Using Placeholders for Space Blueprints

The placeholder sidebar

Creating or editing a Space Blueprint is like creating or editing a page, but with the addition of having access to the placeholder sidebar that shows on right of the Confluence editor. Within there you can create multiple placeholders with different field types. 

Placeholders act as form fields on your blueprints. When someone creates a new space using a Space Blueprint with placeholders, they'll be prompted to fill in the placeholder values first, before the space gets published. Each information entered will be added to a pre-defined place on the page.

Placeholders are especially useful if one value is being used in multiple pages of your Space Blueprint, as they only need to be filled in once.

Adding placeholders

To add a new placeholder click on the (plus)-icon at the top of the sidebar.

For each placeholder you create you get to choose from various field types.

Created placeholders are displayed in the Confluence editor as blue boxes. 

An additional icon visualizes the chosen field type.

Field types for placeholders

Text

Allows users to enter any combination of letters, numbers, or symbols in a single line.

Parameters

ParameterDescription
NameThe value entered here will be shown to the user in the 'Create' dialog.
DescriptionShows in the form field within the 'Create' dialog.
Mark as mandatoryMakes user entry non-optional. Also displays a red asterisks next to the placeholder in the blueprint form.

Multiline text

Allows users to enter any combination of letters, numbers, or symbols on multiple lines.

Parameters

Parameter

Description
NameThe value entered here will be shown to the user in the 'Create' dialog.
Description

Shows in the form field within the 'Create' dialog.

Mark as mandatoryMakes user entry non-optional. Also displays a red asterisks next to the placeholder in the blueprint form.

Select

Allows users to select one value from a list that you define.

Parameters

ParameterDescription
NameThe value entered here will be shown to the user in the 'Create' dialog.
DescriptionShows in the form field within the 'Create' dialog.
Options

Values users get to select from. Options can be ordered via drag and drop or sorted alphanummerically. 

Multiple options can be added at once by entering a comma separated list.

Mark as mandatoryMakes user entry non-optional. Also displays a red asterisks next to the placeholder in the blueprint form.
Set selected options as labels

Options that are selected by users in the blueprint form will automatically be added as labels to the page.

  • Options with more than two words will be connected with an underscore character (e.g. option ‚San Francisco‘ will be stored as ‚san_francisco‘
  • Special characters that cannot be stored as labels will be filtered (e.g. option ‚San Francisco (USA)‘ will not be saved as label

Special characters include the following: ':', ';', ',', '.', ' ', '?', '&', '[', ']', '(', ')', '#', '^', '*', '@', '!', '<', '>'

You can enter multiple options at once by entering values in a comma separated list.



Multiselect

Allows users to select more than one value from a list that you define.

Selected values will be shown in a comma separated list.


Parameters

ParameterDescription
NameThe value entered here will be shown to the user in the 'Create' dialog.
DescriptionShows in the form field within the 'Create' dialog.
Options

Values users get to select from. Options can be ordered via drag and drop or sorted alphanummerically.

Multiple options can be added at once by entering a comma separated list.

Mark as mandatoryMakes user entry non-optional. Also displays a red asterisks next to the placeholder in the blueprint form.
Set selected options as labels

Options that are selected by users in the blueprint form will automatically be added as labels to the page.

  • Options with more than two words will be connected with an underscore character (e.g. option ‚San Francisco‘ will be stored as ‚san_francisco‘
  • Special characters that cannot be stored as labels will be filtered (e.g. option ‚San Francisco (USA)‘ will not be saved as label

Special characters include the following: ':', ';', ',', '.', ' ', '?', '&', '[', ']', '(', ')', '#', '^', '*', '@', '!', '<', '>'

You can enter multiple options at once by clicking on Enter a comma separated list beneath the input field and entering values in a comma separated list.


Date

Allows users to pick a date from a popup calendar.

Parameters

ParameterDescription
NameThe value entered here will be shown to the user in the 'Create' dialog.
DescriptionShows in the form field within the 'Create' dialog.
Mark as mandatoryMakes user entry non-optional. Also displays a red asterisks next to the placeholder in the blueprint form.

User mention

Allows users to mention each other using autocomplete.

Selected users will be shown in a comma separated list.


Parameters

ParameterDescription
NameThe value entered here will be shown to the user in the 'Create' dialog.
DescriptionShows in the form field within the 'Create' dialog.
Enable multi-user mentionEnabling users to mention more than one user.

Created placeholders

All created placeholders are displayed in the placeholder sidebar and listed under Placeholders on this page

These placeholders can be reused on different pages of the Space Blueprint which is especially useful if one value is being used in multiple pages of your Space Blueprint, as they only need to be filled in once. When editing a page and wanting to add an already existing placeholder just open up the placeholder sidebar and click on the icon next to the desired placeholder.

 

All created placeholders are displayed in the Space Blueprint Form for users to fill out. Learn more about the Space Blueprint Form here.

Removing placeholders

Once created placeholders that are not required anymore can be removed. Just navigate to the placeholder in the editor and press the 'Backspace' key to remove it. Since it is possible that placeholders are used on multiple page you can only delete them permanently in the Space Blueprint Form.

On this page