Cards with Different Custom Fields on One Board

[Jay Jarman]

I want to be able to have cards on one board but I want the  Custom Fields on the cards to be different.  For example, one card might have a dropdown selection list and another card might have a numeric field to track dollars.  As far as I can figure, each card on a single board has to have the same Custom Fields.  Is there a way to change that?

[Iain Dooley · Accepted solution]

@Jay Jarman no you can't change that, but can you provide more details about what you're trying to achieve? There might be a better way ... 

[Jay Jarman]

There are several boards I'd like to do this one but my most recent is tracking my goat herd.  I have a column for each animal.  Last week we did fecal tests to track their parasite load.  I need to track that number.  Then, if they need it, they get treated with a dewormer.  There are multiple types so I have a list box with the possible meds, an amount field, and a date field.  Another card is for their shearing.  I have a field for the weight of fiber removed and date.  I have another card for a health check.  It has different fields for things like body score, weight, etc...

I thought I'd be able to have a column on the board for templates and then copy a card to a goat's column when I performed a specific task.  But every card has every custom field.  If I have a dozen custom fields overall but maybe only use 3 or 4 for each card, that's a lot of extra fields that can cause confusion.

[Iain Dooley]

@Jay Jarman Hmm interesting. I think the way I'd resolve this issue is with a bit of automation. I would have a board for each type of thing to measure (fecal tests, shearing, health check etc.) representing your groups of custom fields, with one list per animal.

Then you have a board which has one *card* per animal, and an automation that creates a set of cards, one at the top of the animal's list in each of those boards, and links that card to a checklist for the period, then schedule the creation of those checklists periodically (or perhaps you would split them up by period, like "Weekly checks", "Monthly checks" etc.)

Then in order to record each check for the animal, you'd open up the animal's card, click through to that check card, record the information, then go back to the overview card and go to the next one and so on. That way you'd have a full history of each check for each animal too.

You'd also then have the added benefit of being able to store some "meta" information about each animal on the overview board, and have them grouped into lists, for example one list per breed, one list per paddock, whatever you might choose.