Complaint: Curly Braces with Confluence v3.x (Jira) and SharePoint

There is an issue with Confluence when using curly braces and URL. This should be easily replicated by typing in any URL with curly braces, like http://test.com/?param={test}. Another example is to copy the URLs in Sharepoint into Confluence.

What happens is that Confluence attempts to convert the curly braces as macros. At the same time, it tries to convert them into clickable links. I was unable to find a way to disable this. I even tried to use the forward slash, '\', to disable to display the curly brace. Since that did not work and I could not disable the conversion, I removed the http portion which helped display the link.

The workaround to fix this problem is to convert the left curly brace with %7B and right curly brace with %7D. For example, http://test.com/?param={test} will become http://test.com/?param=%7Btest%7D. What I do not like about this workaround is having to listen to people complain about having to do an extra step, or even worse not pay attention and not change the braces because not making the change really messes up the page especially if they are embedded in tables.


I apologize that I do not know which version of Confluence is being used. I do not have access and couldn't find it before having to leave work.


Update 1/27/2014 - I have found that the latest this version is 3.x.

Reference

Work Life: Upgraded to Confluence 5.1.5