Setting the due date on several cards in several list based on the due date of on other card
Asked by Jerry Ramdien:

Hi all,

I have used Buttler to set the due date of a card based on the date that is entered in a custom field on that card. This date in the custom field is the general due date for several other cards in several other lists. My question is how can the due date on the card set or the date entered in the costum field work as a trigger to set the due date of other cards in other lists with Butler? This means that the due date set on the first card is automatically used to set the due date on the same date on other cards in one action.


Answers:
author: Jerry Ramdien
body: Hi Hannah, thank you and this seems very promising but with my set up it doesn't work. I linked just 1 card as test but the due date on the linked card is not set to the date entered in the custom fields on the orginal card. Not clear what I am doing wrong in Butler. See below my buttler statement:

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/170088i77DF0DF971A57A43/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

comments: author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: It looks like your rule doesn't match what I had in the video. Here's a snapshot of the two rules:  

![cascading due date rules.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/170090iE01D600DE0C1184D/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "cascading due date rules.PNG")


author: Jerry Ramdien
body: Yes, I saw your 2 rules but was expecting that my rule should work based on the cascading rule. Let my try to have exact what you have only how do you get the variable field in the first rule? Not very clear in the Trello explanation how to get a variable field in the butler rule(?) Thanks for your support and greetings from the Netherlands :-)


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: I could only find a way to set a variable on the custom date field.   

![custom field variable.gif](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/170112iE936A6764CD67D99/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "custom field variable.gif")  

Variable is {customfieldvalue} and you can see more info on variables [here](https://help.trello.com/article/1157-variables). Hope that helps! Greetings from NZ :)  


author: Jerry Ramdien
body: Thank you and a great mystery solved how to get variables in the Buttler lines. I get the result with slightly different steps but it follows your main steps: ![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/170160i9405E23BD16DC2A4/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

Strange enough from a test I did the due dates can be set directly on linked cards with as trigger a due date set on the mother card, but only when the due date is set to ***Now on the linked cards (the option to set the due date to the date of the costum field doesn't work although it is a option)***

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/170161iA3DD176274FF5D2C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: Hi Jerry! So do the rules do what you want? I had to set up the rules like I did because I couldn't see a way to set a variable on the native due date field. So I couldn't see a way to say: "when the custom due date is set on a card in list "X", for each card linked in the attachments, set due date to {customfieldvalue}."  

The only way I could see around it was to create two rules:  
1. Set the custom date field on the linked cards to the same date as the custom field in the trigger card.  
2. When a card gets a custom due date populated, update the native due date to the same date within the same card.


author: Jerry Ramdien
body: Hi Hannah,

The rules do what I want, many thanks. I can now set the due date on the linked cards but as you also experienced the trigger has to be set via a costum field. It's a limitation of Trello that it is not possible to trigger the due date on linked card directly via a costum field in the Master card. I believe Trello could do some refining work in buttler and the available triggers and actions. But for now your set up works super fine and happy to use your advice/set up.

Regards, Jerry


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: Hey Jerry! Welcome to the community :) have a look at the below video - it might help!  

[![](https://embed-ssl.wistia.com/deliveries/7a6e1b93e62e59804a171335acd016d0.jpg?image_crop_resized=800x450)](https://soapbox.wistia.com/videos/gtF3JpStdE)

[Soapbox - Trello Cascading Rules](https://soapbox.wistia.com/videos/gtF3JpStdE)