How to integrate Asana using Microsoft Fabric

Learn how to quickly and efficiently connect Asana with Microsoft Fabric for smooth data access.

Read and write Asana data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate tasks, projects, workspaces, and time entries — almost no coding required. You can do it all using the high-performance Asana ODBC Driver (powered by Asana Connector for ZappySys API Driver). We'll walk you through the entire setup.

Ready to dive in? Download the product to jump right in, or follow the step-by-step guide below to see how it works.

Create data source using Asana ODBC Driver

Video instructions

Watch this quick walkthrough to see how to configure your Asana ODBC data source, or scroll down for the step-by-step written guide.

Step-by-step instructions

To get data from Asana using Microsoft Fabric, we first need to create an ODBC data source. We will later read this data in Microsoft Fabric. Perform these steps:

1. Download and install ODBC PowerPack (if you haven't already).

2. Search for odbc and open the ODBC Data Sources (64-bit):

   

3. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on the ZappySys API Driver driver:

   ZappySys API Driver

   
   • Create and use a User DSN if the client application runs under a User Account. This is the ideal option at design time (e.g., when developing in Visual Studio). Use it for both types of applications (64-bit and 32-bit).
   • Create and use a System DSN if the client application runs under a System Account (e.g., as a Windows Service). This is usually the required option in a production environment. If your Windows Service is a 32-bit application, you must use the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure this

4. When the Configuration window appears give your data source a name if you haven't done that already, then select "Asana" from the list of Popular Connectors. If "Asana" is not present in the list, then click "Search Online" and download it. Then set the path to the location where you downloaded it. Finally, click Continue >> to proceed with configuring the DSN:

   AsanaDSN

   Asana

   

5. Select your authentication scenario below to expand connection configuration steps to:

   • Configure the authentication in Asana.
   • Enter those details into the ZappySys API Driver data source configuration.

   Personal Access Token

   Asana authentication

   Here is how to obtain a Personal Access Token (PAT) in Asana:

   1. Open My apps in Asana portal and click Create new token button:
   2. Once a popup opens, name your new token:
   3. Then click Copy button to copy the token:
   4. Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source and use this token in Personal Access Token authentication configuration.
   5. Choose Default Workspace and Default Project to work with.
   6. Click Test Connection to confirm the connection is working.
   7. Done! Now you are ready to use Asana Connector!

   API Connection Manager configuration

   Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

   1. Set Authentication Type to Personal Access Token [Http]
   2. Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
   3. Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
   4. Finally, hit OK button:

   AsanaDSN

   Asana

   Personal Access Token [Http]

   https://app.asana.com/api/1.0

   Required Parameters
   Enter Token (Personal Access Token - PAT)	Fill-in the parameter...
   Default Workspace	Fill-in the parameter...
   Default Project	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

   Find full details in the Asana Connector authentication reference.

   OAuth app

   Asana authentication

   Here is how to register an OAuth app in Asana:

   1. Open My apps in Asana portal and click Create new app button:
   2. Once a popup opens, name your app and check two options, and click Create app button:
   3. Then copy Client ID and Client secret and save them in a file (we will need them for authentication):
   4. Continue by selecting OAuth menu item on your left and click Add redirect URL button (you can have your own or use https://zappysys.com/oauth):
   5. Proceed by clicking on the Manage distribution section on your left.
   6. Then specify workspaces your app needs to access (use Any workspace to access them all):
   7. Once you do that, click Save changes button.
   8. Now go to SSIS package or ODBC data source and use Client ID, Client Secret, and Redirect URL in OAuth app authentication configuration.
   9. When you are done with that, click Generate Token button to generate Access and Refresh Tokens.
   10. Choose Default Workspace and Default Project to work with.
   11. Click Test Connection to confirm the connection is working.
   12. Done! Now you are ready to use Asana Connector!

