Remember Navmap (Navigation Map)? You'd better check your other Legacy Macros!
What's a Navigation Map?
To be honest, I wasn't very familiar with this macro either, even though I'm pretty sure it's been part of the Knowledge Base space template for years.
Anyways, apparently Atlassian didn't see fit to support it in the Cloud Editor way back in 2021.
But my company was still on Server back then, and so the KB space created in 2018 makes heavy use of NavMap.
Lucky for me, some folks have asked about updating those pages, probably because they couldn't figure out how to replicate NavMap in the new editor.
So, what's interesting is that the FAQ: Understanding legacy editor deprecation talks about third-party macros, but makes no mention of ATLASSIAN's Macros that are being removed (from the then new Cloud Editor).
So I guess what'll happen to pages that contain Legacy Macros like NavMap is that they will still work (kind of?) inside of the Legacy Content Macro.
That Macro comes with a lot of limitations, but probably the scariest one is this:
Collaborative editing: Because your new page is a cloud editor page, more than one person can edit it at the same time. However, using collaborative editing with the legacy content macro could cause unpredictable results, including loss of data. Make sure only one person is editing before you publish.
Well. That's fun! I wonder if by January 2026, maybe they will somehow make the results more predictable and we won't lose data.
Do a Macro Usage Check
All this is to say, you should probably do a Macro Usage check and see how many of those are on the Learn which macros are being removed page and THEN see if any of those are in active use.
So wait, what's a Navigation Map?
Hold on... it's coming up. But also, it's going away.
Atlassian's official guidance re: Navigation Map deprecation is: "Use the children display macro", which... WTF? Navigation Map uses labels not children? C'mon Atlassian.
Oh ok, they updated the Data Center 10.0 (Latest) docs for the Navigation Map macro with this infobox:
Want more flexibility? Check out the Content by Label Macro for a more modern way to display a list of pages with specific labels and more.
Huh, more flexibility you say? Ok, well, a Navigation Map looks like this:
It's configured with Labels. Oh I see, just like Content by Label Macro is configured by... right, Label. So there's probably a way to use that Macro to produce a similar display, cool. Let's see...
Wait what? That doesn't look REMOTELY similar.
Surely there must be a "button view" or something right?
Nope.
But wait, it's still there? In the Cloud Editor?
Well, I guess the good news for my users is that Atlassian saw fit to convert Navigation Map as kinda-sorta supported in the Cloud Editor. So if you convert a Legacy Page that contains a Navigation Map, you can still configure it in Cloud Editor:
And it even turns out that if you REMOVE the px for Cell Height or Width the buttons actually change size. (Leaving px guarantees they will not change, so maybe "optional" is the wrong word.)
No New Navigation Maps
So let's say that you're just encountering Navigation Maps for the very first time and you're like, huh. That actually looks useful!
WELP.
Despite it looking like a real Cloud Editor macro (note the lack of the word "Legacy"), you cannot Insert a new Navigation Map macro:
Keep a Navigation Map handy on a page SOMEWHERE
If you think you may want to use this Macro (hey, maybe you LIKE its early 2000s aesthetic) you'd better insert it on a Legacy Page and keep around. Because after January 2026, there'll be no way to get one onto your Confluence site.
(OH, I guess maybe I should create a "Legacy Macro Space" full of pages that contain old Macros, and I could offer to copy it to people's Confluence sites upon request. Woof.)
Is there an Alternative?
I guess the other question is:
Does anybody know of an alternative to Navigation Maps that won't cost me an arm and a leg?
Ok, welp, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
1 comment
YAAAS, I knew I was forgetting something!
Wow, these look pretty mid, as the kids say. But maybe usable! Thank you!
I do appreciate that the Cards are responsive, so if as you expand/shrink the screen, or god forbid are on mobile, they're still usable, unlike, uh, NavMap:
