youngmon/atlassian-qna huggingface dataset:
How can I group favourites (favorites) in Confluence ?
Asked by Paula Dasch:

Hi.

I am looking for a way for my users to group their favourites in Confluence. I just can find documentation about creating and deleting favourites. But if you have a lot of favourites, there seems to be the desire to sort or group them somehow - I thing to have the ability to handle them better.

I could not find a plugin for that issue either.

Thanks in advance for any helpful answers

Best regards

Paula


Answers:
author: Davin Studer
body: There is no built-in way to do this, but it could be done with a macro, or probably even a user macro. Design-wise you would probably want to group them by user labels. Users could apply labels such as my:tools, my:todo, my:projects, my:stuff, etc to their favorite pages and then the favorites would be grouped by the user label ... I think that would be the easiest way to do it and utilize as much of the existing framework as possible.

FYI, really favorites are just pages with the user label my:favourite(British spelling) applied to them.

comments: author: Paula Dasch
body: Thank you for your helpful answer

Best regards


author: Paula Dasch
body: I think Atlassian said somewhere that the ability to use my:labels is deprecated. That means, in some future release of Confluence it won't be possible to use private labels any more.

comments: author: Davin Studer
body: Hmmm. You are correct. Ugh! I quite like the personal labels.
PDF sections
Asked by Michael Badent:

Hello @all,

When exporting a PDF the sections are being positioned underneath each other, when exporting a single page.

Could anyone tell me how to avoid this? In my case i get a PDF where the resulting "column" of the sections is very slim and 2/3 of the page width are white.

Thanks a lot

Michael.


Answers:
author: Steffen Heller
body: I guess you want **columns** that appear side by side instead of underneath each other!? (The section itself doesn't do anything and is just a container for the columns inside of it)

At [https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/196798/how-to-preserve-columns-sections-when-exporting-to-pdf](/questions/196798/how-to-preserve-columns-sections-when-exporting-to-pdf) you find the CSS that I use and that works for **me**. Seems that it doesn't work for everyone though...


author: Bruna Griebeler
body: Hi Michael,

I believe you can do this using some [Advanced PDF Customizations](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Advanced+PDF+Export+Customisations) with CSS.

Hope it helps!

comments: author: Michael Badent
body: Hello,

I already tried some modifications on this way. I even was successful, but not in the section theme....

A CSS code for an excample would be perfect.

Thanks a lot,

Michael


Tags: confluence-administration
Error contacting server on Recently Viewed list
Asked by Mick Davidson:

Morning,

Can anyone tell me why I get this message when trying to create a link?

"There was an error communicating with the server, please try again later."

I've had this in two different Confluence setups in two different companies. Is this an internal problem, or an Atlassian one (eg, a known bug)?

If you're using it to create links that automatically update, then it's a major pain if you can't use it.

Cheers.


Answers:
author: Matthew J. Horn
body: I would try two things:

1. re-index the server
2. re-start the server

I haven't seen this particular issue, but I can imagine it is related either to the index or maybe a memory issue.


Tags: error

recently-viewed
PDF stylesheet date in footer
Asked by Michael Badent:

Hello @all,

could someone please give me a little help how to get the printdate in the footer (CSS code for the style sheeteditor)

Thanks a lot

Michael.


Answers:
author: Steffen Heller
body: Hi Michael,

the key for this is to find a solution that enables you to inserts the **current date** on a confluence page or in the PDF Space Export Footer. But there is no ready-made solution!

There are different approaches with user macros, plugins, some javascript or a combination of this. At [https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/86518/current-date-macro-in-confluence](/questions/86518/current-date-macro-in-confluence) you find some ideas.


author: Sebastien MARTI
body: Hi all,

is someone has solved this point ?

I need to add the current date and time to the footer of PDF exported page...

Regards,

Seb

comments: author: Cristina Martin
body: I'd need to achieve exactly the same thing so any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Cris


author: HosseinA
body: Hi,

Do you mean that you wish to print the date in the footer of the pages in confluence? therefore if you export the page it is going to be in the PDF export as well.

