Confluence: how to use variables in a page
Asked by John Bercik:

How can I use variables in a page in Confluence please? For example I want to type "company" variable and have it insert my company name, address, city, state.

Can I have a list of variables for a space that all pages in the space can use ?


Answers:
author: Shilpa Devi
body: I dont see this question answered yet. I have a similar requirement to meet and would be glad if any one in the Community can provide a feasible solution

comments: author: Shilpa Devi
body: [@K Cann](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1139961)

Did you get this question answered. I am not able to view your reply.


author: Armin Schenkel
body: Mediawiki is way better than Confluence... How bad is this implemented in Confluence?

<https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilfe:Variablen>

Just see the example of Wikipedia, where the pagename can be easily added as variable into a link, or text or whatever.

Confluence seems to lack the basic simplicity and syntax of every wiki system ever made.


author: Andres Alzate
body: Hi,

Is the option of Variables not available anymore?

Cheers


author: K Cann
body: See reply.

comments: author: pd
body: The answers here provides help on this topic.

<https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/using-variables-in-confluence-text/qaq-p/431661>


author: Jeremy Largman
body: I'm not quite understanding what you mean by a variable. Do you mean that you would type 'company' and the values would change, depending on who you are (ie what company you work for?).

In either case, writing either a user macro or a plugin would probably be the way to go. If it's simply a text replacement, it looks like you already discovered the user macro. If it's a true variable, and pulls some data from LDAP, you can probably even do that in a user macro as well (you can access the user object, then try to get user properties), like this:

```
($generalUtil.getUserAccessor().getUser($userId))
```

There's a good example [here](http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DISC/User+Activity). Let us know more specifically what you want.

comments: author: K Cann
body: I think that the question can be explained as follows (this is also my question):

1. The content author for a page enters a variable, such as \<company\>.
2. Somewhere else, the author defines a list of values for each variable. One of these might be, for example, company = Atlassian.
3. On the page, Confluence replaces the variable \<company\> with the value 'Atlassian'.
4. Any exported output also replaces the variable \<company\> with the value 'Atlassian'.
5. If the content author changes the value to something else, the value is automatically replaced on the Confluence page.

How might this be accomplished?


author: Konstantin Gevorgyan
body: Were you able to find answer on this?


author: Warren Goldman
body: I have not, and K Cann's explanation is accurate


author: EPS Software Engineering AG
body: Maybe our Easy Space Variables App could solve the problem. You find it on the Marketplace.

Regards,  
Stephan (CEO of EPS Software Engineering AG, vendor of the Easy Space Variables App)


author: John Bercik
body: I did get a "User Macro" setup to include text with the reference to the user macro "{mymacro}". Is that the only way ?

comments: author: Warren Goldman
body: how do you create a "User Macro"?


author: michael dejulia
body: <https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/writing-user-macros-4485.html>


author: David at David Simpson Apps
body: Tell us which product you want help with -- Confluence?


Tags: variable