link to anchor doesn't work

[Derek Dokoto]

I added an anchor  #thisanchor near the bottom of the page (with at least a page  worth of text following it.)

I added the link near the top of the page.   The unqualified link did NOT link to the same page.  It added a bogus prefix URL when saved.  So I added a fully qualified link for that same page where the link was inserted so it would link within the page.

when I hover over the link it says the right thing - "Go to link #thisanchor on this page".

But it doesn't do anything.  The page does not move to the bottom anchor.

There is no TOC defined on this page.

The anchor only shows up in 'edit' mode as per design.

This is such a basic use of anchors and it doesn't work.   Help!

Confluence 5.10.8

[Steffen Heller]

No idea, if your version is different from mine.
I use version 4.3.7 (server) and adding anchors is pretty straightforward.

To enter the anchor:
* Insert > Other macros > Anchor
* Type "My Anchor" at "Anchor Name"

To link to the anchor:
* Highlight link text
* Insert Link > Adcanced
* Type "#My Anchor" at "Link"

[Derek Dokoto]

As stated, I'm running 5.10.8 which is different from yours.

Yes, the insertion and link to anchors is quite straightforward.   Only thing is that it doesn't work for me.  I'm used anchors in many CMS and/or twiki systems and it always worked for me in the past, just not in confluence. 

[Steffen Heller]

I checked the latest version 6.3 => https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/anchors-139442.html and the cloud version => https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/anchors-724764900.html, the description is the same as mine.

Have to tried to follow the docu for your version?

[Derek Dokoto]

This isn't my first rodeo. That's the first thing I did was read the documentation. It's a bug. My company admin can request support from Atlassian support.  The issue is still open.

[Doug Swartz]

@Derek Dokoto Did you ever get a resolution to this.  We are on Confluence 6.2.4 and have the same problem. following the instructions for placing links to anchors on the same page, the anchor gets generated into the link with a prefix. The prefix is the pagename with spaces removed. In other words, On a page named "This Page", with an anchor name "an1", here's what gets generated for an anchor URL:

https://myConfluence/display/mySpace/This+Page#ThisPagean1

Of course this doesn't work, because the anchor is really named an1, not ThisPagean1.

[Bill Bailey]

Can you paste the page source here? At least where the link was inserted and then the code around the anchor. Sometimes spurious tags can get pasted into a page.

You are clicking Insert Link and then the clicking the Advanced tab to insert the link?

[Steffen Heller]

@Doug Swartz

I don't know about "the same problem" (there might be something, who knows?) but what you describe, the fact that a prefix is added to the link, is correct behaviour.

It is correct because the same prefix is automatically added to the anchor. You can see it if you have a look at the source code.

[Derek Dokoto]

I am no longer working at the company that used Confluence.   The tool had a smattering of "experts" around my company.   I consulted with all of them at the time and it was a limitation/defect of Confluence and was never resolved before leaving the company.    In principle, Confluence is a great tool.  Unfortunately with the number of significant glitches and oversights and missing functionality, adoption rate was limited and most pages are simple text files preventing a great deal of promise suggested by the tool.  

Sorry I can't be helpful.   The tool is broken.

[Elliott Collins]

Just wanted to flag that anchors still don't work. It'd be *really* great if they did.

[Tatyana Kuznetsova]

I have a similar issue - whenever I try to create the same page anchor, the prefix containing the page name gets inserted automatically. So if a create an anchor ("section 1") using the anchor macro, in order to link to it, I need to say #mypage-section1 (where 'mypage' is the name of the page). 

This is not the behavior that I am looking for - I just want the same page anchor (that does require reloading of the page)

Please advise if this is a bug and if there is a workaroudn for this.

Thank you,

-Tanya

[Steffen Heller]

So, if you create a link to "#mypage-section1" it does work? But a link to "'section1" does not work? Is that what you tried?

[Tatyana Kuznetsova]

@Steffen Heller

Exactly - it automatically inserts #mypage in front of "section1".  If I link to "section 1" it does not work.

[Steffen Heller]

But YOU enter ONLY "#section 1" and then CONFLUENCE adds the pagename to it, making it "#mypage-section 1" and then the link DOES work? Is that correct?

I am just trying to find out if same page links do not work at all for you or if you are just confused by the fact that confluence internally adds the pagename to a link.

[Tatyana Kuznetsova]

@Steffen HellerIf I link to pagename-#section 1 then it works (and it also forced the reload of the page)

If I just link to #section 1 then it does not work.

[Doug Swartz]

@Tatyana I don't have any idea why Atlassian decided to make anchors work the way they do. I agree that forcing a page reload to go to a link on the same page is poor behavior. Sometimes, building a page from SQL requests or other external resources is expensive and slow.

I've decided to simply use the HTML macro when I want normal link behavior.

