Allow custom display text for URL / Smart Link fields in Confluence Databases

[Beatriz Vera Mateos]

Currently, URL / Smart Link fields in Confluence Databases always show the full URL or fetched page title, which can become unreadable when external links are long.

We have created many catalogs using Confluence Databases and rely heavily on external links. Long URLs reduce readability for stakeholders and make tables hard to scan.

A common workaround is to add a separate text column for names alongside the Smart Link. However, when multiple links appear in the same row, the visibility and readability of the links are still poor.

Allow users to define custom display text for URL / Smart Link fields directly in the database. This would significantly improve the readability and usability of tables used as catalogs and knowledge registers.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Beatriz Vera Mateos 

If I create a DB and add a smart link column to the DB links are shown as smart links, not as a complete url.

But indeed you can't edit how the link text is displayed.

[Beatriz Vera Mateos]

You’re right @Marc -Devoteam- , when a URL is added to a Smart Link field in a Confluence Database, it is usually rendered as a Smart Link rather than showing the full URL.

However, this depends on whether Confluence can resolve the link. For some external or unsupported systems, Confluence is unable to fetch metadata, and in those cases the full URL is displayed.

In addition, even when a Smart Link is rendered, there is currently no way to manually edit or override the displayed link text in database fields. This can still affect readability in catalogs and knowledge registers.