With the knowledge base populated with articles of different categories, it's time to build a homepage to allow users to easily find what they need, and to quickly make new articles too.

Learn how to make a handy homepage like this one:

Introducing Reporting

Reporting allows you to display data from specific pages or spaces. It utilizes the keys and supplier concept to pull data anywhere in your Confluence instance to customize reports. For more information, check out our documentation.

Getting started

Create a new blank page and set it as the root page of your knowledge base.
Click on Page Layout and toggle the sections. Build a layout like this:
In the first one-column section, insert a Livesearch block which will allow users to search for an article.

Showing Articles by Label Using Reporting

In the next two-column sections, we will create Panel blocks to show the most recently modified articles from each category.

Insert a Panel block for each column.
Customise Panel block and give them names based on each category.
Inside the Panel block, insert a report-list block.
Edit the report-list block and customise your preferred bullet style.
Set the maxResults parameter to the preffered number of articles to show per column.
In the report-list block, insert a content-reporter and report-body block.
Edit the content-reporter block, enter the label to filter articles with. For example, 'how-to' or 'issues'.
In the content-reporter block, insert a date-sort block.
Edit the date-sort block and set the key as content:modification date. This will tell Reporting to sort the data based on the most recent modification date.
In the report-body block, inserta a report-info block.
Edit the report-info block and set the key as content:title. This will tell Reporting to display the title of each article.
Check 'Link To Item' so that the data displayed becomes a link.

Adding a 'Create Article' link (optional)

For each column, a 'create new article' link can be added for user's convenience in creating a new article of the same template. The add-page macro from Linking is used.

Insert an add-page macro.
Edit the add-page macro.
Name can be left blank if you do not wish to add a default page title.
Enter the name of the link in Link Text.
Enter the name of the template you wish to render in Source.
Remember to tick Live Template so that the new page renders a live-template block!
In Labels, enter the name of the label you wish to attach to the new article.

Understanding the Reporting structure

The following diagram explains the structure of the Reporting block we just created. Most Reporting blocks will follow a similar structure as this one. First, there will be the outermost wrapper that determines how the Reporting block should be displayed. A list, table or plain textarea can be chosen to display the data. In this block, we choose to display the links of all articles as a list. Therefore, the report-list block is used.

Next, there will be a header that defines where the data is fetched. Within the header, we can also add conditions to the data such as filters or sorters.The header could be a content-reporter or local-reporter block. Since the data we are trying to fetch comes from multiple pages in the same space, we choose to use content-reporter as local-reporter is used to display data from the page itself. Next up, the conditions are nested within the filter block. In this block, we insert a date-sort block to get the most recent modification date.

Finally, the data is displayed in the body of our report, report-body. Multiple report-info blocks can be added in report-body, which takes a key to display some sort of data. In this example, it is the title of each article.

Click here for the source code...

Knowledge Base homepage

<ac:layout>
  <ac:layout-section ac:type="single">
    <ac:layout-cell>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="4917616b-9d86-418d-a3a3-a0c60a378d6f" ac:name="report-list" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="maxResults">5</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="2992a562-3516-491b-9dc3-8fdf6925e75c" ac:name="content-reporter" ac:schema-version="1">
            <ac:parameter ac:name="types">pages</ac:parameter>
            <ac:parameter ac:name="labels">systems</ac:parameter>
            <ac:rich-text-body>
              <p>
                <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="9127f3be-60c8-4c14-a659-f50de5a0f7c7" ac:name="date-sort" ac:schema-version="1">
                  <ac:parameter ac:name="order">descending</ac:parameter>
                  <ac:parameter ac:name="">content:modification date</ac:parameter>
                </ac:structured-macro>
              </p>
            </ac:rich-text-body>
          </ac:structured-macro>
          <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="da6a04bf-39ae-470c-acfa-9bdca2c289aa" ac:name="report-body" ac:schema-version="1">
            <ac:rich-text-body>
              <p>
                <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="25d4a2f0-f8f4-47af-9236-eb5814c9a5ca" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
                  <ac:parameter ac:name="link">true</ac:parameter>
                  <ac:parameter ac:name="separator">newline</ac:parameter>
                  <ac:parameter ac:name="">content:title</ac:parameter>
                </ac:structured-macro>
              </p>
            </ac:rich-text-body>
          </ac:structured-macro>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
      <p style="text-align: center;">
        <br/>
        <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="96a87d4e-3569-474b-b1f7-1ee94828a029" ac:name="livesearch" ac:schema-version="1">
          <ac:parameter ac:name="size">large</ac:parameter>
        </ac:structured-macro>
      </p>
      <h2>Articles in this KB by labels</h2>
    </ac:layout-cell>
  </ac:layout-section>
  <ac:layout-section ac:type="two_equal">
    <ac:layout-cell>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="9ae2eca3-f6d4-494b-a83e-7a4b55468456" ac:name="panel" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="borderColor">#99D3DF</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="borderWidth">1</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="titleBGColor">#99D3DF</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="title">How to</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="a564fdf3-7270-4add-8f50-b11d4ee892b8" ac:name="report-list" ac:schema-version="1">
            <ac:parameter ac:name="maxResults">5</ac:parameter>
            <ac:rich-text-body>
              <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="683f94b3-dc4e-4299-ac9f-478c22a3c2c5" ac:name="content-reporter" ac:schema-version="1">
                <ac:parameter ac:name="types">pages</ac:parameter>
                <ac:parameter ac:name="labels">how-to</ac:parameter>
                <ac:rich-text-body>
                  <p>
                    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="3c8690c4-4d60-4c63-8e6b-2b8b8080f82b" ac:name="date-sort" ac:schema-version="1">
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="order">descending</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="">content:modification date</ac:parameter>
                    </ac:structured-macro>
                  </p>
                </ac:rich-text-body>
              </ac:structured-macro>
              <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="d93d6d34-3b1f-4663-8ea9-5dc35e1b09ff" ac:name="report-body" ac:schema-version="1">
                <ac:rich-text-body>
                  <p>
                    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="5fac74a3-1cd7-44c1-a05d-ba435a38007c" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="link">true</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="separator">newline</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="">content:title</ac:parameter>
                    </ac:structured-macro>
                  </p>
                </ac:rich-text-body>
              </ac:structured-macro>
            </ac:rich-text-body>
          </ac:structured-macro>
          <p>
            <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="fd6a175f-2e5b-4856-8578-8091c6161447" ac:name="add-page" ac:schema-version="1">
              <ac:parameter ac:name="parent">How To</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="linkText">Create a new 'how to' article</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="source">KB how to article</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="live">true</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="labels">how</ac:parameter>
            </ac:structured-macro>
          </p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="344446eb-2e4e-4bd3-bde2-22d18e1dbe75" ac:name="panel" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="borderColor">#CDCDCD</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="borderWidth">1</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="titleBGColor">#CDCDCD</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="title">FAQ</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <p> <span>View the FAQ </span>
            <ac:link>
              <ri:page ri:content-title="FAQ"/>
              <ac:plain-text-link-body><![CDATA[here]]></ac:plain-text-link-body>
            </ac:link>
            <span>.</span>
          </p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
    </ac:layout-cell>
