Automations/card buttons to rename parts of cards and/or remove Trello card attachments

[Anna Weber]

Hi! I'm struggling to set Trello automations up to help streamline a social calendar. 

Here's what I have: 

- I have base cards, where all information lives for a piece that needs social media promo—overall checklist, external attachments to Google Docs and Canva, attachments from other Trello boards. The title of these cards always starts with "MAIN —" to help with filtering (i.e., "MAIN — 'Title' by Author (translated from Language by Translator"). I don't use a label titled "MAIN" for this because we use labels for other categories (social media platforms, genres, campaign titles, etc.), and I fear it would be label overload. I find the text-only "MAIN —" to be a little more visually distinct.  

- I have individual "social cards" that have more limited information. They represent a single post on a specific platform. They have a short checklist to track the status of the post (i.e., reviewed, approved, scheduled) as well as the same labels copied over from the main card plus the label for their associated platform. Their titles always start with the platform but then have the same title as the main card (i.e., "Facebook — 'Title' by Author (translated from Language by Translator"). They get linked back to the main card and might have the same external attachments as the main card, but social cards aren't linked to each other (i.e., the Facebook card doesn't get linked to the Instagram card). 

Here's what I was doing, before we got a premium account: 

- Copy the main card, remove the start date and due date, remove the checklist, delete "MAIN —" from the title and add the social platform prefix instead, attach the short social checklist, add the label for the social platform, and link the main card + copied card together... for every single post that would go up for a specific piece. What I would do to speed this up a bit is make a social card copy of the main card, skip the labeling and linking, keep copying the individual social card for as many posts/platforms as I need, then go back and link all the social cards to the main card/label all the social cards. Extremely tedious nonetheless!

Here's what I'm looking to do: 

- An automation, series of automations, or a combination of buttons + automations that allow me to copy the main card, remove the start date and due date, remove the checklist, add in the new short checklist, delete "MAIN —" from the title and give the card a new prefix (again, "[social platform name] + [rest of the title from the main card]"), add the additional social platform label and keep all other labels, remove any other Trello attachments from this board, keep any Trello attachments from other boards, and keep external attachments

This appears to be virtually impossible but PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong. Currently, what I have set up is a combination of the follow rules. I have a list titled "MAIN CARDS" and a list titled "SOCIAL DRAFTS," for reference. 

- when a card in list "MAIN CARDS" is copied into list "SOCIAL DRAFTS", link the cards together

- when a card with a name starting with "Facebook" is added to the board, remove all the checklists from the card, remove the start date from the card, remove the due date from the card, add the "* General social checklist" checklist from card "https://trello.com/c/uutbM6B8/342-social-media-checklists-individual-posts" renamed to "{cardname}" to the card, and add the light sky "Facebook" label to the card

^ and etc. for each social platform that we use and post to

There are a few problems with this. One, I copy the main card to "SOCIAL DRAFTS," renaming it manually, then the above automations run; would love to be able to hit a card button titled "Facebook" that runs these automations and renames the card correctly without me having to get clicky. The other problem is that as the social cards are linked back to the main card, they get linked up with each other, as well, which is not what I want—I want it to be easy to pull up a social card and click back to the main card without having to sift through the 3-25 other social cards first. I figure another option is to reconfigure the 2nd automation above so that I copy the main card once to a new social card, then continue copying the social cards—again, perhaps a button that renames and relabels the card correctly, AND links it back up to the main card (not to the card I just copied it from). Again, ideally I'd keep all the OTHER attachments in place (google docs, cards from other boards, etc.)

It feels like wildcards and the "find" cascade are ways to make this possible, or maybe I need to relinquish "MAIN —" and just succumb to a label instead, but I just can't quite figure out what the precise combination/command would be.

What to do!?

Please let me know if I didn't explain this well!

[Anna Weber]

For now, I left my other automations in place and am adding a checklist to the main card called "Content cards"; with that checklist I added the following automation (and etc. for each platform): 

- when an item starting with "Facebook" is added to checklist "Content cards" in a card with a name starting with "MAIN {*}" in list "MAIN CARDS", convert the item to a linked card in list "SOCIAL DRAFTS" using pattern "Facebook {wildcard1}" copying labels, link the cards together, and rename the card to "Facebook {wildcard1}"

It's coming with its own set of issues, but they're smaller issues than having to do half the process manually! What I'm missing with it is the ability to maintain my external attachments; additionally, if I want more than one Facebook post, I have to just make a few and then rename them later, instead of being able to rename from the jump (bc the automation is grabbing "Facebook" and ignoring what comes after). 

[Cody]

It seems like you're on the right track here, have you tested with a that same wildcard, but with a rule?

For example:

when a card with a name containing "MAIN {*}" is added to list "Facebook", rename the card to "Facebook {wildcard1}", remove the due date from the card, and remove all the checklists from the card, etc, etc

You could still use a card button to trigger this:

copy the card to the top of list "Facebook" and link the cards together

[Anna Weber]

Got it—in this case, I'd need to set up lists for individual platforms, correct? (I currently have lists set up just to cover each week, i.e. "Week of June 15-21", but that doesn't necessarily have to stay that way). Is there a way to, in running that automation, keep all attachments from the main card /except/ card attachments from the same board?

[Cody]

Yes, you're right, in that example each list would be the trigger. I'm afraid there isn't a way to keep all attachments except card attachments, at least not that I've found in my tests. 

It's also true that exploring labels may be worthwhile, though I understand the value in having certain categories of data tracked in different places as to not create clutter!