   API Connection Manager configuration

   Just perform these simple steps to finish authentication configuration:

   1. Set Authentication Type to OAuth app [OAuth]
   2. Optional step. Modify API Base URL if needed (in most cases default will work).
   3. Fill in all the required parameters and set optional parameters if needed.
   4. Press Generate Token button to generate the tokens.
   5. Finally, hit OK button:

   AsanaDSN

   Asana

   OAuth app [OAuth]

   https://app.asana.com/api/1.0

   Required Parameters
   ClientId	Fill-in the parameter...
   Client Secret	Fill-in the parameter...
   Default Workspace (** Select after Token is generated **)	Fill-in the parameter...
   Default Project (** Select after Token is generated **)	Fill-in the parameter...
   Optional Parameters
   Permissions	default
   Redirect URL	https://zappysys.com/oauth
   RetryMode	RetryWhenStatusCodeMatch
   RetryStatusCodeList	429
   RetryCountMax	5
   RetryMultiplyWaitTime	True

   

   Find full details in the Asana Connector authentication reference.

6. Once the data source connection has been configured, it's time to configure the SQL query. Select the Preview tab and then click Query Builder button to configure the SQL query:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Asana

   Read and write Asana data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate tasks, projects, workspaces, and time entries — almost no coding required.

   AsanaDSN

   

7. Start by selecting the Table or Endpoint you are interested in and then configure the parameters. This will generate a query that we will use in Microsoft Fabric to retrieve data from Asana. Hit OK button to use this query in the next step.

   SELECT * FROM Workspaces

   
   Some parameters configured in this window will be passed to the Asana API, e.g. filtering parameters. It means that filtering will be done on the server side (instead of the client side), enabling you to get only the meaningful data much faster.

8. Now hit Preview Data button to preview the data using the generated SQL query. If you are satisfied with the result, use this query in Microsoft Fabric:

   

   ZappySys API Driver - Asana

   Read and write Asana data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate tasks, projects, workspaces, and time entries — almost no coding required.

   AsanaDSN

   SELECT * FROM Workspaces

   
   You can also access data quickly from the tables dropdown by selecting <Select table>.
   A WHERE clause, LIMIT keyword will be performed on the client side, meaning that the whole result set will be retrieved from the Asana API first, and only then the filtering will be applied to the data. If possible, it is recommended to use parameters in Query Builder to filter the data on the server side (in Asana servers).

9. Click OK to finish creating the data source.

Install Microsoft On-premises data gateway (Standard mode)

To access and read Asana data in Microsoft Fabric, you must download and install the Microsoft On-premises data gateway (Standard mode). It acts as a secure bridge between Microsoft Fabric cloud services and your local Asana ODBC data source:

There are two types of On-premises data gateways:

You can download the On-premises data gateway directly from the Microsoft Fabric or Power BI portals:

Link ODBC data source via the gateway

Follow these steps to download, install, and configure the gateway in Standard mode:

1. Download On-premises data gateway (standard mode) and run the installer.

2. Once the configuration window opens, sign in:

   
   Sign in with the same email address you use for Microsoft Fabric.

3. Select Register a new gateway on this computer (or migrate an existing one):

   

4. Name your gateway, enter a Recovery key, and click the Configure button:

   
   Save your Recovery Key in a safe place (like a password manager). If you lose it, you cannot restore or migrate this gateway later.

5. Once Microsoft gateway is installed, check if it registered correctly:

   • Go back to Microsoft Fabric portal

   • Click Gear icon on top-right

   • And then hit Manage connections and gateways menu item

   

6. Continue by clicking the On-premises data gateway tab and selecting Standard mode gateways from the dropdown menu:

   

   If your gateway is not listed, the registration may have failed. To resolve this:

   • Wait a couple of minutes and refresh Microsoft Fabric portal page
   • Restart the machine where On-premises data gateway is installed
   • Check firewall settings

7. Success! The gateway is now Online and ready to handle requests.

8. Done!

You are now ready to load data into Microsoft Fabric.

Load Asana data into Microsoft Fabric

Now that we have configured the ODBC data source and installed the On-premises data gateway, we can proceed with loading data. You can accomplish this in two ways:

• Copy job
  Best for simple, high-speed data copying without modification.
• Dataflow Gen2
  Best if you need to transform, clean, or reshape data before loading.

Let's dive into the steps for both methods.

