Search by comments in page history / previous versions

Question

We currently add our dev job numbers to page labels so that we can search for all pages relating to a job (User Guides, Support docs etc).

However this isn't sustainable as the number of jobs/labels for once page increases and it also fills up our word maps with numbers instead of words.

I thought I had the answer by only adding the job number to the comments when editing a page (which is great for page history & version control) but it seems only the comments in the current version of a page are included in searches rather than all versions.

Is it possible to extend search to include comments on previous versions of pages or is there another way to tag a page with a dev number it can be searched by which doesn't clutter up the labels?

Robert Reiner _smartics_ · Answer

As I understand the page properties macro, there is indeed one label required. But you can have additional properties in the table. One of these properties could be the Job ID and I thought you can use this property in your queries (see CQL fields). Maybe I am wrong ... ? Since I'm using our own macros for this use case I'm sorry if I remembered incorrectly.

The Display Table Macro definitively allows to select on any property defined with the Document Properties Marker Macro. And there is no need for an extra label. But this would require to install one additional (commercial) add-on.

ian colenutt · Answer

Thanks for the suggestion but the Page Properties Report is still based on a common label.

I think my best option for searching by Job ID instead of label is just listing the Job IDs inside an Info macro in each page. However it seems like I'm best off continuing to clutter up the labels/heatmaps with Job Ids in order to see all pages related to a job.

Users will then have to view the Page History comments and compare versions if they want to see which change the job relates to.

Robert Reiner _smartics_ · Answer

The Page Properties Macro and Page Properties Report Macro may be helpful for your use case. The first macro allows to add properties on a page that can be used in the report with the second.

Another solution could be the projectdoc Toolbox, a commercial plugin for Confluence server available on the Atlassian Marketplace, with similar features provided by the Document Properties Marker Macro and the Display Table Macro.

Biased alert: I'm one of the authors of the projectdoc Toolbox! :)