Automatically Change Column Type

Platform discussions Special workflows & use cases
1

We have a workflow where we have two boards - Board A and Board B and one of the column types is “People” and people who are in that Board A are assigned in that column.

We then have an automation setup that when a status changes, at item is moved to Board B - and the people in Board A do not have Access to Board B. However, we would like to keep a record of the people who did work on the item in Board A.

Currently, if a person - let’s say “John Smith” it assigned to an item in Board A (that he has access to), when the item is moved to Board B (that John doesn’t have access to), his name is removed from the item.

I get why this is happening - but I am wondering if there is any way that we can keep a record of John’s work in a column. Ideally, there would be some kind of automation that would allow me to “Change column Type” to change it “Text” type with the same information - then John Smith would be in the column as text instead of as a person - but that doesn’t seem to be possible.

Does anyone have ideas of a different workflow that might allow us to do what we are trying to do?

2

Hi @mactoph :wave:

Welcome to the Community!

We do have an Activity log on every item, which will track a history of the changes made to the item, and who made them.
This will continue to be attached to the item even after it moves across boards.

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Could this be an option for you?
You can access this by selecting the speech bubble next to the item name and then selecting the Activity Log tab.

I hope this helps! Remember to mark as solved if this answers your question :smiley:

Best,

Dani

3

Hi, @mactoph - I can think of several different ways you could set up your automations to capture this information in a text column, rather than have to look into the activity log history. I’d be happy to brainstorm together and bounce a few ideas around to see what will work best for you. You can book a time with me here: https://meet.polishedgeek.com/more-with-monday

~ Deb Cinkus, PMP
Certified monday․com Partner

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4

Thanks @Dani - I appreciate your help. This is helpful to be able to see this data in the activity, but we are hoping to have the information from the user exist in a column so that we can run reports on that information - as far as I know we cannot do that on changes in the activity section, is that right?

5

I opened up a ticket with support on this as well and wanted to share some of the ideas we are working through with them in case it is helpful:

  1. Add a “Last Updated” column that would show who last updated the column (works great until someone else updates it).
  2. Create a text dropdown column to use instead of a person column type (while this would work, it presents some challenges as we have a list of users that is updated regularly and we would lose the benefits that come with the people column like email notifications)
  3. Mirror the columns (While this would technically work as long as the item exists in both boards - in our use case we are moving the item from one board to another - if it doesn’t exist in the first board, then it can’t be mirrored…)
  4. Use a formula to extract the name from the people column to a formula column:
    {Editor#Names}
    (This seems to be a great potential option and works great to extract the information to text, but it is still not transferring to the 2nd board (as it is based on the people column that doesn’t transfer - that said, support is looking into whether that might be possible some how. )

I’ll add a column if we come up with a solution - it sure seems like something that should be doable, but we haven’t quite found the answer yet. We are also looking into the possibility of working with the API to do what we need if we can’t find another option.

6

Look at the APP “General Caster”… you should be able to use When changes use this formula and cast to this column… monitor the People column, and use the formula to get the names and of the people and put them in a text column. The text column can transfer to Board B.

7

Hi @mactoph :smiley:

Glad that this information was useful for you, along with the suggestions given by the support team.

I would recommend also looking into using our API here to create a possible solution.
We do have a section of the Community specific for API and app related questions, which is moderated by our developer success team, so you might like to ask in there for more help on how to specifically set this up.
You can find this here: monday Apps & Developers - monday Community Forum

I hope this helps!

Best,

Dani

8

Hi @mactoph :wave:

Just wanted to check in here to see if you were able to find a solution?
If not, please just let us know and we’ll be happy to continue to assist!

Best,

Dani

9

Hello @Dani - we haven’t found any solution yet. We have been playing around with the API and may be getting close to a solution, but haven’t quite figured it out yet. I will be sure to share here with any progress.
@PolishedGeek shared, " I can think of several different ways you could set up your automations to capture this information in a text column" - however it looks like you are a consultant and would be offering those solutions for a fee? Unfortunately, we are at a University and that isn’t currently an option to pay for a solution with a 3rd party vendor at this point.
If anyone has other ideas, we are more than open to trying them out!

10

Hi @mactoph

Glad to hear the API might be able to work as a solution here for you!
Did you get a chance to check out the Developer section of the Community yet?
In this section of the Community you will be able to get further assistance with the API to help you smooth out any issues you’re running in to.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, you can find this here: FAQs - GraphQL API - monday Community Forum

I hope this is helpful!

Best,

Dani

11

Hey @mactoph! Welcome to the Community :wave:

I am wondering if creating a Custom Automation to change a status when person is assigned and person is “X” might help for mapping this information!

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Check out this loom to learn more about the idea:

As mentioned, it will specifically work only when a single person is assigned – multiple people in the assignees won’t be reflected in the status column:
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However, this would allow you to still map who the assigned person is over to the new board regardless of whether they are subscribed or not!

Otherwise, the other suggestions of using our API or using something like General Caster are also options you have at your disposal :slight_smile:

If you need additional support on our APIs or apps platform, I would recommend doing a search for your question in our developer community here.

If you need help building custom integrations, we also have an option for paid assistance through our network of certified monday.com partners. If this interests you, simply fill out this form and someone will be in touch shortly!

The General Caster app would be another option to help take the information from the assignee column and put it into another column:

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Do note that General Caster was not developed by the monday.com team. As such, we don’t have any control over its functionality – and do not provide support for setting it up. Our team has reviewed it against our security and privacy guidelines, but we cannot fully certify it.

If you do want to try it out, I’d recommend checking out the app details in the marketplace here: The monday apps marketplace. You can review the app’s documentation (and applicable privacy policies) and install it if you choose.

To learn more about security in the monday apps marketplace, check out this article: Understanding apps marketplace security

You can also contact @rob from the General Caster team for any questions you have about the app!

I hope this helps! Remember to mark as solved if this answers your question :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Jenna​

1 Like
12

Hi @mactoph :wave:

We’ve got a couple of different solutions posed here, so make sure to let us know if one of them solves your question!

If something is still missing, let us know in this thread or PM us with more details so we can continue assisting from there :slight_smile:

Otherwise, make sure to mark the relevant response as the solution so other community members can quickly find the answer!

Cheers,
Jenna

13

Thank you - we were able to develop a solution using the API and a custom app that is working well for us - much appreciated!

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