youngmon/atlassian-qna huggingface dataset:
Customer Portal users can't access Confluence
Asked by J.R. Murray:

Hello,

We have multiple customers with a JIRA Service Desk project and a linked Confluence space for each. They used to be able to access Confluence (as unlicensed users) from a link we had setup from the Customer Portal, but they now receive Access Denied messages. When did this change? How can we get this access without turning on anonymous access?

All of the settings are setup per this article, and have been for over a year: <https://confluence.atlassian.com/servicedeskcloud/serving-customers-with-a-knowledge-base-732528995.html>


Answers:
author: thais
body: Hi, J. R.,

This changed about a year ago.

As you can check on a message from the Jira Service Desk Team on March, 15/2017 on the bug report [JSDCLOUD-4901 - Portal users cannot access the knowledge base](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSDCLOUD-4901):

"As part of making authentication and single sign-on easier across Atlassian products we have consolidated product access through Atlassian account (<https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/atlassian-account-for-users-873871199.html>). This means that access to our products outside the customer portal requires an Atlassian account.

Customers can still search for KB articles, view articles, bookmark articles and so on using the customer portal. This does not require an Atlassian account as it's done through the customer portal.

If you need your customers to directly access Confluence to browse through KB articles, you can either:

1. Make your space anonymous-accessible. This will mean that anyone will be able to browse your KB articles without needing to log in. If you are experiencing issues as described in [CONF-30161](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-30161) then please make sure you have linked your space to a JIRA Service Desk project via Project Settings ? Knowledge Base as this fixes the problem.

2. If you do not want to make your space anonymous accessible, ie. you want customers to explicitly log in before they can see Confluence, then you must convert your customer user accounts to Atlassian accounts. You can convert them yourself using the instructions on <https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/select-the-right-account-for-your-jira-service-desk-customers-873871210.html> or you can file a support ticket and our support can bulk migrate your customer accounts to Atlassian accounts. Having an Atlassian account does not consume a license."

Best regards,  
Thais


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud

jira-service-desk
Receive Error when attempting to publish a page in Edit mode Unable to communicate with server...
Asked by Cindy Sobus:

Unable to publish page in edit mode, or to insert an image and try to save. Error "Unable to communicate with server. Saving not possible at the moment."


Answers:
author: AnnWorley
body: This article describes a similar error when an MS SQL issue occurs. Please check whether this is relevant to your case:

[Saving Page Throws Unable to Communicate with Server message when using MS SQL database](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/saving-page-throws-unable-to-communicate-with-server-message-when-using-ms-sql-database-935371545.html)

comments: author: Cindy Sobus
body: Thank you, started reviewing this article and don't think if it applies we are running Cloud version instead of server version of Confluence.

I should have specified that in my original question. I have oepned a support issue. Appreciate the feedback.


author: AnnWorley
body: I am surprised to hear you are seeing that error in Cloud as it is usually infrastructure related. Opening a ticket for Cloud support is definitely the right move. Best of luck!


author: Cindy Sobus
body: Thank you, but that didn't work for us. Appreciate the feedback, and will keep that in mind for future reference.


author: Shawn Masters
body: Try removing colored text from the page. See if it works.

I remember not too long ago atlassian reported an issue saving pages with colored text due to some syntax issue they were working on.
How to insert an iframe in confluence without the use of macros
Asked by Rakshitha Balakrishna:

I'm trying to eliminate the usage of macros in my document and I need to replace the content without the macros. Couls someone help me insert an iframe in my page without macros.


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: You either need to use macros, or rewrite the display and edit function in Confluence.

comments: author: Rakshitha Balakrishna
body: If i use the html iframe attribute it gets killed by confluence.


author: Rakshitha Balakrishna
body: Is there any other way to insert an iframe


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: That's why you need a macro or code rewrite to support it.


Tags: iframe
Using confluence as a host for internal videos
Asked by Nice AtlassianLicenses:

Hi,

I would like to upload internal company videos to a confluence page and then be able to embed them in a 3rd party secured SAAS app.

We do not want to host on YouTube or Vimeo for information security reasons.

The idea is to upload short videos to confluence and be able to extract an iframe embedded code. Is this possible?

thanks!

Dorit


Answers:
author: Igor M.
body: Hello,

You can upload videos to Confluence pages and have them playback using [Multimedia Macro](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/multimedia-macro-228622735.html), those pages can then be displayed in iframe, but it will not work unless you disable clickjacking protection that is part of Confluence. See here for more details [Confluence page does not display in an iframe](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/confluence-page-does-not-display-in-an-iframe-827335781.html).

