How Scroll Handles Headings

When parsing a tree of wiki pages, the Scroll HTML Exporter convert both the page hierarchy and the headings within a page into hierarchical sections. The app uses an algorithm to create a sensible hierarchy in every case because Confluence does not enforce proper ordering of headings on a page (ie. heading level 2 can come before heading level 1, etc.). This documentation explains the algorithm.

Finding the Correct Hierarchy and Level

In order to create a hierarchy of sections, the Scroll Exporters will set the highest level of heading on a page, when it detects the first heading. All subsequent headings cannot be of higher level as this first heading, and will therefore be sorted in on a lower level as they actually are.

For example:

CODE

h2. Heading 1


h1. Heading 2


h2. Heading 3

In this example Heading 2 and Heading 1 will be on highest level. Heading 3 will be one level below. This is because, Heading 1 set the highest level, and Heading 2 cannot be higher. However, Heading 3 has a lower level as Heading 2 and comes after Heading 2 - therefore it will be on level below Heading 2.

The hierarchy in the table of contents will be:

Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3

Heading Promotion

During the development and testing of our Scroll Exporter apps, we found out that many users create a single highest-level heading on top of every page, which basically repeats the title of the wiki page. This leads to an (in most cases) unwanted additional level in the hierarchy. Scroll Exporters therefore remove this additional hierarchy level by using the first, highest-level heading on the page and omitting the page title.

For example: We have a page called "Installation", which has the structure as follows:

CODE

h1. Installation Guide


h2. Prerequisites


h2. Step-by-step


h2. Trouble-Shooting

In this case the page title "Installation" will be omitted, instead we use "Installation Guide" as the title of the section. That way we get a table of contents like the following:

Installation Guide
   Prerequisites
   Step-by-step
   Trouble-Shooting

Without this special handling, the table of contents would look like the following:

Installation
Installation Guide
    Prerequisites
    Step-by-step
    Trouble-Shooting