Card mirroring
Boards are great for organizing and managing projects. But sometimes you need to deal with dozens of boards at the same time, which can be a real headache when you don't know where to find the information you need.
It can be helpful to mirror some of the cards to a centralized board so that it is way easier to get more things done.
Card Mirroring is a method of synchronizing card attributes between boards that helps you to keep their data automatically updated. This means you don't need to update the status and other information in all boards. Updating one card will automatically update the mirrored ones.
This helps in avoiding mistakes and reducing time spent on manual actions. Some examples of use cases are:
Automatically track the status between a design/product backlog board and the development/sprint board. When the development team finishes a task, the status is automatically updated on the design/product backlog as well.
Create a 'Client board' to highlight specific cards to your client while tracking the status on your main board. When the client finishes their tasks, they will get updated on the mainboard automatically.
Use meeting boards for more productive meetings where you mirror the cards from your main board to the agenda on the meeting board. If cards are updated during the meeting, they will be completed on the main board as well.
You manage work between a master program board and smaller project boards. In this case, you want to understand the status of the program without having to dive into the smaller project boards.
Delegate/manage a subset of a card by a different team, like a task where the subtasks are done by different people. In this case, you want to keep the main board/planning updated while the card is being worked on on the sub board.
If you wish to share your own examples, we would love to hear how you use card mirroring.
Webinar recording about Card Mirroring
We held a webinar demonstrating the Card Mirroring feature some weeks ago. To watch it, select your language using the links below:
Setup in Placker
You can set card mirroring by opening multiple boards in the board views. Then you can simply drag and drop cards between boards to create a "mirror" copy of the card. Changes in attributes will be updates in both boards from now on:
If you prefer to mirror a card without selecting multiple boards, it's also possible to click the card and use the "Add card mirror" button.
Setup in Trello
A second way to mirror cards is to use the Power-Ups. A "card mirror" button will be added to the card. When you click the button, you select a board and a list, and it will create a mirrored copy of the card. Then, updates on the card will be synchronized with its mirror.
If you decide to use this method, ensure that both boards are imported from Trello to Placker and that your account has access to both boards.
This recording shows how to install the power-up and import a board (do it for every board that will have mirrored cards):
And this is how you mirror a card when both boards are imported:
Group mirroring
It's possible to mirror an existing card to additional boards. Using the mirror method in Placker described above, we have selected many boards to be shown in the same screen and dragged the card "MIRROR" from board A to Board B, then from board B to board C.
Notice that the card in board A is mirrored indirectly to board C. But removing the card in board B would break this chain, causing other cards in the group to no longer be connected
When clicking a card, at the top right corner, you will find the open mirror button, that shows all the boards that the card is mirrored to, settings and the option to add a card to this group or remove it from group.
Mirror settings
Clicking mirror settings will open a window where you can set which attributes will be synced and setting the default attributes.
Notice that there is a mirror setting checked, which is "Instead of updating the attribute, add a comment (card)". This will make cards get comments instead of having their attributes and attachments synced.
Save configuration as default
If all mirrors created in this board should have the same settings (for example, not syncing title and status attributes), you can change this setting in one of the mirrors and enable the "save as default" option. After that, all new mirrors created will follow the same settings.
It is also possible to click the board title in Placker to select mirror settings and even copy those settings to other boards, as in the recording below:
Detect missing labels and custom attributes
In case you mirror a card that has a label or custom field/attribute that doesn't exist in the target card, it won't be mirrored by default.
You will see a message in the card history highlighting why it was not mirrored in cases like these.
There is an option to make Placker create those labels or custom attributes in the other board though, which is to open the board settings, then mirror settings, and enable the automatic detection:
Boards where lists have different titles
If your lists have different titles, you can map different lists to reflect the same status (for example, "Done" in Board A and "Completed" in Board B). To do this, check this article showing how to set up progress tracking in multiple ways.
Rule based mirroring
It is also possible to create a rule that will trigger mirrors to be created automatically. To make this article not so long, we explain how this works in this article.
Sync issues my board
If you find any sync problem, for example, a label or member is different between Trello and Placker or between two mirrored cards, please check this article to understand the reason or send us a message with both card links.
If none of the cases mentioned in the article linked above apply, it could be an unusual case where the connection between boards is lost, and we will fix it from the backend if that’s the case.
Frequently asked questions
How to delete a card mirror?
There are basically two ways: you can archive one of the cards, so the other will continue working without its mirror, or delete the mirror link in advanced settings, which makes both cards to continue existing but no longer synced.
Can I mirror checklist items?
Yes. You can keep checklists between two different cards synced, and even mirror a checklist item to a card or vice-versa. Check this article for more information about this.
Why is there a synchronization delay?
The card synchronization is managed in the Placker backend, as the updates are distributed to your web client, there can be a few seconds delay between updating one card and receiving the updates on the mirrored card.
Automatically track the progress
You can combine the card mirroring function with tracking by list or label, so cards have status updates in all boards when changing lists or labels. This makes your card mirroring automation even more powerful.
I have other questions or comments about this feature
Please let us know by sending a message in the chat and we will be glad to help you out 😃