ConneX Studio Overview and Supported Features – Atlas by ClearPeople

As an addon to Atlas we offer an optional purchasable feature called "ConneX Studio" which allows you to create and maintain workspace templates for your organisation. Where previously you would need to create workspaces using the Atlas-provided templates and make changes to each workspace separately once provisioned, you will now be able to create a customised source workspace, save it as a template, then use that template in ConneX Studio to create more workspaces with the same customisations.

Benefits of using templating functionality in ConneX Studio

Being able to create templates of your workspaces brings you the power to design pre-configured workspaces which may suit line of business needs (such as a Project, Bid or Client templates) as well as pre-configuring the designs you need for standard collaboration templates which should form the basic structure of your digital workplace (such as departments, sectors, office templates). This will allow those with permissions to quickly provision a workspace from an approved template.

Standardised folder structures, page template designs and even standardised documentation can be included so that each time you provision a workspace from a template you are already set-up and ready to go, saving you precious time not needing to re-configure any settings or add any content.

For example, here at ClearPeople, we utilise a 'Shared Client' workspace template, so that each time a new client is won, we provision a ready-to-go template with everything needed already built in, from homepage design, consistent folder structure as well as ready-to-go documentation which is used in each implementation.

How Templates aid Permissions and Governance

Each template can be permissioned to a particular AD group, so for example only Project Managers will have access to the Project workspace template, or only Business Development Consultants have access to the Bid workspace template. This will limit what types of workspaces certain audiences can create, limiting the possibility of an incorrect workspace type being used, helping to aid good governance.

Default tagging options can be set as part of a template which will make uploading information easier for users by removing the need for them to make decisions about which tags to use, limiting the possibility of choosing incorrect tags. So for example, ClearPeople's 'Shared Client' workspace is set-up with these standard default tags:

Activity = Atlas Implementation

Department = Success Departments

Entity =

Location = *Locations*

Subject = Customer Success

Entity is left blank here so that when someone creates a workspace using this template they are forced to select the correct Entity as this is a mandatory field. All other tags are pre-defined and will ensure the correct tags are set against the workspace, removing the need for the user to select tags each time, or leaving the default *top-level* choices tagged, which is not the correct way to assign default tags to workspaces.

Additional functionality enabled by ConneX Studio

Sensitivity Labels

Sensitivity labeling can also be assigned to each ConneX Studio Template, meaning a set of IT policies can be automatically applied to the workspace e.g. external sharing policies or highly classified sensitivity labeling on documents will happen automatically.

For more information on sensitivity labeling please visit the below articles:

Default Users

From Atlas 4.3 onward you can set default Owners, Members and Visitors for each workspace template. For example if you need the whole PMO department to have visitor access to every project workspace which is provisioned, you can add an AD group e.g. "PMO Department Users" to the default visitors field. This helps to aid good governance as the required permissions are part of the template.

Supported Features for Templates

All the SharePoint and Atlas features listed below are supported for ConneX Studio templates. This list will be continually updated as more features are supported.

This list is accurate as of February 10th 2025 and assumes Atlas version 5.4.

Start from an existing Atlas workspace source template and modify:
- Workspace Navigation (not the Global Navigation)
- Page templates, including the adding/removing web parts as needed and configuration of specific web parts and the layout of sections (but not all section features)
- Workspace-level default tags for Atlas columns
- Teams channels and apps (if using a Teams-based template)
- List and Library views - exclude existing columns, add other columns
- Permissions
  - Broken inheritance of permissions for entire Lists and Libraries
  - Broken permissions inheritance on Folders and Items within lists and libraries
- Alert settings on lists and libraries - any alerts created using the Alert Me SharePoint feature
- Sensitivity labeling settings for the workspace
- Changes to Atlas columns and Atlas content types
Add:
- Specific content including documents, pages and links
  - Note: Page thumbnails are only templated if they are manually set - not if they are auto-generated by adding an image to the page
- Document library folder structures and default tags on folders for automated tagging
- Additional columns applied to Atlas lists and libraries*
- Additional custom page templates
- Approval Status for documents included in the template workspace.

*You may only add a maximum of 10 custom Managed Metadata columns across all ConneX Studio templates. If you exceed this limit you will get an error when attempting to template the workspace that pushes you over the limit. Columns of other types such as Text, Date, Hyperlink etc. are not counted as part of this limit, only Managed Metadata columns.

Unsupported Features

Features below are not currently supported for ConneX Studio templates, but may be supported in the future. Please be aware that this list is not exhaustive. If a feature you want to use is not listed as supported or unsupported please contact your Implementation Consultant (IC) or your Customer Success Agent (CSA) for more information.

Removing the default Atlas page templates from the "Templates" folder in Site Pages - if you remove them they will be added back during provisioning
Collapsible sections configuration is not currently supported and will be lost
Comments
- Switching comments off in the SharePoint Library settings - this is controlled by your tenant settings instead
- Page comments on existing or new pages creating from templates - the actual comments on pages will not be retained
Activation of the Document IDs site collection feature - this will always be turned off
External Sharing settings for the workspace - this is controlled by your tenant settings
- Expiration of guest access in the Sharing Policies
Additional SharePoint Groups in the site permissions - Owners, Members and Visitors groups only
- Users or groups added to the SharePoint groups are not retained
Custom permission levels added or assigned at any level are not retained
Site access request settings will not be templated
Theming. The workspace will be provisioned with the default "Atlas Theme" at the time of provisioning, set via the Atlas Configuration workspace.
Folder colours in libraries - these will not cause problems but will not retain their colour
Background images to sections (recent update from Microsoft)
Banner webpart from Microsoft (recent update)
Any other SharePoint configuration, setting or feature activation not specifically noted as supported in the previous section.
New: Microsoft Content Freshness content type in the Site Pages library must be deleted before templating. Remove the Content Freshness content type from Site Pages

In general you should be aware that M365 is an evergreen platform that Microsoft are updating constantly. If a feature is new you should assume it is not yet supported for ConneX Studio. Feel free to reach out via support with any queries.

Creating templates

To learn how to create a template from your workspace once configured, please see the following article: Create custom workspace templates using ConneX Studio

Please note that before creating a template from your configured workspace you need to remove the Content Freshness content type from the Site Pages library. For more information please see here: Remove the Content Freshness content type from Site Pages

Managing templates

Workspace templates within ConneX Studio have a number of configuration and settings options where templating admins can set stand-alone default options for each template, including permissions to who can view and provision workspaces from these templates.

To learn how to manage the templates in your organisation, please see the following article: Manage workspace templates in ConneX Studio.

Still need help?

Please get in touch with support or your main Atlas contact for further advice or assistance.

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