Set content-by-label macro with workflow metadata

Question

The content-by-label macro only automatically applies to labels that were added on page creation, but I would like it to update as labels are added any time after page creation as well. So I made a workflow parameter in my comala workflow that keeps track of labels. Is there a way to input whatever the get-metadata macro returns into the content-by-label's cql parameter? I'm looking at the source editor for the template where the content-by-label macro is included, specifically these parameters of the macro: label in ("label1","label2","label3") and type = "page" and space = "space1" label1 label2 label3 Elsewhere is the get-metadata macro: Labels Without using any third-party plugins, surely there must be a way to pass the output of get-metadata to content-by-label? Possibly by setting a template variable equal to the former's output, and then placing that in the latter's parameter declaration? Something like:

Labels

..... label in $Labels and type = "page" and space = "space1" $Labels This doesn't work but if anyone has any idea whether this is on the right track or what can be done, I'd appreciate it! If there's a way to do this directly in the workflow markup itself, that would be even better!

Daniel Dantas_3wryaw · Answer

Hi @Marya Belanger ,

It looks good, but I have a problem.

At my workplace, we don't have Comala, and I just have access to Confluence as a user.

I was expecting to be able to achieve this using the standard plugins/macros.

But anyway, thank you very much for the explanation.

Marya Belanger · Answer

Hi @Daniel Dantas , yes I was able to using the Comala Workflow builder. Looks something like this:

{pagefooter:visibility=all}
{get-metadata:Page Footer}
{pagefooter}

{workflowparameter:Page Labels|edit=true}
{workflowparameter}

I render the list in the page footer, which we use to designate our sidebar template content on each page. I can't remember if it's relevant for the functionality of this solution (it might be because Page Footer is the only content location on the page that can be dynamically updated through set/get metadata?), but I included it just incase. Then create the Page Labels parameter.

.......

@{trigger:labeladded|@Page Labels@=@empty@}
{set-metadata:Page Labels}
"@label@"
{set-metadata}
{trigger}

@{trigger:labeladded|@Page Labels@=!@empty@}
{set-metadata:Page Labels}
@Page Labels@, "@label@"
{set-metadata}
{trigger}

{trigger:labeladded}
{set-metadata:Page Footer}
 h2. Related articles
 {ContentByLabel:cql=label in (@Page Labels@) and space = "My Space" and title != "@title@"|showLabels=False|showSpace=False}
{set-metadata}
{trigger}

The reason I couldn't just use the existing page param for labels is that it outputs them like this: label1,label2,label3. I can't remember if the lack of spaces between the commas was a problem for the cql query or not, but it also didn't allow me to wrap each label in quotations* which was a bigger problem for me, hence the custom parameter. You can try your luck with just the default page parameter, I think it's called labels.

*I had to add the labels in quotations to the Page Labels param, because the cql query won't parse special characters like hyphens and a lot of our labels have hyphens in them already.

The first trigger adds the label to the parameter if the parameter is empty for that page. You have to add the first one in a separate trigger, because if you only use the second trigger that adds "@label@" to @Page Labels@, @Page Labels@ will be added as an empty value which will cause errors in the workflow.

The ContentByLabel:cql=... is really the answer you're looking for. The title!="@title@" part keeps the page the macro is rendered on out of the results list, since obviously it will have all the same labels and be the best result.

Let me know if you need more info. My workflow is large and complex so there might be some nuances/dependencies/influences that I left out here for brevity that might cause it not to work.

As an aside, this would probably make more sense to implement with custom user macro development, but I don't have that level of access at my job and I'm sure there's others like me, so this is a solution for that. If you can create your own user macros, probably just do that instead.

Daniel Dantas_3wryaw · Answer

Hi @Marya Belanger

Could you achieve this? 
I have the same requirement here, and it seems it is not possible for me.

Thank you

Daniel