Rename of column IDs

I do it with the API and postman.

Unfortunately I can’t create board-relation columns with the API.

while its possible to lookup based on title, having the column id be “sitecontact” would be very useful on a board-relation column for example.

why? because then in my code i dont have to make extra calls, iterate and match title in the returned data for the column ID , then use that column id. If i need to update a sitecontact on an item in a board - the column is always sitecontact.

Has the creation of the column ID’s changed recently?

I used to be able to create “custom” column ID’s via the developers back-end by setting the name of the column to be what I wanted the Column ID to be and it worked for a long time.

Now it generates a random Column ID and I’m not sure what to do about it. Super frustrating as it breaks a lot of integrations I normally setup for my clients.

Hello there @MyManMonday.com,

Yes. The mechanism has changed and we now use one that is based on the column_type + ongoing index.

Having said that, we are reviewing the change since we have a few requests to go back to how it used to work before.

We will announce if we go back in our changelog.

Let me know if you have any other questions :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers,
Matias

Hi Monday,

Rather than just rolling back the way columns were named to the way before, in order to re-enable the various hacks to this problem.

Let me cast my vote that this Feature Request be implemented as per the name of this thread.

Developers must be able to rename the ID of columns, I realise everything is a WIP - but this is basic bread and butter functionality.

Cheers

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Hello there @geeemaaan and welcome to the community!

I hope you like it here :muscle:

Please check this update about the mechanism.

As for the ability to change the ID of a column, I will add your vote to this.

Cheers,
Matias

Add mine as well too please. I’m trying to do a backend integration across 4 boards so I really need the columns to be consistent across the boards as the data types are supposed to be the same.

Hello @paulmarshall,

I have added your vote here!

Cheers,
Matias

Please add my vote for this feature as well

Hello there @wfc_woody,

I added your vote :grin:

Cheers,
Matias

Thank you for this! I have three boards with the same layout and not having the same column id’s on each makes the API more difficult (so I’m told, I’m not the developer). If we can’t edit the id’s as an admin, this is a great hack and so thankful I found it.

Please apply this, for ETL proccessed this is a Must when you add/remove/move columns :pensive:

thanks

Nothing prevents you from querying the board for column titles and getting the correct column ID to match. Assuming your titles are well known.

I use integromat (make.com) to create columns in the board exactly how i need them with specific Column name and ColumnID…

1 - set a trigger in your make.com scenario - I used the monday module ‘Watch Board’s Column Values’ and created a status column in the board I’m creating called Column Create). Link the module to the board you’re creating so that when you update the status of ‘Column Create’ in the board it will trigger the scenario. I’ll later delete this column in the board.

2 - The next make module is Add a Column to the board

As you can see it allows you to name the Custom Column ID to whatever you want, in this case I’ve called it initialisation. No spaces, numbers or characters, all lower case.

3 - Add as many of these modules as you want and you have a full board with column ids as you want them.

Hope this makes sense and works for others

I would add that administrators should be able to do that too.

For us the column ID matters because we use Emails & Activities app with extensive use of templates. In the templates you refer to the column IDs and this means we need an email template for each board. However, some emails that we send from different boards are the same on multiple boards, so 1 template should be enough.

I don’t develop and don’t plan too because the lack of time. I just use Monday.com to streamline our workload and contact with clients. It would be best if we just could alter the colum ID, so no matter what board, we could use the same column ID for columns with the same data.

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