Copy Page Tree

What is a page tree?

A page tree is a hierarchical structure of pages that begins with a selected parent page and has multiple levels of child pages.

In Confluence, you can view the page tree using the Page tree macro. Click here for more information on how to create a page tree macro.

Introduction to Copy Page Tree

The Copy Page Tree app allows you to add a page action to copy the current page and a complete page hierarchy. The app supports adjustments of page names to avoid problems with page name duplication. Use text search/replace to customize content on the destination pages. Copy attachments, labels, properties, and permissions. Copies can also be saved in other spaces.

• Copy an entire page tree, Parent Page and its Child Pages, including (optionally) Attachments, Labels, Properties, Permissions

• Search/Replace one or more pairs of strings to customize page content 

• Supports page name adjustments to avoid issues with page name duplication

• Review the page tree copy

• Save form values for more efficient copies of the same page tree

• The progress bar gives real-time feedback about the progress of the copy job

• Quick links to Source and Destination pages upon copy completion

• Delete an entire page tree

Use cases

• Create documentation templates for releases.

• Create new spaces and repeat information that needs to be used again with a simple word change with the find/replace

• Update multiple pages by copying a tree and using the find/replace to update pages. Then, use the deleted tree to remove the old pages.

• Delete Page Tree to clean up spaces when there are significant changes

• Count the number of pages in a space

Permissions

If you have revoked permissions for the group 'confluence-users' in Space Settings → Permissions, you must add permissions for the 'Copy Page Tree' app user.

An "app user" is a user who exists in Confluence to represent an app when it performs actions. If you click the 'Edit Permissions' button and use the 'Add' button to add an individual user, you will discover that the user picker recognizes your installed apps as users, like 'Copy Page Tree.'

Copying Permissions

When copying a tree with the Copy Permissions option checked, the operation will copy the permissions set for the pages.

Here are some details of how you deal with permissions for page tree copies

• If the user cannot access a page, the page is not included in the copy of the page tree.

• If a page is a child of a restricted page, it properly inherits the restrictions of the parent page (i.e., it cannot be copied over by unauthorized users).

• Suppose the user is only authorized to view the page but not to edit it (“Anyone can view, only some can edit” permission level). In that case, the page is copied with all permissions preserved (View / Edit permissions are preserved).

  • Atlassian has told us that the API causing this behavior works as intended. It allows the user to create a tree of pages as a template (e.g., a new project), copy the tree, and start working on the pages. 

Therefore, a user can copy a page they can view but not edit, and they will have edit permissions for the newly created copy. Of course, the permissions on the original content remain unchanged.

Limitation

server The number of pages that can be copied is unlimited, but the titles for branches in the tree with 2000 or fewer pages can only be customized individually.

cloud The number of pages copied in a page tree is currently limited to 2000.

Documentation links

• Cloud

• Server