How to get notification when due date is missed via butler due date functionality

[Evan Meinerts]

I have some rules set up in the Due Date section of Butler to post a comment asking for a progress update when a card has gone 2 days past the due date. Th problem is that it only gives a notification to other people, not to me (since the comment comes from me). Is there a way to trigger something on the card that will give anyone a notification to look at that card, including myself, so that we can all be reminded when a due date is forgotten about?

I don't want to re-order the list (move the card to the top) because often times they are in a specific order based on priority or other factors. And I don't want to have someone else make a similar rule for me, because then it would result in duplicate messages for other people.

What I really want is for an option to have 'Mr. Butler' comment on a card. That would help multiple issues we have with using these rules. Sometimes it is confusing that one of my teammates comments on something and I'm not sure if it is actually from them or if it is just an automatic rule that may not be as important. And obviously it would fix the main problem I had asked about too.

Any ideas? Doesn't have to be solved by Butler, but that is the only place I have seen this sort of functionality before.

[Katrin Anger]

@Evan Meinerts 

Hi Evan,

My first thought was having added a label when a card is 2 days overdue, and then send out either a notification to all members or trigger some other actions, depending on your working style.

Is this something you could consider?

Let me know if you want to discuss options for such a workflow.

[Evan Meinerts]

Yes, the option to send out a notification to all members is something I want. If it has to trigger off of adding a label that is fine, I just need a way for anyone who is part of a card to get a notification that a comment was posted asking for a progress update (the only issue with my current method is that the comment Butler posts on my behalf does not trigger a notification for me, only for others, and I need the notifications too).

Does that sound like something that would work based on what you were thinking?

[Katrin Anger]

@Evan Meinerts 

Hi Evan, I created a sample command for you. Adding a label or sticker first is not really necessary, so I left that out.

The command first posts a comment and then sends off an email notification.

Can you set up the command accordingly and test whether you get the email notification, too? (There is a possibility that you as the board owner but not being a member to a card are left out, but we can probably find a way to get this covered.)

Here's the command. It's a Due Date command type:

Let me know how it goes.

[Iain Dooley]

@Katrin Anger hey that's neat! I didn't know the Butler power up had access to Trello member email addresses for sending email notifications, great share thanks

[Evan Meinerts]

@Katrin Anger 
Thanks for pointing that out to me, I am testing it out now.

This seems to be a step in the right direction, at least this is a way for me to stop commenting on a card so that I stop getting all the notifications for every card that is late (I have found myself being added to several cards that I am not a part of, but as soon as I comment on them about the missed due date, I seem to get all the updates after that point. I must be 'watching' the card automatically after I comment on it).

I tested it and I did get an email notification on a card that I was on. The thing that still doesn't work right is that my team and I will all get emails about the card, but when we log into Trello, we won't have a new notification on Trello to direct us to that card. So even if we get an email saying a random card is overdue (the email notification doesn't say which card, or even have a link to that card) we will have to manually search for over due cards. And the notification in Trello is really the best way for us to stay on top of this, I don't want people to have to check their email notifications and then check Trello, we are on Trello every day so I want them to just be able to see it in Trello.

[Evan Meinerts]

The more I think about this problem, the more I am realizing that until a feature request is approved and added for this, I may have to just accept that I can't have what I need yet.

There is a way to get the notifications I want in Trello- I can just have the rule keep moving the due date out another set number of days. This kind of works, at least it is addressing my main concern of having a new Trello notification for the card so that people will see it again. But there are a couple drawbacks:

1. The original due date is still marked in the card history somewhere, but it is not easily found or referenced on the front of the card for an easy way to see how much a card is truly late.

2. There isn't a way to make a comment on the card without me having to join every card that is late. And it would be nice to have the actual comment saying to give a progress report. Especially since it may just look like someone changed the due date for a good reason instead of just because it is late and they needed another reminder.

I'm hoping that an option to have a bot (Mr. Butler) post a comment instead of just the original user will be added soon, it would be a big benefit for my team since we are trying to set up automated processes. This original problem of mine is one example, another example where this would be useful is for our Virtual Assistant boards:

We have assistants that get tasks assigned to them. When they are done with the task their process right now is to drag the card from a 'To-Do' list into a 'Ready for Review' list. We have rules set for any card that is put into a ready to review list to have the proper supervisor notified via a comment on the card saying 'this is ready for review, please check it out'. And again, without the bot account saying this, it is a comment by whoever set the rule up and then they don't see the notification. --I do realize that we could have our assistants manually make a comment on the card, but we like the reduced friction of having an easier process for them, as well as it being a really intuitive process that is hard to forget - when you are done with something, you take if off the to-do list and put it as ready for review.

[Iain Dooley]

@Evan Meinerts you can use the {triggercardlink} variable in the email body to get a link back to the card.

Also if you need to use the due date operationally then you can always use the custom field power up to set the actual date on which the thing needs to be delivered. 

[Katrin Anger]

@Evan Meinerts 

I had once the same issue, and I solved it with adding a link to the card to the email message text.

If you this in the message text:

"[{cardname}]({cardlink})"

Butler will display the name of the card and behind the name is a clickable link.

This should solve your problem.

[Iain Dooley]

@Evan Meinerts instead of adding Butler as the power up on the board using your own account, add the Butler power using an account you create for that purpose, eg. "Butler For My Company". Then the comments will come from that user.

Otherwise use Trellinator:

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

[Evan Meinerts]

Hello,

My teams are not part of business class, we are just using our personal Gold right now. So I don't want to make another account and have to pay for Gold for it (or have to pay the additional business class fees if we were to upgrade) just to get the notifications. What I really want is for there to be an option for 'Mr. Butler' to post as a bot instead of only posting as if it were from me.

I did check out the Trellinator article a little, but I do not want to mess with coding to get this done. I'm sure I could eventually figure it out, but that route is not attractive to me.

[Iain Dooley]

@Evan Meinerts well if you don't want to mess with the coding yourself you can just hire someone else to do the coding for you. I hire people on Upwork and give them the Trellinator documentation and ask them to learn how to use it, then I write Butler style specifications for them to implement the commands.

Otherwise if that sounds like it would be too expensive and too much of a hassle, pay for a Gold license for another user to run your Butler!