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Synchronizing Loop Tasks with Planner
Updated: 6 June 2023
In a May 10 post in the Microsoft Technical Community, Microsoft discussed some new task management capabilities available through Loop Task List components that now surface in Planner. You can create the task list component in clients like OWA, Outlook desktop, and Teams chats or meeting agendas. Figure 1 shows a typical example with a task list component in the body of an OWA message. According to message center notification MC572515 (June 5), Microsoft will start to roll out the necessary changes in mid-June and complete worldwide deployment in mid-July 2023.
The big change here is the option to “Open in Planner” available from the […] menu at the top of the task list. In the past, Microsoft talked about roster containers (plans without Microsoft 365 groups) and a potential integration between lightweight plans and fluid (now Loop) components. It looks like being able to open the tasks created in a Loop task component in Planner is the outcome of that work.
Graph Planner Containers
The Microsoft Graph defines a planner container resource and notes that two types of planner containers are currently supported: plans contained in a Microsoft 365 group and plans contained in a planner roster.
In this context, the planner roster container holds the set of Loop tasks, the roster (of users authorized to work with the plan) are those who share the Loop component, and the tasks in the container are those created in the Loop component.
Working with Roster Containers in Planner
Figure 2 shows the plan after opening it in Planner. The tasks listed in the Loop task list are present and assigned to the right people. Clicking the Loop icon to the right opens the Loop component using the same browser interface as used if you open a Loop component from OneDrive for Business.
Most Planner plans are associated with a Microsoft 365 group. When working with tasks from a roster container, some features like comments and adding document attachments aren’t available. However, you can add checklist items, labels, update the task description, change the dates, status, and task priority, and add a URL to a web page (Figure 3). You can also add new members to the roster by assigning a task to someone that’s not already in the roster.
While the basics of tasks are synchronized (including new tasks added in Planner), don’t expect all the changes made in Planner to synchronize back to the Loop task list component. The Microsoft support article says that tasks in task list “stay in sync with a plan in Planner.” From this we understand that the roster container is independent of the Loop component. This makes sense because the Loop task object is simpler and doesn’t support the same properties as Planner does. The Planner-specific properties are accessible through the items stored in the roster container, and changes made to the task name, due date, and roster synchronize with Loop and appear in the component. If you add someone to a roster container, you’ll be prompted by Loop to grant access to that person to allow them to interact with the Loop component.
Tasks Everywhere
Because Loop can expose its tasks in Planner, the tasks become accessible elsewhere within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Figure 4 shows one of the tasks from the Loop task list opened through the To Do for iOS app (left) where it’s listed in the Assigned to me list. On the right, the Loop for iOS app opens the same task.
Microsoft refers to the ability to access tasks through different apps as “moving components around different surfaces,” which I guess means that the task objects are available to users via their app of choice.
Embedding Loop More Deeply
After waiting so long to see what Planner meant by roster containers, it’s nice to see an actual implementation. I’m not sure quite how many people will hop from one app to another after starting with a Loop task list, but it’s certainly possible if you want to do it.
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Where is the data stored for loop? In users Onedrive or in a 365 group?
Loop components are stored in the author’s OneDrive for Business account. See https://office365itpros.com/2021/11/08/use-microsoft-loop-teams-chat/
it’s annoying that these tasks do not appear in the outlook task section – I thought MS were moving towards to-do being the store location for all tasks ?
You could also say that the Tasks in Teams app is the one place to go to get task info…
It’s no synchronization if it’s not two way. Tasks added to the plan from teh planner interface don’t show in the loop. That is not a sync.
It is a synchronization if the essential properties of the original item (the Loop task list) are replicated. The fact that Planner has a richer item structure doesn’t mean that the essentially much simpler Loop task list should share the same structure.
A test of this today and tasks added to the plan in planner do populate the loop (example Follow-up tasks >Meeting notes Teams loop item) – but task item stays in the loop list but no longer syncs if moved to a different bucket or plan – hopefully this will be ironed out very soon.
For each of our work streams we have an individual Planner Plan per Teams Channel. If I create a loop task list from a team meeting where we discuss multiple projects it would be fantastic to ‘transfer’ these tasks into the correct project plan and still keep them in sync. There is a subtle difference between copying and moving tasks in planner between plans but it would be good to have a third form of transfer eg ‘linked clone’ that keep in sync with each other. Otherwise we are going to have to rethink how our plans are created and structured as loop task lists.