How can I create dynamic hierarchical pages
Asked by Erez Yalon:

Hi,

I am writing description pages for different items.

Many of the items share a lot of features, so they can be sorted into groups, where each group has a general description and then each item has its own specific feature.

I would like each description to contain the descriptions of its parents + its specific addition.

For example, I have the items: Kitty, Spot, Barky, and Polly.

They are sorted into the following:

* Animals
  * Mammals
    * Cats
      * **Kitty**
    * Dogs
      * **Spot**
      * **Barky**
  * Birds
    * Parrots
      * **Polly**

The "Animals" page will have the following description: *Is an animal*

So both "Mammals" and "Birds" will have this beginning with an addition of: *Is a mammal* Or *Is a bird* accordingly.

and so on...

Eventually, the "Spot" page will show the following description:  
*Is an animal.* *Is a mammal.* *Is a dog.* *His name is Spot.*

The big advantage I'm trying to achieve here is to be able to change/fix/update a description and having it updated in all children pages.

Any idea if it can be done in Confluence?

Thanks


Answers:
author: Robert Reiner _smartics_
body: On Confluence Server the [projectdoc Toolbox](https://www.smartics.eu/confluence/display/PDAC) (commercial add-on I am one of the authors) provides such a feature. It allows to define properties and reference (and reuse) property values from other pages.

* [Display Document Property Macro](https://www.smartics.eu/confluence/x/sANk)
* [Display Document Properties Macro](https://www.smartics.eu/confluence/x/sgNk)
* [Display Document Property Ref Macro](https://www.smartics.eu/confluence/x/tgNk)
* [Display Document Property Ref Concat Macro](https://www.smartics.eu/confluence/x/uANk)

I'm not sure if this could also be done to some extend with the [Page Properties Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/page-properties-macro-184550024.html) and [Page Properties Report Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/page-properties-report-macro-186089616.html) for your use case. But due to the granularity of your requirement this could be the closest you would get with tools provided by Confluence.

comments: author: Erez Yalon
body: Looks good, but we are using Confluence Cloud, so this, unfortunately, seems irrelevant.


author: Ignacio Pulgar
body: You may do so by using the following macros:

* [Excerpt Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/excerpt-macro-148062.html)
* [Excerpt Include Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/excerpt-include-macro-148067.html)

Hope it helps.

comments: author: Ignacio Pulgar
body: Another macro that may be useful for these purposes is the [Include Page Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/include-page-macro-139514.html).


author: Erez Yalon
body: Thanks [@Ignacio Pulgar](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781574), but the Excerpt Macros has two problems regarding my use case:

1. I cannot Include an Excerpt from @parent, only from specific pages - this needs to be dynamic.
2. I need to Include several Excerpts from a page. If a page has several Excerpts Macros, only the first one will be included.

Any other solution?


author: Ignacio Pulgar
body: That's right. Have you tried the Include Page Macro?


author: Erez Yalon
body: Page Macros are not relevant.


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud