Linchpin Theme - Documentation

Create an individual theme for your Confluence and Linchpin

Configuration

Select the Linchpin Theme Plugin in your configuration

After Plugin installation you can click the "configure" button, it will bring you to site with a info box which says "activate theme".
You can use that shortcut to activate the theme quickly. Or you can do it by hand:

As an admin, click on Confluence Administration -> General configuration.
Under LOOK AND FEEL click on Themes and then select the Linchpin Theme Plugin as your default site theme.

Linchpin theme configuration

After you activated your theme, you may have to refresh your browser to see the new "Linchpin Theme" menu.

Note:

Other Linchpin Plugins may integrate into Linchpin Theme Plugin and offer options which differ from the screenshot below.
Click on Configuration for now to see the LTP standalone features, we will cover the other options later:


Dashboard

Linchpin dashboard

Choosing this option will remove the fixed Confluence "All updates" panel on the left.
You can use the full width for customization.

Default Confluence Dashboard

This Option makes your dashboard look the same as the Confluence default theme.
You can still customize your dashboard, see options below.

Also you can set the width of the right section, the left section will adjust.

Background image

Here you can upload an image which will be used as background image on your Confluence dashboard. The background will only be visible on the dashboard.

Keep in mind: Since this background image will be scaled to full width of the browser window, choose an image with an appropriate size to avoid blurry effects and performance issues.

Hide Dashboard buttons

Choosing this option will hide the action buttons (Invite users, create space) on your Confluence dashboard.

Dashboard tiles look

If this option is checked the Confluence dashboard will appear in a nice tiles look.




To edit your dashboard layout, you need to edit your Confluence "Default Welcome Message".
As an administrator you can find it under: "Configuration" →"Global Templates and Blueprints"

Header

  • Logo image: You can upload your own Logo here.
  • Logo position: You can place your logo on the left or right side.
    Left: Logo and intranet name left, searchbar and user menu on the right side.
  • Right: Logo and intranet name on the right side, search bar and user menu left.
  • Header height: Sets the height of your header between 80-140 pixel.
  • Header background color: The background color for the whole header.
  • Header background image: An image to use as your header background.
    You can choose to set your header background image only on your main dashboard or on every page.
  • Intranet name: A text which will appear next to your logo.
  • Intranet name color: The color of your intranet name. Only shown if a name is set.
  • Intranet name size: The font size of your intranet name. Only shown if a name is set.
  • Color used for header icons: The icon colors in your header, like the notification icon.
  • Color used for notifications: The color for your notifiction count when someone mentions you, shares something, replies etc.
  • Subheader background color: The color for the bar below your header.

Create button

For example, you can find a create button on your dashboard.
It's used to create a page or post etc.

Primary buttons

For example, you can find these in dialogues, like the one you see when clicking on the three dots next to the create button.

  • Primary button hover color: Changes the button hover color.

Global link color

"back to top" button

You can find the button on the bottom right cornor, when you scroll down a page.
It allows you to quickly scroll up to the first lines of your page.

  • Background color of the "back to top" button: Changes the button background color.
  • Background hover color of the "back to top" button: Changes the button hover color.
  • Text color of the "back to top" button:

Content

  • Page Headline Color: Changes the text color of your page title on every site.
  • Headline color (1-6): Changes the text color of your headings. Apply a Conflunce "Heading" style to your text.
  • Information panel color: Changes the border color of the "Info" macro.
  • Warning panel color: Changes the border color of the "Warning" macro.
  • Tip panel color: Changes the border of the "Tip" macro.
  • Note panel color: Changes the border of the "Note" macro.
  • Panel icon color: Changes the icon color of your information, warning, tip and note panel.

Teaser

Define your Teaser Styles

The Administrator can define a preset of teaser styles, which can be used in the Linchpin Teaser macro.
It is possible to create up to ten teaser styles. Only teaser styles marked as active can be selected in the macro.

  • Active: Appears as a style selection in the Linchpin Teaser macro if set to active.
  • Name: A name for your teaser config.
  • Background: The background color of your teaser macro.
  • Text: The color of text in your teaser macro.
  • Border: The border color around your teaser macro.


