Does Confluence support folder structure?
Asked by nico:

Hi there, i just created a file list, but only to find out that inside each file list i can only upload files, not a sub-folder. I think this is quite terrible. Is there a way to work this around? Thanks.


Answers:
author: TomC
body: To add to Rodney's correct answer, Confluence pages can be set up in hierarchies, with parent pages and multiple children pages, much like folders and subfolder hierarchies. Files can be attached to these pages.

This works great for use cases where Confluence's editable web pages can enhance the work process. But Confluence does not look like or work like a FSS (File Sync \& Share) product such as Box, Dropbox or Google Drive.

We use one of these products to enhance our organizations choices, and often 'mash' the two together when called for (such as link to a FSS product folder from a Confluence page; that link can involve having the folder *display* on the Confluence page. Just use the HTML macro and insert an embed (iframe) link.

comments: author: nico
body: The link trick sounds good.


author: Nick_Mikroudis
body: Hi I do not really get it about the link trick, and how to perform the simple request that was mentioned above. To have a few folders, and inside each folder a subfolder, and again, maybe to 3-4 levels down. Possible? It was possible even in MS DOS..., 1983 ??? Can you please help? Or share specific instructions about any other workaround to implement this? Thanks


author: Rodney Hughes
body: [@Nick_Mikroudis](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3844793)

The thing about this is as per my post of 5th Feb 2017.

It is thinking about what you see on the screen in a different way

So if you opened your screen and all you saw was this

Folder1

-Folder1.1

-Folder1.1.1

-Folder1.1.2

-File1 word/excel ....

-File2 word/excel ....

-Folder1.2

Folder2

-Folder2.1

When you click on Folder1.1 it takes you one step into the directory so what you now see on screen is

-Folder1.1

-Folder1.1.1

-Folder1.1.2

-File1

-File2

So you would probably think you are looking at a file directory in your PC Windows File Browser

What if I told you that your PC Windows File Browser was just a special form of Web Browser? And that the things on your screen as "Folder1", "Folder1.1" etc are really just hyperlinks to a different pages with a different set of hyperlinks to places that just happen to be physically on your PC that just shows you what is related to the place you have got to.

So Confluence would call these

Page1

-ChildPage1.1

-GrandChildPage1.1.1

-FGrandChildPage1.1.2

-Attachment1 word/excel ....

-Attachment2 word/excel ....

-ChildPage1.2

Page2

-ChildPage2.1

On any page you can then not only see the hyperlinks to drill down the structure, but also the attachments that you have put on that page.

SO EXACTLY the same as your PC Windows Browser, but the terminology is different because you are in a web browser environment where the target hyperlink just happens to be on a physical PC (server) somewhere on the internet, not your own PC .. to extend the analogy, just like the Windows File Browser showing a hyperlink to the corporate Server via the LAN.

So the one difference is that when you upload a file to a Confluence web page, it sits as an attachment (indicated by the paperclip icon near the title)

So you could argue my example is not true as the two Attachment links would not be there the instant you add the attachment.

Again because this is a web page that can be "all things for any purpose" rather than a specialised from of the same thing as your PC Windows Browser that ONLY handles links to folders or files, we have to tell the page what to do about the attachments.

So either,

use the wiki toolbar to insert a link (or thumbnail to the file, the latter being the equivalent to your PC Windows Browser Preview pane

or

insert the Attachments macro so that all attachments are automatically listed

I hope that helps


author: Rodney Hughes
body: Consider a page as one folder - for each folder on your pc, create a new page


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud