Multi Excerpt and Include in Tables bug?

[Chris Cilino]

So I see that tables can no longer be nested in tables (which I don't like). But now it seems like multiexerpts source cannot be defined in a table cell. However, the include can be used in a cell.

That seems odd to me. Is this a bug? Should I be able to both define and use a multiexcerpt in the cell of a table?

Symptom:

I select a cell and type /multiexcerpt. The macro is created below my table, NOT in my cell. However, I can put a multiexcerpt include in a cell.

Cloud version: 

1000.0.0-c0fdde61f9d8

[Ture Hoefner · Accepted solution]

Hello @Chris Cilino 

As you may have suspected, the issue of Multiexcerpt not being nestable in a table cell is related to Confluence no longer supporting nesting of tables within tables.  It is the same issue:  Confluence's new page editor does not support nesting of rich-text body macros.

The Multiexcerpt macro has a rich-text body so that is why it can't be nested in a table (in the new page editor).

The Multiexcerpt Include macro does not have a body.  That macro is a simple macro (bodyType: none) that uses a few parameters to retrieve the body content that is part of the Multiexcerpt macro on some other page.

We (the developers of the MultiExcerpt app) have written an article about this issue: MultiExcerpt Cannot be Nested in Table (Fabric/V2 Page Editor) 

WORKAROUNDS:

• Don't use new/fabric pages.  Use legacy pages.  The longer these inconsistencies w/ the new page experience linger, the more I'm convinced that this is the pragmatic solution. The new page experience is not close enough to feature parity with the legacy page experience to be ready for prime time (IMO)
• OR
• Use layouts instead of Tables
• AND
• Let Atlassian know you don't like the lack of support for nested rich-text body macros in the new page editor.  In our article we have links to Confluence issues you can vote on.

Some references about new vs old pages:

• Which editor does your page use
• How to get legacy pages enabled for your Cloud instance
• Change to your content is in your hands
• Learn about Confluence Cloud editing improvements

[Chris Cilino]

Well that is upsetting. I've used confluence off an on for 5 years. I'm developing a business where confluence is part of my offering, but the editor is just so buggy and limited. 

It's a crying shame because I've already invested a fair amount of time in putting some stuff together in the new editor. Something tells me a "back port" is going to be beyond painful.

Thank you for your help

[Chris Cilino]

@Ture Hoefner

I'm guessing to get legacy support I'll need the paid for version of confluence because I can't seem to reach out to support as mentioned in this article. I've been using the free version up to this point as a proof of concept. But i just don't think it's ready for my needs.

Do you know how I can reach out to Confluence support to get legacy enabled in my atlassian instance?

[Ture Hoefner]

Hi @Chris Cilino : I suspect that you will have to sign up for an Atlassian account in order to be able to open a support case with them at Contact Support 

I am fairly new to the Atlassian ecosystem and when I was trying it out last year I got confused by which users were which becuse I somehow ended up with a few users.  I had a user that I could use for the Atlassian Community and then I created another user that was an Atlassian account user that I think I needed for trying out their products: https://id.atlassian.com/login

Sorry, I don't know the differences between all the users and why some don't have access to their support portal.

[Chris Cilino]

All

Just FYI I've uncovered a bug with MultiExcerpt

 https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-70555.

The symptom is when I import a space using MultiExcerpts all macros are broken until I visit the source page. Please upvote this issue so it can be fixed by the atlassain team. 

[Ture Hoefner]

Hello @Chris Cilino ,

This is an issue that is being addressed by a future enhancement to the MultiExcerpt app.  It is not a bug in Confluence Cloud but a behavior of MultiExcerpt.

As you have discovered, the workaround to get includes to work in a newly imported space is to visit the pages with excerpts on them.

I posted a comment to CONFCLOUD-70555 with an explanation of why this is happening and what we are doing about it.

I'll paste it here for convenience:

Hello,

I am from Artemis Software, the creator of the MultiExcerpt app.

This is not a bug in Confluence Cloud.  The MultiExcerpt app currently requires that a page containing an excerpt be rendered by visiting it in order to create the index used to find the excerpt.

For the use-case of a newly imported/copied space or page tree the pages will not have been visited so there are no indexes.

WORKAROUND:

Visit the pages with excerpts on them.  Then the includes will be able to find them.

It is planned for the future that this behavior will be addressed by automatically indexing the excerpt pages.  This is being tracked by Artemis with https://artemis.atlassian.net/browse/MEPOD-71

Our MultiExcerpt Cloud - User Guide has been updated to explain this issue.

Sorry for the trouble, we plan on improving the user experience for this scenario soon.

Thanks!

[Brendan Patterson]

In its current incarnation the "legacy" editor should be renamed to the "working editor".

The Fabric/V2 editor should  be renamed to "still in beta, will break a lot of things editor".  There were a lot of reasons the Confluence Cloud team had to do a 180 on that forced roll-out and it didn't even have to do with breaking most apps.     It has some nice and improving features, but on the balance it is still much less feature rich, stable and useful for serious content creation and delivery.