How can I customize my Confluence Dashboard to have additional company content along with Welcome message,Spaces and Updates?
Asked by Vishali:

Need help - We would like to show important information related tot he company at the Confluence dashboard along with the Welcome message, Spaces, All Updates, Favorites, Network.

Thank you.


Answers:
author: Ray Sanchez
body: Hi Vishaly:

This is why I did. I went to teh confluence admin\> layouts under site layouts I edit the global layout using this (just search the dashboard-group left and replace everything with this)

\<div class="dashboard"\>

\<div class="dashboard-section"\>

#if ($mode == "dashboard")

#parse ("/decorators/includes/dashboard-navigation.vm")

#requireResourcesForContext("dashboard")

#rssautodiscovery($action.rssDescriptor)

#permitSearchEngines()

\<div class="dashboard-group left"\>

$helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{include:ds:\[your new page\]\|nopanel=true}")

\</div\>## left

#else

\<content tag="content-navigation"\>

\<div id="navigation" class="content-navigation"\>

\<ul class="ajs-menu-bar"\>

#menuMacros_renderButton("system.${mode}.button")

\</ul\>

\</div\>

\</content\>

\<div class="dashboard-group $!mode"\>

$body

\</div\>

#end

Create a new page with all the info you want along with the macros (web spaces, etc). Save the page and make sure it belongs to a public webspace, like the tutorial one.

Then add in this part include your new page

\<div class="dashboard-group left"\>

$helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{include:ds:\[your new page\]\|nopanel=true}")

\</div\>## left

With this you will have a custom dashboard and you can change it as you want it.

I hope this can help!!!

comments: author: Vishali
body: Ray,

Thank you so much for the detailed information on how to customize the dashboard. How can I make a page belong to a public webspace?

Regards,


author: Vishali
body: Ray,

When I try to create a page, it will create in one of the spaces that I have created. If I create a space that is available to anonymous users and have that page there,will that become a public page?

Thanks,


author: Vishali
body: I have created a page and am using the following (made sure anonymous has access to that page). I am seeing this error in the dashboard - "Unable to render {include} The included page could not be found".

<br />

<br />

#assistiveSkipLink("assistive.skiplink.to.dashboard.recent.updates" "dashboard-recently-updated")  
\<div class="pagebody"\>  
#parse ( "/template/includes/actionerrors.vm" )  

\<div class="dashboard"\>  
\<div class="dashboard-section"\>  
#if ($mode == "dashboard")  
#parse ("/decorators/includes/dashboard-navigation.vm")  
#requireResourcesForContext("dashboard")  
#rssautodiscovery($action.rssDescriptor)  
#permitSearchEngines()  

\<div class="dashboard-group left"\>  
\<div class="dashboard-item welcome-message"\>  
$action.welcomeMessage  
\</div\>  
#dashboard_renderGlobalActions("dashboardActionsId", \["system.dashboard"\] )  

#foreach ($webPanel in $webInterfaceManager.getDisplayableWebPanels("atl.dashboard.left", {}))  
\<div class="dashboard-item"\>  
$!webPanel.getHtml($req.getParameterMap())  
\</div\>  
#end  
\</div\>## left  
\<div class="dashboard-group right"\>  
#$helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{recently-updated-dashboard:showProfilePic=true}")  
$helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{include:ds:Encompass Admin Whiteboard\|nopanel=true}")  
\</div\>## right  

<br />

<br />

<br />


author: Ray Sanchez
body: Hi Vishali:

Im sending my layout script, I think it will be easier for you :) ... return yours to the default one and replace this code remember to change the page name.

Important: the parameter :ds: is the key of the web space you created, the other parameter is the name of the page as you named in its title. The tutorial one is the ds but maybe yours is different. Let me know how it goes.

\<!-- GENERAL PAGE DECORATING BEGINS --\>

#assistiveSkipLink("assistive.skiplink.to.dashboard.recent.updates" "dashboard-recently-updated")

\<div class="pagebody"\>

#parse ( "/template/includes/actionerrors.vm" )

\<div class="dashboard"\>

\<div class="dashboard-section"\>

#if ($mode == "dashboard")

#parse ("/decorators/includes/dashboard-navigation.vm")

#requireResourcesForContext("dashboard")

#rssautodiscovery($action.rssDescriptor)

#permitSearchEngines()

\<div class="dashboard-group left"\>

$helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{include:ds:Basic Reusable Artifacts \& Infomation Network (BRAIN)\|nopanel=true}")

\</div\>## left

#else

\<content tag="content-navigation"\>

\<div id="navigation" class="content-navigation"\>

\<ul class="ajs-menu-bar"\>

#menuMacros_renderButton("system.${mode}.button")

\</ul\>

\</div\>

\</content\>

\<div class="dashboard-group $!mode"\>

$body

\</div\>

#end

## INFO PANEL FOR ANY PAGE

#if ($infoPanelRequired)

\<div style="width: $infoPanelWidth" id="helptd"\>

#infoPanel(true true true true)

\</div\>

#end

\</div\>\<!-- .dashboard-section --\>

\</div\>\<!-- .dashboard --\>

\</div\>

#parse ( "/breadcrumbs.vm" )

\<content tag="browse-menu"\>

#menuMacros_renderGlobalBrowseMenu()

\</content\>

\<!-- GENERAL PAGE DECORATING ENDS --\>


author: Vishali
body: Ray,

Chaging 'ds' to our 'space key' solved the problem. Thank you so much. But I have other problem....All the text is aligned in its own way and very ugly to see in the dashboard.

Could you please help?

Regards,


author: Ray Sanchez
body: No problem!!! Now its a matter of understanding Confluence macros and layouts. Edit your page and look at the top for a menu button named layout (it didnt says layout is more an icon with a layout diagram), there you can layout your page as you want. After that you probably want to add some macros such as the web space macro, maybe the heatmap, the recent activity, etc etc. In the marketplace there are also valuable plugins for free that you can use to complete the task. I didnt used any of them but you might find them useful but truth is you can do it without them.

Try this to begin with and let me know how it goes...


author: Vishali
body: Ray,

Page in the sense the newly created page? I see the change in layout changes in dashboard too. But, Could you please tell me on how to make the dashboard layout to show three columns?

Cheers,


author: Ray Sanchez
body: Remember that now the default dashboard is your newly created page, so goes to that page and click edit. Once in edit mode look for an icon (I believe is the last one before redo and undo arrows) that looks like a two pane layout. Click it and select the three columns layout. And then you can begin to add macros and text.


author: Vishali
body: Ray,

I wanted my dashboard to have all other things (which I see right now)- Welcome Message, "All Spaces,Pages, Network", "All Updates,Favorite Spaces,Network" and also the content from my page. I want to adjust the dashboard content in a way that I can have my page content organised in a nice way either below or to the side of "All Updates". Is there a way that I can show only few updates in this list?

Thanks,


author: Ray Sanchez
body: Well this is when the cons appears. Becuase you are creating a completely custom page you are giving up some functionality out of the box. For example, the welcome message is not anymore reacheable becuase you are using a different container within the main container. What this means is that you need to create that welcome message yourself in the new page. Also the webspace macro that you can use in this new page is slightly different form the default one. The webspace macro show you all and favorites. For the all updates, network, etc used the recently updated dashboard macro (you can include macros using the {name of the macro}.). You can also used other macros like the panel to give color to a section, etc. But all of this need to be done in the new page using the layout option and the desired macros. Each macro is also configurable, if you click in top of it you will see and edit menu, select that edit option and you can change how many contect appears, etc.

<br />


author: Vishali
body: Ray,

Thank you so much for your time and patience in helping me understand this. I shall check the macros that you mentioned. Hope you have a great weekend!

Best Regards,


author: Ray Sanchez
body: No problem!!! Once you get use to macros you will see that it will be easy to do what you want. Anyway if you have any more questions just send me a message. Good Luck!!! and have a great weekend too.


author: Remo Siegwart
body: You may want to try our [Custom Dashboards add-on for Confluence](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.simplenia.confluence.plugins.customdashboards), which allows you to replace the default dashboard of Confluence with a custom one defined on a wiki page. There you can use any content or macro you like. Here's an example dashboard:

custom-dashboards-screenshot.png

Hope this helps  
[](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/How-can-I-customize-my-Confluence-Dashboard-to-have-additional/qaq-p/169127?attachment-id=2961){#link_118c521efedf20}  
[](/tnckb94959/attachments/tnckb94959/confluence-questions/28285/1/custom-dashboards-screenshot.png){#display_118c521efedf20_0}


author: Ray Sanchez
body: Hi Vishali:

I forgot to tell you, the easiest way to do it is to put the page somewhere within the tutorial page that Confuence has out-of-the-box. We decided to keep that space anonymous so users can understand confluence and how it works and also for contributors to learn about confluence. Becuase this is an all-purpose non sensitive web space we moved the "new dashbord page" to that location. It just the easiest way for us maybe you will find something better and if you do please pass me the hint :)

Have a good day

comments: author: Vishali
body: Ray,

Thank you very much for immediate response. I don't see the tutorial page now in Confluence. Might have deleted it. Is there a way that I can restore it?

Thanks,


author: Ray Sanchez
body: Maybe you can, Im not sure about that one, probably installing it again but I dont know for sure, anyway you dont need specifically that webspace you can create your own web space and put the page in its root. The only pros about having in the tutorial one is that you at least have a complete web space with something to read and use instead of having only a public space just for the page.


author: Ray Sanchez
body: yes it will if the space allowed anonymous access, if not maybe you can redirect your users to the login as their landing page instead of the dashboard. we dont have sensitive data at the dashboard so we keep it public but we applied access roles to web spaces so even though is public you cant see all the web spaces. the good thing about this approach is that you can customize the dashboard without plugins or third party apps.


author: Ray Sanchez
body: Hi Vishali:

I found and error in my post ... please ignore this comment (just search the dashboard-group left and replace everything with this) ... it should read find the div related to dashboard and replace it with this.

Sorry

Ray


author: GuilhermeA
body: Hello Vishali,

Of Course! You can achieve this with 2 options, through Confluence or through plugins.

From Confluence perspective you can customize it with simple modifications:

* <https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Customising+the+Dashboard>

Or coud try to go a deeper leve an edit the whole vm for Dashboard:

* <https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Customising+Site+and+Space+Layouts>

Then we have the option to use plugins. There is a great plugin from Adaptavist that does the trick, and its beautiful:

* <https://www.adaptavist.com/display/AtlassianConfluence/Custom+Dashboards>

Hope this helps you!

Cheers,

Guilherme

comments: author: Vishali
body: Thank you, Guilherme.


Tags: content

dashboard