Finding pages that link to an attached image

Steven Cardinal

In the spirit of encouraging content re-use, we are considering using an image library page in each space to hold all the images related to a product we are developing. The creators of our various documents (user guide, admin guide, etc) would insert images into their content that linked to the images attached in this library. The issue we are discovering is that, if an updated image is uploaded, we don't have an easy way of finding where the image is referenced to ensure that any content around the image is still valid.

For example, we have a login screen image and the text in the User Guide and the Admin Guide say to click the red button to login. If the login screen is updated so that the button is green and the new image is uploaded to the library, we have 2 documents that now have to be rechecked to make sure the wording is corrected. We're looking for an easy way to identify which documents reference the login screen image.

Is this possible? I'm guessing it isn't and that we should just attach the login image directly to each guide and just use manual tracking of where it is used so that we update the image everywhere it is used. (ie, no content re-use).

Any other suggestions?

SarahA

Hallo Steven

Great question! In Confluence 4.0 and later, it isn't possible using the standard Confluence UI to find the pages that reference an image attached to another page. The reason is that the image name is hidden from the search, inside a custom element in the Confluence storage format. (In Confluence 3.5 and earlier, you could search the wiki markup.)

Here's a workaround, in case it appeals to you: Embed the image into the page where it's attached, then use the Include Page macro (or the Excerpt Include macro) to include the image (i.e. the page content) on another page.

You can find all pages that include another page, using the special "wikiMarkup:" argument in the Confluence search. First, you'll need to install the Macro Indexer plugin. See this blog post: http://ffeathers.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/how-to-search-for-macros-and-macro-parameters-in-confluence-4/

On another note: It's possible that the Confluence CLI may offer a full search of the new markup. Bob Swift will be able to answer that one:

https://bobswift.atlassian.net/wiki/display/CSOAP/Confluence+Command+Line+Interface

I hope this helps!

Cheers, Sarah