Are multiple excerpts not supported?

[Scott Welker]

This question is in reference to Atlassian Documentation: Excerpt Include Macro

If a page has multiple 'Excerpt' macros, you can't seem to select among them when using 'Excerpt Include'. Is this not supported?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Not in the off-the-shelf macro.

Try the multi-excerpt macro from the marketplace

[Scott Welker]

Thanks Nic. I appreciate the info.

However, like most end users, I am not at liberty to install whatever I want on the corporate Confluence. Alas, I recognize third-party plugins are the Atlassian way :-/

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's a well-established and maintained add-on, there's a good reason to use it, so I'd start nagging your admins   If I were one of them, you wouldn't need a lot of nagging for this add-on.

[Scott Welker]

Thanks Nic. While I appreciate your feedback, the admins are not really the issue. ...prefer not get locked into third-party solutions. 

A dedicated "includes" space for shared text fragments (pages) to be reused via the "Include Page" macro is sufficient until Confluence fixes the Excerpt Include Macro (if ever).

Thanks again! 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I doubt they'll ever "fix" it.  There's an add-on available that handles it, and Atlassian tend not to stomp on their suppliers - at best, a "fix" would be if they bought it from the vendor, but that doesn't happen often, especially for smaller add-ons. 

Also, if a vendor pulls a popular add-on, there's a history of Atlassian brokering a deal to make the situation work for the users, so I really wouldn't worry about an add-on like multi-excerpt locking you in.

[Andrey Khaneev _StiltSoft_]

Another approach is to use Table Excerpt and Table Excerpt Include macros (Table Filter and Charts app) that can be used for multi-excerption within multiple pages and spaces searched by page names, page trees and labels. So it allows you to have multiple excerpts within a single page as well as to pull multiple excerpts from multiple pages using a single Table Excerpt Include macro.

[Alex Medved _ConfiForms_]

Small promo for the add-on we develop - Smart Templates for Confluence

It helps you to include multiple excerpts and page parts (or whole pages) to create your own, dynamically constructed page. Helps with contents re-use and reduces content duplication (which reduces the maintenance cost)

[Scott Welker]

Thanks Sash. Looks like a fine solution. However, I've gone a different direction.

For my client remaining on Confluence, we've implemented full page includes of shared "snippets" that we maintain in a dedicated Space. It's a bit burdensome to manage but it's workable.

I am steering other clients away from Confluence. I'm just not happy with any provider or solution that chronically steers customers to purchase an add-on to address what are clearly buggy or deficient features. One or two third-party add-ons might be sustainable but beyond that 'Rev. Lock' is a concern. This coupled with Confluence's lack of stronger administrative features facilitating (batch/scripted) "wholesale" content transformations are deal breakers.

Thanks again though. It does look like your solution offers valuable features for those remaining in this ecosystem.

[Alex Medved _ConfiForms_]

I agree with your point, Scott. Indeed, some things should just work out of the box and should not require any plugin. And, in many cases, it should have a richer functionality

However, from a plugin developer, we see it as an opportunity. And this allows us to build a little business around it.

Just curious, what platform you picked as an alternative?

[Scott Welker]

Sorry Sash for the late reply Sash. I tend to recommend DokuWiki. However, some clients use other Wikis (e.g. MediaWiki, SharePoint - groan, FlexWiki - aged) and still others are satisfied with Dropbox or the like. Depends upon their specific needs... and budget.

[Jeff Shepherd]

I get around multiple excerpts on a page with this technique, which requires no additional add-ons.

Take the multiple excerpts you want from the original page and put each excerpt on its own page. Then include those excerpts on the original page as well as any other pages that need them.

[Kevin Klett]

I really start hating Confluence and Atlassian. Maybe its a good business model for Atlassian, but the plugins and subscription fees for all these tiny add-ons are really starting to bother me..

[Scott Welker]

I am accepting this on behalf of Steven Behnke's comment/answer - CONF-34576. If I could I would promote Steven's answer.

Unfortunately, I wrongly entered my comment to Nic Brough's answer as an answer itself :-/
... I moved the original text down as a comment to Nic's answer - where it rightly belongs. Sorry for making a mess.

[Steven Behnke]

The framework is open and relatively approachable, so the plugin marketplace is active. There's not much else to it.

The feature request is here and has been heavily labeled which is usually a good sign. https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-34576

[Scott Welker]

Thanks Steven. I up-voted the issue you linked!

I understand the marketplace and the framework's approach-ability, both good. However, they are no excuse for buggy or bad implementations - like the Excerpt Include Macro. It really can't be argued that, as implemented, the Excerpt Include Macro is adequate - IMHO.