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Heading Links in a Table of Contents on a mirrored page via "Include content"

Jonas Ast

I am mirroring pages from one space to another via the "include content" element. The original page has lots of headings and a table of contents with an overview of all contained headings.
Now on the mirrored page, clicking one of the links in the table of contents does not let you jump to the respective heading. It does change the https address visibly, but does not jump the heading like clicking it on the original page does.
It also doesnt take you to the original page.

Is this a known limitation or a bug?

Looking forward to insights on this issue!

Accepted answers

Gabriela - LeanZero

@Jonas Ast Marc is right that a table of contents sitting on the mirrored page cannot pull headings out of Include content, and when I try it the macro lists nothing from the included page. That is what CONFCLOUD-72449 covers. Yours is a different case, because your entries are there to click, which puts the table of contents inside the include rather than on the mirror.

On your actual question, Atlassian has answered it on CONFCLOUD-72469. Tiffany, a Confluence PM, wrote there that "We designed the Table of Contents macro to only work within the page, blog or macro it has been inserted. It cannot reference or be referenced across multiple pages or blogs", that "Those heading links won't navigate to the source page", and that they updated the documentation to say so. So the part where it refuses to take you back to the original is a limitation. People in that thread argue with her about it and it is still Gathering Interest on 245 votes.

The dead links on the mirror are a separate thing, and there is something that held up when I tried it. On the mirrored page, wrap the Include content macro in a Table of Content Zone macro. The zone builds its list from the page it sits on, so the entries and the headings are generated together and the anchors line up. Twelve headings pulled in from another space, every entry pointed at an id that was there, and the last one scrolled about fourteen thousand pixels down to it. My source page carried no table of contents of its own, so if yours keeps one you will see two lists until you decide which to keep.

Your plain setup I could not break, on pages I made this week in the current editor, so it may come down to how the source page was authored. If it came over from Data Center or was written in the legacy editor, that is where I would look, because the two write heading ids in different formats and a mismatch gives you exactly what you describe, an address that changes and a page that stays put.

https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/insert-the-table-of-contents-macro/

All comments

Marc -Devoteam-

Hi @Jonas Ast

Welcome to the community.

Confluence does not support pulling headings from an Include Page or Excerpt macro into a Table of Contents (TOC) macro. This is a limitation in Confluence Cloud due to server-side rendering updates, meaning macros cannot dynamically scan and index header elements nested inside other included files

See open feature request CONFCLOUD-72449

Gabriela - LeanZero

https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/insert-the-table-of-contents-macro/

Jonas Ast

Thank you for your answer and detailed explanation!

I tried what you suggested, putting another table of contents on the page that has the include content macro and that does produce, like you suggested, a functioning table of contents.
My follow-up question on this is, if there is an alternative to the include content macro to only mirror selected parts of a page. In this case for example to exclude the original table of contents from being mirrored.

I'd be greatful for any further insights on this matter!

Gabriela - LeanZero

Yes, and it is Atlassian's own answer on the macro you are already using. The Include content doc says "If you want to include part of an item rather than the whole item, use the excerpt and insert excerpt macros."

On the source page leave the table of contents where it is and wrap only the part you want mirrored in an Excerpt macro, then fill in its Excerpt name field. Name it even if you only ever have one, because unnamed, "you will only be able to include the content from the first excerpt macro on a page or doc", which is what makes people think the old one-per-page limit is still there. On the mirrored page, inside the Table of Content Zone you already have, replace the include with the Insert excerpt macro, /insertexcerpt, point it at the source page and pick that name. The table of contents sits outside the excerpt, so it never travels. Tick Remove title + frame while you are in there, or the excerpt turns up in a titled box you did not have before.

I ran the swap on a test site first, because the table of contents you just got working was the thing at risk. Mirroring across spaces the way you do, Table of Content Zone over an inserted excerpt gave six entries and all six landed on their heading. The same host page on Include content gave twelve links, the zone's six plus the six in the mirrored table of contents, and it was that second six that was dead in the way you described at the start. Cloud, current editor, one excerpt, on pages I built for the test.

The cost is that this edits the source page, which the include never does, so you need edit rights there and the owners have to be happy with a macro wrapped round their content. You will also see Atlassian pushing synced blocks at the top of those doc pages. I have not tested whether a Table of Content Zone picks up headings inside one, so I am not sending you at it while you have something working.

CONFCLOUD-72449 is the one to watch. Chris from the Confluence team posted there on 22 July that they are starting work on it, no date given, so the zone wrapper may not need to be permanent.

Jonas Ast

Thanks for the insight into the excerpt and insert excerpt macros. I understand that part clearly and got it working on my end as well.

What is a tad bit unfortunate for my use case that I have to wrap the insertexcerpt with the TOC_zone. In my case, on the original page, I have 4 topics with a heading each and according sub-headings. I ordered those 4 main topics horizontally (in a table) with sub-headings following vertically below (in each coloumn).
I currently have no idea how to retain this way of formatting the TOC while using the TOC_zone and insertexcerpt macros as the TOC_zone would create a long vertical list instead of a coloumn for each lvl 1 heading.

Nonetheless, thank you for your detailed explanations and support!

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