Numbered items - come on Trello .. please support this
Asked by Adam Hughes:

When is Trello going to provide basic functionality to display the number of an item and allow users to search on for the item by number.

Yes there are Addins to display the number .. but the number cannot be searched on.

Addins are no good .. you have to tell each member of the team what to install and what to setup.

This is basic functionality (in my opinion)![2021-06-25_13-22-20.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/148882i167B47706A27525C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "2021-06-25_13-22-20.jpg")


Answers:
author: David Bakkers
body: Hello [@Adam Hughes](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4452451)

The topic of how to store the card's ID number in a custom field so that it can be searched on has been discussed quite a number of times on this forum. Read [this article](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Trello-questions/Is-there-a-job-number-generator-software-that-links-with-Trello/qaq-p/1691007#M46379) for a recent example that describes to use a Butler automation rule to do all the work for you when the card is created.

Once the ID number is in that custom field, you can then display that field on the front of the card and do away with using a browser side add-in.


author: Iain Dooley
body: [@Adam Hughes](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4452451) what do you mean by "the number of an item"?

comments: author: Adam Hughes
body: [@Iain Dooley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1416112) Each item in a list has a unique number. There are addins available to display this. It is a great way to quickly find and item

A user can say .. "See item xx" and I can quickly search and find it .. it is a quick way to find items on a busy board.

I have added and example image.

I use an addin .. but really it should be basic functionality (in my opinion) and I cannot search on it :-(


author: Iain Dooley
body: [@Adam Hughes](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4452451) well, every card has an ID that you can see from within the share link on the card. You can also add it to the title of every card that gets created with Butler:

when a card is created rename the card to "{triggercardname} #{cardid}"


author: Adam Hughes
body: [@Iain Dooley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1416112) Really? I have to do all that for each card?

There should just be an option Show/Hide number.

And there is still no way to search for it. Having a board with over 100 cards it is hard to find without finding the correct list and browsing up and down.

Surely you can see the value in this basic functionality?

TBH .. no idea how to do it in Butler and does Butler automatically do it or do I have to manually do it for each card?

And I still can't search.


author: Iain Dooley
body: [@Adam Hughes](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4452451) I posted the Butler command for it above, you don't do it for every card you create the Butler rule and it happens automatically for all created cards going forward.

You can search based on ID, or you can filter based on ID.


author: Adam Hughes
body: [@Iain Dooley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1416112) I have just tried it ..

So I manually have to press the button on each card

AND the number is horrible #**zSkzx6YQ** (blimey)the addin just numbers then 1, 2,3 ,4 etc. which is nice and easy if you are on the phone and discussing an item. Imagine trying to share that number on a bad line .......

Surely easy numbered items is basic? What do you think? Surely you look at what addins are available as they indicate functionality that would be useful in Trello?

Smiling ... but frustrated

Adam


author: Iain Dooley
body: [@Adam Hughes](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4452451) you only have to press the button for each card if you create a card button. You can create a rule instead and trigger when a card is created:

![2021-06-25 at 12.16 pm.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/148883i7DFE753E3A61E184/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "2021-06-25 at 12.16 pm.png")

The IDs are unique enough that generally you can refer to the first 2 or 3 digits alone and get a unique result. For example if you wanted to filter the board to search for ticket zSkzx6YQ you hit "f" then type "#zsk" and you'll get the right card. So for example if you're communicate with a colleague and referring to a ticket you can say "hey look at zsk" and they'll be able to see what you're talking about.

Search for all cards on all boards (using the search function rather than the filter) will typically require you to type more of the ID in order to get a unique result (but it's not case sensitive so you can type all lower case). You can use is:open to restrict it to only cards currently open which means you will need to type fewer characters to get a unique hit.

The trouble with numbers is: where do you start from? How do you know what the last maximum number was? What happens when cards are archived and your numbers are repeated? What happens when you're search for cards across multiple boards? The number 61 will quickly become not unique unless you don't do very much, and once you're using a 6 digit number or something I don't see there is a tremendous benefit over having a 6 digit alphanumeric code.

Since all Trello cards already have a unique ID, it makes the most sense to use that. I've deployed this for a number of clients when it's used as an "order id" that's sent out to a customer, where a label is added to a physical asset with that ID and it's used as a 2 way lookup and so on, it works really well. Using numbers wouldn't work as well.


Tags: number