Build a forum in Confluence

Scenario

With its flexibility and rich features, the Reporting app lets you transform a Confluence space into a discussion forum for users, similar to forum software such as phpBB or vBulletin.

Forums are a great way for users to share ideas and discuss in an informal space.

Using an individual page with its comments as a forum thread, you can create a Report Table macro on the space front page to generate a list of forum threads.

To create a new forum thread, create a new blank page. Whenever a user comments on the thread, the thread is moved to the top.
To sort the results by the most recent comment posted, you can use the Date Sort macro.

The Reporting app contains a List of Suppliers that can be used to manipulate data from a Confluence instance.

In this recipe, the Page Supplier, Collection Supplier, and Comment Supplier are used to gather the data to generate the forum's front page, and includes all page titles, page creators, all page comments with timestamps, as well as the comment creators.

Result

Recipe

Apps	Reporting for Confluence Data Center
Level	Intermediate
Estimated time	30 minutes
Macros	Content Filter, Date Sort, Local Reporter, Number Filter, Report Block, Report Column, Report Empty, Report Info, Report Table
Suppliers	Collection Supplier, Comment Supplier, Page Supplier

Storage format

You can copy and paste this code into the Confluence Source Editor:

<p class="auto-cursor-target">
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<ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="f2bbe5c1-b162-4687-b717-48351f162573" ac:name="report-table" ac:schema-version="1">
  <ac:rich-text-body>
    <p class="auto-cursor-target">
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    </p>
    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="38f3281f-c373-4ba7-b55f-17ab5624eeb0" ac:name="content-reporter" ac:schema-version="1">
      <ac:parameter ac:name="types">page</ac:parameter>
      <ac:rich-text-body>
        <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="eb7e9c0f-e382-4db4-a231-7c5fcf403b03" ac:name="date-sort" ac:schema-version="1">
          <ac:parameter ac:name="order">descending</ac:parameter>
          <ac:parameter ac:name="">page:comments &gt; collection:last &gt; comment:modification date</ac:parameter>
        </ac:structured-macro>
      </ac:rich-text-body>
    </ac:structured-macro>
    <p class="auto-cursor-target">
      <br />
    </p>
    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="8d263f5b-fe39-4834-9633-86c87cf810f5" ac:name="report-column" ac:schema-version="1">
      <ac:parameter ac:name="title">Thread</ac:parameter>
      <ac:rich-text-body>
        <p>
          <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="36d97381-082e-439b-817f-eb7a8db08987" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
            <ac:parameter ac:name="link">true</ac:parameter>
            <ac:parameter ac:name="">page:title</ac:parameter>
          </ac:structured-macro>
        </p>
      </ac:rich-text-body>
    </ac:structured-macro>
    <p class="auto-cursor-target">
      <br />
    </p>
    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="ec461193-3208-4850-ae87-d7b4708e9c2a" ac:name="report-column" ac:schema-version="1">
      <ac:parameter ac:name="title">Thread Starter</ac:parameter>
      <ac:rich-text-body>
        <p>
          <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="bfa16460-c5f2-48d7-8da1-eceb9e7cf6bb" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
            <ac:parameter ac:name="link">true</ac:parameter>
            <ac:parameter ac:name="">page:creator</ac:parameter>
          </ac:structured-macro>
        </p>
      </ac:rich-text-body>
    </ac:structured-macro>
    <p class="auto-cursor-target">
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    </p>
    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="6524e8a8-8ad9-46fe-8825-9ed9950bdaca" ac:name="report-column" ac:schema-version="1">
      <ac:parameter ac:name="title">Last Post</ac:parameter>
      <ac:rich-text-body>
        <p class="auto-cursor-target">
          <br />
        </p>
        <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="6e70e4c5-6535-495f-84b7-f531127b090a" ac:name="report-block" ac:schema-version="1">
          <ac:parameter ac:name="atlassian-macro-output-type">INLINE</ac:parameter>
          <ac:rich-text-body>
            <p class="auto-cursor-target">
              <br />
            </p>
            <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="19c84c28-fcc8-4beb-b254-a39557095329" ac:name="local-reporter" ac:schema-version="1">
              <ac:parameter ac:name="">@self</ac:parameter>
              <ac:rich-text-body>
                <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="e86188b8-cf26-48a7-b7b4-6c6a166046a4" ac:name="number-filter" ac:schema-version="1">
                  <ac:parameter ac:name="minValue">1</ac:parameter>
                  <ac:parameter ac:name="">page:comments &gt; collection:size</ac:parameter>
                </ac:structured-macro>
              </ac:rich-text-body>
            </ac:structured-macro>
            <p class="auto-cursor-target">
              <br />
            </p>
            <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="044c185a-9ecf-4f23-94ef-cb7f6d1b4209" ac:name="report-body" ac:schema-version="1">
              <ac:rich-text-body>
                <p>
                  <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="890c7156-01a2-4853-83c6-44dba15e271b" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
                    <ac:parameter ac:name="link">true</ac:parameter>
                    <ac:parameter ac:name="">page:comments &gt; collection:last &gt; comment:modification date</ac:parameter>
                  </ac:structured-macro> by <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="88a33ccc-ced0-4279-97ff-efc2dc062c63" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
                    <ac:parameter ac:name="link">true</ac:parameter>
                    <ac:parameter ac:name="">page:comments &gt; collection:last &gt; comment:creator</ac:parameter>
                  </ac:structured-macro>
                </p>
              </ac:rich-text-body>
            </ac:structured-macro>
            <p class="auto-cursor-target">
              <br />
            </p>
            <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="54b9d5a9-5dde-46fa-877d-9f2fd681b91a" ac:name="report-empty" ac:schema-version="1">
              <ac:rich-text-body>
                <p>No replies yet.</p>
              </ac:rich-text-body>
            </ac:structured-macro>
            <p class="auto-cursor-target">
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            </p>
          </ac:rich-text-body>
        </ac:structured-macro>
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        </p>
      </ac:rich-text-body>
    </ac:structured-macro>
    <p class="auto-cursor-target">
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    </p>
    <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="7fd33d18-4ab4-4662-9b8b-3333d95bf932" ac:name="report-column" ac:schema-version="1">
      <ac:parameter ac:name="title">Replies</ac:parameter>
      <ac:rich-text-body>
        <p>
          <ac:structured-macro ac:macro-id="f9adb824-33ac-4c13-96e7-f4d3e3207039" ac:name="report-info" ac:schema-version="1">
            <ac:parameter ac:name="">page:comments &gt; collection:size</ac:parameter>
          </ac:structured-macro>
        </p>
      </ac:rich-text-body>
    </ac:structured-macro>
    <p class="auto-cursor-target">
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    </p>
  </ac:rich-text-body>
</ac:structured-macro>
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