Regards,

Igor


Tags: confluence-server

server
Creating static tables from page properties
Asked by Simon Rodgers:

Hello everyone,

Is there anyway to generate static tables in exactly same way as you can using Page Properties Macro in Confluence Cloud?

The thing is the fields that I am covering with Page Properties Macro is weekly updated, and I want to have static versions of it to store the weekly statuses of pages and have a historic record of the page properties. Is there any way to do this?


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Hi Simon,

You would need to have a historical version somewhere on another page in Confluence in order to do this. Since you can't call from a former version of a page, I would recommend creating a separate page with the historical data so you can reference it later.

Regards,

Shannon


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud
Is CQL case-sensitive?
Asked by Robert Lauriston:

Online help for Confluence's search implies that the "and" operator is case-sensitive. Is this true?

Exact phrase search {#toc-hId-1816417622}
-----------------------------------------

To search for content that contains the exact phrase "chalk and cheese":

```
"chalk and cheese"
```

...

AND search {#toc-hId--735739339}
--------------------------------

To search for content that contains both the terms "chalk" AND "cheese":

```
"chalk AND cheese"
```


Answers:
author: Thomas Schlegel
body: [@Robert Lauriston](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/541077),

yes, the usage of the word "AND" is case-sensitive. If you want to use it in terms of "I want to see everything, where the word before the AND and the word after the AND is included" you have to write it in uppercase letters.

If you write it lowercase, it is just a regular word and you'll get pages containing the word "and".

comments: author: Robert Lauriston
body: Ah. So "and" isn't a stop word. That's clear from the first example, I guess my brain just rejected it since I expect Confluence to work like Lucene.

It seems weird that the syntax is

```
"chalk AND cheese" 
```

rather than

```
"chalk" AND "cheese"
```


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud

cql

search
Confluence email address link - how to avoid blank webpage?
Asked by Wendy Emerman:

To link to an email address, I choose **Link** \> **Web Link** then enter the email address. The email app opens, but so does a blank, untitled webpage. Is there a workaround?


Answers:
author: Thomas Schlegel
body: Hi [@Wendy Emerman](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/323800),

have you tried a link like this: mailto:abc.def@xyz.de ?

comments: author: Wendy Emerman
body: Hi [@Thomas Schlegel](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781483)

Yes. The email address entered using the Link\>Web Link function is converted to that format.

I typed the link directly on the page with the "mailto:" format, and it, too, opens a blank web page along with the email app.


author: Thomas Schlegel
body: [@Wendy Emerman](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/323800) - I tried this also with my Cloud-instance. Everything's fine, there's no new empty web page.

Which browser do you use? Do you have any browser add-on? Can you please have a look at the source code of the confluence page? Is there something like "target=..."?


author: Wendy Emerman
body: [@Thomas Schlegel](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781483)Thank you! I tested in both Chrome and Internet Explorer, and you are right, the links work properly. I was testing the link in edit mode, where the "go-to-link" test opens an empty webpage along with the email page - I never tested the link on the published page! Thanks, again, for sticking with me til I figured this out!


author: Thomas Schlegel
body: You're welcome, [@Wendy Emerman](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/323800) - great that you found the reason!


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud
Unknown Macro: html when used in Sidebar
Asked by Ali Cheaito:

Hello,

We're running Confluence Server 6.5 with the Confluence HTML Macros enabled. The macro works within a confluence page, rendering html and JavaScript just fine. However, when using the macro in the Sidebar (through Space Look and Feel), we receive the error:

Unknown macro: {html}

The [HTML macro documentation](https://confluence.atlassian.com/conf65/html-macro-939701229.html) seem to indicate that this should work. I used the same example provided in the docs and got the error above. Any idea what might be going wrong?

Thanks


Answers:
author: Thomas Schlegel
body: Hi [@Ali Cheaito](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/388547),

it works for me with Confluence 6.7 (so, I think, it should also work with Confluence 6.5).

I activated the html-macro (not the html-xhtml-macro):

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/22656i3933EFB3BD7E104C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

and inserted the example code like that at the space configuration:

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/22657iFCDE21834165B21A/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

This is what I can see in the sidebar:

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/22658i17E2D71D5573A8AD/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")

comments: author: Ali Cheaito
body: [@Thomas Schlegel](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781483) - This was it! We enabled the html (legacy) in test and it worked. Thanks!


author: Thomas Schlegel
body: You're welcome, [@Ali Cheaito](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/388547)


Tags: html
Confluence JIRA filter - retrieve initiative issues w/JQL
Asked by David.Oberst:

Is it possible to use JQL in the Confluence JIRA Issue/Filter macro to display a table of all the issues of a Portfolio Initiative? [This thread](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/JQL-query-to-find-child-issues-of-Initiative/qaq-p/461409) seems to be creating a query in Portfolio itself \[ **issuekey in childIssuesOf("INIT-001") \],**but I can't seem to find equivalent JQL syntax that will work in the Confluence macro to retrieve the issues.

