Building Automation with Triggers

We learned about triggers that can start automation workflows in Chapter 6. We then learned about actions that can follow those triggers to complete various tasks in our cards and boards in Chapter 7 and 8. Now it’s time to bring everything together and see how we use both parts to make automation actually happen.

While rules are simple enough—pick a trigger and string as many actions together as you want—I haven’t even shown you every single possible trigger you can use, because as you head to different sections of automation, new ones unlock! That’s what this chapter is for: to show you how to put the rubber to the road and use the knowledge you have to build the workflows that you need to work efficiently in Trello.

Here’s what you’ll learn how to do in this chapter:

• Tie triggers and actions together with rules
• Use buttons on your boards to trigger automation workflows
• Add buttons...

Accessing Automation

If you’re reading through the chapters in order, you’ve seen this already in the previous chapters, but here’s a quick recap in case you’re skipping around.

To access Trello’s amazing automation features, click the Automation button in the top toolbar of any Trello board.

Figure 9.1 – Automation button in board toolbar

This opens a menu with a few of the types of automation. Click any of the options that appear to open a full modal with the entire set of automation categories on the left side.

Figure 9.2 – Automation sections in the left-side panel

Throughout this chapter, we’ll review each of those categories of automation. As you get to a section, click that category name in the left side panel so you can follow along. Let’s start with the first one at the top, just after Automation Tips.

Rules

Rules simply combine the triggers and actions we’ve already discussed. Chapter 6 showed the possible triggers that can be set for events. You’ll find all of these triggers in this section, and you can then string to any number of actions.

Remember the examples such as “When a card is added to the board, set the due date to seven days from now”? You’d set that type of automation up here because it’s watching for an activity that happens on the board (such as a new card being added).

Rules might be the most common type of automation—as you might expect, because I wrote an entire chapter about the triggers that live in the Rules section!

When to use rule automation

If you want automation to happen based on something else happening in a card or on the board, you’ll probably want to use rules. Go back to the “When this happens... then that...” statements about your workflow. If your “When”...

Button automation

Sometimes you can’t quite put your finger on when you need to trigger automation. For instance, maybe it’s not every time a card is moved to another list, just sometimes. Or maybe you don’t always want to convert all the checklist items to cards, but you also don’t want to have to manually do it for each item either.

This is where buttons come in handy. You can add buttons to your cards and your board so that you decide when the automation happens, and then Trello takes over from there.

When to use button automation

Use buttons when you have a series of actions you want to automate but there are no consistent criteria for when you need it triggered. Or use it when you just prefer to have the control of clicking a button to make a series of actions happen! I know some people who use card buttons to move a card to another list, even though you can drag it or select the Move action on a card.

This can be useful if you’re...

Summary

Wow, I hope you’re treating yourself to a relaxing beverage of your choice after making it through this chapter. We covered so much ground, and if you followed along with me, you built several automations for your workflows that will help you surface important and urgent tasks, organize and prepare your work for the next week, and clean up cards for you.

There are a few more triggers that I want to show you, so let’s head to the next chapter to talk about date-based automation in Trello.