Adding an alias to xhtml-macro

[Aviram Gabay]

Hi, 

I would like to rename some of my macros, Im trying to use the alias tag to ensure exiting macros will not break but it seems it has no effect.

Below is a code sample:

<xhtml-macro name="new-name" class="com.path.to.class" key="old-name">
    <alias name="old-name" />
    <category name="confluence-content"/>
    <parameters>
        <parameter name="username" required="true" type="username"/>
        <parameter name="container" required="false" type="string"/>
        <parameter name="location" required="false" type="enum">
            <value name="append"/>
            <value name="prepend"/>
        </parameter>
    </parameters>
</xhtml-macro>

Thanks for the help

[Lukas Knoch -Rumpelcoders- · Accepted solution]

You could replace the old macros with the new ones with the help of https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/at.rumpelcoder.confluence.search-and-replace

[Aviram Gabay]

Thanks Lukas! but thats not what Im after, this feature exists according to Atlassian documentation, just need to understand what Im doing wrong.

[Lukas Knoch -Rumpelcoders-]

I understand that. In this case try to put the alias as an attribute of the xhtml tag just like <xhtml-macro name="bla" alias="blub" class=....

[Aviram Gabay]

Tried that, didnt work :( Have you tried it and made it work this way? Thanks!

[Lukas Knoch -Rumpelcoders-]

No, sry didn`t try it. It could be that there is no more option for aliasing a macro with xhtml macros any more. You used to be able to do it with the v2 macro ( pre version 4) just by specifying the same plugin key with different name. An option might be to just copy the whole macro and just change name AND key for the copied version. That should give you the desired functionality.

[Aviram Gabay]

Yes thats an option, I might use it if no one else is has a better solution. But Im still crossing my fingers for an official Atlassian response! Thanks for all your help!

[Panos]

If you refer to that documentation https://developer.atlassian.com/confdev/confluence-plugin-guide/confluence-plugin-module-types/macro-module/including-information-in-your-macro-for-the-macro-browser then this is <macro> and not <xhtml-macro>.

[Aviram Gabay]

well thats confusing :| Thanks Panos! Do you happen to know if there is a similar page for xhtml macro?

[Panos]

No, not really :/

[jgiacoppo]

There is a way!

<xhtml-macro name='mymacro' class='com.atlassian.confluence.macro.thing.MyMacro' key='mymacro-xhtml'>
    <description key="mymacro.description"/>
    <alias name="mymacro-alias" />
    <parameters/>
</xhtml-macro>

There's an obscure reference in Including Information in your Macro for the Macro Browser

The docs seem very confusing to me, so I'm going to suggest internally that we fix this up

[Andrei]

There is no (easy) way.

The alias element works only when editing the macro (in the Macro Browser), or if you start typing {alias-name to get the editor.

The existing macros using the alias name will be shown as Unknown macro.

Tested with Confluence 6.4.3. The docs seems to say the same thing:

Defines an alias for the macro. This means that the Macro Browser will open for the defined aliases as if it were this macro.
For example if dynamictasklist is an alias of tasklist, editing an existing dynamictasklist macro will open it as a tasklist macro.