I can insert the initiative itself with the macro, and assuming all the issues also have the label "MyLabel", I can generate the table with a 'labels = "MyLabel" ' JQL clause. But I'd like to directly retrieve the initiative's issues.

This is cloud JIRA with Portfolio and Confluence on.


Answers:
author: AnnWorley
body: In Cloud it is not possible right now; in server it is as Roi Fine (Jira Product Manager) suggests in the thread you linked: [JQL query to find child issues of Initiative](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/JQL-query-to-find-child-issues-of-Initiative/qaq-p/461409).

Some folks posted workarounds on [Parent link should behave in the same way as epic link (i.e. forming a link in the background)](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JPOCLOUD-1663). Please comment or vote on the ticket to emphasize your use case.


Tags: advanced-roadmaps

cloud

confluence-cloud

jql
Confluence Start Page: How to replace content area of start page?
Asked by Udo Wieg?rtner:

How to replace the content area of the start page of a Confluence instance with some other page and keep the default sidebar, though?

I do know that I can make any Space homepage the starting page for the whole Confluence instance but in this case the default sidebar with "My Spaces" etc goes away, too, and I want to keep the default sidebar.


Answers:
author: Marc Dvorschak
body: Hi [@Udo Wieg?rtner](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1186616)!

If you're using Confluence Server you can change the dafault welcome message of the start page in the Confluence administration \>\> Global Templates and Blueprints. At the bottom of the page you find "System templates". There you can change the Default Welcome Message like any other page.

Greetings,

Marc

comments: author: Udo Wieg?rtner
body: Hi Marc,  
we tested your approach. It didn't solve our problem, though.  
Unfortunately your advice replaces only the "Welcome to Confluence" area on the right hand side. The main content area with "Recently Worked On" stays untouched.  
Is there a way to completely both areas with some other page?


author: Marc Dvorschak
body: The only other way I'm aware of is to change the global layout in the Confluence administration \>\> Look and feel \>\> Layouts \>\> Global Layout \>\> Create custom.

There you can change the Velocity template used to display the start page. But I have to say that I'm not an expert how to change the Velocity templates. The work in this area was done by a colleague of mine ;)

Maybe the Atlassian documentation can help:

[Customizing the Confluence Dashboard](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/customizing-the-confluence-dashboard-169117112.html)

[Customizing Site and Space Layouts](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/customizing-site-and-space-layouts-149374.html)

Greetings,

Marc


Tags: dashboard
Is Visual Studio 2010 (Isolated)/ Visual Studio 2010 Prerequisites Required on SQL server?
Asked by Kathryn Waring:

We have a Confluence installation with a separate server running the SQL database. Our vulnerability scanners have picked up a vulnerability in the Visual Studio 2010 (Isolated) and Visual Studio 2010 Prerequisites that is installed on our SQL server.

Nobody remembers installing it... can anyone confirm whether these features are required as part of a Confluence deployment?

Many thanks...

Kathryn


Answers:
author: Shawn Masters
body: Not required based on documentation

<https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/supported-platforms-207488198.html>

comments: author: Kathryn Waring
body: Many thanks!

Kathryn


Tags: confluence-server

server
CSS styling for SQL Query Macro - header text colour
Asked by K H:

Hey there,

I am having a huge problem changing the colour of the text for my column headers!

I'm using the Bob Swift SQL Query macro. Within this there is a space for styling columns and rows (see image A). I need to change the colour of the text (see image B) in my table header.

Can someone please tell me how to do this? I have searched the internet for help but can't find what I am looking for, how can I do this in the box provided? I do not know how to lead the code to specifically target the text.

I can answer any questions as best I can, but as you can tell I am new to CSS! Any help is greatly appreciated!

**Image A**

![question AC.JPG](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/22639i908843DE73B1CF76/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "question AC.JPG")

**Image B**

![question C.JPG](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/22641iA9C651DE2E267976/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "question C.JPG")

Thank you!

K


Answers:
author: Bill Bailey
body: Yes, their documentation assumes a lot of knowledge, is really sparse in this area -- and I am CSS literate. ;-) This page has more details for all table formatting.

<https://bobswift.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TBL/pages/9699337/Common+Table+Capabilities>

I am going to assume you want to modify the heading row. So you want to enter CSS code in the Row Styles field. Each format is just a list of CSS properties, separated by semicolons. Code for each row is separated by commas.

