Creating a Page Blueprint

Create the page that will become a Page Blueprint

A blueprint is the archetypical page, or template, from which all subsequent copies will be made. For example, suppose your organization's intranet will be publishing news articles. You don't want to have to create both the article content and the design of the page every time an article is needed. Instead, you can create a "news article" page blueprint which contains the standardized design of a news article. Then, when you need a news article, simply create it from this blueprint, and fill in the content unique to this article.

Knowing that this will be a "standard" for a type of page you want repeatedly created, the page blueprint should be designed accordingly. 

Add substitution fields to the Page Blueprint

One of the most powerful and valuable features of Blueprint Maker is the ability to use substitution fields. These are placeholders for content that is entered during the create from blueprint process.

For example, on my news page blueprint, I may have an area where I want to have the article's author. Since the author may be different for each article, I'll want to substitute this information each time an article is created. Where I want this author name to appear, I can simply put [[author-name]]. When a user creates a page from this blueprint, they will be prompted to type in an Author Name. What they type will be inserted wherever [[author-name]] appeared in the page blueprint. 

Navigate to the Blueprint Definitions Page and download the JSON File

See Accessing and Editing the JSON File for instructions on how to download the file.

In the JSON File, create a pageBlueprint object

The pageBlueprint object defines some properties used to help guide users when creating a page from this blueprint.

These properties include:

1. 1. Name (A human-readable name of the page blueprint)
   2. Description (Appears below the blueprint name in the Blueprint Menu)
   3. Space Key (The key of the space where the page blueprint resides)
   4. Page Title Name of the blueprint page
   5. Blueprint Fields (List of the substitution fields used in the blueprint and sets the order the fields will appear to the user creating the page from this Blueprint)
   6. Type (specifies whether it is a "page" or "live" blueprint, or if it should include children as a page "tree")

Familiarize yourself with the JSON File Data Reference.

In the JSON file, add and define your substitution fields

In the same JSON file, you must define each of the substitution fields; again with helpful information to the users creating a page from this blueprint.

For each substitution field, you must define the a "blueprintField" object with the following properties:

1. 1. ID (The unique ID for the field–that is, what is between the [[ ]] brackets in your page blueprint)

   2. Name (A human-readable name for the field)

   3. Required (A toggle for whether the field is required)

   4. Type (Defines the display length of the field)

   5. Help Text (Additional text to assist the user in filling out the field - appears below the data-entry field in the creation process)

   6. Placeholder (Default text inside the field)

Again, familiarize yourself with the JSON File Data Reference.

Save and upload the JSON File

See again Accessing and Editing the JSON File for how to upload the file.

Create a page from this Blueprint

1. In the appropriate space, click the 'Blueprints' button in the Confluence Header (not the 'Create' button). 
2. Select the page blueprint you created
3. You are now in the "Wizard" which walks you through entering the substitution fields (if there are any) and the creation of the page from this blueprint.
4. Enter values for each of the substitution fields
5. Click next
6. Verify where you want this page created
7. Click Create