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Suggestion
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Resolution: Unresolved
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2
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Problem
Customers need consistent results on PDF Export using the App 'Scroll PDF Exporter,' with pages containing transformed tables.
- These tables are related to the 'Table Toolbox' from another App ('Table Filter, Charts & Spreadsheets for Confluence').
Different vendors don't have the ability to collect the rendered information from a page via API because they are using the below endpoint to collect data:
- API V2 endpoint:
https://<instance-url>.atlassian.net/wiki/api/v2/pages/<page-id>?body-format=export_view
However, the endpoint above only provides static content, not meeting the vendor's needs and consequently affecting customers.
Currently, there's no possibility to obtain the correct rendered view of a page from an API or external perspective. Therefore other Applications could be affected by this limitation on collecting the exact rendered view, please add a comment below for additional reference.
Suggested Solution
The idea would be to find a way to retrieve the content as seen in view mode so Scroll PDF can manipulate it and add it to the exported file.
Why This Is Important
The native PDF export in Confluence has several different limitations, and Apps are required for features like custom PDF formatting, custom templates, workflow management
Workaround
Currently, there's no workaround available for such limitations on the API. And the customers have to rely on the native PDF export.
Considering that Confluence native PDF export uses an internal library, which creates a target file with styles and the code is not available for 3rd party app developers.
As a possible workaround, developers might need to create their own web-based renderer service, which will add styles/renders to the page, like the AUI service (https://aui.atlassian.com/).
Notes
Documentation:
Steps to reproduce:
- Create a page in confluence using the Table Toolbox Macro to merge two different Jira Issues (Merge tables, Lookup Tables, or Custom Transformation);
- Create two other Table Transformer options with Jira Macros inside it;
- Use the Custom Transformation option, then proceed with SQL Query to rename the Table fields, for example:
SELECT T1.'Key' AS 'Requirement Key', T1.'Summary' AS 'Requirement Summary', T1.'Description' AS 'Requirement Description' FROM T1
- Export this page using the option "Export with Scroll PDF Exporter" on the three dots option, using any template (e.g., the default ones)
Then, if we compare this exported PDF with the PDF from Confluence, we will notice that the Macro shown on the page is different from the exported one by the App:
- The 'rename' made by the 'SQL Query' is ignored;
- The table transformation is ignored, exporting the Jira Macro entirely.
- derived from
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CONFCLOUD-76772 Unable to render third-party macro content with export to PDF, Word, or API (export_view) in new editor
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- Closed
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- Gathering Interest
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- Gathering Interest
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ENT-2087 Loading...
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[CONFCLOUD-77735] Scroll PDF Exporter is unable to retrieve the rendered view of a page with altered tables from Table Toolbox
where do we stand on this? Any update?
This effects nearly every table we are using in our QM.
It is a really powerful tool to customize the output of a table and be able to export it according to the filters set. On server we are able to have huge data sets that can be filtered individually to make it fit for the desired purpose.
There is no qualified workaround in cloud, which is absolutely unsatisfying and adds up to the lack-of-feature-parity-pile.
On our side, this compatibility issue causes an important compliance concern.
Indeed, for compliance/integrity reasons, we must ensure consistency between content of Confluence pages and content of PDF exports (generated with Scroll PDF Exporter).
To give some context, we are using Jira and Confluence to manage te development and the validation of our digital products. All our activities are subject to regulations, starting with FDA and EU regulations. When it comes to the management of computerized systems, these regulations enforce us to comply with specific requirements related to the management of electronic records, electronic signatures (cf FDA 21 CFR Part 11) and the validation of CS (cf EU GMP Annex 11). As a consequence, we need to put in place some controls in tools we use for the management of our Computerized Systems, to ensure integrity, availability and auditability of records managed in these tools (ie Jira issues and Confluence pages).
In Confluence, we have defined some templates and setup some plugins to manage pages as “compliant” electronic records. On top of these plugins, we are using Scroll PDF Exporter, for the management of PDF formatting (portrait/landscape mode, table layout management, PDF template…).
All these elements together ensure that a PDF generated on a Confluence page contains accurate and non alterable content. Not all Confluence pages are subject to regulations, but when it is the case, we need to ensure equivalency between the page and its PDF.
Initially, we were using the standard “PDF export” functionality (instead of Scroll PDF Exporter), but we switched to Scroll PDF Exporter because the standard “PDF export” did not manage correctly formatting of some tables (especially large tables, and tables with pictures). Moreover, it was not possible with standard “PDF export” to define good looking PDFs, with headers and footers for instance.
Normally, our users are supposed to use “Jira Snapshots” on Confluence pages, to manage Jira issues tables. However, since “Table Filters” macros were also available, we could not prevent them from using these macros. Unfortunately, we realized only late that tables generated with these macros were not correctly rendered with Scroll PDF Exporter, causing an “integrity” issue on the PDFs generated when Confluence pages were approved.
This disables us to export a lot of documents for external use with our customers, if we still do it we need to send all the tables seperately which is very unprofessional. We need a fix asap.
After being forced to move to Cloud, we now have no way of reusing table content the same way we did on Server.
This configuration of Confluence, Table Transformer, and the Scroll PDF Exporter works in the Server versions of the Atlassian applications. What changed between Server and Cloud? We are caught in a difficult position: Atlassian has dropped support for Server but not provided a path that allows us to migrate to Cloud.
Please reach out to StiltSoft and K15t to solve this issue.