Tips and tricks for getting the most out of Confluence databases
With remote working becoming the rule, not the exception, workers now want tools that enable easy, asynchronous collaboration.
According to a recent Microsoft survey, a majority of workers aren’t happy with how these tools serve them:
- 59% say their collaboration tools don’t align with their teams’ work preferences
- 72% say the incompatibility of their collaboration tools makes it difficult to collaborate across different teams
If you’re looking for a way to end laborious cross-team collaboration, Confluence databases might be just what you need. Think of Confluence databases as an ultimate work library, allowing teams to create, manage, and contextualize vital data across all teams in one, centralized location.
Let’s take a deep dive into Confluence databases. We’ll discuss what they are, how to use them, and go through some tips and tricks that can help your team get the most out of them.
What are Confluence databases and how do they work?
Confluence databases are repositories built into the Confluence platform, helping you store and manage a plethora of data across all your organization’s teams. They make it easy for your teams to not just structure and organize information, but also make the data easy to reference, share, display, and connect with other data, making cross-functional collaboration incredibly efficient.
Think of it as a centralized hub. You can populate them with any type of external and internal data (links, tools, videos, documents, etc.) and organize that data efficiently. You can also create a customized view of the data that coincides with each of your team’s specific knowledge management needs.
Teams can utilize Confluence databases to create a comprehensive information repository and aggregate tools, links, and data from internal and external sources. This consolidated view can be customized to meet specific needs, serving as a centralized hub for accessing and managing content.
Confluence databases make it easy to:
- Efficiently connect and structure data for multiple teams, using structured formats and predefined field types to ensure consistency and clarity across entries.
- Curate your view of work by integrating all necessary information from various sources such as Jira tasks, Confluence pages, and even external tools, helping your team to attack goals and objectives with laser focus.
- Customize data displays by utilizing sorting and filtering options to create personalized views, enhancing data visualization across tables, cards, or boards.
- Provide real-time updates to all stakeholders at any time and with no manual work, thanks to real-time automated syncing features and intuitive sharing options.
If your team struggles with tool sprawl, information overload, and multiple sources of truth, Confluence databases could be a perfect solution for streamlining and enhancing collaboration across the board. It’s also super-easy to use.
To get some basic instructions for getting started with Confluence databases (creating a database, adding field types, etc.), check out this step-by-step guide.
Going beyond the basics, let's discuss some more advanced functionalities and best practices for really getting the most out of Confluence databases.
Tips and tricks for Confluence databases
First, to better understand what features we’re talking about, let’s take a quick tour of the databases interface.
- Database views enable you to customize how your database is shown when shared with others. Use views to define the layout, filtering, sorting, and visible fields of your database.
- Quick search makes it easy to quickly find entries in the database.
- The More menu provides database actions like undo, redo, lock or copy structure, import, export, get help, and give feedback.
- Layouts define the way your database is displayed. You can choose between table, card, and board layouts.
- Filter entries allow you to define specific data display criteria. If you choose to define multiple filters, you can choose to match all or specific filters when displaying your entries.
- Sort by field allows you to define the order of your entries based on field values like ascending (arrow up) or descending (arrow down)
- Hide fields allows you to hide fields from your view by deselecting them.
Now that we’ve gone through the main database options, let’s delve deeper into how you can use them.
Adding fields for Confluence pages and Jira issues
Every Confluence database structure is defined by configured field types.
Use field types to define the type of data you want to store in a particular field (text, numbers, dates, images). Using field types, you can easily sort, filter, and search for specific information in your database.
We showed you how to create fields in the “getting started” resource and how to add basic data like text, image, date, and user.
Now, let’s look at some of the more involved field types you can use in Confluence databases.
Page fields
Page fields are a field type that allow you to link your databases to relevant Confluence pages.
Use Page link fields to link entries to Confluence pages or create new pages directly within your database, on the fly. For example, when managing projects, you can connect and create a more detailed, project-specific page with each project entry directly in the Database.
Once you’ve created the page link field, simply find and add the Confluence page that you want to add to your database.
Page details
The Page details field allows you to display the metadata of a linked Confluence page. For example, it can highlight the author of a page and when it was created or display rich text from your excerpt macro.
You can also change the status of any field in databases by clicking on the Page status field and choosing one of the custom or suggested statuses.
Once you change the status in databases, the change will be reflected in the corresponding Confluence page as well.
Jira fields
Use the Jira issue field to link your database entries to one or several Jira issues and create a roadmap of issues that need to be tackled.
Click in the “FIELD NAME” box and select “Jira issue Field.”
From the “JIRA INSTANCE” dropdown, select “System Jira.”
This creates a Jira issue field in your database, where you can find and link any existing Jira issue to your database.
The Jira issue details field allows you to display Jira field details from a linked Jira issue within an entry to manage issues better. For example, you can set this field up to see when each Jira issue was last updated.
This status will change automatically whenever an issue is updated.
Creating custom layouts
Confluence databases are easily customizable so that any team or individual can create a view that fits their needs perfectly.
There are three layouts that you can choose from; here’s what they look like:
Card view:
Board view:
Table view:
You can toggle between the three different views by clicking the views icon and then choosing your view.
Once you choose your view, you can further customize it by rearranging rows, columns, boards, and cards. Simply click on the top menu (kebab, overflow) icon of the field that you want to move, then drag and drop it to your preferred location.
You can take any field that you’ve created and move it across both rows and columns to find the perfect spot for it within your card, board, or table view.
Saved views
The Save view function allows you to create and display custom views that are accessible to everyone (or whoever you choose). Simply select the “Save view” option and click on “Save as new view.”
You’re then prompted to give the newly created view a name, making it easy to access in the future from the “All entries” drop-down menu.
If you want to share the new saved view with anyone in your organization, simply click on the copy button and send the copied URL.
Sorting and filtering
Databases enable you to show data in ways that you deem to be most logical. You can use sorting or filtering to display the most relevant information in each database you create.
You can sort your view by the page link field and tags that you’ve created.
You can also create filters. For example, you can filter the data to show entries owned by a particular user.
