Can a table auto-update when its attachment is replaced in Confluence?

[Ethan Collins]

Hi everyone, I’m quite new to Confluence and I’m trying to understand if something is possible before I recommend it to my team.

We’d like to upload a file (for example an Excel or CSV) as an attachment to a Confluence page, and then display its content in a table (using a macro) on that same page.

My main question is: If the attachment is later updated with a new version, can the table automatically refresh to show the new data without having to recreate it from scratch every time?

Is there any macro or standard Confluence way to achieve this “attachment → always-updated table” type of workflow? Any app can help doing this work?

Thanks a lot and sorry if this is a basic question — trying to learn! 😊

[Mia Tamm _Simpleasyty_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ethan Collins and welcome to the community! 👋😊
That’s a great question (not basic at all — a lot of teams bump into this need when working with attachments inside Confluence).

Short answer (native Confluence):

When using the standard Excel / CSV macros, the table won’t refresh automatically when a new version of the attachment is uploaded — it simply embeds the file “as is”. So if you overwrite the attachment, you’d need to remove/reinsert the macro to display the new data.

If you're aiming for an “attachment → always-up-to-date table” workflow…

This is possible using our app Simple Table for Confluence, which supports a special attachment import mode:

• Upload a file (Excel → saved as XLSX or XLS) as an attachment on the page.
• Insert a Simple Table macro and select that attachment as the data source.
• Every time you upload a new version of the attachment, the table auto-refreshes — no need to recreate or edit the macro.
• You can still:
  
  • filter/sort,
  • grouping
  • footer aggregations
  • apply formulas,
  • style, or even
  • switch the source file later on.

So in your case → every time someone updates the Excel and exports a fresh XLSX or XLS, they just “Update existing attachment” — and the Confluence table updates instantly.

Can this even be automated?

Automation for Confluence Cloud doesn’t (yet) have a built-in action to replace attachments — however several teams use a simple external script/API call (e.g. Python, Make, Power Automate) that:

1. Regenerates the XLSX or XLS from their source (Excel, BI system…)
2. Uploads it as a new attachment version via the Confluence REST API

→ Simple Table detects the new version and keeps the table in sync — no Confluence manual steps required.

Best,

— Mia Tamm from Simpleasyty

[Ethan Collins]

@Mia Tamm _Simpleasyty_ I absolutely love this approach, thank you! It sounds incredibly practical for our workflow, especially with the auto-refresh on attachment update. I’m going to try it out this week so I can see the results firsthand. Will let you know how it goes — really appreciate you sharing this!

[Kristian Klima]

Hi @Ethan Collins - I think there might be an app for that but that sort of apps is not exactly in my realm.

Having said that, if you make your spreadsheet available in Google docs or the MS equivallent for Excel, then you should be able to embed the view using the iframe macro.

G-docs allow for multiple forms of embedding / sharing. Some display the g-docs UI furniture, some would give you just the table with basic sorting etc. features.

If authentication is required, that's possible too. If a single SSO scheme covers both Confluence and g-docs (MS cloud), this should resolved automatically (it does for us with g-docs). Although sometimes you might see a login prompt in the iframe.

[Ethan Collins]

Thanks so much, @Kristian Klima embedding a Google Sheet or Excel Online view via iframe is a clever workaround (especially for “view-only” tables). I’ll definitely keep it in mind as a fallback option. Really appreciate the idea and the warm welcome! 😊

[Staffan Redelius]

Hi @Ethan Collins  and welcome to the community,

The Excel macro in Confluence is mainly for viewing content from the Excel spreadsheet and not for editing.

Depending on your usecase importing the Excel spreadsheet to a Confluence database could make it easier to updated the content,

Best regards,
/Staffan

[Ethan Collins]

Thanks @Staffan Redelius importing into a Confluence database is a great suggestion, and something I’ll definitely consider as this grows beyond our initial use case. I really appreciate you taking the time to share that perspective! 

[Anwesha Pan (TCS)]

Hi @Ethan Collins 👋🏼

Welcome to the community! ✨

To answer your 1st question :

We’d like to upload a file (for example an Excel or CSV) as an attachment to a Confluence page, and then display its content in a table (using a macro) on that same page.

• You can use /table spreadsheet macro to upload a file and display its content as an excel on that same page, which you can edit & save on the page itself --> Table spreadsheet

Example

To answer your 2nd question : Unfortunately it doesn't automatically update a page or its content when an attachment is updated or replaced.

Therefore, to ensure your Confluence tables reflect the latest information from updated attachments, you'll need to implement a manual process or explore third-party apps designed to handle such integrations.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Anwesha

[Ethan Collins]

Many thanks, your breakdown of how the spreadsheet macro behaves (especially when the attachment is swapped) was extremely helpful. It gave me a much clearer picture of what’s achievable natively within Confluence. Really appreciate you taking the time to explain it!

[Stiltsoft support]

Hey @Ethan Collins ,

The Table Spreadsheet macro that was kindly mentioned above is ours and belongs to the Table Filter, Charts & Spreadsheets for Confluence app.

We suggest using it if you prefer Excel-style type of working right inside Confluence: spreadsheet grid, cell formulas, familiar conditional formatting rules, pivot tables, and so on.

The data from the macro is stored as a page attachment - I mean, the macro is an independent entity stored as an attachment. And, of course, you can always import/export your data in the xls format.

So, this macro can be taken as a replacement for Excel/Google Sheets - everything is done within Confluence without switching to other tools.

But if you need to maintain your source table outside of Confluence and want to work with attachments/urls leading to csv data, you can take the Table from CSV macro (this macro is also provided by the app). It will fully serve the use case that you've described.

If you are not familiar with the app or want to share more details, please book a live call with us - we'll be happy to assist.