Regards,

Hossein


Tags: confluence-administration
Balsamiq plugin for Conflunce - how to update version?
Asked by Maxim Salnikov:

Hello!  
I use Atlassian Confluence hosted solution and Balsamiq plugin there. I noticed that version of Balsamiq for Confluence is too old, it's even older than one you presented in May 2013 (there are no dashed lines for example). How can I update it? Should I write to Balsamiq about this issue? Thank you


Answers:
author: Jeison
body: No worries, Maxim :)

I've filed the improvement request I mentioned, so make sure you vote for it and add yourself as a watcher to keep track of the process: <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-30740>

Also, feel free to leave your thoughts there. Hopefully we'll see the new version hit OnDemand soon.

Hope this helps!


author: Maxim Salnikov
body: Thank you! I'll be watcher of this task.


author: Maxim Salnikov
body: Oops sorry, I use both products but I use Balsamiq only in Confluence, so my question is about it (I edited my initial request).


author: Jeison
body: Hello Maxim!

Which plugin exactly do you want upgraded? You mentioned you use Confluence, but it seems that you want Balsamiq for JIRA upgraded, so I'm a little confused. Note that Balsamiq for JIRA and Balsamiq for Confluence are not the same plugin. Well, the best way to address this is to file an improvement request with Atlassian, which I can happilly do for you if you wish. Just let me know which plugin you need, and its version :)

Jeison


Tags: balsamiq

cloud

confluence-cloud

version
How to create on demand confluence page approval workflow
Asked by srinivasan radhakrishnan:

Hi,

How to create a approval workflow for on demand confluence?

Please share your knowledge.

Thanks.


Answers:
author: Abdoulaye Kindy Diallo
body: The function is provided by a plugin which is yet to be available in OnDemand as shown here: <https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.comalatech.workflow>


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud
How do I set the permission that defines who can create spaces?
Asked by Siddheshwar mhetre:

I want the "**create space**" button to be unvisible to a perticular user or group, So how I can set the permission for that?


Answers:
author: RambanamP
body: remove users/group on **Create Space** permission on global permission

check this document to manage global permission

<https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Global+Permissions+Overview>

comments: author: Siddheshwar mhetre
body: Thanks rambanam, I have tried to remove permissions using Global Permission, but still it is showing Create button on Dashboard of user.


author: RambanamP
body: There are two types of space in Confluence: 'site' spaces and 'personal' spaces

1. to create/revoke personal space permission you have to check "**Personal Space**" permission on global permission

2. to create/revoke site spaces permission then you have to check "**Create Space(s)** " permission on global permission


author: Siddheshwar mhetre
body: Hey **[rambanam](../../users/853/rambanam-prasad/),** I made both spaces **Personal Space** and **Create space** to be uncheck, but still its showing to user.

comments: author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: It sounds like it might be easier to approach this from the other end.

Could you go into Admin -\> Global permissions and list out every group and person who has a tick in the "create space" column.

Then, look at the user who is getting the option, and list out their groups...


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: You don't. The permission is inclusive, not exclusive. You allow groups X, Y and Z to create spaces. To exclude someone from creating spaces, you have to make sure they are not in group X, Y or Z.

Rambanam's link is the one to follow for the details, but you need to think about your group structure. Most places simply create a group called "space creators" and put authorised people into it.
Macro loading Error
Asked by amy kim:

Recently Updated Confluece 5.2.3.

When Using the Info Marco Error Message like these,

**"loading has been an error loading the macro browser**

**Please try again or see your system administrater. "**

What is the problem? And What should do adminstrater?

Give me some Information about this.

Thank you.


Answers:
author: Amalia
body: This error may be caused by a number of different things. I would recommend to:

* Update ALL add-ons in **Confluence Admin \> Manage Add-ons**
* Remove ALL incompatible add-ons
* [Clear plugin cache](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/How+to+Clear+Confluence+Plugins+Cache)
* Enable safe mode to see if any third-party plugins are interferring
* Try to see using Firebug or Developer Tool (F12 in your browser) to see the HTTP request error


author: amy kim
body: Thank you for your help.

I didn't know how can I accept the answer \& resolve the question.

Let me show you the way of this.


author: amy kim
body: Specific User has been occur this problem as soon as Version Update.


author: amy kim
body: Showing answer about the Same problem . But Not understanding. Plz more detail solution.
Do I need new license to upgrade to Confluence 5.0
Asked by Nick Williams:

Currently we're running Confluence 4.3.7 and are wanting to upgrade to 5.2.4. Our license expires August 2014 and I was wanted to know if anything needed to happen license wise before we make the upgrade. Will our currently license work fine with 5.0?

Thanks


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Yes, you'll be able to upgrade to any version of Confluence released before August 2014.

I don't expect the licence file format will change either (it did between 2.something and 3.0 I think, but even then it was just a case of "licence is valid, please give me the version in the new format")

comments: author: Nick Williams
body: Sounds good. Thanks!


author: Theinvisibleman
body: Hi Nick,

Seeing as your license actually expires at August 2014, you should have no problems upgrading your Confluence to 5.2.4 :)  

A general guideline to keep in mind when considering upgrading and licenses is this : If the version of Confluence is released AFTER your license expires, then you won't be able to upgrade to then next version properly.

For example, your license expires at August 2014, and if it indeed expires, then you wouldn't be able to upgrade to a version that is released after August 2014


Tags: confluence-administration
Redirect the existing on demand confluence URI
Asked by srinivasan radhakrishnan:

Hi ,

I need to redirect the existing confluence URI. Example now my confluence URL is "https://example.atlassian.net/wiki"

I need to redirect that existing URL to "https://demo.atlassian.net/wiki", how can i achieve my goal?

Please share your knowledge.


Answers:
author: JohnA
body: Hi Srinivasan,

As Nic correctly points out, you cannot change the URL of your OnDemand instance after it has been created and we don't allow customisations on the platform so it wouldn't be possible to configure a redirect either. If you desperately need to change the URL then the only solution would be to configure a new OnDemand instance with the desired URL, migrate the content from the old instance to the new one and then shut down the old instance and continue with the new instance on the new URL.

All the best,  
John

comments: author: srinivasan radhakrishnan
body: Hi John,

Thanks for your update.

I want to know whether it is possible to DNS mapping for On Demand/Hosted confluence ?

In other words, we will provide links with our company website ex. <http://mycompanay.com>/confluence to customer, that link should redirect to the on demand/hosted confluence ( ex. <https://mycompany.atlassian.net> ).

Thanks.


author: srinivasan radhakrishnan
body: Hi John,

Thanks for your update.

I want to know whether it is possible to DNS mapping for On Demand/Hosted confluence ?

In other words, we will provide links with our company website ex. <http://mycompanay.com/confluence1> to customer, that link should open the on demand/hosted confluence page items ( ex. <https://mycompany.atlassian.net> ).

Thanks.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Two things.

First, do you really mean "redirect"? That's a simple function that means "when person lands on this page, take them to another page". Or do you mean that you want to relocate the whole service to a different place?

Second, the url implies you're on OnDemand. You can't change that url, if memory serves.
Why does multiexcept plugin insert a before and after?
Asked by Richard, Jr. Rabil:

When I insert a multiexcerpt into a wiki page, it seems that the macro automatically creates a \<p\>\</p\> before and after it. Does anyone know why this is the case and whether or not those p tags can be removed? They're adding unwanted before and after space in a table I'm constructing.


