Quick start

Overview

Here's a quick start guide to working with Scaffolding.

In this example, we're going to build a knowledge-base system consisting of a set of knowledge-base articles that would look like the following.

Step 1 - Set up the template

go to Space Settings > Look and Feel > Templates

Space administrator permission is required to view all the features in the Space Settings menu. Non-space admin users see a limited feature set.

choose Create New Template
name the template as "Knowledge Base Article Template"

In the template editor

add a Scaffolding Field Group macro

The Field Group settings appears with the available fields.

drag and drop a Paragraph field from the sidebar into the editor area
type in "Summary" above the Paragraph field

See Tips below on how to quickly insert paragraphs.

Below the Summary paragraph

insert a 2x2 table to hold the System and Version fields
type in System and Version into the left-hand cells

See Tips below on how to quickly insert a table.

select the empty cell on the right of System
then drag and drop a Dropdown List field from the sidebar into the empty cell

This creates a dropdown menu later.

In the sidebar under Field Settings

fill in the labels for the dropdown, for example, Mac OS X, Windows 10, Ubuntu, etc
press enter to create a label
select the empty cell on the right of Version to continue

drag and drop a Number field from the sidebar into the empty cell on the right of Version
add any other necessary fields like Diagnosis, Cause and Solution

The end result will look something like this.

choose Save to save the Field Group

This will exit the Field Group settings menu.

Finally, to save the overall template

choose Save at top right

Step 2 - Create a page

create a new page
add a Live Template macro

specify the template name, "Knowledge Base Article Template"
choose Insert to continue

enter a page title
choose Publish to publish the page

Step 3 - Add content

On the newly-published page

choose Edit Content

populate the fields accordingly

The Paragraph editor under Summary supports most of the features you would normally find in a standard Confluence Cloud editor.

continue with the System and Version fields below

The Version field only allows you to enter numbers.

fill in the rest of the fields as needed
then choose Save Content

Your page will is displayed as below.

Step 4 - Update template

go back to the "Knowledge Base Article Template" you created and edit it
edit the Field Group macro

To demonstrate the benefits of using a Live Template, let's make make some changes to this page.

We'll add a new text field and change some of the existing fields.

above the Summary section, add some contact information
in the 2x2 table below
- change System to Operating system
- and Version to Version affected

choose Save to save the Field Group
then choose Save again to save the template
load the "fails with error 52" page again, or refresh the page

The changes you made to the template are now automatically reflected on the "fails with error 52" page, without you having to edit that specific page.

Tips

In the Scaffolding editor

you can insert fields quickly by typing / and the beginning of a field name, e.g. /paragraph

In the editor toolbar

you can insert a table by clicking on the Table icon

Speed up macro entry with autocomplete

in the new editor
- type / and the beginning of an element (tool or things in the insert menu) to see a list of suggestions
in the legacy editor
- type { and the beginning of the macro name to see a list of suggested macros

Recipes