[Tatyana Kuznetsova]

@Doug SwartzThank you - unfortunetely, my version of WIKI does not offer "HTML macro"

[mattcobb]

It's a bug: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-62589

Please vote for it

[Joshua Landman]

Apparently in Confluence the real anchor name =  #page name-anchor name.

So link to http://yada.yada.yada/page name#page name-anchor name

That's how I got it working. 

Not sure if that is intentional on Atlassians part - it's wonky but functional

Also I attached it to a block element -- like a table header... 

[Ravikumar B]

Apparently, Confluence Cloud offers wiki markup to add hyperlinks. The syntax is [page name#anchor name]. For example, [About Us#contact].

[David_Harris]

Here's a solution that works:

1. Embed an HTML macro where you want your anchor
2. Add the following inside the HTML box: <a id="my-anchor"></a>
3. Save the page
4. Now link to your page using any of the usual methods (title-based url, shared-url, page-id url) and add #my-anchor to the end
5. Rename my-anchor in both places to match whatever you need it to be

[Ralf Gartmann]

Made my day...

[steve_dunn]

Doesn't work any more as the HTML macro isn't available (at least not in my installation at work (could be configuration, could be a bug, could be that they couldn't be arsed to maintain it - who knows!))

[Hauke Hörhold]

I can't believe this problem still exist!

PLS FIX! :-S

[Tony Verga]

Seriously? This was reported over 2 years ago, and it's not even a complex subject. Imagine how long it must take them to address real issues.

[kosterskiy]

Scenario

1. Insert link (ctrl+k)
2. Advanced
3. Add name of document (not URL) and anchor in "Link", e.g. "Terms and conditions#about"
4. Done

[Tony Verga]

So they fixed this by getting rid of anchors all together. Absolutely brilliant.

[Hauke Hörhold]

As described here, the macro really is gone now: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Anchor-Macro-Not-in-Confluence-Cloud/qaq-p/1019247

Really? I mean... REALLY?! Money back plz

[laralg]

If none of the solutions work for you, and your confluence is a bit old your problem might be that you had this old plugin installed Confluence Iphone plugin.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-20319

[Donna Breckenridge]

I am on here looking for help with the anchors as well.  Every time I edit the pages to add new content, I must go and repair all of my anchors to remove the extra text that pops in the anchor and causes an error on the page.  Can you assign someone to work with us to fix?  I am not on old version and I know better than try to use a plug in.

[steve_dunn]

<tumbleweed>

Incredible that they actually charge money for this product!

[steve_dunn]

I'm flabbergasted that Atlassian think it's acceptable that users have to follow the instructions below **just to get a link to an anchor on a wiki page**!  Incredible! I have a glossary page where I'd like a link to every gloassary item, but there's no way in the world that I'm manually crafting 100+ URLs like this.  Appaling.

--------------

Link to an anchor from another web page or another Confluence site:

Use a full URL in the following format:

Link syntax

Examples
http://myconfluence.com/display/spacekey/pagename#pagename-anchorname

http://myconfluence.com/display/DOCS/My+page#Mypage-bottom

http://myconfluence.com/display/DOCS/My+page#Mypage-importantinformation

Notes about the full URL:

The page name is repeated in the URL, after the # sign. The second occurrence of the page name is concatenated into a single word, with all spaces removed.
There is a single dash (hyphen) between the concatenated page name and the anchor name.
The anchor name in the full URL is concatenated into a single word, with all spaces removed.
The anchor name is case sensitive.
If the page name contains special characters, where the URL displays a page ID rather than a name, the link to an anchor will look more like this http://myconfluence.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=54689987#Test-page1!-anchor 
In this example the page title is Test - Page 1! and the anchor name is anchor.

[steve_dunn]

I'm flabbergasted that Atlassian think it's acceptable that users have to follow these instruction **just to get a link to an anchor on a wiki page**!  Incredible! I have a glossary page where I'd like a link to every gloassary item, but there's no way in the world that I'm crafting 100+ URLs like this.  Appaling.

--------------

Link to an anchor from another web page or another Confluence site:

Use a full URL in the following format:

Link syntax

Examples
http://myconfluence.com/display/spacekey/pagename#pagename-anchorname

http://myconfluence.com/display/DOCS/My+page#Mypage-bottom

http://myconfluence.com/display/DOCS/My+page#Mypage-importantinformation

Notes about the full URL:

The page name is repeated in the URL, after the # sign. The second occurrence of the page name is concatenated into a single word, with all spaces removed.
There is a single dash (hyphen) between the concatenated page name and the anchor name.
The anchor name in the full URL is concatenated into a single word, with all spaces removed.
The anchor name is case sensitive.
If the page name contains special characters, where the URL displays a page ID rather than a name, the link to an anchor will look more like this http://myconfluence.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=54689987#Test-page1!-anchor 
In this example the page title is Test - Page 1! and the anchor name is anchor.

[eMail WorkBench]

Almost a decade later [feels like two decades]] and "Anchor" links are still not working.
If it is working where do I prep for this [nuclear science level] how to use knowledge?