Answers:
author: BillA
body: When constructing the editor we had to allow users to be able get their cursors above, below and between block elements on the page. For example, if you had an excerpt macro at the very top of your page, you otherwise would have no way of getting your cursor above the macro without the empty \<p\>. The empty \<p\>'s you see when editing should get removed when you save the page. It is possible that the multi-excerpt macro is adding its own empty paragraphs but it's also standard editor functionality on all block macros for the reasons stated above.


author: Matthew J. Horn
body: A lot of macros do this. There are some tricks to removing the extra \<p\> tags, including:

* Using JavaScript to extract them after page loads
* Piping the output of the macro through another macro that extracts the tags

Sometimes these work, sometimes these don't. If you search this site, you'll find examples that illustrate both of these approaches.

hth,

matt

comments: author: Richard, Jr. Rabil
body: Thanks, Matt. I'll try your suggestions and see if I can find a workaround.


author: Brendan Patterson
body: Hi Everyone,

Apologies just saw this. The MultiExcerpt AddOn does not contribute \<p\> or other extraneous elements. Confluence did it! :) I've tested this many times but most recently on Confluence 5.4.2 and 4.9.2

I made a video demo! :)

[](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohT2iBJ3kU4)<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohT2iBJ3kU4>

thanks,

Brendan

p.s. By the way the "MultiExcerpt for OnDemand" is now available! Check it out!

<http://bit.ly/multiexcerpt-ondemand>


author: Richard, Jr. Rabil
body: Thanks for the explanation, Bill. That design rationale makes sense. Unfortunately I think the multi-excerpt macro is adding its own empty paragraphs in this case, and is thus throwing off the padding and alignment in a rather obvious way, so I'm still hoping to find a workaround.


author: MB
body: Did you try asking authors of [that plugin](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/biz.artemissoftware.confluence.multiexcerpt.MultiExcerptMacro), by clicking on the [Support and Issues link](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/biz.artemissoftware.confluence.multiexcerpt.MultiExcerptMacro/version/77/support)?


author: Richard, Jr. Rabil
body: Just submitted a ticket to them. Thanks for the suggestion. If / when I get an answer, I will post it here.
Faulty User Macros after upgrading to Confluence 5.2
Asked by B_ Normann P_ Nielsen:

My User Macro's fails after upgrading to Confluence 5.2 (from a 5.1.x).

All macro's are marked as "There are user macros without any metadata configured in their template. They have been highlighted below. For these macros to be available for use in content they require parameter information. "

Which are not correct - all worked previously. And they all render correct in the UI

Editing a macro on a page gives a similar information regarding "No Macro Data"


Answers:
author: B_ Normann P_ Nielsen
body: Root cause was never found with Atlassian Support (Refer to [CSP-108780](https://support.atlassian.com/browse/CSP-108780))

This has something to do with Plugins or a combo of Plugins - disabling all plugins did not solve it, but going into safe mode, rebooting and enabling plugins afterwards one by one - the problem did not show up again.....

As the enablement of plugins also included a cleanup, I never got back to the original state 100%


Tags: confluence-administration

moderators
How can you read active directory data from Confluence?
Asked by ION Information Systems:

Hi,

I want to be able to extract Active directory information such as names, and telephone numbers on Confluence. Is this possible and if so how can I do this?

Cheers,

Gaj


Answers:
author: ION Information Systems
body: Thanks Tigo. We will probably look to get a job to sync the data off active directory onto a MS SQL database and then get Confluence to read that to get the required information.

Something similar to <http://www.bravesoft.com/blog/?p=24>

We were not looking to link the active directory details to a confluence account but just the ability to view employee data on the AD via confluence Cheers, Gaj.


author: Tiago Comasseto
body: Hi Gaj,

All user information in Confluence is stored into the tables cwd_user and cwd_user_attributes, you can get the information you want querying those tables.

Cheers

comments: author: ION Information Systems
body: Hi Tiago,

Thanks for the reply but that's not what I'm after. I want to be able to get the telephone numbers, extensions and other fields which the Active Directory has and be able to read that on Confluence. I just saw his <https://bobswift.atlassian.net/wiki/display/ACLI/How+to+extract+data+from+Active+Directory> but I'm wondering if there is a better way of having some sort of data source to active directy and then use that connection on Confluence to retireve the data.

Cheers,

Gaj


author: Tiago Comasseto
body: Hi Gaj,

I'm afraid we don't have an alternative for this currently, although there's already a feature request for this <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-5286> however it's not implemented yet.

Cheers
Searching within a PowerPoint file.
Asked by bennoll:

Is there a way to search the text within a particular PowerPoint attachment in Confluence?

