You don't have to be a developer to work with APIs in Trello
Advancing your Trello automation with the Get URL action, plus list colors and more!
Spring is springing!! We finally made it, folks. Even though I live in the bayou where we have very very mild winters, I still look forward to the time of year when things are blooming, the mornings get less chilly, and there’s more sunshine! Speaking of blooming, let’s talk about those new list colors!
🌮 Getting content onto a card from email… with automation
🗞️ Collapsible and colored lists are finally here!
🛎️ Add a card from anywhere with this shortcut
💡 Managing email requests and pipelines in Trello
⚡ PREMIUM: The most useful yet easiest to set up automation
Let’s dive in!
🌮 Dear Taco
This is a section where readers can submit their Trello questions, and each week I’ll pick one and answer it! It’s like “Dear Abby” but make it trello. Have a question you want to submit? Share it here.
Howdy! I am hoping to create an automation where when a card is created on a board, I get an email whose content is a variable piece of information from the card AND *the card's "Email for this card". I've got everything working except for getting the "Email for this card" automatically. I understand that there is not a variable for that attribute to call using automation. Do you know the pattern matching for that attribute so I could piece it together, or what it's called in API?
So this is a great question, and I had it completely figured out… but then it seems like Trello must have changed something with the API. So I’ll show you how I would have done it, and I’m currently following up with Trello support to see why it’s not working.
Because you’re absolutely correct - this is supposed to be available with the API, according to the documentation…
So I was like “eureka! This is easy!! Because Trello automation has an action for fetching data from an API….”
So I tried, it and it’s works! I get this lovely response!! (I had it post {httpresponse} as a comment just to see what all i got)
I was like, this is perfect! I just need to say “send an email with {httpresponse.email}”.
But see what I saw there?
It looks like that value is null.
I had no idea what I was doing wrong, because this should work, so I asked the Trello API expert I know,
, who said he encountered something similar in the community recently. He dug up this post on Stack Overflow which says at some point (apparently 7 years ago??) the Trello team said they removed that from the response, because it technically has write access to the board, so it can be too powerful.However… I find it hard to believe Atlassian/Trello wouldn’t have had the chance to update the documentation in 7 years. So I’m reaching out to support, and I’ll give an update when I find out.
In the meantime, the only alternative I can think to do would be to:
Get the board’s email address
Create an auotmation so that when a new card is added to the board, you get an email with a subject “Card: {cardname}”.
Create automation so that when you a card is emailed into the board with card name “Card: {*}”, find a card name with name {wildcard1}, and link the cards together. (Learn more about pattern matching and wildcards.)
Now, when you want to add something to that specific card after you get an email about it, just click forward and then send whatever you want, and that new email content will be a new card, and attached to the initially created card that triggered the notification.
Bit hacky, but hopefully gets you what you need in the meantime.
Want to submit your question? Maybe it’ll be featured next week!
🗞 New(s) and Links
🎨 Collapsible lists and list colors are available now (for paid users)! Learn how to use them for, well, more than just fun haha. They’re not just flashy, they’re useful too!
📺 Since I’ve already mentioned
once, I’ll mention him again! We’re working on a short video walking you through what you need to know about Trello’s new pricing change. We are recording it in a few hours after this newsletter goes out, and I’ll be doing a special early edition delivery of the video for my premium subscribers (the rest of you will have to wait til next Thursday, but you’ll still get the goods).⚡I am doing a super short live stream today (Thursday) about building in PixieBrix! Although I won’t be talking about Trello in specific, I will be talking about how to easily work with APIs and display responses from HTTP requests, which, as you might have gathered from the start of this email can be really helpful for the most advanced Trello automators! Come join me at 10:00 CT!
🛎️ Trello Tip of the Week
If you have the Trello desktop app installed, you can quickly create a card from anywhere with a shortcut! Check it out
You can customize the shortcut to make it whatever you’d like—just check the app settings! By default it’s ⌃ (control) + shift + space.
💡 Use Case Idea
I get a lot of contact requests about stuff for Trello, and for someone who uses Trello as much as I do, I have a really wonky system for keeping track 😂
I finally decided to do some much needed clean up and build out a pipeline for all my inquiries (enquiries?), whether it’s folks wanting Trello consulting, asking a question, or needing some content.
This is the first time I ever sat up a board and didn’t immediately start automating things. Instead, I built out the flow of how I expect things to go.
It’s not entirely linear, and some folks will jump through stages. Push is anyone I’m actively trying to get in touch with, and Inbox is folks who come my way. Admittedly, that’s what I’m mostly trying to manage here.
Then, I did something something kinda new. I made a Workflow list at the beginning and just started “card vommitting” (new dictionary term for 2024) ideas. Ideas, for how I wanted it to work, things I wanted to automate, etc.
Only later did I sort it with sections :)
Since I get a lot of requests via email, I added the Email for Trello Power-Up (which lets me actually send templated emails and respond to folks directly within Trello- I’m looking forward to adding some more automation to this once I get the workflow set)… and I’m going to be hooking up Crmble soon so I can actually visualize this pipeline and see how it progresses and where my leads are coming from (aside from just email), so stay tuned for the sequel on that!
Special shoutout to my premium sponsors!
Thanks to:
Mike Day -
🎉 New Website 🎉
Trello Consulting done differently
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Unito
Turn forms and surveys into Trello cards automatically as soon as they’re received in Jotform, Typeform, or SurveyMonkey. Unito’s integrations keep your Trello boards in sync with the rest of your stack.Make the review and approval process an absolute breeze with Approvals for Trello, and say goodbye to never-ending email chains and having to chase your teammates for feedback.
Email in Trello
Organize & automate your Email in Trello. Connect any Trello board with Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo & more.
Btw, haven’t gotten a copy of my Trello book yet? What are you waiting for?
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