Nesting one expand macro in another

[Trevor Edwards]

I am attempting to use an expand macro inside another expand macro and according to this page, it is supposed to work. Anyone have a solution?

https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/expand-macro-223222352.html

NOTE: I am attempting this on the new Confluence Blank page.

[Avinoam · Accepted solution]

Hi @Trevor Edwards and @Sharon Helms ,

I'm a PM working on the new editor in Confluence Cloud. We're currently in the process of redesigning a new experience for the expand macro which will allow it to both nest and work seamlessly on any device. 

We'll absolutely let you know once it's live!

Thanks,

Avinoam

[Sharon Helms]

Thanks, @Avinoam ! That's excellent news!

[Deleted user]

I am also looking forward to this!

[daniel.reichert]

Same, we are using it heavily and now it is broken with the new UI. Is there an ETA when it will work again?

[Deleted user]

Happy New Year, @Avinoam

Any chance you've got some new updates for us in regards to this nested '/expand' functionality?  A number of us really rely on this and it's just making documents really sloppy and hard to read without it.  Even my scroll wheel is starting to wear out...  ;) 

[Avinoam]

Hi @[deleted] we recently released a new expand that also nests in table cells, however, it does not nest in other expands. You can read more about it here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-discussions/Introducing-our-new-and-improved-expand/m-p/1250620#M6662%3Futm_source=atlcomm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=immediate_general_comment&utm_content=topic

[Deleted user]

Thanks @Avinoam , I think I've figured it out using the tables.  Much appreciated!

[Stuart_Beck]

@Avinoam , will nested Expand macros be returning? The lack of this feature is making some complicated documents incredibly hard to read and is a massive omission!

[Deleted user]

@Avinoam , I'm with @Stuart_Beck on this one - even trying to figure things out with tables, it's just not working and isn't a clean solution at all.  Right now we're having to change our layouts and hoping the nested /expand feature comes back soon.

[agrant]

@Avinoam Any update on this nested expand feature? I was using it in the old editor as recently as two weeks ago, but have since been forced to auto-update editors and it appears as though I've lost access to the immensely valuable nested expand. A response would be much appreciated!

[Morgan Smith]

It's frustrating how well designed features from prior versions are lost. I too would like nested expands like in prior versions of cloud and like how the self hosted version works. 

[Kim Miesse]

Hi, just wondering if there is an ETA for being able to nest expands in Cloud soon? Love this in the legacy editor!

[Deleted user]

Also checking for an ETA on this. Using the table work around is really sub-par and much more time consuming. Thanks! 

[Jered Gordner]

Now that we're in 2021, I wanted to make sure this got bumped to see if @Avinoam has any news or updates for us about this feature. I ran into this issue today, did some Googling, and ended up here to my dismay. Thank you!

[Philip Ng]

@Avinoam As a previous local server install preparing to switch to cloud, this makes me sad as i am severely missing this feature. :-(

[Mike Moore]

Also sad...

[Deleted user]

What's up!

[gil.haham]

Dear Atlassian,

The community is yelling for this feature.
Is it not so complex, most of the components needed are exist, I guess it is just a priority matter then.

Is it in the working plan? if so, what is the ETA?

Please do not ignore us.
@Avinoam 
@Sharon Helms 

[Moravenov Jordan]

I also really need that feture! I was very surprised when I figured out I cannot create expand in another expand. It just makes sense to be able to do it. Now I am really strugling to organize my documents without it.

[Alex Iakubenko]

Recently moved to Atlassian, we need this feature support.

Any updates when it will be implemented?

[Karl]

Any updates on expands within expands? @Avinoam ?

[Ivan Romitcyn]

Hi all! I found out this app "Refined Toolkit for Confluence Cloud" which allows you to nest one UI expand in another & to use UI tab macro as well. 
For some reason this app works well in my old Atlassian account and is deprecated in another, saying that "the app is not compatible with the new Confluence editor". Anybody knows why and is there any alternatives? Thanks

[Craig Pero]

I cannot speak as to whom thought it would be a good idea to remove the nested expands (which are perfect for decision trees and compact documentation)... the only thing I can do is create an expand which has a page include to a child page.  That child page can have information displayed and you can add an expand which includes a sub child page further.  it is not glorious at all and quite inefficient but it produces the desired result of nested expands which takes numerous child documents to make that work.

[Josiah Burke]

***EDIT*** I have submitted this as an answer with a few extra details in hopes more people can easily see it

---

I have no idea if anyone is still actively following this, but the functionality is still there on the cloud side, it's just not existent in the editor. If you build pages dynamically using the APIs or have post-processing done via API calls to generate the pages, you can nest your expands. Below is a sample API call. In the below example, replace the items in double square brackets [[]] with your own content.

{
    "type":"page",
    "title":"[[$PageTitle]]",
    `"version":{
        "number":[[$VersionNumber]]
    },
    "space":{
        "key":"[[$PageSpace]]"
    },
    "body":{
        "storage":{
            "value":"<ac:structured-macro ac:name=\"expand\" ac:schema-version=\`"1\`" ><ac:rich-text-body><h1>First Nested Level</h1><ac:structured-macro ac:name=\"expand\" ac:schema-version=\"1\" ><ac:rich-text-body><h2>Second Nested Level</h2></ac:rich-text-body></ac:structured-macro></ac:rich-text-body></ac:structured-macro>",
            "representation":"storage"
        }
    }
}

[Philip Teoli]

Thanks and I am still following as this used to be functionality that existed out of the box. This used to really help in organizing bug trackers and so on. Unfortunately, I do not use the API so the last comment suggestion I do not think that I can use it. 

[Jem Sinclair]

Bumping this one as well! My instance is writing an FAQ page for a Jira Service Management self serve portal, nesting an expand question within headers as an index quick search would be a super helpful feature to minimise the amount of reading per client.

Fingers crossed this gets actioned this year :)

[Scott Bickerton]

Like Jem, I continue to be frustrated at the lack of nesting capability in Expand Macros in the new editor

[Sharon Helms · Accepted solution]

Hi Trevor,

The doc you referenced (Cloud version) is from 2017 -- it used to be possible to next expand macros.

I'm guessing that you have the new Confluence editor active on your site? If so, that's why you can't nest one expand macro inside another.

I'm not sure if that functionality will be brought back. Fingers crossed!

[gil.haham]

Dear Atlassian,

The community is yelling for this feature.
Is it not so complex, most of the components needed are exist, I guess it is just a priority matter then.

Is it in the working plan? if so, what is the ETA?
Please do not ignore us.
2891 Views and still counting...

@Avinoam 
@Sharon Helms 

[Bernard Tai]

+1 to fixing expand on new Confluence Cloud. There are issues with: 

• Not able to embed one expand within another 
• Not able to insert expand sections between bullet points. Screenshots below: 

[Cata AV]

Hellllo, can your designers bring the expland within and expand????? That was the main purpose of using Atlanssian..because it was easy to write and explain the documentation in very organized way...wth is that you have now...oh wait a new design and colors??? Never touch a functionality if your users are using it!

[ppadmanabhan]

Here is a workaround that I am using for lack of nested expand in confluence.

For each nested expand that I need, I have created different confluence pages with the default expand. Then, I used the "Include Page" macro to bring in all those pages with the expand. Now, when I open the parent page, I am able to see all those pages as a nested expand. 

It definitely solves my purpose and the individual pages are easy to maintain as well. 

Just thought of sharing this.

[Moravenov Jordan]

Great!!! Exactly what I needed. Thank you.

[Ryan Fowler]

A Jira ticket requesting this feature has an update as of 06 Oct 2022!  It's Unresolved and currently "Under Consideration", so it looks like they're working on it again.  

(Fingers crossed)

[Josiah Burke]

I have no idea if anyone is still actively following this, but the functionality is still there on the cloud side, it's just not existent in the editor. If you build pages dynamically using the APIs or have post-processing done via API calls to generate the pages, you can nest your expands. Below is a sample API call. In the below example, replace the items in double square brackets [[]] with your own content. It still needs to be added to the editor itself, and this is far from a perfect approach, but it's the only option right now that I can see as feasible. If you attempt to use the cloud editor after using this method, you'll see the below error in sections you've used this work around.

