Best page template for a change log
Asked by aingramips:

Hi,

I'm just trialling Confluence right now, it's still very early days, but one thing I'd like to do which I haven't been able to suss out is what template is best to create a "change log". I want people to be able to enter text (and sometimes images) against a date (preferably defaulting to today's date), and to have a long page, grouping changes by date. The only other thing I'm after is to be able to tag each entry (with system names that the change is against) for easy filtering/searching.

Does anything like this exist? Is having one long page a bad idea or can pagination be used (assuming search will work over all pages)?

The Blog comes close, but not being able to edit the date of an entry pretty much kills it for me (and the seeming lack of bulk import of historic entries).


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Hello [@aingramips](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/251904),

Great that you're giving Confluence a try! We're happy to answer any questions you have about it.

Confluence has its own change log as well for individual pages. This isn't a page template but is accessible from any page.

* [Page History and Comparison Views](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/page-history-and-page-comparison-views-139379.html)

There's a Change Log template available in the [Jira Report Blueprint](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/jira-report-blueprint-427623492.html). You'll have access to this Blueprint when Confluence has been connected to a Jira instance. For more information on this template, give the blog [How to Document Releases and Share Release Notes](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/blog/2015/10/how-to-document-releases-and-share-release-notes) a read.

If neither of these match your needs, you can also [create your own template](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/create-a-template-296093779.html).

Lastly, there are some templating add-ons available from [Atlassian Marketplace](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?hosting=server&product=confluence&query=template). You can trial these add-ons in case you want to see what sort of functionality they offer.

I hope that helps, but let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Shannon

comments: author: aingramips
body: Hi [@Shannon S](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/510046)

Thanks for your response. I should have been clearer actually. The change log is actually to do with System Administration changes happening to servers, rather than software rollout (although it might include that). So it's not about changes to the page (page history) or Jira software change logs.

Think of it more as a date ordered list of system administration tasks, probably using confluence labels for hostnames being affected to allow easy lookups.

I'll take a look at how hard it is to create my own template as that might be the way to go, but if my better description helps you recommend something else, please do say

Thanks


author: Shannon S
body: Hello,

Thank you for your reply! I do understand that the change log is not for Jira, however, the only change log template we have is tied to the Jira Blueprint. Therefore, it is not available without the integration.

Therefore, I think the best solution for you would be to create your own template as you mentioned, or checking out one of the 3rd party add-ons which provide further templating capabilities.

Let me know if you have any trouble when working with your template; I'm happy to help!

Regards,

Shannon


Tags: confluence-server

server