Scaffolding Forms & Templates Feature Differences

Owned by Robert Alexander Marshall
Last updated: Oct 08, 2024 by Shane Smith
8 min read

 

Overview

This document explains the feature differences between scaffolding forms and templates.

Migration Path

Original Platform

Target Platform

Available App Migration Path

License Migration

Notes/Consideration

Original Platform

Target Platform

Available App Migration Path

License Migration

Notes/Consideration

Server/DC

Cloud

Migration Path is available

Needed

  • understand the Scaffolding Forms & Templates Feature Differences including the macro differences between the application for Confluence Server and Confluence Cloud

  • allocate time for a test migration to understand the steps required to migrate data and complete re-configuration

This guide assumes you have successfully migrated your  Confluence Server data into Confluence Cloud, per Atlassian's instructions (CCMA)

More Atlassian resources are available here.

Feature Differences

Migration Focus Area

Feature

Platform



Server

Cloud

Versioning/License

Version Support

Min version 8.25.0 for migration

Migrate to Scaffolding cloud using steps at Migration Path 

License

Available through Atlassian Marketplace

Available through Atlassian Marketplace only. Monthly subscriptions are the default option, however, discounted annual subscriptions are available upon request to our Atlassian Sales team.

Access/Security

Authentication Type

Authentication will be based on your current setup

Confluence Cloud protects your data with encryption in transit and at rest and provides administrative controls to enforce organization-wide protection such as SAML SSO, enforced 2FA, and SCIM. 

This describes how Atlassian helps with security and encryption in Confluence Cloud.

Confluence Differences



Structure editing

  • calling Field macros

Field macros are called directly on a page.
Some macros interact with each other and have to be nested inside other macros.

Field macros are drag-and-dropped after adding a Field Group macro on a page. You build the structure of the page inside this macro by choosing the Field macros from the left-hand panel and drag-and-dropping them into the Editing area.

Content editing

  • filling up the forms

Clicking "Edit Content" will pop-up a separate Scaffolding Edit Content editor.

Depending on the Scaffolding field macro type, editing values can be done on this directly, or on a separate popup editor area.

Clicking Edit Content will change the Page View to become an editable area. 



Scaffolding settings

Scaffolding includes an administrator setting, which allows Confluence administrators to set the default setting for the Edit Contents mode.

All limit settings are handled by the app internally. No further configuration is needed in Cloud.

Previous Scaffolding XML versions

Scaffolding allows users with the proper permissions to view Scaffolding data history on a page that contains Scaffolding metadata.

All changes made to pages with scaffolding macros will be recorded in page history, whether they are scaffolding structure or data changes. Users are able to restore page data to an earlier version through the Confluence Page History.

Integration with other macros

Since Field macros are called directly on a page as macros, this means that users can add any other Confluence macros inside this page along Scaffolding macros.

Confluence server supports nested macros as well which means Scaffolding macros can easily be nested and integrated with other Confluence macros.




Scaffolding supports integration with most reporting macros/apps, including

  • page property report macros (Atlassian Confluence macros)

  • Reporting app (Appfire app)

Field Group macro is a standalone macro that reveals a separate editor where you can build your page structure. While this editor supports most Confluence page functions, it does not support other complex macros and third party macros

Confluence Cloud currently does not support nested macro (See CONFCLOUD-68323) which means integration with other apps by way of nesting will be limited.

Currently, Scaffolding Cloud does not support integration with reporting apps such as page property report macro. 

Macro Differences Overview

Server Macros 

Cloud Macros

We have simplified our cloud Scaffolding application to focus on some key macros. This means that data migrated will be handled totally differently in Cloud.

Review and understand the following: 

  • look out for icons highlighting how the data will be migrated

    •  – Unavailable

    •  – Partially available

  • for macros that are migrated but are unsupported, the following applies

    • Overall unsupported Macro

      • You may see a blank space where the macros were originally positioned in the documents

    • Unsupported Macro parameters

      • migration will contain the data

      • your parameter values are available in the Content Properties

      • the function of those parameters is not available

      • the macros will behave differently in View & Edit content mode 

        • for example, if you have a page with Number Data with decimal and minValue set, that data in cloud

          • will lose its decimal value on View content mode

          • upon Edit content mode, no minValue is set

Macro Differences Breakdown

Supported Server Macro

Cloud Macro

(or closest equivalent)  

Key Differences

Server

Cloud

Attachment Data

Allows users to specify an attachment to upload, or to select a previously-uploaded attachment.