We have some large PPTX files in our system. While the global search functionality will let us find any docs that contain a particular keyword, we don't seem to have any way of jumping to the matched text when viewing the document within Confluence. The Confluence viewer renders the PowerPoint slides as static graphics, so they're not searchable using the browser's built-in find command.

Is there a way around this? Perhaps an add-on that allows for search within the document, or one that renders the PowerPoint as text so that we can simply use the browser's find functionality?

This is a crucial issue for us, and one that's prompting our stakeholders to look for a different software solution to replace our Confluence install.


Answers:
author: urachakonda
body: We too are desperately looking for a solution for this problem.


author: Devandrew
body: Yeah, it should work. If you're still having problems, one workaround might be to convert the powerpoint file to a PDF and use the Use the PDF [View File macro option in Confluence](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Embedding+PowerPoint+Presentations+in+a+Page).

comments: author: bennoll
body: The View File macro still has the same issue with PDFs as with Powerpoint: it renders them as non-searchable JPEGs rather than as text. PDFs are a better option in general though since they're able to be opened directly within the browser, at which point the user can search to their heart's content.

Forcing our users and clients to convert their files every time they want to attach something isn't a practical workaround in any case.


author: RianA
body: Hi Ben, by right it should be possible with Confluence. For more information please take a look at [this documentation](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Searching+Confluence#SearchingConfluence-Searchingthecontentofattachments).

comments: author: bennoll
body: That's just documenting the global search I mentioned above. I can use that functionality to find a particular Powerpoint file, but I can't search within the file once I've navigated to the appropriate page.

If I have a 50-page Powerpoint file, Confluence's search functionality will be able to tell me that it contains a particular search term, but I'm going to have to read through the entire document page-by-page if I want to see the term in use. Either that or download the file, which isn't always an option.
Publishing process approach
Asked by Rhyne Armstrong:

This is going to be rather difficult to explain, but here goes:

We have created 10000 articles for our Knowledgebase, all pre-numbered so we can continue our naming/numbering scheme. These articles have no label, so are not included when we search from the front-end of the space.

When a user wants to create a new article, they are 'given' the next article in order and then changes the name and content. The link to the article adds the kbdraft label.

When the user is ready to publish, they click the publish button. This is where the problem arises.

For some reason, when we attempt to remove the kbdraft label and add the kb label through the SQL database, the system doesn't see the changes until we restart the server.

What we want to happen is:

1. The labels are changed, taking it from the draft state to the published state.

2. The publish button goes away.

3. There needs to be a system to back out, to return the page to the template state and remove all labels.

4. The people watching the space should be notified when someone publishes an article.

Any help on any of this? I have been working on this for so long that I can't keep it straight in my own head.


Answers:
author: Bob Swift (personal)
body: Using SQL operations on the Confluence database is a bad idea. You should use standard Confluence interfaces for making changes. Use user macros, plugins, remote APIs, Confluence CLI or similar to make changes "legally".

comments: author: Rhyne Armstrong
body: Thank you for pointing us in this direction. I think our developers are so SQL oriented that they didn't look long enough at built-in solutions to make this work. We have 85% of this working nicely.


author: Matthew J. Horn
body: I've found that you don't need to restart Confluence for label changes to take effect. What you DO need to do, though, is wait about 10 minutes or so. I think it has to do with caching and re-indexing. Can you run a test and change the label and then come back about 10 to 15 minutes later to see if it's updated?


author: JohnA
body: Hi Rhyne,

I'm not responsible for managing a knowledge base so hopefully others with more experience will share their tips for doing this, I just wanted to chip in and say that it is expected behaviour that Confluence requires a restart after changes in the database.

However, so as not to leave you a completely useless comment, have you considered using any plugins to help develop an effective workflow for this? I found the following two plugins that might be useful for you, I know that the AdHoc Canvas plugin is even used by our Technical Writers for managing and publishing documentation so it might give you some more options for achieving what you're trying to do:

<https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.adaptavist.confluence.labeltools>

<https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.comalatech.adhoccanvas>

All the best,  
John