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Tutorial 6 of 6

Trello import, CSV, share links and backups

Intermediate 7 min

Bring Trello boards over from their JSON export, import or export tables as CSV, share a read-only snapshot as a link and keep backups of your Laneboard projects.

Laneboard is local-first: your boards live in this browser. This tutorial shows every way in and out.

Import a Trello board

  1. In Trello, open the board menu, choose Print, export and share, then Export as JSON, and save the file.
  2. In Laneboard choose File → Import a Trello export… and pick that file. (File → Open file… recognises Trello exports too.)
  3. Check the summary and select Add the board.

The import summary for a Trello board: lists, cards, archived cards, labels, assignees, checklists, comments, links and moves, plus two notes

The file is read in your browser; Laneboard never connects to Trello. This is how the fields are mapped:

TrelloLaneboard
Lists (in Trello’s order), closed listsLists, archived lists
Card name and descriptionCard title and Markdown description
Labels with coloursLabels (light/dark shades become the base colour, black and colourless labels grey)
MembersAssignees (full name, otherwise user name)
Due date and “complete”Due date and time (in UTC) and Done
Checklists and their itemsChecklists
CommentsComments with author and time
Card moves between listsCard history for the statistics
Attachments with a web addressLinks
Cover colour, board backgroundCover colour, nearest background colour

Files uploaded to Trello stay on Trello: they come over as links that need a Trello login. Custom fields, power-ups, stickers, votes, start dates and image covers are not imported, and the summary counts what was left out. Trello’s JSON export holds only the latest 1000 actions, so very old comments and moves can be missing.

The imported Website relaunch board with the lists Ideas, Doing and Done on a green background

The same conversion is available as the tool laneboard-trello-import, which returns a .laneboard.json file.

Tables (CSV)

File → Import a table (CSV)… turns a spreadsheet into a board: one card per row. Columns are recognised by their headers — Title (or Name, Task), List (or Status, Column), Labels, Assignees, Due and Description; several labels or people are separated by semicolons. File → Export the board as CSV writes one row per card with its list, position, labels, assignees, due date, checklist progress and description, ready for a spreadsheet.

Share in the board bar makes a link that contains a compressed copy of the board after the # sign. Browsers never send that part of an address to a server, so the board goes straight from you to the person who opens it. Comments are left out unless you tick Include comments; archived items are always left out. The dialog shows how long the link is.

The Share a read-only link dialog with the Include comments option, the link and a Copy link button

Whoever opens the link sees the board read-only, with a yellow bar on top. Save a copy to my boards adds it to their own boards; Back to my boards leaves the snapshot. A snapshot does not change when you keep working on your board — share a new link instead.

A shared board opened read-only with the yellow bar Read-only snapshot and the buttons Save a copy to my boards and Back to my boards

Backups

  • File → Save file writes the whole project, all boards included, as a .laneboard.json file.
  • Bundlekeep collects the projects of every app, Laneboard included, into one backup file.
  • Signed in with Google Drive, the top bar also offers Save to Drive.

Clearing the browser’s site data deletes the boards stored there, so keep a file if a board matters to you.

Ready to try it?

Launch Laneboard →