Create a page from a template, somewhere else in the page tree

[Robert DaSilva]

Hey Community, hoping to get some help with a bit more of an advanced use case I'm trying to solve.

Here's my goal:

I have built a template for a recipe, and would like to allow my users to create new recipes at the click of a button.

I have created a space, and on the home page I want to have three buttons. Each button, when clicked, should create a new recipe based on my template. The three buttons are named "New Meat Recipe", "New Vegetarian Recipe", and "New Vegan Recipe".

I want the new recipes to be created under a folder I have created for each type. New meat recipes should be in the Meat folder, Vegetarian under the Veggie folder, etc.

If possible, I would also like to force a naming convention on the new recipe's page title, pre-populating the creation date as an example.

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I've tried to accomplish this a variety of different ways, none meeting all of my goals.

Automation Rules

Pros

• Can require user input when running the rule
• Can pre-populate the date
• Can select a Folder as the location to publish the new page
• Can select a Space template to use as the page basis

Cons

• Strangely, the automation button isn't appearing in the Confluence toolbar for me
• Users have to know to use the toolbar to start the rule

Smart Button

Pros

• Can select a Global Template as the page basis (would prefer Space template, but alas)
• [Undocumented] Automation Smart Values can be used to populate the page title with dynamic data (such as the current date)

Cons

• Cannot select a Folder as the location to publish the new page, new pages must be children of other pages
• Does not bring the user to the new page once it's created so they can start editing, they need to refresh and navigate there themselves
• Cannot tie Smart Buttons to other automation rules, stuck with the built-in templates

Create from Template macro

Pros

• Able to select a Space template to use as the page basis
• Able to set the date in the new page title automatically

Cons

• Cannot select the location where the new page is created, it must be a child of the page the macro is clicked from
• Cannot attach labels to the new page so that automation can move it once published

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Right now it seems the Create from Template macro is the best bet, but requires that I have 3 parent pages (Meat, Veggie, Vegan) to properly segment the recipes. 

Any ideas to strike out some of the cons?

[Tessa Tuteleers]

Hi @Robert DaSilva , 

Very comprehensive with great lists of pro's and cons! Can I ask what you decided on? 
If you label the template itself, can you not use automations afterwards to move it?

kr, 
Tessa

[Robert DaSilva]

Hey @Tessa Tuteleers , I settled on using the "Create from Template" macro.

You could label pages and use automation to move them, but I feel that adds unpredictability to when users create Confluence pages. Sometimes the page will move, other times it won't. I can see that being useful in certain situations, maybe this is one of them.

My ideal hope is that an option is added to the Create from Template macro that lets you pick the parent page upon creation.