Is it possible to import spaces from Confluence 3.5.4 to OnDemand?
Asked by Caroline Paulic:

My ultimate goal is to import a few spaces (not the entire site) from my current Confluence version 3.5.4 to OnDemand. OnDemand says that the spaces to be imported need to be from version 5.3 or higher.

So I tried to download version 5.3, but I didn't see version 5.3 available for download, the highest version was 5.2. So I figured that might work, and I downloaded 5.2. I tried to import my 3.5 exports into 5.2, but it said that my space exports need to be version 5.0 before I can import them into 5.2. So I downloaded version 4.0, my thinking being that I could probably import my 3.5 data into 4.0, then export the spaces and import the 4.0 exported data into 5.0, then export and import again into 5.2, and then maybe I could export and import spaces into OnDemand.

Well, I tried importing my data into 4.0 and Confluence told me that I have to import from the same major version, so I can't import from 3.x to 4.x. Alright, well maybe I can just export the entire 3.5 site and import that into 4.0, because it seems like the import/export requirements are different for an entire site vs. a few spaces.

I tried exporting my 3.5 site and got an OutOfMemoryError, and I'm going to put in a support ticket for that, but am I even on the right track? Is there an easier way to do this? Any input that can be offered to point me in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks :)


Answers:
author: Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]
body: Yes, the right track will be to "upgrade" your confluence to 4.x first and then to 5.x. Space import from 3.x to 4.x won't work as you found out the hard way but the full import should work as it will do the upgrade.

OutOfMemoryError indicates that you don't have enough Heap allocated and you might be able to get around it just by increasing Heap.

See <https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFKB/Cannot+Create+XML+Backup+Due+to+OutOfMemory+Errors>

comments: author: Dave
body: The versions must match exactly for the space import to work, so be sure to download the OnDemand version of Confluence - <https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/download-od>


author: Caroline Paulic
body: I downloaded a trial Confluence 3.5 and cloned our existing Confluence. When I try to upgrade to 4.3, the upgrade dialog is telling me that my 3.5 installation directory is not a valid directory. Is this because it's just a trial version? How can I get around this?


author: Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]
body: Sounds like the best path to me.


author: Caroline Paulic
body: Well, here's a twist... the project that I am working on for my company is splitting off into its own mini company. Before the split, the entire company was using the same Confluence (3.5). Now that we've split off, we're trying to take our spaces from the old Confluence and put them into our own OnDemand Confluence. The other company does not wish to upgrade their Confluence at this time, so I can't upgrade the whole thing.

My current solution is to make a clone of the old 3.5 site and upgrade the clone, then export/import/delete spaces as needed, without touching the original 3.5 Confluence. Does this sound like the best path to take? I know the ideal situation would be to upgrade everyone's Confluence, but corporate isn't having it.


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud