Timeline Block: Automatically set start and end date based on Status

[Arielle_VanIder]

Hello! We’re trying out Airtable for our Kanban/Agile board. I really like the idea of using the timeline view to visualise how long epics/objectives go on for.

Our objectives each have a “Status” single-select field (to do, in progress, in review, done, etc), which we use to visualise them on a kanban board.

I’m wondering if there is a way to create a Timeline Block that automatically sets the start and end dates based on when the item is moved to In Progress and Done, to easily get a view of how long it took. So far I’ve only seen ways to set the date manually.

Thanks!

[W_Vann_Hall]

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to set a field value based on a change in the value of another field (which, essentially, is what you’re doing when you move a kanban card from one stack to another). You could use a middleware offering — Zapier, for instance, Integromat, IFTTT, or the like — and trigger based on a change of status. How close to real-time that might be depends on the service and your subscription level; that may or may not be sufficient, depending on your needs.

[Arielle_VanIder]

Aww, that’s unfortunate. Was thinking I may be able to do it with your API if it wasn’t built into the UI, but there’s no realtime events API yet, right? (hence the Zapier recommendation I suppose)

[Arielle_VanIder]

Yeah I see it in the roadmap now. Consider this a +1 on that feature request. (Big props on having your roadmap public BTW)