Admin Guide - Add Custom Action in the Task Context Menu

Last Modified On: November 4, 2026

Overview

The custom action menu item adds one entry to the Gantt task right-click menu. It hands the task to a Lightning web component that your org builds, and that component's reply lands in the Gantt as a new task row or as changes to the task.  Nothing is written to Salesforce until the user clicks the Gantt's Save button. 

Use it when tasks must be created from controlled values, for example a picklistdriven window that fills the task name, category and custom fields from a standard catalogue. Users can still create and edit tasks the usual way; the menu item adds a path, it does not replace one. 

The menu item runs in one of two modes, set by the Menu Item New Task checkbox: 

The menu item shares its configuration and message channel with the existing custom action column. The column always works in  update-task mode; the menu items adds the new-task mode and the right-click entry point.

 

In update-task mode the same round trip changes the right-clicked task instead of adding a row. The channel's API name is inspire1__ganttCustomActionChannel__c.

Before you start

You need four things in place before the menu item does anything useful. 

• Inspire Planner JULY 2026 (2.8) OC 1 release or later. The menu item fields and the reply handling ship in that release. 
   
• A companion Lightning web component. Inspire Planner does not ship the picklist window. Your org (or an implementation partner) builds it to the contract in Build the companion component below. 
   
• The component on the same page as the Gantt. Add it to the Lightning record page that hosts the Inspire Planner Gantt, or to the app's utility bar. A component on a different page never receives the Gantt's message. 
   
• Custom fields in the Gantt field set. A custom field your component sets must be in the inspire1__Inspire_Planner_Custom_Fields field set on Project Task (inspire1__Inspire_Planner_Custom_Fields_Task_List for Task List projects), and the user must be able to edit it. Fields added to the field set later become settable without any other change. 

Who can configure it: an admin with the Customize Application permission, which covers both the custom setting data and placing the component in Lightning App Builder.

Who sees it: in new-task mode, users who can edit the project. In update-task mode, users with read-only access see it too, and the message tells your component so it can open a view-only window.

Configure the custom action

The menu item is controlled by one hierarchy custom setting, Project Gantt Custom Action Config (inspire1__ProjectGanttCustomActionColumn__c). The setting changes only what the Gantt shows; it does not change any project or task data, and unchecking Menu Item Enabled turns the item off again. 

Turn on the menu item
 

1. In Setup, enter "Custom Settings" in the search box, then click Custom Settings.
   
   
    
2. Click Manage next to Project Gantt Custom Action Config.
   
   
    
3. Under Default Organization Level Value, click New (or Edit if a record already exists).
   
   
    
4. Check the box for Menu Item Enabled. Then, enter a Menu Item Label - for example, "Add a standard task".
   
   
    
5. Optional: enter a Menu Item Icon Name - for example, fa-solid fa-list-check.
   
   
    
6. Check the box for Menu Item New Task for new-task mode, or leave it unchecked for update-task mode. Click Save.
   
   
    
7. Verify: open a project in the Gantt, reload the page, and right-click a task. The menu shows your label and icon on the main menu, not inside the Add submenu. The screenshot below provides an example.
   
   

Field reference

*The three column fields were previously labeled Enabled, Column Name and Action Icon Name. Their API names are unchanged, so the existing configuration keeps working.

Icons

Enter Font Awesome class names separated by spaces, each starting with fa-: a style class and an icon class, such as fa-solid fa-clipboard-list. Classes that do not start with fa- (including a bare fa) are ignored. If the icon renders blank, the name is not in the Gantt's icon set; try another icon. 

Show the label in other languages

The label is free text, so Salesforce translation tools do not reach it, and the blank-label fallback Custom Action is English only. Because the setting is a hierarchy setting read for each user, you can give each language group its own label: 

1. Click Manage next to Project Gantt Custom Action Config.
   
   
    
2. Click New in the lower section.
   
   
    
3. Set Location to the profile (or user) that should see the translated label. 
   
   
    
4. Enter the translated Menu Item Label, for example - "Standardaufgabe hinzufügen". 
   
   
    
5. Set every checkbox to match the org default. Blank text fields inherit the org default value, but checkboxes are stored as unchecked and do not inherit. 
   
   
    
6. Click Save, then log in as a user with that profile and confirm the translated label. If language does not follow profile in your org, a combined label such as Add standard task / Standardaufgabe hinzufügen is the fallback.

When changes appear

The Gantt reads the setting when the project page loads, and the response is cached in the browser. After a change, users must reload the project page; if the old label persists, clear the browser cache for the Salesforce domain and reload. 

Build the companion component

Your component talks to the Gantt through one Lightning message channel: it listens for the Gantt's message, opens its own window, and publishes a reply on the same channel. Inspire Planner places no constraint on the window's size or design, because your component opens it. 
 

