3. 2

4. Preparing for Confluence 4.0
Ryan Thomas
Confluence Developer, Atlassian
@hobos_delight
2

5. About Me
Sydney
3

6. About Me
• Developer on the
Confluence Team Sydney
• Working on 4.0 since
January 2010
• Managing ecosystem
integration for 4.0
• Deployed 4.0 to our
internal instances 3

7. Agenda
1. Administrative changes
2. Case study
3. Changes from a users
perspective
4

8. Background
• Project started in • Confluence 4.0 EAP
December 2009 now available
• Internal dogfooding • Your chance to try out
since August 2010 the new editor
• Used on all internal • Atlassian uses it every
Confluence instances single day
5

9. Don’t Worry!
6

10. Don’t Worry!
6

11. The Road To 4.0
• The biggest release of Confluence to date
7

12. The Road To 4.0
• The biggest release of Confluence to date
• New Rich Text Editor
7

13. The Road To 4.0
• The biggest release of Confluence to date
• New Rich Text Editor
• New Storage Format
7

14. The Road To 4.0
• The biggest release of Confluence to date
• New Rich Text Editor
• New Storage Format
• New Remote API
7

15. The Road To 4.0
• The biggest release of Confluence to date
• New Rich Text Editor
• New Storage Format
• New Remote API
• We need to get it right - you need to be happy
7

16. The Road To 4.0
• We take your content and ‘migrate’ it to the 4.0
format; XHTML
3.x Upgrade 4.0
wiki-markup Process XHTML
8

17. Why The Change?
• Most reliable editor we have to
date
• Facilitated by the new storage
format
• Richer editing experience -
WYSIWYG
• An overall better experience for
9
the user

18. Why The Change?
• Most reliable editor we have to
date
• Facilitated by the new storage
format
• Richer editing experience -
WYSIWYG
• An overall better experience for
9
the user

19. What Do You Gain?
• Richer editing experience
• Reliability
• Early detection of content issues
• Error-free pages
• A solid foundation for future growth, to build the most
voted features you have requested
10

20. Macro Placeholders
• What is it?
• A visual representation of a macro in the editor
• Why?
• You told us macros were hard to use for your
business users
• A richer editing experience
11

21. Macro Placeholders
12

22. Macro Placeholders
12

23. Macro Placeholders
12

24. Macro Placeholders
12

25. Property Panels
• Common operations
• Images
• Can be extended by
plugin developers
13

26. Property Panels
• Common operations
• Images
• Can be extended by
plugin developers
13

27. Property Panels
• Common operations
• Images
• Can be extended by
plugin developers
13

28. Property Panels
• Better interaction for users
• Plugins can provide a richer
experience
13

29. What About Plugins?
• We maintain backwards
compatibility with most plugins
• 4 new editor plugin points
• Formatting menu, image
placeholder, property panel,
insert menu
• New APIs for all of these
14

30. Updated Plugins
• All Confluence bundled plugins
• Working closely with partners to take advantage of the
new plugin points
• Tutorials and documentation
http://atlss.in/confluence4
15

31. How Do We Do It?
• Provide a seamless transition to 4.0
• Atlassian relies on many 3rd party plugins that could
not be disabled
• We had to have a solution that allowed 3.x macros to
function in Confluence 4
16

32. How Do We Do It?
• Confluence 3.x macros are migrated
• Wrapped in a Wiki-Markup macro if they have not been
upgraded
• These use the Wiki-Markup placeholder in the editor
• Rendered output will be the same as 3.x
17

33. How Do They Look?
18

34. How Do They Look?
3.5
18

35. How Do They Look?
3.5
4.0
18

36. How Do They Look?
3.5
4.0
4.0
Upgraded
18

37. How Do They Look?
3.5
4.0
4.0
Upgraded
18

38. How Do They Look?
3.5
4.0
4.0
Upgraded
18

39. User Macros
• Only available in the macro browser
• Need to add parameter definitions
• Administrator Only options
• Can be updated now in Confluence 3.4
• Documentation
http://atlss.in/confluence4
19

40. User Macros
19

41. User Macros
19

42. 5 Tips For Preparing Your
Environment
20

43. 5 Tips For Preparing Your
Environment
20

44. 5 Tips For Preparing Your
Environment
1. Replicate your current environment
20

45. 5 Tips For Preparing Your
Environment
1. Replicate your current environment
2. Verify your plugins
20

46. 5 Tips For Preparing Your
Environment
1. Replicate your current environment
2. Verify your plugins
3. Prepare your user macros
20

47. 5 Tips For Preparing Your
Environment
1. Replicate your current environment
2. Verify your plugins
3. Prepare your user macros
4. Gather feedback from selected users
20

