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.
In this article:
- Benefits of using templating functionality in ConneX Studio
- Additional functionality enabled by ConneX Studio
- Supported Features for Templates
- Unsupported Features
- Creating templates
-
Managing templates
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:
- Sensitivity Labels
- Sensitivity Labels - Container Security Features
- Sensitivity Labels support for workspaces
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. It is accurate as of December 18th 2023.
This list assumes your Atlas version is at least 5.0.
- Start from an existing Atlas workspace source template and modify:
- Workspace Navigation (not the Global Navigation)
- Page layouts, including the adding/removing web parts as needed and configuration of the specific web parts
- Workspace-level default tags for Atlas columns
- Teams channels and apps (if using a Teams-based template)
- Broken inheritance of permissions for entire Lists and Libraries
- 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
- Additional columns applied to Atlas lists and libraries
- Additional custom page templates
- Required Information Architecture for automated tagging
- Alert settings on lists and libraries - any alerts created using the Alert Me SharePoint feature
- Approval Status for documents included in the template workspace
- Sensitivity labeling settings for the workspace
- Changes to Atlas columns and Atlas content types
- Broken permissions inheritance on Folders and Items within lists and libraries
- Specific content including documents, pages and links
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 - if you remove them they will be added back during provisioning
- Switching comments off in the SharePoint Library settings
- Page comments on existing or new pages creating from templates
- Removal of Atlas 5x default page templates within the Page Library > Templates folder
- Activation of the Document IDs site collection feature
- External Sharing settings for the workspace
- Expiration of guest access in the Sharing Policies
- Additional SharePoint Groups in the site permissions related to the source site
- Custom permission levels
- Site access request settings
- Theming. The workspace will be provisioned with the default theme.
- Folder colours in libraries - these will not cause problems but will not retain their colour
- Any other SharePoint configuration, setting or feature activation not specifically noted as supported in the previous section.
- Collapsible Sections
- Background images to sections (recent update from Microsoft)
- Banner webpart from Microsoft (recent update)
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
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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