Use Copy job for high-speed loading

1. Go to the Microsoft Fabric Portal.

2. Select an existing Workspace or create a new one by clicking New workspace (ensure you are in the Home section):

   

3. Inside your workspace, click the New item button in the toolbar to start creating your data pipeline:

   

4. In the item selection window, choose Copy job to open the data ingestion wizard:

   

5. In the Choose data source screen, search for odbc and select the Odbc source:

   

6. Then enter your ODBC connection string (DSN=AsanaDSN) and select MyGateway from the Data gateway dropdown we configured in the previous step:

   DSN=AsanaDSN

   DSN=AsanaDSN

   

7. Select the table(s) and preview the data you wish to copy from Asana. Once done, click Next:

   DSN=AsanaDSN

   

8. Choose your Data Destination. You can create a New Fabric item (like a Lakehouse or Warehouse) or select an existing one:

   
   In this example, we will use a Lakehouse as the destination.

9. Choose Full copy to load all data, or Incremental copy to load only changed data in subsequent runs:

   

10. Review the Column and Table mappings section:

    

11. On the summary screen, review your settings. You can optionally enable Run on schedule. Click Save + Run to execute the job:

    DSN=AsanaDSN

    DSN=AsanaDSN

    

12. The job will enter the queue. Monitor the Status column to see the progress:

    DSN=AsanaDSN

    

13. Wait for the status to change to Succeeded. Your Asana data is now successfully integrated into Microsoft Fabric!

    

14. Let's go to our Lakehouse (MyLakehouse) and verify the data:

    

15. Success! The data has been loaded.

Use Dataflow for advanced transformation

Another way to load data is by creating a Dataflow Gen2. This approach allows you to perform complex data transformations (ETL) before loading the data into its destination.

Configure Dataflow activity

1. Go to the Microsoft Fabric Portal.

2. Inside your workspace, click New item and select Dataflow Gen2:

   

3. In the Power Query editor, click Get data from another source:

   

4. Search for ODBC in the search bar and select the ODBC connector:

   

5. Then in the next step follow these instructions:

   • Enter your ODBC connection string (e.g., DSN=AsanaDSN)
   • Expand Advanced options
   • Enter your SQL statement
   • Select your On-premises data gateway
   • Finally, click Next:
   DSN=AsanaDSN

   DSN=AsanaDSN

   SELECT * FROM Workspaces

   

6. You will see a preview of your Asana data. You can now transform the data if needed (filter rows, rename columns, change types, etc.):

   Odbc.Query("DSN=AsanaDSN", "SELECT * FROM Workspaces")

   

7. Now, let's send this data to the Lakehouse. Click the + button (Add data destination) at the bottom right and select Lakehouse:

   Odbc.Query("DSN=AsanaDSN", "SELECT * FROM Workspaces")

   

8. Configure the destination connection settings and click Next:

   

9. Select your specific Lakehouse, enter the Table name you want to create, and click Next:

   

10. Uncheck Use automatic settings to set data update or schema options manually. Map the columns with proper data types and click Save settings when done:

    

11. The destination is now set. Click the Publish button to save the Dataflow:

    Odbc.Query("DSN=AsanaDSN", "SELECT * FROM Workspaces")

    

12. Done! You can now start building reports using your new semantic model.

Configure and run Pipeline

Once you have created and published your Dataflow, you can use a Pipeline to orchestrate and run it.

1. Go to the Microsoft Fabric Portal.

2. Inside your workspace, click New item and select Data Pipeline to create a new pipeline.

   

3. In the pipeline editor, select the Dataflow activity from the toolbar to add it to your canvas:

   

4. Select the Dataflow activity on the canvas and click the Settings tab. Choose your Workspace and the Dataflow you created in the previous steps:

   

5. You are now ready to link the Dataflow with other Pipeline activities.

6. Once the Pipeline flow is configured, click the Run button at the top, then click Save and run to execute the pipeline:

   

7. Monitor the Output tab below. The Pipeline status will initially show as In progress:

   

8. Wait for the process to complete. The status will update to Succeeded, indicating your data has been successfully loaded via the Dataflow:

   

9. Done! You can now start building reports on your new semantic model.

Optional: Centralized data access via ZappySys Data Gateway

In some situations, you may need to provide Asana data access to multiple users or services. Configuring the data source on a Data Gateway creates a single, centralized connection point for this purpose.