Attachment Upload

  • accepts required, include and exclude as filter criteria for the attachments

  • the Required, Include, and Exclude parameters are supported, and work similarly to the Server version

Attachment Options

Creates a set of list options linking to the attachments on the specified content. Must be contained inside a  List Data macro.







Files List 

  • accepts  content, include and exclude as filter criteria for the attachments

  • supports the Page parameter: the location of the page with the attachment(s)

Content Options

Generates a set of options linking to Confluence content (e.g. pages, blog posts, etc).

May be filtered in several ways. Must be contained inside a  List Data macro.

Dropdown List

  • accepts space, parent ancestor, labels etc as filter criteria for the content to be displayed as option

  • accepts space as filter criteria for the content to be displayed as option.

Date Data

Allows editing of dates with a date picker pop-up menu, or via keying in directly into the fixed format field.

Date Field



  • accepts minDate, maxDate & Display format as Date field criteria.

  • accepts no parameter

Group Data

Allows data to be grouped within a named data set.

Field Group

  • acts as a bucket of Field macros to be easily referred to later. The name field is required.

  • acts as the main macro to do Structure editing. Field group name is required.

Label Options

Creates a list of labels to attach to the current page.

Must be contained inside a List Data macro.

Labels List

  • the name field is required

  • must be contained inside a List Data macro

  • accepted parameter: Labels

You can add labels which are currently being used in the Confluence instance by selecting them from the dropdown list.

You can also add new labels to the list by typing or pasting them in.

List Data

Allows selection of one or more options from a specific list.

Must contain option-generating sub-macros, for example  List Option, Content Options,  User Options,  Attachment Options or  Label Options.

Available as a combination of 

  • define output to be a dropdown list. Requires other Field macros to work

  • dropdown settings are defined here such as Required, Allow multiple, Separator, etc.

  • list data that contains multiple types of options

  • all dropdown macros are called individually depending on their function

  • allow Multiple and Required setting is set in each individual macros

  • in cloud, the type of options is its own separate macros and therefore cannot be combined. 

  • if this scenario happens, only the topmost option will be migrated. In this example, only User Options will be migrated to cloud.

List Option

Generates a single, simple, list option.

Must be contained inside a  List Data  macro.

Dropdown List

  • accepts text value in the dropdown options, can be modified to output other rich text formats such as Status or Emojis

  • have sorting mechanism

  • accepts custom texts (that may contain emoji) or Statuses as value and output of the dropdown list.

Live Template 

Live Templates use either Confluence Global templates, Space templates or even other regular Confluence pages as templates.

Live Template

  • accepts Page, Space or Global Templates, and Scaffolding Blueprint as templates

  • location of pages are assigned manually with the following format (SPACEKEY:Page_Title)

  • accepts Page, Space or Global Templates, and any Confluence Blueprint as templates

  • location of Page/Template/Blueprint is chosen from a dropdown field. Space name and Page name field are separated

Find Limitations at Limitation for Live Template in Confluence Cloud

Number Data

Allows editing of numbers in either a text box or a list item.

Number

  • accepts decimal, minValue, maxValue, format display, etc as filter criteria for the number value

 

  • does not have further criteria for the number value

Table Data

Allows dynamic addition or deletion of rows in a table.

Table Field 

  • accepts initialRows and order as parameters for the Table data



  • does not take any further parameters

  • nesting table data does not work in Cloud

    • in server the following table appears as a nested table 


    • Confluence Cloud does not support nested macro related functions.

    • If this scenario happens, the data inside the table will not be migrated. I.e Agenda, Notes, Status, and Actions column will not be migrated.

Text Data

Allows editing of free text data. 

Short Text, Paragraph

  • accepts area, line, or password as Type, and richtext, text, etc as the content type

  • accepts language, minLength, maxLength, etc as parameters for the Text data

  • text data: accepts Placeholder to help users input their data

  • paragraph: does not take any further parameter

  • migrating text data with type area will be migrated as paragraph while type line and password will be migrated as text data

User Options

Creates a set of list options linking to users matching the filter options. Must be contained inside a List Data macro.

User List

  • accepts groups, spaces, users etc , to scope the list of users as options

  • accepts user groups to scope the list of users as options