Database references don't appear in export pdf or word

[Evan Saltzman]

I maintain a database of a list of policies and procedures. The columns indicate last edited date, edited by whom, last approver date, approved by whom, etc. which I will refer to metadata. I update this database manually when my documents are updated and approved.

I am able to get the row of metadata to appear in my confluence policy or procedure document, but the database reference isn't included in the export when I export to PDF or word.

I need this metadata to appear in the export for audit purposes. Can anyone suggest a native way to do this? Is a database the wrong method to maintain the metadata? Do I have to manually create a document change log at the end of each document and then maintain the metadata manually in both places. We recently moved from Monday.com to Confluence and Monday.com did this fairly easily with board and row references.  Can I use the version history instead of the database? Any help or guidance with this would be appreciated.

[Evan Saltzman · Accepted solution]

Thank you all for your help. It still feels like there is manual work that needs to happen even with the add-ons or plug-ins and for what i need, the Page Properties and Page Properties Report Macros will do the job. The Export looks clean and includes the macros, unlike the database references.

[Elena_Communardo Products · Accepted solution]

Hi @Evan Saltzman

Confluence doesn’t natively handle custom metadata like “Approved by” or “Approval date,” and version history alone won’t meet audit needs. You might want to check out Metadata for Confluence. It allows you to define metadata fields, display them on your pages, and include them in PDF/Word exports, ensuring your audit trail is complete without the need for a separate database. Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Elena from Communardo Products

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked- · Accepted solution]

Hi @Evan Saltzman ,

You are not alone with your problems with Confluence databases.

An alternative might be the following:  Use the page properties macro on the policy or procedure documents.  Here you can add the metadata like last editor .... (we make an app to partially automate this: Document Metadata for Confluence Cloud).

On your overview page you then use the page properties report macro to show all the metadata.  The page properties report macro will auto-update on page reload, and also exports to PDF and word. So you need to maintain the metadata in a single place, in the policy/procedure document.

Hope this helps.

[Evan Saltzman]

Hi @marc -Collabello--Phase Locked- ,thanks for this option. I'm somewhat new to confluence to please help me explain how this works.

In short, I would maintain the metadata in each document manually using the native page properties report macro?

Where does your plug-in come in?

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-]

Hi @Evan Saltzman ,

Without our plugin, you would add the page properties macro to each page, and add e.g. the last editor manually.

With our plugin, the last editor would be updated automatically (documentation link).

That said, there might be data which is only available to you, e.g. "Next review meeting room". These data are not available inside Confluence, and you would add them manually to a page in the page properties macro.

Once the data are in the page properties macro, you can use the page properties report macro to automatically generate your overview reports.