How to archive pages with dynamic content

Description

It is easy to provide pages with lots of dynamic content using a variety of techniques including SQL for Confluence, Reporting Plugin, Scaffolding Plugin, Metadata Plugin, and other plugins. Pages can always reflect the latest information ! However, in some cases, it would be nice to have a snapshot of the page and its dynamic content at various points in time. This is possible with just a little bit of additional work and the run macro.

Dependencies

Run macro - used to capture the content in an attachment

Optional dependencies

In order to provide a better user experience for viewing the archived data, the following plugins can be used

1. Composition Plugin - deck and card macros
2. Confluence Script Plugin - groovy macro to automatically create decks/cards from the attachments
3. HTML for Confluence - used to display the captured HTML in a nice way on a Confluence page

Steps

1. Create your main page

2. On the main page, add the run macro surrounding the content that needs to be archived similar to the following

   Example main page

   {run:exportFile=Example - Archive^example-$current_time.html|titleExport=Save page snapshot|exportVersion=replace|attachmentComment=Example-archive-$current_time|dateFormat=yyyy.MM.dd|autoRun=true|hideRun=true}
   
   
   {sql-query:datasource=testDS}
   select * from address
   {sql-query}
   
   
   {run}

3. Create another page with the name equal to the original page suffixed by " - archive", suggest making it a child page of the main page. A simple alternative is to just use the attachments macro on this page - not as nice, but provides access to the data as straight html.

   Example - archive page

   {composition-setup}{composition-setup} 
   
   {archive-deck} 

4. Create a user macro to display the archived data in a nice way (optional). 

   archive-deck user macro

   {groovy:output=wiki}
   // Looks through all attachments for the current page and finds those that match the pattern 
   // Create a tab for each year and under the year, a tab for each matching attachment
   // Include the attachment via the html macro
   attachmentNameRegex = /(2\d\d\d)\.(\d\d)\.(\d\d)\..*htm/  // 2 group regex - name contains a date like 2012.05.04
   def attachments = attachmentManager.getAttachments(context.getEntity())
   def cardList = []
   attachments.each { attachment ->
       name = attachment.getDisplayTitle()
       def matcher = name =~ attachmentNameRegex
       if (matcher.find()) {
           cardList << [
               attachmentName: name,
               year: matcher.group(1),
               month: matcher.group(2),
               day: matcher.group(3)
           ]
       }
   }
   cardList = cardList.sort { a, b -> 
       def result = b.year.compareTo(a.year)   // sort by year first, desc order
       if (result == 0) {
           result = a.month.compareTo(b.month) // sort by month
       }
       if (result == 0) {
           result = a.day.compareTo(b.day) // sort by day
       }
       return result
   }
   def br = '\n'
   
   out << '{deck:id=by_year}'
   out << br
   def year = ''
   cardList.each { card ->
       if (card.year != year) {  // need a new year card
           if (year != '') {  // first time through
               out << '{card}'  // end previous card
               out << br
               out << '{deck}'  // end previous deck
               out << br
           }
           year = card.year 
           out << "{card:label=${year}}"
           out << br
           out << "{deck:id=year_${card.year}}"
           out << br
       }    
       out << "{card:label=${card.month}/${card.day}}"   
       out << br
       out << "{html:script=${context.getPageTitle()}^${card.attachmentName}|tidy=true} {html}"
       out << br
       out << '{card}'
       out << br
   }
   out << '{card}'
   out << br
   out << '{deck}'
   out << br
   out << '{deck}'
   out << br
   {groovy}

Results