Kanban Issue - Can't change card order?

[M_L]

Hello,

I am attempting to use Airtable's Kanban board in Interface Designer to replace Trello. It's been going really well overall, however, I just realized that Airtable is not letting me change the order of cards in each column. Whenever I drag-and-drop cards up-or-down in the column, they just go right back to the exact same place and order that they were in before without any change. Does anybody know how I can update my Kanban Interface so that I can change the order of my cards within each column? This wasn't an issue until my lists of cards required a scroll bar.

There's not a clear logic to the order the cards are in, however, it appears they might be displayed in the order that the record was created. If so, it would be surprising to me because Record Creation Date isn't a column I'm keeping track of, so I don't know why Airtable would sort by that.

I added a screenshot from the Interface Designer settings showing that the data is set to "Sort" by "None"... so I think I "turned off" sorting of data, even though they're obviously sorted somehow.

Also, I am using "Tabs" to group my tasks, however, there is no "Sorting" filter on these tabs, they are only grouped by one field without any sorting instructions.

TIA for any insight you can provide!

-M

[JLindem]

You need to use the sort function for this, as Airtable displays items in the order they were created, unless you used the "create record above" or "create record below" through right-click. Other than this, I don't think you can order the records in any way.

[M_L]

Hi @JLindem ,

Thanks for your response. Could you clarify a little more --- if I use a sort function, will it allow the cards to then be re-ordered within those sorting parameters, or are the cards still "stuck in stasis" and unable to be reordered within a column?

For example, if I sort the cards by "Project", and a column has 10 tasks from "Project A", can I place them in the order I want them? Or will they still be stuck in the order that the records were created?

Thanks for the idea to create records "above" or "below", however, it won't allow me the liberty to order cards on the fly I'm seeking.

[Erin_Keeffe · Accepted solution]

This sounds like a bug. I would file a bug report through the built in help > contact support chat dialog within Airtable (say no to the Leo article suggestions until it gives you the option to contact / send a message to support). 

[JLindem]

Hi again @M_L,

@Erin_Keeffe May be correct, and I would pursue this first to ensure this isn't a bug. It may be because of Airtable's default sort by creation date (unless created through the create above or create below function). If it isn't a bug, there are two options. Either use a workaround (I'll describe it below), or use a 3rd party interface designer like Stackr, Softr, or Noloco (there are others, but these are the first that come to mind) which have much more customisation possible.

To place the cards in the order you want, you can use a workaround that would involve sorting by a single-line text field. You can then change the value of this field, to change how the cards are sorted. This is different than the stacking field, which determines the columns in the Kanban. You can create multiple fields (which can be hidden in the record detail layout to avoid unnecessary clutter when you open the record details), and change the sorting on the fly — if you need. You can also use the sorting tabs or dropdown to create pre-set sorts with conditions, so you can select between more complex sorts on the fly too. 

Hope it works! Let me know if you need any more help.

[M_L]

Thank you, I just submitted a bug report.

It makes even more sense to me that it's a bug since I noticed that in the normal Kanban view in the Base I can reorder cards in a column. The issue only comes up in the Kanban Interface. Thanks!

[PeterE]

I have the same issue can't drag cards in any shared view.