Message channel Import @salesforce/messageChannel/inspire1__ganttCustomActionChannel__c. Subscribe with the default scope. With APPLICATION_SCOPE, copies of your component in background console tabs receive the message too and each opens a window.

1. Never set _source to inspire-planner. The Gantt ignores messages that carry it. 
2. New task: omit Id and pass back the inspire1__Project__c you received. The Gantt ignores a new-task reply whose project Id belongs to a different project. 
3. Update: include the Id you received. A reply whose Id is not on the open Gantt is ignored. 
4. Set unsavedChanges deliberately on updates. true makes the change a pending edit that the user saves with Save. false or omitted tells the Gantt the values are already saved, so it shows them without a pending change; only use that when your component has saved the record itself. New-task replies are always pending, whatever the flag says. 
5. Send only the fields you want to set. Omitted keys are left as they are; a key set to null clears the field. Unknown keys and custom fields outside the field set are ignored without an error. 
6. Several replies are fine. Each new-task reply inserts below the row the previous reply inserted, so rows appear in reply order. 

Fields a reply can set

Numbers can be sent as numbers or as numeric text. A reply cannot set Assigned To (resource assignments), the parent task or the indent level. 

Dates and defaults on a new task 

A new row follows the same rules as a task typed into the Gantt, so a reply only needs to send what it knows. 

In backward-scheduled projects the automatic start constraint is Start No Later Than. Task List projects get no automatic constraint or date defaults.

Status and % Complete 

A reply gets the same sync as editing these cells in the Gantt, on new and existing tasks alike. If a reply sends both, % Complete wins. 

Moving to In Progress stamps today as the actual start, and a completed status stamps today as the actual finish. Actual start and finish dates in the reply override the stamped ones.

Dependencies 

inspire1__Predecessors__c and inspire1__Successors__c take entries separated by ; or ,. Each entry names the other task by the number the Gantt's Predecessors column uses for it, or by its Salesforce Id, followed by an optional type and lag. 

Types are FS (the default), SS, FF and SF; the stored codes ES, EE and SE also work. For lag units, only d (days) is supported.

• A list replaces that side of the task's links, the same as editing its Predecessors cell; an empty value removes them.
• Task numbers mean the rows as the user saw them when they rightclicked, before the new row shifts the rows below it. 
• Entries that cannot be read, or that name a task not on the Gantt, are skipped without an error. inspire1__Deactivated_Dependencies__c lists the numbers of predecessors to link as inactive. 
• New links are always pending and save with the Gantt's Save, even in an update reply sent with unsavedChanges: false.

Reference component 

A minimal listener, with the picklist window in a separate LightningModal(c/taskPickerModal) that closes with the chosen values keyed by API name:

Expose the component for lightning__RecordPage (and lightning__UtilityBar if you place it there). It needs no visible markup on the page. 

What users see 

For a project manager, the menu item is one right-click and one window; the task is saved with the rest of their changes. 

1. Right-click a task row or its bar in the Gantt. 
2. Click the menu item, for example - Add standard task. Your component's window opens. 
3. Choose the values and click the window's save button. The window closes.
4. In new-task mode, a new row appears directly below the task you rightclicked and scrolls into view. In update-task mode, the right-clicked task's cells change. Changed cells carry the Gantt's usual unsaved-change marker. 
5. Click the Gantt's Save button to write the task to Salesforce. 
    

Until step 5, the new row behaves like any other unsaved change: it can be edited, undone, or discarded by leaving the project without saving. 

Where a new row lands

When the item is hidden

• New-task mode: hidden from users who cannot edit the project, meaning they lack create and edit permission on Project Tasks or have read-only access to the project record.
   
• Update-task mode: shown to those users too, with readOnly: true in the message; hidden on rows that have not been saved yet, and on internalonly tasks when the Gantt runs in an Experience Cloud site.

Limits and known behaviours 

• One custom action per user. The Gantt reads a single configuration record for each user, so it shows at most one custom menu item and one custom action column. 
   
• Lightning web components only. The menu item cannot launch a screen flow in this release. 
   
• Launch-only use. To open your component without creating a row, use update-task mode and have the component send no reply.
   
• No error when nothing listens. If your component is not on the page, the menu item does nothing and shows no message.
   
• readOnly is advisory. The Gantt sends the flag but applies an update reply regardless, so your component must not reply when readOnly is true.
   
• Omitted unsavedChanges means saved. An update reply without unsavedChanges: true is shown as already saved and is never written by the Gantt's Save. 
   
• Column Enabled now defaults to unchecked. Existing configuration records keep their saved value; only new records start unchecked.

Troubleshooting