A full-stack app to create Trello cards from form submissions
Tags: glitch, slack, trello, collaboration
Published: 2020-03-11 15:14:03

---
title: A full-stack app to create Trello cards from form submissions
published: true
description: How we automated our article pitching process with Glitch and Trello
tags: glitch, slack, trello, collaboration
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/82cbpobvxrdv35e2v8aa.jpg
---
_At [Glitch](http://glitch.com?utm_medium=weblink&utm_source=dev.to&utm_campaign=blog&utm_content=dev) we're a distributed workforce. This is a story of connecting between departments and across the country. And using our own product ([Glitch]((http://glitch.com?utm_medium=weblink&utm_source=dev.to&utm_campaign=blog&utm_content=dev))) and one of our fav business tools ([Trello](https://trello.com/)) to create a useful automation._ 

_Last month, we launched [Glimmer](https://glitch.com/glimmer?utm_medium=weblink&utm_source=dev.to&utm_campaign=blog&utm_content=dev), our new digital magazine. A common problem for editors is managing pitches. Often this involves wading through a messy shared inbox. When Glimmer editor Margarita Noriega wanted a better way, she reached out on Slack. And Johnnicholas responded. The collaboration puts all those pitches on a shared (and well-organized Trello board). - Melissa McEwen, Editor of Glitch @ Dev_

## It started with Slack

Margarita posted in #ask (Glitch's internal channel for asking questions of anyone and everyone who is paying attention to #ask at the moment): 
> Has anyone ever played around with submitted forms and Trello? Thinking about a Glitch app that's attached to an Airtable that's attached to creating a card on a Trello board (which might then ping a Slack channel). This could also be a Google Form, but the form itself should be for public use (and not hold any private user info). A use case for this might be, "fill out this form" (that's hosted in a Glitch app, connected to an Airtable/Google Sheet/other such thing that private hosts the submitted information), and once the form is submitted, it would create a Trello card.

Anil, our CEO, responded: 
> I think there may be a glitch app that just directly creates a Trello card. (if not, there should be!)

I thought that this was a good example of a small single-purpose website that has a frontend (where the description of what pitching to Glimmer is, and the form) and a backend (where the details about how to access Margarita's Trello board would stay). This which showcases Glitch's one of strengths, websites that have backends, and I had an example of something that seemed similar in my back pocket ([~courageous-ox](https://glitch.com/~courageous-ox?utm_medium=weblink&utm_source=dev.to&utm_campaign=blog&utm_content=dev)), which I was eager to adapt to her purposes.

## Making it happen

It is not entirely obvious, if you are thinking about making something, a starting point would be helpful. In this case, [~courageous-ox](https://glitch.com/~courageous-ox?utm_medium=weblink&utm_source=dev.to&utm_campaign=blog&utm_content=dev) was a [SQLite-database-backed website](https://dev.to/glitch/hello-to-the-new-hello-sqlite-5044) that took some information from the user and stored it away; the plan was to make a Trello-backed website that took some information from the user and stored it in Trello.

![from web form to glitch app to trello board](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/09tifuwmr0a0cm58jrfp.jpg)


## How Glitch uses Glitch

This is one of the many ways that Glitch uses Glitch (and Slack and Trello) - to support collaboration between people that might be distant from one another in the org chart. These short-and-sweet projects make working at Glitch better. Since we developed the Glitch project together, if and when something kinda-sorta-similar comes up, both I and Margarita have a new capability - we can remix [~pitch-glimmer](https://glitch.com/~pitch-glimmer?utm_medium=weblink&utm_source=dev.to&utm_campaign=blog&utm_content=dev) and adjust it to the new circumstance. 

Feel free to remix [~pitch-glimmer](https://glitch.com/~pitch-glimmer?utm_medium=weblink&utm_source=dev.to&utm_campaign=blog&utm_content=dev) yourself - you could add your Trello API details to turn it into your own app, and remember that the kinda-sorta-similar can stretch pretty far!

{% glitch pitch-glimmer %}