    <ac:layout-cell>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="81fa6a95-622a-401b-ae67-1e2d88b76e56" ac:name="panel" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="borderColor">#88BBD6</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="borderWidth">1</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="titleBGColor">#88BBD6</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="title">Issues and Solutions</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="33fcb937-a234-476b-b01c-5fdc265afb71" ac:name="report-list" ac:schema-version="1">
            <ac:parameter ac:name="maxResults">5</ac:parameter>
            <ac:rich-text-body>
              <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="f648ce66-4a69-4e59-a4b0-124bf7cec3c5" ac:name="content-reporter" ac:schema-version="1">
                <ac:parameter ac:name="types">pages</ac:parameter>
                <ac:parameter ac:name="labels">issues-solutions</ac:parameter>
                <ac:rich-text-body>
                  <p>
                    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="a40a6854-cc4c-4b23-81cc-3d9159554d7b" ac:name="date-sort" ac:schema-version="1">
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="order">descending</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="">content:modification date</ac:parameter>
                    </ac:structured-macro>
                  </p>
                </ac:rich-text-body>
              </ac:structured-macro>
              <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="91bc6f4c-26e5-409e-9344-411986eb7d96" ac:name="report-body" ac:schema-version="1">
                <ac:rich-text-body>
                  <p>
                    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="dff88e78-da76-4d8b-a27d-0544c78f1194" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="link">true</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="separator">newline</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="">content:title</ac:parameter>
                    </ac:structured-macro>
                  </p>
                </ac:rich-text-body>
              </ac:structured-macro>
            </ac:rich-text-body>
          </ac:structured-macro>
          <p>
            <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="5f0501a3-5d0a-4661-ab5b-82399335467e" ac:name="add-page" ac:schema-version="1">
              <ac:parameter ac:name="parent">Issues and Solutions</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="linkText">Create a new 'issues and solutions' article</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="source">KB issues article</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="live">true</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="labels">issues-solutions</ac:parameter>
            </ac:structured-macro>
          </p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
      <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="62c7165a-ee8b-488e-b729-d930ffa2ffea" ac:name="panel" ac:schema-version="1">
        <ac:parameter ac:name="borderColor">#E9E9E9</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="borderWidth">1</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="titleBGColor">#E9E9E9</ac:parameter>
        <ac:parameter ac:name="title">Systems</ac:parameter>
        <ac:rich-text-body>
          <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="3d4ff1ff-bf3e-4350-878e-3b1b56f4a5bd" ac:name="report-list" ac:schema-version="1">
            <ac:parameter ac:name="maxResults">5</ac:parameter>
            <ac:rich-text-body>
              <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="892af040-6f45-4bd0-ae4e-bee4e9925006" ac:name="content-reporter" ac:schema-version="1">
                <ac:parameter ac:name="types">pages</ac:parameter>
                <ac:parameter ac:name="labels">systems</ac:parameter>
                <ac:rich-text-body>
                  <p>
                    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="48f668d7-1f11-4607-a7fb-12127cca57fe" ac:name="date-sort" ac:schema-version="1">
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="order">descending</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="">content:modification date</ac:parameter>
                    </ac:structured-macro>
                  </p>
                </ac:rich-text-body>
              </ac:structured-macro>
              <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="d63ea60c-ea3d-4fa8-be19-e65ed8e40ace" ac:name="report-body" ac:schema-version="1">
                <ac:rich-text-body>
                  <p>
                    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="0d766db1-4055-4649-96e8-b666b33c079f" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="link">true</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="separator">newline</ac:parameter>
                      <ac:parameter ac:name="">content:title</ac:parameter>
                    </ac:structured-macro>
                  </p>
                </ac:rich-text-body>
              </ac:structured-macro>
            </ac:rich-text-body>
          </ac:structured-macro>
          <p>
            <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="b2f9529e-a171-4d0e-b955-c48cbe17a9cc" ac:name="add-page" ac:schema-version="1">
              <ac:parameter ac:name="parent">Systems</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="linkText">Create a new 'systems' article</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="source">KB systems article</ac:parameter>
              <ac:parameter ac:name="live">true</ac:parameter>
            </ac:structured-macro>
          </p>
        </ac:rich-text-body>
      </ac:structured-macro>
    </ac:layout-cell>
  </ac:layout-section>
</ac:layout>

Pro Tip

To change the hierarchy of pages in a space:

Click on Space Tools from the sidebar.
Select Content Tools.
Under Content Tools, click on the Reorder Pages tab.
Expand the page tree and reorder as needed.

Part 7 - Creating the homepage using Reporting

Getting started

Showing Articles by Label Using Reporting

Adding a 'Create Article' link (optional)

Understanding the Reporting structure