How can I use the "Insert Confluence list" macro

[Pîrşan_ Vanina]

I need to display a list with all the pages in a specific space that have a certain title OR label in the form of a table (exactly as the output provided by the "Insert Confluence list" macro).

I can't use the Filter by label macro, because I want the pages to be listed in the form of a table, with column containing information on last updated, creator, description, etc.

The query in the "Insert Confluence list" returns inexplicably thousands of results. 

1. How is this query working for "Insert Confluence list"? Is there a specific syntax that might help me refine the filter?

2. Is there any other solution to get to the desired result if this macro is so limited?

[Adriian Semotiuk _Wombats Corp_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Pîrşan_ Vanina , 
Welcome to the community, I am developer in Wombats Corp. I have also tried to make "Insert Confluence list" macro work , but the same query that was working in http request , wouldn`t work in the macro.
As a workaround for your issue, i have created this "List of pages in space" macro using our app User Macro for Confluence Cloud .This macro adds a list of pages from chosen space, and has a filter for both Title and Label.

Currently this macro has columns Name, Last Update Date, Created By and Labels. Any other columns can be added if necessary.

[Pîrşan_ Vanina]

Very nice! Thanks @Adriian Semotiuk _Wombats Corp_ !

[Brandi Guess · Accepted solution]

Hello @Pîrşan_ Vanina  — I spent some time this morning testing and you’re right: the “Insert Confluence list” block isn’t filtering correctly.

Workaround (hat tip to @Harrison Ponce ): run your search in Confluence, copy the URL from your browser, then paste it into the page as a Smart Link. That link respects your filters, so it behaves like the macro was supposed to and just lists the filtered results reliably.

Here is a Loom showing what we did that is working.

https://www.loom.com/share/0739ff13f2df4bae91b6437514bb8c0d?sid=faf82043-ab75-4ee9-a955-0382a19dd2ee

[Pîrşan_ Vanina]

Thanks for the tip @Brandi Guess !

Another thing on this macro: even if you do manage to refine the filter in the “Insert Confluence list” query, the status displayed for each page is not correct. I was expecting to see the actual page status ("In progress", "Draft", etc) but instead it appears as "Current" for all pages. 

Not sure if this is another bug with this macro, or there is another Status that is used in this macro... 

[Brandi Guess]

Hi, It sounds like you are using custom Status'.  This is probably Why this is happening.  Custom Status' have been weird from the start. 

[Brandi Guess · Accepted solution]

Have you tried using content properties? It would be a lot of work but I think it would be able to give you what you are looking for. 

[Pîrşan_ Vanina]

Thanks @Brandi Guess , I ended up using that as a workaround - it added some additional manual work, but at least I got the result I wanted.

However, it is a bit frustrating because I feel that "Insert Confluence list" macro was supposed to do exactly that, without any workaround / manual adjustments, but it's just not working as I expected.

[Barbara Szczesniak · Accepted solution]

@Pîrşan_ Vanina You might want to try creating a database of the pages in your space, include the columns you are interested in displaying, and then creating views on the database to display the pages meet the criteria you are interested in.

You might want to start with this article (https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Confluence-articles/Use-Databases-for-your-docs-life-cycle-management-updated/ba-p/2663479), posted by @Kristian Klima, though he may have published an additional article on this more recently.

[Pîrşan_ Vanina]

Thank you, but using databases for this is too much effort, especially snice i can't create an automation to update the records in the database everytime a new page is created (automation only works for creating new databases, not updating - unless I'm wrong).

The workaround for me was using content properties & content properties report - it added some additional manual work, but at least I got the result I wanted.

[Varsha Joshi · Accepted solution]

Hi @Pîrşan_ Vanina 

Welcome to the community! I tried what you were trying to accomplish- does seem like there are no options of refining the string but you can pick the author/last updated by. Regular expressions also does not seem to work. The only other option I can think of is to create a table manually and populate it. But there might be other smarter solutions hopefully someone chimes in.

Thanks