Trello/Zapier: Move card to list automatically on due date

Question

In Trello, I've got a "Hold until Date" list. These cards have due dates, so all of the data exists such that something could programmatically watch the cards in that list until the due date has passed, and then move the card in question to the "Inbox" list.

Realizing that API programming is off-topic, services like Zapier exist, and even offer the ability to set open-ended HTTP requests. So I'm wondering if what I'm trying to do is possible within the scope of the existing software, and/or what parts might fall outside that scope and be possible with some amount of API programming.

For starters, I've attempted to set up a Zapier trigger that watches cards in a specific Trello list, and can even filter those cards by due date, however, it's unclear if I can set the criteria for that filter relative to the current date. (i.e. Filter when card due date < current date).

In the even that this is not possible within the scope of Zapier's pre-made Trello integration, is this possible within the scope of Zapier's webhook integrations, or does this start to enter the territory of "rolling my own" application server without the use of Zapier at all?

Answer 1

Using the Trello API, I created a bot that can do exactly what you want (and a lot more). It's been running for a while with very satisfied users (see this reddit thread).

To use it, you invite user "butlerbot" to your board. It will create a list called "Butler" automatically. You enter commands as cards in that list.

The command you want is something like:

on a card's due date, move it to list "Inbox"

This command will move the card at midnight the day it's due. If you prefer a different time, you can specify it:

on a card's due date at 8pm, move it to list "Inbox"

(You may want to set your timezone if you're not in US eastern time, there's a simple command for that too.)

Another alternative:

the day after a card is due, move it to list "Inbox"

This will move it to the list the midnight after its due date.

If you need help using it, there's a public Trello board. The developer (that would be me) is very responsive.

Answer 2

It doesn't look like you can specify a dynamic date (like "current date") for the Zapier editor custom filter section, but you could make sure that the due date "exists" and only process those cards. If the "exists" filter still returns cards that don't have a due date, then maybe try something like "(Date/time) Greater than" and set a really old date that should always pass the test. Your destination ("action") app (for example, a custom script) would then have to determine if the due date is < current date since it doesn't seem possible to add that logic/condition directly in Zapier's editor.

Regarding Zapier's webhooks, Trello would have to offer a hook feature for this (where you would put in a custom URL to post the data to), which I don't see anywhere on their site. Typically the Zapier triggers come from webhooks anyway, so if Trello offered this hook then it would be available as a trigger.

One thing you could try if you want to avoid custom coding: see if Trello's native "notifications" feature will send an email when a task is nearing it's due date - you could maybe push that into Zapier's email parser service which then acts as a trigger for a zap.

Answer 3

You could likely setup an email auto-responder to the 24 hour away from due email that Trello sends. Since Trello does have email to card functionality, should work okayish, no code.

Answer 4

I've not set this up but I think this would work using Zapier+Gmail/Hotmail (sorry - can't see a way to do it natively in Trello!):

In Trello:

1. Set a Due Date on the card.
2. Make sure you hit "Subscribe" so that Trello emails you 24 hours before the due date.

In Zapier:

1. Detect the arrival of the new email using a filter to look for such notification emails.
2. Find the card mentioned in Trello and move it to your target board/list.