How do you filter using multiple labels with AND (not OR) in the Task Report macro?

[Deleted user]

I have a space where a couple of different teams are collecting meeting notes. I would like to be able to use the Task Report macro to provide each team with a focused list of their action items from the notes that are relevant to their team, but either I'm not getting the syntax correct or the macro can't actually support what I'm trying to do.

The notes page all have the generic label "meeting-notes", which is what I've got on the template. Users are then applying their team labels ("team-a", "team-b") to the page. I've tried entering the labels in two different ways on the Task Report macro:

• "meeting-notes team-a" - delivers no results
• "meeting-notes, team-a" - the comma appears to act as an OR

I'd rather not have to create a new set of labels ("meeting-notes-team-a") and train users to apply them just for the purpose of filtering these tasks. Is there any character I can use to represent an AND here? Or am I just out of luck?

[Shannon S · Accepted solution]

Hi Brian,

This is not yet a function of the Task Report Macro, but we do have a feature request for this:

• CONFCLOUD-45518

Please vote on it in order to show it's something you'd be interested, and feel free to comment with your usage case.

In the meantime, you will need to create a new label to use in order to consider specific pages in your Task Report Macro.

Regards,

Shannon

[Deleted user]

Thank you Shannon. I've voted for that item and added a comment.

In general, I would like to see a more consistent set of filter options for macros, either something similar to the options on the Page Properties Report macro, or just the ability for a power user to directly enter a CQL expression. I keep running into walls trying to support my business users, where it's not clear to them (or to me) why there's such inconsistencies on how they can go after data, and it's impacting their confidence and excitement in the tool. 

[Shannon S]

That would indeed be very useful and could take care of a lot of customer's concerns where it comes to not being able to use a macro exactly in the way they require.

I did find this request as well, but sadly it doesn't have a lot of votes on it:

• CONFCLOUD-36546

Hopefully by putting it here it will get more eyes on it, so please also feel free to vote/comment on that one.

Regards,

Shannon

[Deleted user]

Thanks for that additional item, Shannon. I went and voted for it, and added a comment as well.

I really like the tool in general, but it's frustrating when I can see how a macro could be used to solve a business problem in a straightforward way, if only I could apply the same options from a seemingly very similar macro.

[Shannon S]

No worries, Brian! Thank you for providing your input on it.

I agree, CQL could definitely help with the usage of macros meeting various business requirements. 

Take care and kind regards!

Shannon

[Marcus Mangelsdorf]

Is there any workaround available, maybe? Also, the documentation at https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/task-report-macro-590260009.html should be updated to include the pretty important detail that multiple labels are regarded as "OR" and not "AND". (So I can not have task reports for only a specific type of meeting-notes by using a second label, yet :( )

[Shannon S]

Hi Marcus,

No workaround, unfortunately.

Can you please clarify what you mean about multiple labels regarded as OR and not AND? 

This is using the Confluence Search Syntax which explains the behavior.

Regards,

Shannon

[Marcus Mangelsdorf]

Hi Shannon,

sorry for answering so late, I just wasn't logged-in to my Atlassian account.

With my statement regarding multiple labels, I just wanted to suggest, that the Task Report macro's documentation should explicitly state that its multiple label support is not capable of narrowing down the results. But instead, the comma separated list (labelA, labelB, labelC) is converted to a query in the form of labelA OR labelB OR labelC.

The documentation currently only says: 

Filter by Label. The macro will only display tasks on pages with this label. You can enter multiple labels, separated by a comma.

I suggest changing it to:

Filter by Label. The macro will display tasks on all pages with any of the labels specified in this list, separated by a comma. Confluence Search Syntax is not supported.

Kind regards,
Marcus

[Shannon S]

Thank you for the feedback!

I've submitted your suggestion below:

• CONFSERVER-56041

In addition, I found a feature request to be able to toggle the behavior between OR and AND:

• CONFSERVER-45518

 Take care, and have a pleasant week.

Shannon

[Marcus Mangelsdorf]

Cool, thanks!

Although a full-blown suggestion seems like a lot of overhead for a small documentation change. Do you think it will ever be looked at if implementation of suggestions is based on votes?

Other projects (namely Mattermost) let contributors directly edit the documentation and file pull requests for the changes. I guess this would help for improving the documentation faster :)

[Shannon S]

Hi Marcus,

We can certainly go in and directly change knowledgebase articles, but for documentation itself, this needs to go through our Technical Writing team. The reason being is that this documentation exists several times throughout our system, depending on the release number. I've added the 'Documentation' component to the suggestion meaning it will go directly to the Technical Writing team and they can have a look at it from there.

Regards,

Shannon

[Eric Erlandsson]

Very clear and good replies Shannon. Thank you for that. I just however must mention that it is these small things regarding meeting notes to not being able to use AND as well as limitations in blueprints that makes Confluence not scalable.

[Pritesh Gohil]

Conclusion, Confluence Team is still taking vote for this feature.

[Martin Faust]

2023. No progress it seems.

[Karin Kriebisch]

Not only the task report should be able to switch between logical AND and OR. All fields, which accept more the 1 label should behave like that, please.