How to create two pages with the same name in different locations in same space?

[CesarCEARA]

Hi,

I need to create two pages with the same name in two different locations in the same space.

The problem I have come across is that I can not create a page with the same name in one space.

When I attempt that, I get

"A page already exists with the title 'foo' in this space. Please use a different title for this page."

This is how we want to structure the space: 

Product 1

• Intro
• Pricelist
• How to use
• License info
• Support
• Document templates

Product 2

• Intro
• Pricelist
• How to use
• License info
• Support
• Document templates

I found a lot of people with this problem, a company equal to Atlassian should not have a dumb vision for structure of directory tree.

Any ideas on how i can set this up in one space?

Note - We are using Confluence 6.10.1

[Elson Soares]

Its problably too late but I would reccomend the following structure

1. Product XPTO

• 1.1 Intro
• 1.2 Pricelist
• 1.3 How to use
• 1.4 License info
• 1.5 Support
• 1.6 Document templates

2. Product XPTOX

• 2.1 Intro
• 2.2 Pricelist
• 2.3 How to use
• 2.4 License info
• 2.5 Support
• 3.6 Document templates

So you still have unique page names and its still friendly.

Hope it helps.

[Pilou]

It is a nice way to go. but unfortunately it will still get heavier as there are more and more category layers as in our case, that is not even exhaustive as tools is also containing the documentation for the tools themselves, for example, and departement categories are themselves parented to more generic categories.


MOTION DEPARTMENT

    Animation

• worflow
• tools
• technical documentation

    Rig

• worflow
• tools
• technical documentation

ASSET DEPARTMENT

    Modeling

• worflow
• tools
• technical documentation

    Texture

• worflow
• tools
• technical documentation

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Hi @CesarCEARA - of course @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- is right. 

However it is possible using an addon - have a look on Scroll Versions, one of the features is duplicating page names. 

But I have to say - for better usage I would recommend to find another solution. Why not using product name at the beginning of the page title, or put most of the informations on one page. Using ToC macro it's easy to navigate. 

[Bill Bailey]

Yes, this is how I solved this issue, prepending a product number/name in front of the child pages.

Then when exporting to PDF (using Scroll), I just override the page title to the more generic version.

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Did you use Scroll PDF? How did you make it?

[Bill Bailey]

Yes, exactly. But version 3.x. Can't move to the new 4.x version (all power user features stripped).

[CesarCEARA]

Thanks a lot for the help @Fabienne Gerhard, I'll try using addon. ;-)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You can't.  Page names must be unique within a space.

Atlassian made this decision a long time ago and have no intention of changing it, as the majority of their users prefer or even need unique page names.

[Spyros Mylonas]

Dear all,

@CesarCEARA case is very common so I find it strange that this option is not supported by confluence. 

I am currently migrating from Nuclino to Confluence (still in trial mode) and I ran into this issue. 

Now I need to re-evaluate my decision to move to Confluence.

Thanks.

[Bob Sampson]

Would like to see the data backing up the "majority of their users prefer or even need unique page name". I have design system website content on Confluence, and I have 15 "Overview" pages and have to use stupid emojis to have different names.

#1 - Every page in your Confluence has a unique 10 digit number, meaning you can have 10 billion pages in each space.

#2 - Looking at the Url of each of my overview pages with emojis, they all end in /Overview, so the actual page name is in a database somewhere.

This vibes of tech debt they don't want to spend time on.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, so to answer the points first

#1 - those are not friendly names, like "Overview" is

#2 - yes, with emoji-that-doesn't-help-Overview as a name

It's not "tech debt", it's "we designed it this way".  Most wikis don't have duplicate page names, in fact Confluence is weaker on this than most because it allows you to use the same name for pages in many spaces.  (Compare with the world's most used wiki - Mediawiki.   There's only one page in Wikipedia called Overview, whereas Confluence will let you do ABC:Overview, DEF:Overview and so-on)

[Bill Bailey]

To pile on, if you want pretty URLs, then you have to have unique names. If were OK with all URLs being "...pageID=122334" Then you could do what you want. It just isn;t practicle -- you need unique URLs, and you want to be able to change the page hierachy without breaking the URL (why you can't have "/toppage/childpage/overview" 

And then when it comes to search, if you have 25 pages with the title of "Overview", it makes it hard to find the results you want.

[Pilou]

I would have to go with Cesar on this one too. 

As a user, I don't care about having nice urls, that's not how people will navigate the wiki. They will scroll into the menu categories. 

With that being said, I don't know why confluence couldn't not offer the possibility to edit the label of the page that the user will see when the ID of the page, whether it's a random number or a string remains untouched.

It would be like asking for someone who code in python to add the full namespace of the command in the command name itself. it doesn't really make sense.

It is what it is and we'll live with it, but that definitly something I would like to go around.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's not done this way for nice urls, it's done for uniqueness, search and ease of finding what you're looking for.

This is not going to change.  Have a look at, well, every other wiki...

[Pilou]

I'm just using your collegue own word :)

And if you read me again, I have no issue with uniqueness :)

I'm talking about how data is displayed in the UI. Which is, well, the most important matter when it come to creating interfaces.

If you tell me that applying a label on a page that have no other role than just visual is not possible and that it's the case in every wiki in the world, thn I would say that it's unfortunate.

Again I will live with that as others already do, the tone of you post is unecessary. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

My apologies for the tone, I did not intend to be rude or anything bad. 

I was just trying to emphasise why it was designed this way and re-iterate the comparison with other wikis that also enforce uniqueness.

[Pilou]

That's alright no worries :)

I understand the need of uniqueness. What I don't understand is why it has to limit the way it's been displayed ?

there is plenty of data system, that have internal data used to make the tool work and public data that are shown to the user in the way the user see fit.

Most 3d software nodal systems work this way, nodes are registered and the name of the node can be changed at will.

google suite work this way, you can register an event and change the name of the event, and plenty more.

I would really like your input on why exactly this uniqueness necessarily forces confluence, and other wikis for that matters, not to have this functionnality.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Because there's no need for yet another display (of something that isn't unique) when you've got a unique name.

[Pilou]

well as the exemple of Cesar shows, there is.

this  :

Product 1

• Intro
• Pricelist
• How to use
• License info
• Support
• Document templates
  
  

is better than 

Product 1

• Product 1 Intro
• Product 1 Pricelist
• Product 1 How to use
• Product 1 License info
• Product 1 Support
• Product 1 Document templates

I may miss something in wiki philosophy, but I don't see how the second exemple can be better, specially if you add more sub categories.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's better because it is unique.  That's the whole point of uniqueness - a single name refers to one single item.

[Pilou]

But you understand that the label is not the ID of the entity ? its only purpose it to show data to the user. It is not involved in the tool mechanics. 

It's the whole purpose of having metadata embedded in an entity.

Having entities that share the same label doesn't mean they share the same ID (whether it's a string or a number)

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, but we're not talking about labels, you can put whatever labels you want on a page.

The id of a page is also a unique identifier, as is the unique name (within a space)

[Pilou]

Okay so How can I create pages and have them displayed like in Cesar example ?

Because from what I see, the name displayed in the menu is the name of the page

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You do not, that's the whole point, the page names are unique (within a space).  They're supposed to be.

In Confluence, you can do what Cesar has, you do it by making Product 1 and Product 2 different spaces.

[Pilou]

Then I definitly don't share the philosophy. To me it's counter intuitive.

Anyways, as I said, we'll go with this.Thanks for taking the time Nic :)