Brown: Not local, but it is a super light workspace just for the demo. If you're up for it, I would love to get on a call and see what you are experiencing from a performance standpoint. It can be a quick call. Here is my link. 🙏https://calendly.com/ivanvilla/performance-product-talk
Gail Marek
This is so exciting!
Dimitris Demetriou
Looking Great Ivan Villa, will there be a point in time when exception of items being always "Tasks" is not there and you can choose if things are tasks or simply an item? For example, a Company in a list is probably not a task and more an item that is referenced to other things.
Ivan Villa
Dimitris Demetriou: I think we are going to hit a point. We have considered just rebranding all these to be custom item types. However, we have other "items" that don't follow the same model, so we have been keeping them separate. I do agree that a company is not a task, and it will just continue to add confusion.
Roman
Ivan Villa amazing work! I love, how you've tackled so many potential issues already and from my point of view this is way better, than what I expected, when I voted for this feature.
I love, how you keep the field there even when the task type changes. This reduces a huge risk of data loss and makes the feature safe to use.
I love it as it is right now, please release it! :-)
One thing made me think a bit and I'd bet you can see it too. :-)
I believe you've put a lot of thought of the "from location" and "from task type" sections in the task detail. The naming is a bit odd, but I also see the word "from" helps to understand, that there is some reason, why the custom field is there and that it comes from some sort of place.
If I think about my team or clients using this, they probably wouldn't care, they would just fill it. But maybe it would help them to understand, that if they want to have those fields in their task available, they can select this task type.
As I said, it make sense for me right now as everybody using this feature will be in a stage of building the combinations and this layout will help.
I'm just brainstorming here.
Maybe it would look simpler if there was just one "unified list" of custom fields with e.g. some icon of the task type or list type on the right side. Just to let us know. The list could be sorted as it is now. There could even be a small gap between two tables.
Something like this could help to keep the task detail as clean as possible, just like we love it.
And I also think this is something for a next iteration and it could be too difficult to understand for users, who are not familiar with task type custom fields or don't need them at all.
Maybe in the future, when more complex features like this will emerge, there could be some "edit mode" of the task detail, where the "unified list" would split like this, show the edit buttons etc.
I'm not a designer and I mean it when I say I love it as it is.
Ivan Villa
Roman: Really great points! We actually do have an alternate design that brings these together, but we went back and forth internally. The goal right now is to release with what we have, and once we get everyone here on the Beta and you get to try it in your workspace, you can let us know what it actually feels like. We can pivot, but we will let the beta feedback drive that. Thanks, Roman!
Roman
Ivan Villa I'm sure it's a challenge to make the UI clear and understandeable for everyone.
You're doing a great job. I hope to see this soon.
Mary Bliden
Roman & Ivan Villa - this was exactly my response as well. It's just a surface-level thing, but almost all of our users aren't familiar with and don't need to see where information is coming from so it feels kind of like an arbitrary grouping. Continuing to move toward a less fragmented, more type-specific task layout is really rewarding to see and alleviates daily friction.
I'll also +1 that not losing field data on a task when it's removed is HUGE and proactively solves what could have been a killer issue. Being able to leave subtasks as /tasks/ so they aren't cluttered by different task type's custom fields is going to immediately streamline for us and remove some common points of confusion. Very exciting stuff!!
Ivan Villa
Hey Everyone 👋
I know there is a good number of people looking forward to custom fields by task type. I wanted to share this demo video I made for those in the beta, going over what custom fields by task type will bring.
Feel free to ask any questions!
If you signed up for the beta, we are working on some remaining items so we can further roll things out, but this is the team's focus!
Travis Rose
Ivan Villa Hell yeah! Thanks for the update, this looks killer. Can't wait for this to launch!
Francis Chevalier
Ivan Villa oh wow this is exactly what we need. Really great implementation!
Will it be possible for Business plans to change the custom field from Location to Task type? I'm asking that since right now changing the location of the custom field is limited to higher plans.
Mikhail Elkin
Ivan Villa thank you for the update! It looks very promising. I have a question regarding automations: would the custom fields from all task types be accessible for automations in any list/folder/space (both for triggering and changing their value as an action)? Right now, I can't set up an automation in list A based on changes in a custom field added to list B, and I also can't set new values for custom fields from different lists in an automation (even if I add the task to the appropriate list in the first step of the automation).
Ivan Villa
Francis Chevalier: We haven't settled on the final pricing yet, but we will be figuring this out while in beta. I will say that right now we want to make sure this is accessible to lower plans since it feels fundamental for organization, but we will need to see how that works with the current location plan pricing.
Tomasz Banas
Ivan Villa Awesome, love it. 🚀
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Kieran Thomas
Ivan Villa looks good so far. Thx to you and the team for all of your work on this feature; I think it’s one which is going to add so much value both in terms of improved UX and also data cleanliness.
