Trello Custom Fields Search

[Alex Stockler]

Hi There,

I have just added in the Custom Fields power-up for Trello and I need a way of searching by these custom fields. Is there a way of doing this?

[Elizabeth Carter]

I agree, searching and/or filtering by custom fields is an absolute necessity. I am using custom fields for item priority and project associations, and because of the number of items I need to use I am unable to use labels for them. This power-up is almost useless without any search or filter capabilities.

[WG Trello Admin]

you can search by custom field content...just use {{%fieldname}}=searchtext

[Mike Konikoff]

would be nice if that were documented somewhere. preferably on the details for the powerup

[Mikael Byström]

Note that this only works in search cards. It doesn't work in the Go to search field where a lot of tagged searches can be done. I don't see a way to save this search either. 
This split search/filter functionality is kinda odd.

[Mikael Byström]

Another thing to observe is that if the values in the custom fields are unique (doesn't show up anywhere else) then you can just use one of those values in Search Cards. If the values aren't unique @WG Trello Admin's suggestion is very useful. 

[Office]

The whole magic of the "Jump to" search for a user like myself who has 30 lists per board each with anywhere from 10-20 cards on a monthly basis, was the ability to jump right to the desired card. Filter/Search while useful, means lots of tedious horizontal scrolling which slaughters productivity...and I am guessing this doesn't search across multiple boards?  

So close but not quite. 

[David Saunders]

Unfortunately, @WG Trello Admin's {{%fieldname}}=searchtext seems not to limit search exclusively to the named field.

I have a custom field called CCI and, for example, {{%CCI}}=229 returns all the expected Cards plus spurious Cards that have 229 in their URLs.

Something like this, where the number is a Trello ID:

https://trello.com/c/bh6rF8O2/229-investigate-upgrade

Similarly, any card with the searchtext in its Title is also returned:

https://trello.com/c/OW6NTg9t/451-229-test

Anybody have any thoughts about how to exclude these?

[Lewis Melville]

Hi David, unfortunately, I think you are right. In which case we are back to the start and imploring Trello to please get moving on developing this basic but increadibly useful feature.

[MFliorko]

I vote for the feature of advanced search/filter functionality that allows addressing specific custom fields according to their types (number, date, dropbox, multi-value list, etc.) and attachment (file types, size, etc.).

Also, it would be great to use some search language that includes AND, OR, BETWEEN, <, <=, >, >=, ==, !=, ! (not) operators.

[mriffault]

Custom Fields has been included in the Trello APi recently. Is there a plan to make them searchable now? It would be very great!

[Massimiliano Dal Cero]

I agree !! :)

[Matthew N]

Use Filters instead of search 

[Deleted user]

@Matthew N How do you filter by custom fields? Looks like you can only filter by "term or search for labels, members, or due times."

[Jorge Enrique Jaramillo Arias]

How can I do searches or filter cards for a custom field?

[Charisma Riley]

Removed by author.

[Ungapped Support]

How can this not have been fixed yet?

Create an Advanced search where you easily can search on custom fields (without having to write "{{%fieldname}}=searchtext").
It should be possible to add "AND and OR".
It must be possible to save your search.

[Mike Konikoff]

As Matthew N hinted, the Filter search will search custom fields. Show Menu > Filter Cards, then type the custom field value you want to search for. For example, a custom field called "Frobnosticator" that populates from a list. Typing the selected value ("Bob") from the list in the Filter search will filter the cards to show the ones where Frobnosticator is Bob. It will probably also match card names containing "Bob" .. so it would be nicer if the filter would let you do Frobnosticator: Bob ... but, it doesn't (I tried it and got the same results as just filtering on Bob).

Or, just take it from Trello:

• Filtering: Board filtering now supports text, drop down list, and checkbox fields, and will surface cards that have fields that match filtered terms.

[jswedberg]

Seems to have disappeared. 

[Mike Konikoff]

They changed the name, now it's Show Menu > Search Cards

[Mikael Byström]

It doesn't seem the card search can properly find values with spaces in them. If the value is absent, like for instance there is no "Factor 9" in a board, but there is a "Factor 10", then a search for the former will display cards with the latter. 

If both values are present, both will display, no matter if you use quotes or not.

I'd say this is a broken search, albeit not unique to Custom fields.

Trello doesn't seem interested in advancing search. I might abandon it for it. On the other hand you can't export data in any fully usable way (missing data as far as I can see), so they got me trapped.

[Lee-on Pedahzur]

in 2021 there is no longer Show Menu > Search Cards. It's now called Filter: https://help.trello.com/article/972-filtering-vs-searching

[Matthew N]

Hey Alex

Currently, Custom Fields are not searchable.  They will, however, be included in export reports of the board.

You can let the team know of your interest in searching custom fields by sending a feature request to feature-ideas@trello.com

[Mike Konikoff]

Appears that Trello Development Roadmap doesn't go beyond December '17. Is there a new development roadmap for Trello available somewhere in the Atlassian universe?

[Daniel Morrow]

It seems this still hasn't been fixed?

I was just getting excited about the possibilities of custom fields + butler reports solving some needs for us, and discovered the custom fields aren't searchable.  Seeing that this thread is over three years old, I'm assuming no one cares?

[Daniel Woodman]

I just tested it with a custom field set to number. It is searchable if you use the search cards command in the menu. 

[WG Trello Admin]

I think it still just searches for the value though eg search for any card that has the number 4 anywhere in the card, rather than a value specific to the field eg search for cards where value in {fieldname} = 4

[WG Trello Admin]

After further testing, in fact you can search by custom field content...just use {{%fieldname}}=searchtext

[meszka]

Thanks @WG Trello Admin

I tried some variations of this and they also seem to be working:

• {{%fieldname}}searchtext
• %fieldname:searchtext

I guess the "%fieldname" part is the key. Without the "=" in the URL you can paste a link somewhere or save a bookmark and it will still work.

[Jennifer]

This works for searching, but it would be nice to be able to filter by two custom fields. If you put two in the box, you get every card containing either instead of only the cards containing both.

[Mikael Byström]

@Jennifer, a simple | means OR: 

%fieldname:searchtext | %fieldname:searchtext2

[Jennifer]

I may be misunderstanding, but that’s producing the same results as just searching for both fields. What I want is something that only shows cards with both of the fields. 

[Mikael Byström]

@Jennifer. Yes, it looks like the "|" actually isn't operative and can be left out. So there's no "and" that would work in this case. Trello support next then. 

[Mikael Byström]

I'm sorry @WG Trello Admin, but it seems your first insight "I think it still just searches for the value though eg search for any card that has the number 4 anywhere in the card, rather than a value specific to the field eg search for cards where value in {fieldname} = 4" would seem to be correct.

For example if I search for a value in a field which doesn't have this value, as it belongs to another, the same search results show up.

[Mikael Byström]

How can we save one of these searches?

[Mike Konikoff]

none of these options is working any more as far as I can tell on my boards:

• {{%fieldname}}searchtext
• %fieldname:searchtext

[David Saunders]

Hello Mike - I have never seen these options working satisfactorily.  See  my entry of  Aug 18, 2021 where I detail my results.  This seems never to have been addressed either.  I suspect this topic isn't being monitored and the "extension" is not being maintained.  A response from whoever is responsible would be encouraging.

[Sami Linnanvuo {Screenful}]

The Screenful Power-Up allows grouping and filtering based on custom fields. You can learn more at https://screenful.com/trello/custom-fields/

[Mikael Byström]

Yeah great, however, I'm not going to pay $468 per year just to able to search on custom fields. I would if I needed his for a multi-million dollar operation.