Confluence automations for Space and page creation

Erin Lee November 7, 2024

In this article about Confluence automation for premium plans, one of the listed capabilities is "Set up new spaces with a consistent page tree structure," but I haven't found any documentation or guidelines on how to do so. Does anyone know what they're referring to? I've been trying to set up automations to do exactly that for months now with no luck.

Ultimately, my goal is to automate a few things for my company:

  1. Create a new space when we onboard a new client, using a template for the home page of the space.
  2. Within that new space, add parent pages (using templates).
  3. Later, when needed, add a new page for a new project with additional child pages (also using templates).

For example:

Let's say we onboard a new client, Company Z. The first thing I need to do is create a new space for Company Z and use a template for the home page. 

Then, I want the following parent pages to be created within the space: Client Overview, Active Projects, Meeting Notes, and Archive. All of these pages have templates I'd like to use for them.

Finally, I need to add a project to the Active Projects parent page. Each project gets its own list of child pages.

The end goal is to have a standardized set of parent/child pages for each client, and have an automation trigger page creation when we need to add a new project to the space.

The problem I keep running into is that when I try to create a global automation for adding pages, it forces me to select which Space the child pages are for when ideally, the user would be able to select the Space as part of the automation.


I'm okay with using more than one automation to complete this work (in fact I think it's impossible without using multiple), and I also don't mind if it needs to be triggered from Jira for some reason.

Is there a way to do this with automations without using the REST API? 

3 answers

3 votes
Dhanush
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
November 11, 2024

Hello @Erin Lee,

It sounds like you have a detailed plan for onboarding new clients and organizing their spaces, which is great!

Currently, the "Publish new page" action in Confluence automation does not support smart values for the Parent Field. This means that, as of now, you cannot dynamically select the parent page for new pages using smart values. If this feature were supported, you could use page ID smart values to create child pages without needing to use APIs.

There is a feature request to address this limitation: CONFCLOUD-79806.

In the meantime, the only workaround available is to use the Confluence REST API to achieve the desired automation. While this might require more technical setup, it can provide the flexibility you need until the feature is implemented.

If you would like assistance in setting up the API or need help with creating the necessary automation rules, please feel free to reach out to Atlassian Support by raising a support ticket. Our team would be happy to guide you through the process and ensure you have a working solution until the feature is released.

1 vote
Guess_ Brandi N_
Contributor
November 13, 2024

Hi! Great Questions. I can help with the First part. And Ill try with the second part. 

If you navigate to Confluence Administration > Configuration > Global Templats and Blueprints > Scroll to the bottom > Select Edit next to Default Space Content

You can change the Bluprint applied to spaces in which you choose "Custom" during creation. 

This allows you to have a Custom Overview Page on new spaces you create. 

As far as having the pages added every time, that would need to be an automation. The trigger would depend on what your needs are. If these are the only Spaces youll be creating then the trigger can be whenever a new space is created then create page etc etc. 

If you will be creating other spaces that you do not want those pages created under you may need to get more creative with the Trigger. 

I have not built this automation, however I know it is possible. If you need further help after this information I would be happy to help you with the specifics on building that Automation. 

Erin Lee November 19, 2024

Thank you for your response!

I've explored this option, but noticed that when using the "Custom" option for new spaces, certain elements that are included in my Blueprint cause the entire page to appear blank. It's either due to a plug in we're using or the Content Report Table. Both are non-negotiable in our home pages so it kind of puts me at a dead end.

1 vote
Valerie Knapp
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
November 9, 2024

Hi @Erin Lee , welcome to the Atlassian Community and thanks for your question.

When I read your post, I thought of this webinar I watched, which I would recommend - https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-Cloud-Admins-articles/Aug-29th-webinar-kudos-badge-How-admins-can-level-up-with/ba-p/2788676 

They mentioned in here ∆, I took notes, about the possibility, as in Jira, to create a Space with shared configurations. Whether you can do that yet with automation, I'm not sure, but I would watch the webinar anyway and if it doesn't help, we can also ask Atlassian directly to look at this post to help. 

So please take a look at the article and webinar and give us a shout if you're still stuck.

Best wishes

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