Automation: Archive a copy of an item & delete the original

Platform discussions Special workflows & use cases
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Hi Monday geniuses,

My organization is using Monday.com to keep Database of our TV channels, their real time position according to satellite channel list and technical specs for each channel in several columns.

I have the automatic numbering column handy to number each channel according to the order they are presented to the customer but because we have over 1000 channel spaces and perhaps 200 channels occupying these spaces, there are a lot of empty spaces.

These spaces are important to keep. For example, a channel could be assigned to position 28 and then the next channel on the list will be assigned to position 50. The in-between are empty spaces named “Free” which are technically items with no data other than their position in the list.

Sometimes we need to terminate a channel and when that happens I would like to archive the data of that channel and timestamp exactly when the termination happened for historical archiving. However, I can’t just delete the item because by doing that I mess up the positioning of every channel that comes further down the list, due to the automatic numbering column.

I currently name every empty channel “Free”. Then I filter on the default view, all items named “Free” so its easy to view the channel list without the endless scrolling through empty spaces. So by naming a channel “Free” it is filtered out of the public view automatically.

My question to you dear Monday-aficionados:

Is it possible to automate the following:

  1. Copy item.
  2. Change copied item name to “Free”.
  3. Clear all columns of the copied item.
  4. Archive/Move the original.
  5. Timestamp the moving/archiving of the original.

If this is possible, it would save us so much effort and lessen any mistakes my colleagues might do that could mess up the entire board.

I look forward to your creative solutions.

Thank you !

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Hi @Emil - this is possible, but you need the help of a 3rd party app (its Free) to make it work. First, download the Item Name Automations app from the marketplace.

Once installed, this will give you some additional functionality within the custom automation builder.

We also need a column to identify these “Free” channels. What I did was create a simple status column with two options “Free” and “Used”. We need a column like this (there are other options as well) as we cannot trigger automations based on Item Names.

I also created a button column called “Copy” to trigger the process (I am not sure how you trigger it today). On clicking the button the following automations are triggered:

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This will duplicate the item, set the datestamp as to when it was archived and finally archive the item.

We then add a second automation:

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This automation will trigger when the above automation is completed, it runs only when the Type column is set as “Free”. The second part “update item name to column values of the columns with titles” is the 3rd party app you installed. The “titles” section when clicked, you would enter the column “Type”. This will rename the new item to “Free” (by default its going to add “(copy)” to your item). And finally, the other columns on the item are cleared one by one.

I hope this helps and if you need further assistance let us know!

Thanks!
Mark