So the change the text color to white, enter

```
color:#FFFFFF;
```

If you want to change both color and font size for the heading row:

```
color:#FFFFFF;font-size: 18px;
```

If you wanted to change the format of the third row only

```
,,
```

```
color:#FFFFFF;font-size: 18px;
```

A good resource on CSS is:

<https://www.w3schools.com/Css/css_intro.asp>

Hope this helps!

comments: author: K H
body: Thank you Bill!

I have written a user macro with CSS styles to allow me to change what I need. It is good to know I can make these changes in the existing macros!

Thanks again,

K H


Tags: bob-swift

cloud

confluence-cloud

sql
Cant edit/insert macros- Cant delete sites, manage permissions etc
Asked by Tobias Halbach:

I have some issues with confluence.. If i try to insert/edit a macro i get the following alarm message "Error while generating placeholder. Is the server available?". This error also appears on different computers. Any ideas what the problem is and how to solve it?


Answers:
author: Meg Holbrook
body: I was having a lot of funky errors in Confluence yesterday as well. The status site is down right now, so I can't check to see if there are current incidents. Are you self-hosted or on cloud?

I'll keep checking and see what I can come up with:

<https://status.atlassian.com/>

comments: author: Tobias Halbach
body: Thanks for the fast answer. I don't know why, but the error does not occur anymore. :=)
How to select multiple rows in a table to perform formatting on multiple rows
Asked by Anubha Singh:

I am trying to format content in a table in Confluence, but, whenever I select multiple cells and apply formatting on the selected content, only the first selected cell is formatted.

This makes it very difficult to perform very simple formatting operations like- making the text bold, or changing the font color- on multiple cells.


Answers:
author: jbarr
body: Likely the worst product to ever be foisted upon us in the entire software world. Almost 4 years, still cannot select multiple cells to apply text formatting. I think this was a feature of Excel back in 1990.


author: Robert Perrin
body: [@AnnWorley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/502040) Where are we at with this fix? Why is it still plaguing me in 2024?


author: AnnWorley
body: Hi Anubha,

Thanks for bringing up this issue. I tested on my Confluence Cloud instance and I could select a whole row or multiple cells in a row and apply formatting. However, I could not select multiple cells in a column to apply formatting, as you report.

I found a suggestion ticket to improve the functionality: [Select columns or rows in a table to apply formatting](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-33572). Please comment or vote on it to communicate directly with the development team.

Best,

Ann

comments: author: Anubha Singh
body: Thanks [@AnnWorley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/502040) for your prompt response. I will certainly do that. I just need a bit more clarity, were you able to select multiple rows and apply the formatting or just one row at time?


author: AnnWorley
body: One row at a time :(

As soon as I selected more than one value in a single column it failed.


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud
Confluence Google Drive Connector
Asked by Chris Whitehead:

Hi all,

We're new to using Confluence and we are keen to get our Google Drives integrated into it so we can start embedding some files etc.

There seem to be 2 options for the Cloud version of Confluence and both are :

[Google Drive Connector for Confluence](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1214854/google-drive-connector-for-confluence) (Atlassian verified) {#toc-hId-1816392862}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Google Drive for Confluence](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1213092/google-drive-for-confluence) (Atlassian made) {#toc-hId--735764099}
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does anyone have experience in either of these free add-ons as the reviews seem a bit hit and miss for both? Is there another way of solving this requirement perhaps we're not aware of?

thanks!


Answers:
author: Eric Johnson
body: Am seeking the same solution. From the available options on the Atlassian Marketplace, there is also "Google Drive \& Docs for Confluence," which seems more robust but isn't free like the two you mention.

Have you made any further progress?

comments: author: Chris Whitehead
body: Eric,

The only progress so far has been through my own investigations, it seems there isn't a great deal of difference between the 2 (we are only looking at the free cloud options currently).

Some of the differences I have noticed though, on the official Atlassian option, there is a bug preventing documents from appearing if they have team sharing on when you embed them.

* <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-59617>

and in the draw.io option, if you embed a Sheet then you can't choose which tab is displayed by default, it always shows the first one.

In both it seems you can't edit either, you have to click to open them up in a new tab proper instead of editing whilst they are embedded.

Neither are being regularly supported/updated any more either as there have not been any responses to reviews of bugs reporting for 9 months or so. This could be because they are free and not cared about so much. Neither allows you to find the embedded files when you are performing a search in Confluence either.

I'm going to look into the paid for version more just as a comparison but I get the feeling, so far, that there won't be much difference.


author: Jeremy Noble
body: Yes. We use this app a lot and it's been spinning 'app not available' for an hour or so today. A lot of our Confluence pages draw from Google Drive and it's been very useful it would be pretty inconvenient if it became unreliable. Please let us know what you find.


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud