Linked tables
Asked by LOVOO Dep. IT:

Is it possible to get a table which is visible on another page as well? Imagine, you have page A and B. On page A you have a table which should also be visible ob page B. If you change the content on page A, the content on page B should also be changed automatically. Moreover, it should be possible to aggregate and filter the content on page B so that the tables are not redundant but B shows and excerpt of table A.  
I hope this is easy to understand...is there already a Macro?


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: The simple way - use include-excerpt macro. B includes **part** of page A, and that part is the table you want.

However, that is a simple include, it really does just get a block of page A. It will always be up-to-date, but you can't do a huge amount with it on page B - the aggregate and filter stuff.

comments: author: Casey Maynard
body: I think most user want a 'block of a table from Page A, and not the whole table'


author: Andrey Khaneev _StiltSoft_
body: Then it is possible to filter the included table with [Table Filter](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.stiltsoft.confluence.plugin.tablefilter.tablefilter/cloud/overview) macro to hide some columns and rows


author: Casey Maynard
body: Table FIlter macro does not allow users to filter rows, only columns (unless I cannot figure out how to filter a row)


author: Andrey Khaneev _StiltSoft_
body: [Rows filtering](https://docs.stiltsoft.com/display/TableFilter/How+to+use+Table+filter+macro) is a basic feature in Table Filter macro: use dropdown, free text, global, date range, number range and visual filters. For column filtering use [hide columns](https://docs.stiltsoft.com/display/TableFilter/Managing+Look+of+the+Table+and+Filtration+Pane#ManagingLookoftheTableandFiltrationPane-HidingTableColumns) filter.


author: Casey Maynard
body: Thanks. While I was familiar with how those filters worked, I had not thought of it as a 'Row Filter'. Thanks for helping me see the potential for getting a 'block' of a table using the Hide Column and Row filtering combination. The key point that this technique will require though, is to ensure there is a unique column to help differentiate the rows that have the same values as other rows that I want to filter out. While it makes the process cumbersome, it should work. Hopefully there will be an option just to identify a C1: F12 type of 'block'


author: Casey Maynard
body: [@Andrey Khaneev _StiltSoft_](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781696) - I have started to implement your suggestion of 'mapping cells' by column/row filtering, but the one side effect of this process is that the column heading on the table still shows in my 'excerpt'. Is there any way to remove that from the table so that I only get the 'mapped cell' I want in my new table?


author: Andrey Khaneev _StiltSoft_
body: Do I understand correctly that you want to hide the table header row as well? If yes, then it is not possible to do with Table Filter macro, but it is possible to do with [Table Plus](https://bobswift.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TBL/pages/9699335/Table+Plus+Macro) macro and its option called rowStyles.


author: Casey Maynard
body: I could not determine if Table Plus also still has the Table Filter abilities. We currently use only the Table Filter feature from 'Table Filter and Charts for Confluence' Add-on, so I would have to determine if there are other features in the Advanced Filter (which is where the Table Plus macro is available correct?) to warrant almost doubling our monthly cost of the new macro (given that we can cancel our current purchase of the Table Filter and Charts for Confluence Add-on purchase (since the Advanced one would replace it). But other is my department think that with some extensive training we could use Script Runner to start programming our own customization of Confluence abilities and not have to rely on the Add-ons that currently add to the monthly expenses on top of the purchase of Confluence.


author: Andrey Khaneev _StiltSoft_
body: Table Plus macro and Table Filter are totally different, there only two features they both have: default sorting and row numbering. But even those features work differently.

If you don't have and don't want to buy Table Plus, then you can use custom CSS on your page using [HTML macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/html-macro-38273085.html).


author: Casey Maynard
body: I appreciate the Table Plus macro suggestion. And thanks for the CSS hint. I suspect I will have to learn to do that also. At this point it will come down to a cost analysis of determine if the purchase of the Macro will be more affordable than my time spent learning scripting in both ScriptRunner and CSS development. I am not a developer by trade, and unfortunately there is not an extensive community out there that has already created CSS and ScriptRunner OpenSource solutions for issues that end-users are trying to resolve.

Note: Another issue I was encountering that made my column headers annoying is that I had implemented the Vertical Header script for my table headers and apparently the script that I wrote apply to 'table headers' even within the table itself, so my cell had very tall headers. So I removed the vertical header wrapper and made the tall headers go away.

Note: I found a kludgy solution to my 'double header' issue.

1. I just moved the header to a separate header above my table outside of the excerpt box,

2. and then just labeled the column headers in the excerpt box 1 thru 5 (or sometimes I use (dashes) '-', '--', '---', etc pattern so that the header will not be as 'visible' in the cell. Then I sort on the corresponding (dash) column that matches the column header above it.


author: Casey Maynard
body: Hmm... Does Table Plus macro solve the next two issues?

1. I am filtering tables from multiple pages and displaying the results in the main page (in a table), but because I have about 30 rows and each row has a filter, this is causing the page to take forever to load.

2. And now that when a 2nd page to filter the same table but with different results, so I am excerpting the main page onto the 2nd page and it seems the table is not passing the main pages filters onto the 2nd page, and has all of the columns, but is filtering the row.  

Why are tables so messy of a process to manage in Confluence? There has got to be a better way.