Prevent Connect apps with macro alias conflicts from installing

[Andrew.Ngo]

In the past, if two Connect apps with the same macro alias were installed, both apps would fail to work in Confluence.

What is changing?

We have implemented preventative measures to only allow one app with unique macro alias to be installed at a time. Any following apps with a conflicting macro alias will not be able to be installed, thus avoiding this issue completely. Upon failed installation, user will be prompted with an error due to conflicting macro alias and will need to uninstall the existing app before installing new app.

Why is it changing?

Better user experience and usability of Connect apps.

What do I need to do?

If your app is known to have issues in the past with another app due to conflicting macro alias, please try installing the conflicting app in your instance that is enrolled in the developer first release cohort. Also check if you are able to update your app to a newer version and that these changes will not interfere with already installed apps from updating.

By when do I need to do it?

We plan to roll these changes out to production by March 31st, 2021.

[dlindsay]

Thanks for the update @Andrew.Ngo, I’m sure it will clear up the failure for customers

A question from our side, will vendors get a notification when there is a failure due to conflicting macro aliases and will there be any details about which macro caused the failure?

With new apps coming to market all the time, I can only see this failure becoming more common. This info might give us an indication to the scale of the problem and allow us adjust our apps if it is a regular issue.

Cheers,
Dylan

[Andrew.Ngo]

Hi @dlindsay, thank you for the feedback! We currently do not have a solution for notifying vendors of these kinds of failures at the moment, but we can look into adding this feature.

[dlindsay]

Great, thanks @Andrew.Ngo! At the moment, not having a notification about this kind of failure means that we aren’t really incentivised to use the feature (which is useful!). We’d rather not have customers hit a conflict like this between our apps and other vendors that would result in them having to choose one app (it adds another barrier to entry).

[james.dellow]

A notification to the vendors affected should really be built-in.

[EvangelosMantadakis]

macro alias

hi @Andrew.Ngo just to confirm, when it says “macro alias”, you mean the property " aliases (Define aliases for the macro. The macro browser will open for the defined aliases as if it were this macro.
)" that is available for each macro within the App descriptor file right?

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/confluence/modules/dynamic-content-macro/

Thanks,
Evangelos

[Andrew.Ngo]

@EvangelosMantadakis Yes, that is correct.

[EvangelosMantadakis]

@EvangelosMantadakis

aliases

Thanks @Andrew.Ngo , Is there any recommended practical instructions or examples on how to define the aliases from now on ?

Thanks again,
Evangelos