This configuration provides two primary advantages:

• Centralized data access
  The data source is configured once on the gateway, eliminating the need to set it up individually on each user's machine or application. This significantly simplifies the management process.
• Centralized access control
  Since all connections route through the gateway, access can be governed or revoked from a single location for all users.

To achieve this, you must first create a data source in the Data Gateway (server-side) and then create an ODBC data source in Microsoft Fabric (client-side) to connect to it.

Let's not wait and get going!

Create Asana data source in the gateway

In this section we will create a data source for Asana in the Data Gateway. Let's follow these steps to accomplish that:

1. Search for gateway in the Windows Start Menu and open ZappySys Data Gateway Configuration:

   

2. Go to the Users tab and follow these steps to add a Data Gateway user:

   • Click the Add button
   • In the Login field enter a username, e.g., john
   • Then enter a Password
   • Check the Is Administrator checkbox
   • Click OK to save
   

3. Now we are ready to add a data source:

   • Click the Add button
   • Give the Data source a name (have it handy for later)
   • Then select Native - ZappySys API Driver
   • Finally, click OK
   AsanaDSN

   ZappySys API Driver

   

4. When the ZappySys API Driver configuration window opens, go back to ODBC Data Source Administrator where you already have the Asana ODBC data source created and configured, and follow these steps on how to Import data source configuration into the Gateway:

   • Open ODBC data source configuration and click Copy settings:
     

     ZappySys API Driver - Configuration [Version: 2.0.1.10418]

     ZappySys API Driver - Asana

     Read and write Asana data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate tasks, projects, workspaces, and time entries — almost no coding required.

     AsanaDSN

     
   • The window opens, telling us the connection string was successfully copied to the clipboard:

   • Then go to Data Gateway configuration and in data source configuration window click Load settings:

     AsanaDSN

     

     ZappySys API Driver - Configuration [Version: 2.0.1.10418]

     ZappySys API Driver - Asana

     Read and write Asana data effortlessly. Integrate, manage, and automate tasks, projects, workspaces, and time entries — almost no coding required.

     AsanaDSN

     
   • Once a window opens, just paste the settings by pressing CTRL+V or by clicking right mouse button and then Paste option.

5. Once done, go to the Network Settings tab and Add a firewall rule for inbound traffic:

   
   • This will initially allow all inbound traffic.
   • Click Edit IP filters to restrict access to specific IP addresses or ranges.

6. Crucial Step: After creating or modifying the data source, you must:

   • Click the Save button to persist your changes.
   • Hit Yes when prompted to restart the Data Gateway service.

   This ensures all changes are properly applied:

   
   Skipping this step may cause the new settings to fail, preventing you from connecting to the data source.

Create ODBC data source to connect to the gateway

In this part we will create an ODBC data source to connect to the ZappySys Data Gateway from Microsoft Fabric. To achieve that, let's perform these steps:

1. Search for odbc and open the ODBC Data Sources (64-bit):

   

2. Create a User data source (User DSN) based on the ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server driver:

   ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server

   
   If you don't see the ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server driver in the list, choose a similar version.

3. Then set a Name for the data source (e.g. Gateway) and the address of the Data Gateway:

   ZappySysGatewayDSN

   localhost,5000

   
   Make sure you separate the hostname and port with a comma, e.g. localhost,5000.

4. Proceed with the authentication part:

   • Select SQL Server authentication
   • In the Login ID field enter the user name you created in the Data Gateway, e.g., john
   • Set Password to the one you configured in the Data Gateway
   

5. Then set the default database property to AsanaDSN (the one we used in the Data Gateway):

   AsanaDSN

   AsanaDSN

   
   Make sure to type the data source name manually or copy/paste it directly into the field. Using the dropdown might fail because the Trust server certificate option is not enabled yet (next step).

6. Continue by checking the Trust server certificate option:

   

7. Once you do that, test the connection:

   

8. If the connection is successful, everything is good:

   

9. Done!

We are ready to move to the final step. Let's do it!

Access data in Microsoft Fabric via the gateway

Finally, we are ready to read data from Asana in Microsoft Fabric via the Data Gateway. Follow these final steps:

1. Go back to Microsoft Fabric.

2. Then, go to your Copy job or Dataflow and start configuring your ODBC data source (like you did in the previous step).

3. In the ODBC configuration window, configure these fields:

   • Enter your ODBC connection string (DSN format), for example: DSN=ZappySysGatewayDSN
   • Expand Advanced options and set the SQL statement
   • Select MyGateway from the Data gateway dropdown that you configured in the previous step
   • Select Basic from the Authentication kind dropdown
   • Enter the Username (e.g., john) and Password that you configured in ZappySys Data Gateway
   DSN=ZappySysGatewayDSN

   SELECT * FROM Workspaces

   DSN=ZappySysGatewayDSN

   

4. Read the data the same way we discussed at the beginning of this article.

5. That's it!

Now you can connect to Asana data in Microsoft Fabric via the Data Gateway.

Supported Asana Connector actions

Got a specific use case in mind? We've mapped out exactly how to perform a variety of essential Asana operations directly in Microsoft Fabric, so you don't have to figure out the setup from scratch. Check out the step-by-step guides below:

• Download Attachment
• Download Multiple Attachments
• Get Allocations
• Get Attachments (For Project refer to Key-Resources Upload only)
• Get Goals
• Get Memberships
• Get Portfolio Custom Fields
• Get Portfolios
• Get Project (Single)
• Get Project Custom Fields
• Get Project Section
• Get Project Sections
• Get Projects
• Get Sub Tasks
• Get Tags
• Get Task (Single)
• Get Tasks
• Get Time Tracking Entries
• Get User (Single)
• Get User Task Lists
• Get Users
• Get Workspace (Single)
• Get Workspace Custom Fields
• Get Workspace Tasks
• Get Workspace Teams
• Get Workspaces
• Search Tasks (Advanced Filter)
• Make Generic REST API Request
• Make Generic REST API Request (Bulk Write)

Conclusion

In this article we showed you how to connect to Asana in Microsoft Fabric and integrate data without writing complex code — all of this was powered by Asana ODBC Driver.

Download ODBC PowerPack now or ping us via chat if you have any questions or are looking for a specific feature (you can also reach out to us by submitting a ticket):

Explore Microsoft Fabric connectors

Amazon Ads

Amazon Athena

Amazon Selling Partner (SP-API)

Apache Derby

Apache Hive

Apache Spark

Azure DevOps

Cosmos DB

Dropbox

DuckDB (Parquet)

ElasticSearch

FastSpring

Gmail

Google Ads

Google BigQuery

Google Calendar

Google Drive

Google Search Console

Google Sheets

Hubspot

Infor Data Lake

Jira

Mailchimp

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus (Zoho)

MariaDB

MySQL

Neo4j

OData

OneDrive

Outlook Mail (Office 365)

Power BI

ServiceNow

SharePoint Online

Shopify

Smartsheet

Starburst

Stripe

Trino

YouTube

Zendesk

Zoho CRM

Zoho SalesIQ

Zoom

REST API

JSON

JSON File

XML

SOAP

XML File

JDBC-ODBC Bridge

Salesforce

CSV

Amazon S3 JSON File

Amazon S3 XML File

Amazon S3 CSV File

Azure Blob JSON File

Azure Blob XML File

Azure Blob CSV File

FTP/SFTP JSON File

FTP/SFTP XML File

FTP/SFTP CSV File

Build your own Custom API Connector

More Asana integrations

SSIS

SQL Server

Power BI

SSRS

Informatica PowerCenter

MS Access

Excel

SSAS

C#

Python

Java

Tableau

SAP Crystal Reports

Azure Data Factory (Pipeline)

Azure Data Factory (SSIS)

Talend Studio

UiPath

PowerShell

Alteryx

ODBC