Adding a label, when the start date of a card has reached a certain date from now.
Asked by Tino Ro?berg:

Hi there, I am new here. Sorry for my bad English. I have this problem:  

I want to set a rule to add a label zu a card when the card reaches a certain date or amount of time (e.g. when the start date of the card is next week). It only works when I add a new card with a new start date. It does'n work in progress. I try to simulate with the following procedure: I set a rule to add a label, when the start date is tomorrow. When I add a card to trello adding the start date for tomorrow the rule works. Then I added a card with a start date the dau after tomorrow and waited one day. But the label was not added to the second card automatically.  

I tried both triggers " set on" and "moved in". They only work with a new card adding a net start date.  

Hope somebody is understanding my problem.  

Can anybody help a newbie? Thanks in advance!  

Tino


Answers:
author: Vongsawat
body: What you want to look at are the Due Date Triggers. In the automation window, the left panel lists Rules / Card Button / Board Button / Scheduled / **Due Date.**

The Due Date triggers allow you to trigger the rule the moment a due date is reached, X time before it, or a workday before it, etc.

The problem is that all such automations trigger off of Due Date. Nothing triggers off of Start Date. So you'd have to incorporate that in to how you design your board.

Some people do so by using the Due Date instead of a Start Date. Keep the actual due date in a custom field, or in an automation if its a fixed amount of time. Then switch them out when the initial Due Date hits. Using labels or lists so the automations now which is which, etc.

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As for Filtering. You can access the Filter panel by hitting "F", or the button next to the Automation button. You can then filter based on Due Date (yet again) as well as one day/week/month before the Due Date.

Again, no concern for Start Date. All the systems are built around Due Date. Start Date is a relatively new feature, and still has limited support in the other systems (automations, filtering).

Hopefully they get around to fully integrating it soon. Until then, Due Dates are what you use if you want the full features

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PS: By accepting your own comments as answers. It signals to everyone that this Question was Answered. So you get less help.

comments: author: Tino Ro?berg
body: Great, thank you very much for the advice! It has driven me crazy a bit because of fact that they allow you a trigger using start date.   

Greets!


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: But nevertheless the rule f?r a custom field doesn't werk yet. I want to add a label to the card when the date of the custom field is tomorrow. It works for new cards but not for the ones who already have a date in the custom field. Crazy.


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: Here is the rule: "when custom field "Datumsfeld 1" is set to a date in a card starting tomorrow, add the dark red "Datum droht" label to the card"


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: It works for new cards, but not for existing.


author: Vongsawat
body: Because you are getting confused between state-based triggers, and time-based triggers.

The only time-based triggers are in Due Date Rules (and also Scheduled Rules, but those don't matter for you)

So if you want to do *anything* that is based on time. By which I mean the rule automatically triggers at a certain *time*. Then you need to use time-based triggers (Due Date/Scheduled)

All the triggers you are currently using are explicitly state-based. They trigger when the date is *changed* , or a label is *applied*, etc.

Which from what I gather, isn't what you're looking for. You want the time-based ones. In Due Date Rules. You're in the wrong place if you're looking in Rules.


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: Ok, got it. Till Trello get start date Trigers ready my way does'nt work. Thanks! So I would have to change the way thinking.   

Another question to you: is there a string to filter and show the cards who will start in a certain period of time from now? For instance by using operators?

Thank you very much for you help, Vongsawat!


author: Vongsawat
body: I'm not as knowledgeable about Filter/Search.

For Filter you have these toggles

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/252035iDFDCFEE3C0DC066C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

And for Search (which covers all workspaces and archived boards iirc)

![chrome_2023-04-16_03-24-00.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/252036iFFD1F66E45FFDD5B/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "chrome_2023-04-16_03-24-00.png")

Alas, "start:day" etc does not seem to work. So once again, everything based on Due Dates.


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: Thank you. Yes, seems to be tricky to deal with start date. I will start to rethink of the board structure. Thanks for your help!


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: [@Vongsawat](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3989989) Hi, hope it is ok to ask a last stupid question: So there is no way to trigger a custom field wit a date by using the due date rules?   

By the way: There is a rule that seems to be working with start date in the due-date register:  

![Bildschirm?foto 2023-04-17 um 18.19.52.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/252253i0C6DB2C3329F9D4A/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Bildschirm?foto 2023-04-17 um 18.19.52.png")


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: Or maybe not. It drives me crazy:)


author: Vongsawat
body: As you've probably discovered, that rule is still for due date, but with an added filter so that it only works on cards that *also* have a start date. It just doesn't care what the start date *is*.

And no, no way to set a time-based trigger based on a date in a custom field. The due-date register (and technically the scheduled register, though limited) is literally all you have.

One of the possible workarounds is to swap in the date in to the Due Date field instead. Because there is an option to set the due date to the date in a custom field. And then you can use labels or other means to keep track of the card's state (first/second/third due date etc)

Or if you're ok with losing a bit of time-fidelity. You can have a daily scheduled trigger, that creates a card with a certain name. Then have another rule that triggers off of cards with certain names being created, that gathers all cards with a starting date in less than X days, then for each card collected do Y. (and somehow ensure this created card gets gotten rid of in the scheduled rule before it creates a new one) This works surprisingly well actually.. might want to look in to it. Though of course, the time-fidelity is fixed to days/working-days only.


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: Thanks! We are goin' to work with Blue Cats Report:).


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: To specify: Some rules i enabled with the trigger "start date" work, if I apply them to new cards, but not for older one who run in the specified period of start date.  

We need exactly such a funktion or procedure to highlight or filter cards by start date.

Greets


author: Tino Ro?berg
body: Or is there another way to highlight or filter Cards with a start certsin start date, e.g. in the next week?


Tags: label

start-date