Read from an external data source, even a CSV or Excel file

[Ron McClellan]

We would like the ability to read from an external data source, and add a selected value to a Trello custom field.  Say, a list of customers from our legacy ERP, so we can add standard fields like customer number or even customer name to the card.  There are restrictions in access the SQL data directly, so we could even do a nightly data dump to update a lookup table. 

Thoughts?  

[milynnus]

@Ron McClellan 

Trello provide a http request action to do just that. It returns a response via {httpresponse}. 
see

https://help.trello.com/article/1203-issuing-http-requests-with-butler

I used with py-Trello which will allow me to work with my cards directly like custom fields. 

[Ron McClellan]

But, will this let us search the external data source?  For example, In Field "Customer Name", search for customers that begin with "ABC", show ABC Co, ABC Inc, ABC Partners, select the name we want, and fill multiple fields on the Trello card.

[milynnus]

@Ron McClellan 

The http request calls an endpoint and returns the result to Butler. At the endpoint, depending on your platform you can do all the data retrieval and manipulation you need. It can even call Zapier and use python programs to retrieve the data. I used py-trello because it has all the capabilities to work with all the components of a card like labels, custom fields, checklist etc. Unlike power up and I include custom power, it is not interactive aka it cannot , as far as I am aware, present you with a dropdown list for you to select. 

I used http request to provide a Butler add on for things you cannot do with automation natively e.g. return CF following a lookup of a card. 

My profile has my contact details should you want to have a chat.