Ivan Villa
Mikhail Elkin: Custom fields that are scoped to task type will be available on the automations, but we aren't making any changes to the existing list/folder/space fields, so I don't think this will be solved. However, I did bring this up to the manager of automations since we are going to work with them to ensure we fix any bugs that come up here!
James Hogg
Ivan Villa great video. Two questions:
- i see you have implemented convert from location to task type for a custom field. If custom field is used in mulitple locations will users be able to convert only where it is used in a specific list without disrupting the others?
- If task type is changed the data is hidden and not purged. In API will this data be accessible or also hidden? ie once hidden i would consider the data inactive and thus should be hidden, but also see a use case where a user (or sys admin) needs to search for accidentally hidden data.
Ivan Villa
James Hogg Great questions!
- Currently, if a field is used in multiple lists, changing it to be by type will affect all locations. The current reason is that when we switch to types, we default them to be scoped to the type, which is currently workspace-wide. We have explored adding more granularity, but it does add more complexity, so for the beta, we are starting simple and seeing how complex we need to take it from there.
- This is actually one of the things we are thinking about now. We are planning not to show them in the API by default, but we understand that there may be scenarios where you will need to audit. So the thought is that we could add an option so you can call the fields but include the “hidden” ones.
Konstantinos Tsiomos
Hello Ivan Villa and thank you for the update and the demo video. No doubt this feature is a game-changer and will definitely improve a lot of workflows. That said, I'd like to raise a few concerns and suggestions regarding the transition from location-based CFs to task-type-based ones:
- While the functionality itself is more than welcome, the shift in how fields are applied might be disruptive, especially for Enterprise-scale workspaces with thousands of active and archived tasks. I'm curious how the team plans to handle this transition at scale without breaking existing setups.
- Given that the logic behind the feature isn’t complex at all, I am concerned that the real risk lies in accidental data “loss”, or more precisely, in accidental data hiding. As already-applied fields will disappear from view for users after the transition, it might get harder to retrieve historical data, especially for reporting or analytics.
With that in mind, I’d like to propose publishing a “Safe Migration Guide” or something similar, ideally including best practices, caveats to watch out for, and strategies for auditing existing setups before switching modes.
Once again, thanks for the feedback on this very anticipated feature! I’m really looking forward to seeing how this evolves.
Umit Gunes
Ivan Villa Hi,
When will we be able to use this feature?
We’re really excited about it.
T
Team
Ivan Villa. This is fantastic, exactly what we want. Great update.
I'm looking forward to getting this facility. Can I still sign up for the beta?
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Shimshon Neiman
Hi Ivan Villa
Thank you so much for creating this video! I really appreciate the effort you put into it. The way you described and demonstrated the features was incredibly detailed, and I now have a clear picture of how everything will look and function. I can’t wait to start using it—this will definitely enhance my work and make a big difference in my day-to-day tasks.
Thanks again!
Josue Lony
Ivan VillaI HI! This looks amazing, everything we might need I think is covered, I just have one quesiton.
How this will work when importing data from a CSV for example? When you choose custom fields values?
Ivan Villa
Konstantinos Tsiomos: The migration piece is probably the biggest thing we are thinking through right now, one of the reasons why we are being slow to roll out.
You called it out; there is no "loss," but there is "hiding" that will happen. So, we are working internally to see how we can improve some of these flows to ensure that people are fully aware of what is happening when converting, and also providing more ways to discover some of these fields that could get hidden.
There is also more we can do with in custom field manager and the task type manger for surfacing things.
Fun fact: We are going through this internally right now since ClickUp itself has a workspace that handles our entire company, and we have a very large collection of fields across different areas. So we are having to go though the pain and figure out ways to improve :)
Ivan Villa
Team: Yes! form should still be open https://forms.clickup-stg.com/333/f/ad-2075081/Y0XXY4QMLTL6AFF5G7
Ivan Villa
Umit Gunes: Give us a week or so to crush some more items, it will still be rough but at least in a better state :)
Ivan Villa
Josue Lony: That's actually a great question. We currently have been focused on the migration piece that we haven't taken a deep dive into the CSV import phase. I created a task to discuss it with the imports team. But once we get this beta rolled out again, any feedback on what you think would work would be appreciated. 🙏
TaeLynn Perez
Ivan Villa Excellent.
Karel VGH
Ivan Villa Wohoo! Awesome work, can't wait to implement it!
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Andrew Tomassetti
Ivan Villa This is one ive been waiting for more than any other feature! Any insight into an expected release date?
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Julis Pándi
Ivan Villa is it possible to still sign up for the beta?
Ivan Villa
Julis Pándi Yes just use this form here :) https://forms.clickup-stg.com/333/f/ad-2075081/Y0XXY4QMLTL6AFF5G7
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Erica Young
Ivan Villa Can you give an estimate of when this will be implemented? Will it be a couple of weeks or months?
Ivan Villa
Erica Young Beta should be rolling out in weeks �
Karel VGH
Ivan Villa Looking very much forward to it!
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