Add 'convert' option to automations so references, comments and files are kept

Ideas & Features
1

Hi,

I really miss the ‘convert’ option in automations. Because we can’t convert, we loose references, comments and files for the use case below. That’s painful.

Use case

  • User creates an entity in the ‘Braindump zone’. It’s a quick brainfart and creating that should be as least time-consuming as possible.
  • User later decides what they need to do with the braindump.
    – Convert it into a ‘Note’ and store it in their Second Brain or link it to a Project / Contact
    – Convert it into a ‘Task’
    – Convert it into a ‘Personal development’ entity (because we use a lot different fields there, we’ve made a separate database for that’
    – Convert it into a ‘Content’ entity (also separate database)

We want to help users to convert brainfarts into useful stuff as quickly as possible. Therefor we created automation buttons.

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Every button has it’s own logic.

  • Task / idea = ‘convert’ into a task and provide relevant information (such as: deadline, planning, project, assignee, category etc.)
  • Personal development = ‘convert’ and provide relevant information (such as: type, status, theme etc.)
  • Content item = ‘convert’ and provide relevant information (such as: content theme, planning, etc.)
  • Note = ‘convert’ it into a note and add relevant information to store it in Second Brain (such as: tags, themes, quality of the note, link it to customer or project when applicable)

I’ve tested this with users and they like the set-up. Because at first you ‘simply want to dump’ stuff. Then later (end of the day / week for example) you want to decide what needs to be done with it. By using the automation buttons they always provide the information that’s needed when converting the task.

Unfortunately I missed the references, comments and files.

  • In the current automations I create the applicable entity and delete the braindump entity
  • But comments, references and files get lost in this set-up.

So because of that we would like to have a ‘convert’ option via automation buttons or a workaround to keep references, comments and files while creating a new entity.

(Extra context: our clients have no knowledge of Fibery at all. When they use the normal convert option, they will see a shitload of databases which can be overwhelming. And chances are quite high that they will forget to fill in the meta data; therefor we would like to use automation buttons for that so that the user specifically can fill in the information that is needed for that entity)

Kind regards,

Yvette

2

Hi, @YvetteLans

Thanks for the feedback. We will think about adding convert to automations.

Thanks,
Aleh

3 Likes
3

thanks for the awesome information.

4

I think this is the functionality I’ve been searching for to streamline my workflow. I’m trying to consolidate inboxes into a central database to run automations from there – convert via automation would make this super easy.

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5

Just came across another usecase in my workflow that would really benefit from this. You have my vote. For us, it is converting different databases to lessons. For example, if you already have a task entity that has files and comments about the history of the issue and it’s resolution. And it already has good meta data like which project it is on, which vendors were tied to it, if there were any costs incurred, etc. It’s already a perfect snapshot of a lesson, but…

I’ve found if I don’t give my team a super easy way to create lessons learned, then no one spends the time to capture them. The convert function is perfect, but @YvetteLans is spot on with this comment that it is overwhelming to see all of the databases in the normal convert tool.

2 Likes