Spaces & Space Templates

Spaces are isolated workspaces that keep your teams, projects, and data organized and separate.

A Space in collab.space provides complete data isolation, meaning all your issues, meetings, documents, files, milestones, and team members are scoped to that specific workspace. This allows you to manage multiple projects, clients, or departments from a single account while keeping everything neatly organized.

💡 Best Practice: One Well-Architected Space

Many companies fall into a trap of eagerly creating spaces based on department. This is not the recommended approach within Collab. We encourage collaboration among users across different silos and promote the idea of benefit through diversity. Bringing multiple large streams together into the same space—aligned around a common objective—creates better outcomes.

When should you split into separate spaces?

1. Different objectives — Within a single company this is rare, but in bilateral spaces (e.g., joint ventures) this is more common.
2. Teams cannot know of each other's existence — While we have fine-grained access controls, sometimes you need complete isolation where teams don't even know the others exist (e.g., competing customers in the same workspace).

When in doubt, you're typically better off with one well-architected space.

What is a Space?

A Space is your dedicated workspace that contains:

Feature	Description
Organizations	Top-level groupings for your team structure
Teams	Groups of members within organizations
Members	Individual users with role-based permissions
Issues	Tasks, risks, assets, and decisions
Meetings	Scheduled meetings with participants
Documents	Rich text documents with collaboration
Files	File storage with version control
Milestones	Project planning and progress tracking
Settings	Space-specific configurations and preferences

Each Space has a unique URL code (e.g., acme-inc) that identifies it in the application URL structure.

Space URL Structure

All space-scoped pages follow this URL pattern:

https://app.collab.space/{spaceCode}/apps/{app-name}

For example:

• /acme-inc/apps/issues - Issues app for the "Acme Inc" space
• /startup-co/dashboards/project - Project dashboard for "Startup Co" space
• /my-team/apps/meetings - Meetings app for "My Team" space

The space code is automatically generated from your space name when you create it. If a code collision occurs, a random suffix is added to ensure uniqueness.

Creating a New Space

To create a new space:

1. Click the Space Switcher in the sidebar (shows your current space name)
2. Click Add space at the bottom of the dropdown
3. Enter your space details in the wizard:
   • Space Name: A descriptive name for your workspace
   • Icon: Optional icon to identify your space
   • Subscription Plan: Choose Free or Pro plan
4. Configure your organization structure:
   • Add organizations (e.g., departments, divisions)
   • Create teams within organizations
   • Invite team members by email
5. Set up initial milestones (optional)
6. Click Create Space

The wizard will automatically:

• Generate a URL-safe code from your space name
• Create a default organization and team if none specified
• Add you as the Space Owner with full permissions
• Set up default settings and preferences

Space Members and Invitations

Member Hierarchy

Spaces use a three-level hierarchy for organizing people:

Level	Description	Example
Organization	Top-level grouping	"Engineering", "Marketing"
Team	Group within an organization	"Frontend Team", "Design Team"
Member	Individual user in a team	"[email protected]"

Member Roles

Each member has a role that determines their permissions:

Role	Description
Space Owner	Full ownership of all records. Cannot be modified.
Administrator	Full access to all features. Can manage the workspace but cannot archive or delete the space.
Contributor	Can create and edit items, and manage teams.
Approver	Can view and approve items, but cannot create or edit.
View Only	Read-only access to all items.
Disabled	No access (for suspended accounts).

Inviting Members

To invite new members to your space:

1. Navigate to Team in the sidebar
2. Click Add Member or Invite Users
3. Enter email addresses of people to invite
4. Select the team to add them to
5. Choose their role
6. Send invitations

Invited users will receive an email with a link to join the space. If they don't have an account, one will be created for them.

Switching Between Spaces

You can quickly switch between spaces using:

Space Switcher

1. Click the Space Switcher in the top of the sidebar
2. Select the space you want to switch to
3. You'll be navigated to the same app in the new space

Your current space is saved to your browser, so you'll return to the same space when you revisit the app.

Space Templates

Space templates allow you to save your space configuration and reuse it to quickly create new spaces with pre-configured settings.

What Gets Saved in a Template

When you convert a space to a template, the following is preserved:

• Organization and team structure
• Settings and configurations
• Milestones and project plans
• Documents and file folders
• Issue types and workflows
• Access permission settings

Converting a Space to a Template

To save your current space as a template:

1. Open Settings in the space you want to save
2. Navigate to Space Settings or Backup & Templates
3. Click Save as Template
4. Enter a name for your template
5. Confirm the template creation

The system will create a backup of your space and restore it as a new template space.

Creating a Space from a Template

To create a new space using a template:

1. Open the Space Switcher in the sidebar
2. Switch to the Templates view using the toggle buttons
3. Select a template to use
4. Click Create from Template
5. Enter the name for your new space
6. Wait for the space to be created

Your new space will have all the structure and settings from the template, ready for your team to use.

Viewing Templates

Templates appear in the Space Switcher with a toggle to switch between:

• Spaces - Your regular workspaces
• Templates - Saved space templates

Space Settings

Each space has dedicated settings accessible from Settings in the sidebar, organized into tabs:

Tab	What You Can Configure
General	Basic information, modules enabled, terminology, intro video, administrative actions
Usage & Billing	Current plan, payment methods, invoices, billing address, billing contacts
Access & Permissions	Default permissions, role management
App Settings	Issue types, status management, custom fields, allowed file types
Audit Logs	View the audit trail of all changes in the workspace

Tips for Organizing Spaces

• One space per project: Create separate spaces for distinct projects or clients
• Use templates: Save time by creating templates for recurring project types
• Consistent naming: Use clear, descriptive names that your team will recognize
• Team structure: Mirror your organization's actual structure in the space hierarchy
• Regular cleanup: Archive completed or inactive spaces to keep your list manageable

Next Steps

• Team Management - Learn more about managing team members
• General Settings - Explore space settings options
• Roles & Permissions - Understand permission levels