How are Confluence databases different from regular tables?

[Michael Kogan]

Hello all,

I started playing with Databases (currently in Beta) but couldn't understand how they are different from regular tables. I have been using tables for years to track progress (e.g. Owner, Issues and Status columns), so what additional value are Databases supposed to bring?

Thanks

[Kristian Klima · Accepted solution]

@Michael Kogan 

Column: Pages, field type: Page link.

When I start typing, a list of pages appears, the one that I need typically appears on top after a couple of characters. Click, a Confluence link appears in the field.

Another column: Page details with Page link set to pages.

[Michael Kogan]

Sorry, I mistakenly wrote "Page link field" instead of "Page status field". All what I described above happens when I try to add a "Page status" field type.

["Page link" field works fine.]

[Kristian Klima]

Oh, so for the Pages status field you should select Pages in the Page link option. Then it gets the corresponding values from the linked page.

You don't have to enter the actual link, the value is added automatically. It basically asks you 'where do I get this info from?'

Mind, the field remains empty if you don't use page status (which we don't as we use Comala Document Approval.

[Michael Kogan]

Unfortunately, Page link option is empty ("No options" item appears and nothing more) :-( 

[Kristian Klima]

If you have one column set up with Page link, then you should see the following when populating other columns.

[Michael Kogan]

Yes, this worked!

Thanks a lot for your help and patience :-)

[Kristian Klima]

@Michael Kogan You're welcome.

Databases is a great tool with a great potential, the more people use it, the better :)

[Chris Rollins]

@Kristian Klima, appreciate this is an old thread, but noticed you use comala. Is there a way to show the Comala approval status in a database?

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-]

Databases allow you to automatically "compute" and update fields.

[Michael Kogan]

Care to provide some examples?

[Kristian Klima]

@Michael Kogan 

Let's say that you have a page link in a column. DB can automatically populate fields like page status, owner, last updater, last update date... + there are filters.

For example, we use it to track pages that we use in learning.

So we have a course name, the date it was published, list of pages that are used in the course, and the last updated page. I can set up the filter to list the pages that were updated after the course went live.

[Michael Kogan]

Thanks,

I tried to add a page link field (column). Strangely enough, I was requested to provide a link to a page as part of the field definition, which does not make sense: I was expecting a link per entry. Additionally, there is nothing in that drop-down to choose from, even though the link to the page is part of the database (resides in another column).

[Kristian Klima]

Sharing my setup here, hope it helps.

Column with page links

Column with page details

My article with the link to how to get all the pages into a DB (and set up the column)