Use the Linchpin Teaser Macro

Note: The Image and Icon Teaser are available since version 2.12

The Linchpin Teaser macro has several options:

  • Teaser type: Select the style of your teaser.
    • Standard teaser: Can display an image and / or text and adjusts to your image size. Text is visible all time.
    • Image Teaser: Fixed size. To see your teaser text, hover over it.
    • Icon Teaser: Fixed size, same as image. To see your teaser text, hover over it.
  • Teaser colors: Choose from a set of predefined colors (created by the Administrator).
  • Title: The title of your teaser (mandatory).
  • URL: You can set a link destination for your teaser to for e.g. a Confluence page, a web page, or an image. Linking to a Confluence page, the macro sets a short url to avoid broken links, when the destination page was moved or renamed. The title of the linked Confluence page appears below the input field. Use the Checkbox to open the link in a new window tab. A linked teaser will show an arrow on the right.
  • Icon: Choose from a set of predefined icons which will appear in the center of your teaser. Only available for icon teasers.
  • Button text: Enter text for your button. The button will appear below your teaser title. Only available for image teasers.
  • Image: Upload or link an image, that will appear above your title.

To include more text (below the title), just insert the Macro and wright your text in the macro body.

Linchpin sidebar

Linchpin sidebar

The Linchpin sidebar is activated as default and sticks to the right side of your browser. To bring it up, click on the arrow or icon, depending on which style you use.
After it expands, it will show you a overview of your favorite Confluence pages. Below are pictures of the "tab" and "icon" style of the sidebar.


You can search your added pages if you like, or remove them from your favorites by clicking on the star icon.

To close the sidebar, click the arrow or icon again - it will collapse back to the right side of your screen.

Note:
More options (tabs or icons) will be added when you use other of our plugins.
See the "First Steps", or "Examples" page for more info.



  • Activiate linchpin sidebar: Enable or disable the Linchpin sidebar.
  • Linchpin sidebar style: Here you can set your sidebar style to tabs or icons, see pictures above.
  • Initial sidebar state: Set the initial state for your sidebar when a user sees it the first time. The state after user interactions are saved in the user's browser and will override this setting.
  • Scroll behaviour: Choose whether the sidebar should scroll with the content or be at a fixed position.
  • Expert Finder: Configure the "Custom User Search" macro from our other Plugin "Linchpin Profiles". See notes below.
  • Background color of tab: Sets the background color for tabs or icons on the left side of the sidebar.
  • Icon color: Sets the text or icon color.
  • Active tab icon color: Sets the text or icon color for the active tab or icon.

Configure your sidebar search (Expert Finder)

Note: This feature is only available if you have Linchpin Manager and Linchpin User Profiles installed.

LTP uses a Linchpin User Profiles macro to provide the sidebar search.
Click on "Configure Expert-Search paramenters" to open the macro editor.

For more help, see the Linchpin User Profiles documentation.

Footer

Style your footer content

Footers are highly visible and you can access them from anywhere in your Confluence or Linchpin instance. Use the Linchpin Theme Plugin's footer color configuration to highlight the most important information or customize the footer to match your Corporate Design. You can set the color of the footer background, titles and links.

To edit the footer links or to add new ones, go to Admin section → Linchpin Theme → Footer configuration (See: LinchpinThemePlugin-UserGuide2.9.0-Createindividualfooterlinks)

Select the footer configuration

The Linchpin Theme Plugin gives you the option to create your own footer links. (Available since Linchpin Theme Plugin v2.9.0)

Add new footer columns

You can add new columns with links to your footer by clicking on the button "Add column". At the moment you can set up a total of 2 columns for your footer links.

By clicking on the edit icon in you link list columns you can fill them with individual links.

Advanced

Custom CSS and JavaScript

Here you can place your own custom CSS and JavaScript to add custom modifications to your theme.

Dashboard Color

You can change the color of your dashboard but it will only affect the "Linchpin-Dashboard", see here for more information.

Please note:

All macros in Confluence are designed for white backgrounds. Setting a different color can lead to unwanted effects.

We suggest to place content in a "Layout-Box" macro with a white background to override the dashboard color.
It will also allow you to set inner and outer widths and spacings.

Space Layouts

Select the Space layouts configuration

The Linchpin Theme Plugin gives you the option to assign a new layout per space.

You can assign your space layouts to a space directly (step 3), or you can add category labels to your spaces to group them and then assign the category to a layout (step 4).

In the next few steps we will show you how to do it.

 

Space layouts overview

Clicking on the space layout option will bring you to the overview of all configured space layouts.
The list will be empty if you just installed LTP.

To add a space layout, simply enter a name for it in the input box and click on "Add space layout".
This will create a space layout which you can configure further. To do so, click the edit pencil.

 

Configure and apply your space layout

Now you will be presented a familiar screen, which almost looks like the "Configuration", which provides a global layout configuration.
A space layout will override a global configuration.