---

{
    "type":"page",
    "title":"[[$PageTitle]]",
    `"version":{
        "number":[[$VersionNumber]]
    },
    "space":{
        "key":"[[$PageSpace]]"
    },
    "body":{
        "storage":{
            "value":"<ac:structured-macro ac:name=\"expand\" ac:schema-version=\`"1\`" ><ac:rich-text-body><h1>First Nested Level</h1><ac:structured-macro ac:name=\"expand\" ac:schema-version=\"1\" ><ac:rich-text-body><h2>Second Nested Level</h2></ac:rich-text-body></ac:structured-macro></ac:rich-text-body></ac:structured-macro>",
            "representation":"storage"
        }
    }
}

---

[Felix Mai]

@attlassian

reading those posts from 2019 onwards makes me a bit nervous. We've been storing a huge amount of content on the confluence server using several nested expand items. I checked out the Cloud version today and there's still no opportunity provisioned. For two years! Asking myself, why forcing your customers to use the cloud, when lacking major features. 

[Craig Pero]

it seems that the absence of comments from Atlassian since 2019, it seems a safe assumption that nothing is going to happen.

[Josiah Burke]

I attempted to bring it back to the top.

When will nesting an expand into another expand be... (atlassian.com)

[John W. Thornton]

It looks like I can use an Include Page macro inside an Expand macro. If the included page has expands on it, the effect is the same as nested expands.

That won't work for all use cases, but it might for some.

[declan.hannon]

Why would you remove the ability to nest within nests it was by the far the single most useful feature confluence offered. The new UI change should only have been released if it actually added value. It does not you have made it look pretty but taken back critical functionality that made confluence a manageable space to log detailed workflows and documentation. The nests within nests also made embedding documents seamless without having pages that were 100 pages long. 

@Avinoam you promised last year this was being worked on yet instead more than 6 month later posted about table functionality that is clunky and doesn't solve the core problem.

You guys are building a product for Product owners how could you forget to identify the problem you are trying to solve when you released these tables? My concern is without this feature confluence will be largely redundant for anything other than minor workflows or analysis.

[Bad Developer]

They said they are listening so everything should be fine :-)

The-new-editing-experience-we-re-listening 

[jimmy.baker]

Thank you @Trevor Edwards for posing the question.

@Avinoam   ...I am also wondering, in the absence of being able to nest within a nest, is there an alternative or better way of doing what I am attempting to do.

I would like to show "years" then to be able to expand that and show "months" and be able to expand each day of the month to show accomplishments of that day.

As you can imagine, the will become quite lengthy if not able to nest them.

Thank you in advance.

[Daniel Rykheer]

I'm between the bark and the tree with Notion and Confluence. I really prefer Confluence, but Notion's unlimited toggle-feature (nested expands) is one of its 2 major pulls on me.

I love working with tables and merging cells and having other macros inside tables. And so it keeps bringing me back to Confluence. But those toggles/expands is such a BIG WANT for me. Works so well in Notion. @Confluence, bring it home please!

The other big Notion feature that sets it apart is that every element is independently movable and referancable. It is that referanceabililty that has us use tools like Confluence and Notion and Obsidian, rather than MS-word and PDF type docs. I want to create and update a piece of info in one single place and have it appear on other pages I reference it - Quicly and seemlessly. Confluence is halfway there with that. Still a way to go on it though.

C'mon guys at Atlasian. Make it happen, please.

[Auntaya Ware]

Nesting an expand in an Expand feature has been re-added! Expand away my friends :) 

[Jaspal Sidhu]

Thanks @Trevor Edwards  , for bringing this up, this was the exact question I had as well. I use the expand macro function in all my documents (and then create nested expand boxes).

@Avinoam , thank you so much for clarifying that this functionality will return in the new editor.