…or how to display attachments in an unordered list.

Something that bugs me in Confluence is the way that attachments are shown. The default view is a big table with just about all the information related to each attachment.

This is great if you want all this detail, but I’m a simple soul with simple needs.

Krug suggested “Omit needless words”. In this case, it’s more of “Omit needless metadata”.

Less is more

Enter {list-attachments} – a user macro that dispenses with the excess. It displays an unordered list with the filename, file size and last modified date. If there’s a comment for the attachment, this is displayed in the link text rather than the filename.

This is a really straightforward view of the attachments on the page.

How do I install {list-attachments} ?

It’s pretty easy. As a Confluence administrator, go to Confluence Admin | User Macros and click on Create a User Macro.

Macro name: list-attachments

Template:

## MACRO: list-attachments
## Updated: 2011-03-15
## View page attachments in a simple list
## USAGE: {list-attachments}

##applyDecorator("page")
	#set ($attachmentsList = $content.getLatestVersionsOfAttachments())
    ##<div class="listAttachmentsDiv">
        #if ($attachmentsList.size() > 0)
			<ul>
		        #foreach( $attachment in $attachmentsList )
			        #set ($currentAttachmentId = $attachment.id)
					#if ($attachment.comment && $attachment.comment.trim().length() > 0)
						## Display the comment as the link text instead of the filename
						<li><a href="$generalUtil.htmlEncode("${req.contextPath}${attachment.downloadPathWithoutVersion}")">$generalUtil.htmlEncode($attachment.comment)</a></li>
					#else
						## Display the filename as the link text
						<li><a href="$generalUtil.htmlEncode("${req.contextPath}${attachment.downloadPathWithoutVersion}")">$generalUtil.htmlEncode($attachment.fileName)</a></li>
					#end
			    #end
			</ul>
		#end
	##</div>
##end

Accept the defaults for the other fields, then click on Save

To call the macro in the page type: {list-attachments}

The result:

Now you’re left with a simple list of links — much purer than a big fat table of metadata.

For extra points (Updated 2011-03-15)

If you’ve got a might great slab of files attached to the Confluence page, why not wrap this usermacro in the azList macro:

{azlist}{list-attachments}{azlist}

The result: