Many of our existing server and cloud apps are confluence macros that perform their work against user supplied content nested within the body of the macro. The Forge documentation shows how to configure macros through parameters but I don’t find support for macro body content. Is this available and if not when might we expect to see that support in Forge?
Jeff
Hey Jeff—I’ve reached out to the team responsible for this, but my understanding is that there are currently no concrete plans to do nested body macros.
Hey Jeff!
We currently don’t support nested body macro, but we are actively looking at ways we might be able to support server-like behaviour inside of Forge Macros right now. I unfortunately don’t have a concrete timeline for when that will land, or what that experience might look like.
Hi shraj, any update on this one? I’m trying to create a new Forge Macro, but also need to be able to parse the body of the macro…
Thanks,
Remo
Hey! I’m not entirely sure what you mean about the body of the macro in this case - from my understanding, the Forge Macros today only contain content that the app themselves have written, and therefore the app should have access to its own content. We don’t currently offer the ability to nest macros within each other like we see in Server/P2 (where there is a separate bodied component to the app), nor do we have concrete plans to do so in the near future.
It will be interesting to see what happens here, especially with regard to (hopefully) being able to eventually migrate existing Connect macros that have plain text bodies to Forge.
We have customers with pages that still use the old TinyMCE editor (which supported pasting/typing content in the macro body insitu on the page).
With the introduction of the Fabric editor, support for plaintext bodies was handled by replacing the preview on the right-hand side of the macro editor with a text area, which can be accessed in the browser through AP.confluence.getMacroBody().
The Forge equivalent would likely be a <TextArea> in a <MacroConfig> just like any other macro parameter, but there presumably would need to be some way of linking existing body content (created with the Connect version of the macro using either TinyMCE or Fabric) to this text area.
Perhaps something as simple as a reserved name, e.g. <TextArea name=“macroBody”/>?
@Atlassian-Staff
Is there any update on this issue. Following Case:
(1) Server App with MacroBody of type plain-text.
(2) Cloud App with Forge (no macro body)
=> When a customer migrates from server to cloud now and has several macros with macro-body in their pages
=> What should happen in Cloud? How can I migrate this from P2 Server to Cloud Forge App?
@clouless about the following:
What should happen in Cloud? How can I migrate this from P2 Server to Cloud Forge App?
I’ve just created a new feature request for the migration team:
https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/MIG-771
This is where you can track progress on this part of the request.
Thanks,
Caterina
All, @clouless (because your comment is the most recent),
About the “macro body content”, the team would like to know more about the use cases for requesting that.
This request is also tracked on the [FRGE-216] - Ecosystem Jira ticket.
In particular, it would help if you could share what is not possible today with the available options.
Keeping in mind that there is an option to use the config parameters and the Forge team would like to know the scenarios where these are not sufficient.
Thank you,
Caterina
Hi @ccurti ,
Thanks for answering here. As Dennis Fischer already wrote in
https://ecosystem.atlassian.net/browse/FRGE-216
There is no macroBody on Forge. And yes I know you can have parameters and all other fancy things, but there is no compatibility between (Server <-> Connect) <-> Forge Macros.
This will be a long post, since I think there is no common understanding what the problem is 
(1) Confluence Server Macro with Macro Body
The storage format looks like so:
<ac:structured-macro
ac:name="advanced-single-codeblock-macro"
ac:schema-version="1"
ac:macro-id="cc2655f2-3d33-48ff-a17f-f6eb3d7aa5a6"
>
<ac:parameter ac:name="theme">light-spring</ac:parameter>
<ac:parameter ac:name="lang">JSON</ac:parameter>
<ac:parameter ac:name="globaltitle">My Codeblock</ac:parameter>
<ac:plain-text-body><![CDATA[{
"foo": "bar"
}]]></ac:plain-text-body>
</ac:structured-macro>
(2) Cloud Connect Macro
You can provide a 100% exact same macro with Connect Cloud dynamicContentMacro
https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/confluence/modules/dynamic-content-macro/
You will also have:
You will have the same storage format and a customer can export its confluence space via XML and import it in cloud and your macro will work 100%.
A atlassian-connect.json snippet of such looks like this:
"modules": {
"dynamicContentMacros": [
{
"name": { "value": "Advanced Codeblocks Single" },
"description": { "value": "Visualize a single codeblock without replacements" },
"key": "advanced-single-codeblock-macro",
"url": "/advanced-single-codeblock-macro?pageId={page.id}¯oId={macro.id}&spaceKey={space.key}&pageVersion={page.version}",
"categories": ["development"],
"outputType": "block",
"bodyType": "plain-text",
"icon": { ... },
"alias": "advanced-single-codeblock-macro",
"parameters": [
{ ... }
]
}
]
}
(3) Forge Macro
A Forge macro has:
Storage format of forge macro
<ac:adf-extension>
<ac:adf-node type="extension">
<ac:adf-attribute key="extension-type">com.atlassian.ecosystem</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="extension-key">889977.../static/advanced-codeblocks-hello-world</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="parameters">
<ac:adf-parameter key="local-id">e31a0637-...</ac:adf-parameter>
<ac:adf-parameter key="extension-id">ari:cloud:ecosystem::extension/889977.../static/advanced-codeblocks-hello-world</ac:adf-parameter>
<ac:adf-parameter key="extension-title">advanced-codeblocks (Development)</ac:adf-parameter>
<ac:adf-parameter key="guest-params">
<ac:adf-parameter key="macro-body">// my code block
const foo = "bar";</ac:adf-parameter>
</ac:adf-parameter>
</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="text">advanced-codeblocks (Development)</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="layout">full-width</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="local-id">648062b5-....</ac:adf-attribute>
</ac:adf-node>
<ac:adf-fallback>
<ac:adf-node type="extension">
<ac:adf-attribute key="extension-type">com.atlassian.ecosystem</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="extension-key">889977.../static/advanced-codeblocks-hello-world</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="parameters">
<ac:adf-parameter key="local-id">e31a0637-...</ac:adf-parameter>
<ac:adf-parameter key="extension-id">ari:cloud:ecosystem::extension/889977.../static/advanced-codeblocks-hello-world</ac:adf-parameter>
<ac:adf-parameter key="extension-title">advanced-codeblocks (Development)</ac:adf-parameter>
<ac:adf-parameter key="guest-params">
<ac:adf-parameter key="macro-body">// my code block
const foo = "bar";</ac:adf-parameter>
</ac:adf-parameter>
</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="text">advanced-codeblocks (Development)</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="layout">full-width</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="local-id">648062b5-....</ac:adf-attribute>
</ac:adf-node>
</ac:adf-fallback>
</ac:adf-extension>
Problems with Server to Cloud Forge XOR Cloud Connect to Cloud Forge migration:
Situation:
What needs a solution:
I suggest that you really develop a tiny confluence Server macro with plainText macroBody and some params and actually test how to provide an automated migration path to a forge macro.
I think there are a lot of macros in the Marketplace that use macroBody and have currently no way to migrate to forge.
I hope that makes things clearer
UPDATE: My Suggestions:
macroBody. e.g.: <ac:adf-attribute key="parameters">
<ac:adf-parameter key="guest-params">
<ac:adf-parameter key="macro-body">// my code block
const foo = "bar";</ac:adf-parameter>
</ac:adf-parameter>
</ac:adf-attribute>
<ac:adf-attribute key="parameters">
<ac:adf-parameter key="guest-params">
<ac:adf-parameter key="macro-body">...</ac:adf-parameter>
<ac:adf-parameter key="theme">light-spring</ac:adf-parameter>
<ac:adf-parameter key="lang">JSON</ac:adf-parameter>
</ac:adf-parameter>
</ac:adf-attribute>
Cheers,
Bernhard
Very nice, detailed, clear, concise post Bernhard!
Any updates on this? I again find myself not being able to implement a great app idea because Forge is soo restrictive
Also throwing a vote in for this functionality. I’d like a macro to format information that is “inline” and just as critical as any other info in a wiki. Right now the configuration sidebar is okay as a copy+paste solution but frustrating to edit within.
Another issue to note, for anyone looking to do the same, is that page history doesn’t work with forge macros at all, let alone for old configs. They just show an error icon. So no historical tracking of important information housed within a config. Only workaround I can think of would be to maybe have the macro render something from a preceding Expand macro or code block?
@MichaelIlewicz and @AndrewPeterson,
I strongly recommend votes and/or supporting comments on the Jira issue:
https://ecosystem.atlassian.net/browse/FRGE-216
There are Atlassians like @ccurti and I who will see your support for an issue here, but our development teams tend to lean more into the Jira issues than community. All those votes and comments on the issue become a weight that is harder to ignore than the threads here. I’m not defending it as right, just explaining what I have observed as true.
And, specific to @AndrewPeterson’s point about macro setting in page history, I think that is helpful context here, but would get more attention from the Forge and Confluence teams if it were a new thread (as new information).
Please understand, I’m not faulting either of you. I’m just trying to nudge toward posting behaviors that will have the most impact on our dev teams.
Just to update and cross link macroBody conversion for Connect Cloud to Forge Cloud see
=> Support for saved macro modules when migrating from Connect to Forge macro - EAP - #5 by HanjooSong
TL:DR: Storage format will be converted and the good old plain-text macro-body will be available via forge config __bodyContent
// Forge
const config = useConfig();
config.__bodyContent;
BUT: Only for Connect Cloud to Forge Cloud migration
Server/DC to Forge Cloud migration is NOT COVERED as of 2022-09
Maybe another Atlassian Team in charge of Server/DC can jump in and deliver this missing piece I am looking forward to it.
Cheers,
Bernhard
Hello - thank you for the great input here. Our team has just started our investigation phase for rich body macros in Forge. If you are interested in sharing your use cases and any feedback on this macro as we think about bringing it into Forge, please sign up for a spot here: 