How do I view a remote dynamic file in a Confluence Wiki page?
Asked by Richard Lando:

We just upgraded from Confluence version 2.5.6 to version 3.4.9 and I can no longer use

excel:url=\[file://remoteDFSserver/myfilestore/files/myfile.xls\]\|sheet=1\|formatCell=true

I want to be able to display a dynamic file that is updated daily with a script. Any idea how to do this in the new version? I tried to use the view file macro viewxls but this seems to require the file to be attached. The file I want to display is an excel file that list server software versions on a group of servers and is updated daily.


Answers:
author: Bob Swift (personal)
body: Excel macro should still work. The syntax above is wrong. If you still have problems, open an issue for the excel plugin.

comments: author: Richard Lando
body: Well since it appears you distribute the plugin I will take your word for it. I am a Confluence newbie so bear with me - Is this an add-on? I get Unknown macro: {excel} when I use the same syntax that worked before our upgrade. I wasn't sure how to insert comments to show here so I had to remove the braces. BTW - Thanks for your quick reply.


author: Richard Lando
body: FYI - Our sysadm removed the component saying

"The Excel Macro is not certified to work with Office 2010 and the new macro is supported directly by Atlassian and bundled with Confluence upgrades (not a third party developer who may or may not update their plugins), so it has been removed from our version of Confluence."

Too bad I like the excel maco functionality. I ended up using an iframe however this causes unexpected behavior with Excel. You cannot open any Excel file while the page is open and if you already have an Excel document open certain functions are disabled in Office Pro 2003.

Thanks all

RL


author: Bob Swift (personal)
body: I recommend the native office support (viewfile) should be used first. The excel macro can be installed and used for compatibility (previous use) or for unique capabilities not available with viewfile. Excel does not support Office 2010 and likely will not in the future. Your system admin's should be more careful with respect to upward compatibility of pages on the site.


author: Joe Clark
body: The Excel macro is a plugin (ie. "Add on") for Confluence that is not included by default. It's developed by the legendary Bob Swift, who single-handedly maintains a lot of really useful "community" plugins for Confluence. :-)

In the Confluence administration console, there should be a "plugins" section where you can check that the "Confluence Excel Macro" is both *installed* and *enabled*. If you have upgraded from an earlier version of Confluence, there's a possibility that the macro got disabled or uninstalled somehow.

You can download the latest version of the Excel macro from <https://plugins.atlassian.com/plugin/details/216>

If you have any specific problems with the macro, the JIRA issue tracker for the macro is here: <https://studio.plugins.atlassian.com/browse/XL>

comments: author: Kevin Buchs
body: This question on the nature of the {excel} plug-in makes my point, again (<https://support.atlassian.com/browse/CSP-66829>), that it would be nice if Atlassian maintained a list on their public website of which add-ins are bundled with each release. If someone is not a Conf. Sys. Admin., they can get an idea of what is available without asking the C.S.A.


author: Joe Clark
body: Would you believe I was actually just talking to our tech writers about this problem yesterday? :-)

We definitely agree that this would be useful for customers (and developers, and tech writers). Hopefully we'll have a chance to take a crack at this request in the future.