  • Name of space layout: This is the name of the space layout you are editing. You can rename it here.
  • Assigned spaces: Here you can assign spaces to which your layout will apply.
  • Assigned space categories: Here you can assign space categories to which your layout will apply. See the next step for how to assign space categories.

Note:
Space layouts nearly provide you all features of the global configuration, except for the dashboard settings and custom CSS / JavaScript.

If you need to use custom CSS / JavaScript for a specific space, do that in the global config.
A space layout will set a special body attribute which can be used as a CSS or JavaScript selector.

Apply a category label to your space

  • Click on "Space directory" in your footer area, section "Intranet tools".
  • Click on the space which should have a category set.
  • Click on "Space tools" in the bottom left corner of your site and select "Overview".
  • Click on "edit" next to your space categoriy field.
  • Type in a new or existing label / text and save.

The label you applied can be used in the layout configuration, see below.

Apply your space category to a space layout

Just type in the name of your space category in the "Assigned space categories" field.

Custom Landing Spaces

Enabling the custom landing spaces

The custom landing spaces feature defines which space a user will see when he logs in.
You can use this feature to redirect users by profile data.

For example you have a bilingual site with German and English, every language has it's own space in Confluence.
When a user logs in, you can redirect him to the proper page, depending on which locale he has set.

Note:
This feature requires the Linchpin Manager Plugin to work !
You can also use profile fields which are provided by Linchpin User Profiles.

Define custom landing spaces for your users

Here you can see three attributes which represent a field in a user's profile.
Let's choose "Name" for the first attribute and "Locale" for the second, then click save.

The configuration below will extend. Now click on "Add landing space". It will ask you to type in data:

  • Landing space: The name of a space, here we used "Demonstration Space".
  • Name: A username in Confluence, here we used "admin".
  • Local: A locale, here we used "de".

When a user logs in, this feature will check if the user is named "admin" and has the language "de" set (German).
If both matches, then the user's site homepage will be set to "Demonstration Space". Each time he logs in, he will see the "Demonstration Space".

Note:
If you choose multiple attributes, they all have to match. They are connected by "AND", not "OR".

Footer Configuration

Export

Clicking on this menu item, will export your ltp configuration into a XML file.

Import

Clicking on this menu item, will give you an option to restore your LTP configuration.
Use the file you had exported before.

Linchpin Theme Plugin Macros

Layout Box Macro

You can use the Layout Box Macro to arrange content on dashboards or pages. By using several nested layout box you can set columns or fancy content boxes.

The Linchpin Layout Box macro has several options:

  • Background color: Background color of the layout box
  • Text color: Text color of the layout box
  • Width: Width of the layout box.
  • Outer Spacing: Choose the outer margin of then layout box. You can use every standard css input e.g. 10px, 5px 25px, 10px 20px 30px 40px, auto.
  • Inner spacing: Choose the inner padding of then layout box. You can use every standard css input e.g. 10px, 5px 25px, 10px 20px 30px 40px.
  • Alignment of the box: You can set floats for every layout box. Several layout boxes in a wrapper layout box can appear as columns when all of them float left.
  • Use box as a wrapper: if your using floats you should use a wrapper layout box by setting this option.
  • CSS class: Set your own CSS classes that can be used in CSS to add additional styles like shadows, borders and so on.

Additional features and styling provided by other Linchpin Plugins

Get more out of your "Linchpin Theme Plugin" with Linchpin

In combination with our new "Linchpin Manager" add-on, Linchpin users are now able to style additional add-ons to get full control of their theme.

Plugin NameDescriptionExample
Apps CenterProvides a tab for your sidebar to list your configured Apps.
Linchpin Enterprise NewsLTP provides additional styling for your news.
Linchpin User ProfilesProvides the expert finder and contact manager for your sidebar.Link
Navigation Menu EditorLTP provides additional styling for your menu bar, below your header.
Linchpin ManagerProvides cross plugin functionality.


Styling of Navigation Menu Editor

 Configure the drop-down & fly-out menus of the "Navigation Menu Editor" add-on right from your Linchpin Theme Plugin.

Styling cover stories of Enterprise News

Define the look & feel of the macro "cover stories" of the "Enterprise News Bundle"-add-on by pre-defining color sets for different news types. Defining color-sets for "title on color 1 & 2" make them available in the macro for frontend users.

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Linchpin Theme - Documentation

Create an individual theme for your Confluence and Linchpin

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This content was last updated on 03/08/2019.

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