Change / Add source on database

[Adam Lessem]

Hi

I am trying to build a database that pulls a list of all pages in a specific space + a few more bits of info

online i saw it say i need to create a database then i need to add source, but i cannot find that button anywhere. on 1 page it said it would be on template/import but again nothing there.

Any advice on where to find it ? 

thanks

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hey @Adam Lessem ,

If you click on a database > More actions > Templates and import and switch to "Import" tab, there should be "Confluence" option.

This is documented here: Import data into your database, but the docs may not say that much. 

Now, the thing with this is that you cannot actually import the whole space... I mean, you can, but it might be really tricky. There's a feature request to improve this experience: CONFCLOUD-79086: As a user I would like to import Confluence pages into Confluence Databases using CQL queries 

Also, this is actually a one-time import 👉 meaning, this will not be automatically updated when you add or remove specific content from the space, which is added to the database.

So, all in all, it might be a relatively limited feature - depending on what you'd like to build. 👀

What might be an alternative (although the concept is far from an actual database) is this: Display beautiful, dynamic content on your page or live doc with Cards 
I haven't played much with it, so you'd need to research it a bit more to see which views you could build with it.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Tobi

[Adam Lessem]

Thank you so much for this. 

Ah annoying you cannot do live data via databases, i saw online tutorials that said you could connect it for live data. https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/import-data-into-your-database/ 

is there any other way i can look at this? using the parent macro didnt seem to work as it meant i needed to tables to each page for stuff like "Status" which is already a field on confluence. Other index methods required me to label each individual page which also seemed silly.

The ideal outcome is to have a single primary "index" page that has a list in it of all pages underneath it, alongside the status, creator and last updated

Thank you so much in advance! 

[Tomislav Tobijas]

...i saw online tutorials that said you could connect it for live data. https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/import-data-into-your-database/ 

Hah, interesting. It would appear the docs are incorrect here. There's no "Connect" option, although that tab might have been renamed in the meantime to "Import" and the docs are outdated. Or... we're maybe talking about some upcoming feature 👀

Btw, I've found the following feature request that perfectly aligns with what you're looking for: CONFCLOUD-80977: Dynamic list of Confluence pages in Confluence Database 
It would appear that I was asked for this by someone else earlier as well 😅

Now, as for workarounds, you could use Page Properties macro. But, it's a bity 'messy job' I would say. It would require adding that block to each page within the space, although the end result would be the dynamic list. Here's a bit older article by Andreas about it: How to use Page Properties Macros in Confluence 📝 Best practices for your business goals 🎯 

Another thing would be to turn to Atlassian Marketplace and check if any of the apps there would cover this.

🤔 As we're talking about apps or custom solutions, one possibility would be to try out this: Build custom Forge apps in Rovo Studio - no code required! 
The feature looks really promising, so, potentially, you could just prompt Rovo to build a custom solution based on your requirements.
It would seem intriguing to try this out, so I'm going to prompt Rovo today and see how it will go 🫣