How do I sort Trello search results by last modified date?

[Simon Cohen]

I see options like "from the last day" or week, etc, or even by due date, but I just want to search all of my boards, and see the results sorted by the cards' last modified date. I'm not an admin, so I can't use add-ons, I just need Trello to offer this very basic feature. Am I missing something?

[Iain Dooley]

@Simon Cohen there's no way to sort your search results, but you can get this information pretty easily via the API. Here's a Trellinator script that will give you a Google Sheet with all the cards in all boards for a given team, ordered in date descending order by when they were last modified for example:

https://gist.github.com/iaindooley/f6d89afac01d0961c9020ac704f245b2

You can see how to install Trellinator here:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Marketplace-Apps-articles/Introducing-Trellinator-Automate-Trello-with-Google-Apps-Script/ba-p/925271

[Simon Cohen]

Hi Iain, thanks very much for this option, however for my needs it’s complete overkill. Like attacking a mosquito with a sledgehammer 😂

I’m disappointed that there’s no way to sort a Trello search. Do you know if the Altlassian team ever checks these boards for new feature suggestions? This one seems like a no-brainer!

 Thanks 

simon. 

[Iain Dooley]

@Simon Cohen the Atlassian team are around, but not actively taking feature requests from here. You can submit by following these instructions:

https://help.trello.com/article/724-submitting-feature-requests-for-trello

This type of thing is a pretty "un-trello" feature though. Trello is very "un-databasey". Their approach historically has been to be a superb platform that does a few things exceptionally well, but at the expense of a bunch of features that cause people to scratch their heads and go "huh!? They don't allow you to SORT your SEARCH RESULTS!?! That's crazy!".

The benefit of Trello is that it has such an amazing API. So if you accept the core premise of the product then there will always be a way to get it to do what you want or a workaround using the existing features.

What is it that you're trying to achieve by the way? There might be a simpler way to meet the same need.

[Simon Cohen]

Thanks, I'll submit the request!
My need is really basic: Our team generates a TON of new cards every day, on a variety of topics, which end up moving between as many as 7 lists per board. Before I create a new card, I need to know if someone else has already created one, but browsing through all of the boards and lists is impractical. So I just need a way to do a search for something like "Apple" and see if anyone has created a matching card in the last 24 hours.

What I still find perplexing is that Trello does have a search. But if results aren't being generated by recency, how exactly is Trello determining what I see when I search? Best match? If so, what would constitute a best match? Even more frustrating is that the Trello team has partially acknowledged that people need better search tools, because: filters. But imagine if you could only filter your Gmail by tag, or sender, instead of ordering it by date? Sorry, I'm ranting now ;-)

[Iain Dooley]

@Simon Cohen Okay cool so to see if anyone on the team has created a card with name containing "Apple" in the past 24 hours you would put the following into the search:

name:"Apple or whatever" edited:day is:open

You could also restrict it to an individual board:

board:boardname name:"search term" edited:day is:open

You can see all the search options here:

https://help.trello.com/article/808-searching-for-cards-all-boards

Unless you have lots of cards being created with names containing "search term" you should only have to glance over a handful of cards to see if there's a pre-existing one.

[Simon Cohen]

Thanks Iain, the edited:day option is exactly what I had been looking for, but hadn't found. Now, if only there were a way to make this a default filter when searching... I don't suppose you have a trick for that, do you? ;-)

S.

[Iain Dooley]

@Simon Cohen there's no way to make it a default filter, however on mobile devices recent searches show up first so if you're doing something frequently you'll see it there.

On desktop you can save searches if you have Trello Gold or above.

The other thing you can do is create a card called "Saved Searches" then create a search with just "edited:day" on it and click that link, then add whatever other parameters you want onto the search string.

You could create several links on the same card with your common searches for quick opening -- the advantage of this method is that it will work the same on both mobile and desktop where as the saved searches feature pay for doesn't work on mobile (go figure!)

The only drawback is that when you click it on the mobile app it will open the search in your mobile device's web browser -- and then when you click the cards in the search results it will open the card back up in Trello so it's a bit of bouncing back and forth.