48. 5 Tips For Preparing Your
Environment
1. Replicate your current environment
2. Verify your plugins
3. Prepare your user macros
4. Gather feedback from selected users
5. Don’t update your production system
with the EAP
20

49. Review
• Macro placeholders and property panels
• Plugin compatibility
• User macros
• Confluence 4.0 EAP
21

50. Case Studies
22

51. How Did Atlassian Do It?
• We dog-food all of our software
• Confluence 4.0 is no exception
23

52. Atlassian - What?
• ~ 350 users
• 4 internal Confluence systems
• Largest database ~ 60Gb
• Business Critical Systems
24

53. Atlassian - How?
• Staged rollout from least to most critical systems
• Largest database took ~ 11 minutes to migrate to 4.0
• BodyContent table grew in size:
• From ~ 400Mb to ~ 820Mb
• Expected due to verbosity of new storage format
• No training was provided to any of our users
25

54. Atlassian - Why?
• Gather user feedback
• Editor
• UI design
• Removal of wiki-markup
• To make another kick-ass release!
26

55. Atlassian - Feedback
• We got lots of feedback
27

56. Atlassian - Feedback
27

57. Atlassian - Feedback
27

58. 28

59. • Tested Confluence 4 with four customers:
• The Samaritans
• Leading UK Investment Bank
• UK Government
• University of Massachusetts
28

60. • A mixture of Windows and Linux servers
• A cross-section of their 2000 customers
• From hard-core wiki-markup users
• To casual volunteers
29

61. 30

62. “ Wiki auto-formatted text is awesome. This just
made my life so much easier!
”
30

63. “ I love how everything can happen so easily in the
editor; it encourages newer, better ways of
working.
”
30

64. “ The biggest criticism users have is recognising the
difference between Edit and Preview.
”
30

65. Review
• Atlassian using Confluence 4.0 everyday
• 4 sites testing with Adaptavist
• Generally good feedback from all levels of users
31

66. Users
32

67. Users
32

68. Users
• How do you prepare your users for Confluence 4?
• How can you communicate the changes to them?
32

69. Documentation
• Documentation for
• Users
• Admins
• Plugin Developers
• http://atlss.in/confluence4
33

70. Whats New Dialog
• The Problem - Showing users what has changed in an
upgrade
• Released in Confluence 3.5
• Updated with new content for Confluence 4.0
34

71. Whats New Dialog
34

72. New Rich Text Editor
35

73. New Rich Text Editor
35

74. Wiki Auto-Formatting
• For the wiki-markup fans
• Fast editing experience
• Keep your existing wiki-markup skills
36

75. Wiki Auto-Formatting
3.5 4.0 Result
37

76. Wiki Auto-Formatting
h1. My Heading
3.5 4.0 Result
37

77. Wiki Auto-Formatting
h1. My Heading h1. My Heading My Heading
3.5 4.0 Result
37

78. Wiki Auto-Formatting
h1. My Heading h1. My Heading My Heading
Some *bold* Text
3.5 4.0 Result
37

79. Wiki Auto-Formatting
h1. My Heading h1. My Heading My Heading
Some *bold* Text Some *bold* Text Some bold Text
3.5 4.0 Result
37

80. Wiki Auto-Formatting
h1. My Heading h1. My Heading My Heading
Some *bold* Text Some *bold* Text Some bold Text
:D
3.5 4.0 Result
37

81. Wiki Auto-Formatting
h1. My Heading h1. My Heading My Heading
Some *bold* Text Some *bold* Text Some bold Text
:D :D
3.5 4.0 Result
37

82. Wiki Auto-Formatting
h1. My Heading h1. My Heading My Heading
Some *bold* Text Some *bold* Text Some bold Text
:D :D
||Heading1||Heading2||
3.5 4.0 Result
37

83. Wiki Auto-Formatting
h1. My Heading h1. My Heading My Heading
Some *bold* Text Some *bold* Text Some bold Text
:D :D
||Heading1||Heading2|| ||Heading1||Heading2||
3.5 4.0 Result
37

84. Insert Wiki Markup
• Enter wiki-markup into the editor
• Why?
• Script output
• Offline note taking
38

85. Insert Wiki Markup
38

86. Insert Wiki Markup
38

87. Improved Macros
• Macro Placeholders
• Image Placeholders
• Property Panel
• Plugin Points
39

88. Improved Macros
39

89. Improved Macros
39

90. Review
• Documentation
• Whats New Dialog
• Wiki Auto-Formatting
• Improved Macros
40

91. Get Started Today
41

92. Get Started Today
• Download the Confluence 4 EAP
• Update your User Macros
• Check out the documentation:
http://atlss.in/confluence4
• Send us your feedback
• Plugin developers; get ready for
AtlasCamp 2011
41

93. Questions?
Ryan Thomas
http://atlss.in/confluence4
42