Microblogging for Confluence

Share information, have conversations, write messages and updates

See the documentation for your Release

Confluence compatibility

Plugin5.35.45.55.65.75.85.95.106.06.16.26.3Data Center
Release 3.0(error)(error) (error) (error) (tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(question)(tick)
Release 2.5(error)(error) (error) (error) (tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)
Release 2.4(error)(error)(error)(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)
Release 2.3.3(error)(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)
Release 2.3(error)(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)
Release 2.2(error)(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)
Release 2.1(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)

New in 3.0: General configuration

Maximum height of Microblog post

 

To keep your microblog "micro" you are able to give a maximum height for every micropost and reply.

Every content higher than the configured value is cropped and can be unfolded.

(warning) The height is configured in pixel (not signs or words), because this would not work for images.

 

Post with cropped content

Without cropped content

 

 

Topic configuration

All microposts belong to a topic to improve the information structure of your microblog.

In the Confluence administration you can configure the topic structure under Microblog → Topics.

Create a topic

All topics belong to a Confluence space (this is important for attachments and permissions).

You create a topic by selecting a space and a name

(warning) You need to have at least one topic to be able to use the microblog.

Edit a topic

 You may change the name of a topic by clicking the little pen in the "Actions" column

New in 3.0: Move a topic

 

You are able to move a topic and all its microposts to another space.

  1. Click "Move topic" and a dialog appears
  2. Select a space and click "Move topic" again

(warning) If the target space has different permission than the old one, some users might not be able to edit or write new microposts.

(warning) Depending on the number microposts within the topic, this operation may take some time.

New in 3.0: Dissolve a topic

If you want to remove a topic there are two ways of dealing with the microposts within this topic.

  1. Click "Dissolve topic" and dialog appears (only if there are microposts within this topic)
  2. Choose how to deal with the included microposts
    1. Remove the topic and all its containing microposts
    2. Keep the microposts and move them to another topic
      1. Choose a topic to move the containing microposts to
  3. Click "Dissolve topic" again

(warning) If the target topic is in a different space with different permission than the old one, some users might not be able to edit or write new microposts.

(warning) Depending on the number microposts within the topic, the move operation may take some time.

Permissions configuration

 

In earlier versions of the Microblogging add-on, the permission to post or answer was directly tied to the permission to add pages to the respective space. Beginning with version 2.5, as an admin you now can select, which space permission you want the microblogging to be tied to:

  • Permission to add pages to the respective space (default)
  • Permission to add comments in the respective space
  • Permission to add blog posts to the respective space

The setting you choose here will apply to all spaces within your Confluence instance.

Mail Notification configuration

By default, your users can subscribe to a daily digest and receive all unread microposts once a day.

In the Confluence administration you can configure the daily digest under Microblog →Mail Notification.

You can disable or enable the daily digest.

You can set a default time for the digest to be sent (your users will be able to override this time).

The daily digest job

There is a scheduled job for sending out the microblog daily digest.

It runs every hour (the same interval the users can choose) and sends an email to every user who configured this hour to receive their digest.

You can disable the job or change the interval, but then your users won't get their information at their chosen time.

 

Space Admin 

Permissions

 

In earlier versions only a global Confluence admin was allowed to add, edit and delete topics and to delete other users' posts. Beginning with version 2.5 space admins can do so, too. While the global admin still finds the combined administration view within the general administration backend, as a space admin you now have an additional entry in your space tools. From here you can manage the topics for your space.

Also as a space admin you can now delete other users' posts within the topics of your space(s).

Topics

 

As space admin you are able to create, edit, move and dissolve topics for your space (see Topic configuration).

There's a tab in the space administration called "Microblog".

(warning) For moving a topic or microposts to another space, you need space admin permission for both the source and target space.

Adding microblog timelines 

Adding a timeline to a wiki page

For this information please refer to the User Guide: Inserting the macro / Inserting a timeline in a wiki page.

Adding a timeline to the Confluence wiki dashboard 

  1. Go to the general configuration of your Confluence instance.
  2. Click on "Global Templates and Blueprints" in the menu on the lefthand side
  3. At the very bottom of this page you'll find a section called "System templates", and under it the entry "Default Welcome Message". This is what you are looking for. Click "Edit".
  4. Now you can edit this template for your dashboard as you like. Inserting a microblog timeline works exactly the same as on any other wiki page and is explained here:

    Inserting the macro / Inserting a timeline in a wiki page

 

Adding a global timeline to the Confluence wiki dashboard (5.8 or older)

This guide assumes that you use the Confluence Default Theme and that you have admin rights to change the layout of the Confluence dashboard.

  1. Go to the "Confluence Admin".
  2. Click on "Layouts" in the left menu.
  3. Edit the Global Layout.

  4. Add the snippet $helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{globaltimeline:source=global}") where you want the global timeline to be displayed on your dashboard.

    ...
<div class="dashboard-group left">
	<div class="dashboard-item">
    	$helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{globaltimeline:source=global}")
    </div>
...

    We recommend adding the microblog macro at the top of the left column so that people can stay on top of important information in your company.

  5. With the snippet you just added, users will have to choose a topic for each new micropost. If you want to choose a default topic, replace {globaltimeline:source=global} with {globaltimeline:source=global|defaultTopic=<TopicID>}, where <TopicID> is the ID of the topic you want as default. You can find the topic IDs in the topic configuration.
  6. Save the Global Layout. On the dashboard you should now see the global timeline.

Adding a space timeline to the Confluence wiki dashboard (5.8 or older)

  1. Follow the instructions under "Adding a global timeline to the Confluence wiki dashboard", but use the following snippet:
    $helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{globaltimeline:source=space|defaultSpace=<SpaceKey>}") where <SpaceKey> is the space you want to have displayed initially.
  2. If you want to choose a default topic for your users, add |defaultTopicInSpace=<TopicID> after <SpaceKey>. The topic ID must be within the chosen space.
  3. You can also restrict the available timeline filters to the chosen space by adding |restrictTopicListToSpace=true. The sidebar and topic selection dropdown will now only display topics in the chosen space.

Adding a topic timeline to the Confluence wiki dashboard (5.8 or older)

  1. Follow the instructions under "Adding a global timeline to the Confluence wiki dashboard", but use the following snippet:
    $helper.renderConfluenceMacro("{globaltimeline:source=topic|topic=<TopicID>}") where <TopicID> is the topic you want to have displayed initially.
  2. You can also restrict the available timeline filters to the space containing the chosen topic by adding |restrictTopicListToSpace=true after <TopicID>. The sidebar and topic selection dropdown will now only display topics in this space.

 

Attachments handling

Before version 2.2, files were attached to the space home page of the selected topic. This could lead to a large number of attachments to this page and produce long loading times. Since release 2.2, files are directly attached to microposts and therefore only the needed content is loaded, which improves performance. Furthermore, there is no need for a space homepage.

(warning) We don't provide an upgrade task. If you want to keep old attachments of microposts in a given topic, don't delete the attachments from the corresponding space homepage (or move it).

(warning) Unfortunately you can't delete certain attachments. Only deleting a micropost will remove all files.

MySQL Database Issues with Emoticons

MySQL < 5.5 has problems with some Emoticons which use a utf8mb4 Character Set (4-Byte UTF-8 Unicode Encoding), see example. This leads to problems saving a micropost and causes an exception in the logs. Your users will only see that nothing happens, so they may be confused. We are having difficulties catching the exception and displaying a meaningful error message.

You may see something like this in the logs:

ERROR [...] [...] logExceptions Incorrect string value: '\xF0\x9F\x91\xBD a...' for column 'TITLE' at row 1
 -- referer: https://... | url: /rest/microblog/1.0/micropost | userName: admin

See also Charset MySQL 5.0 and Charset MySQL 5.5.

 

Upgrading from version 1.x to 2.x

Important general upgrade notes from version 1.x to 2.x

When upgrading the Microblogging plugin, a default topic will be created for each space that contains microposts. These topics will initially have the same name as the spaces they belong to.

All existing microposts will be migrated to these new default topics. Unfortunately, this can take quite some time (about half an hour for 1000 microposts).

The Confluence log will contain periodic log messages at the INFO log level during the upgrade. It is highly recommended to set the displayed log level to DEBUG for the package net.seibertmedia in Confluence before upgrading (see https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Configuring+Logging).

While upgrading, the microblog will not be fully usable. We recommend installing the upgrade during off-peak hours and disabling the plugin during the upgrade process.

Upgrade from version 1.x, 2x. to 2.5

Important general upgrade notes from version 1.x, 2.x to 2.5

The last 500 microposts will be indicated - this may take some time. To see all microposts, the whole systems needs to be reindicated, which causes a downtime of Confluence. 

Upgrade to version 3.0

Important general upgrade notes to version 3.0

The last 500 microposts will be indicated - this may take some time. To see all microposts, the whole systems needs to be reindicated, which causes a downtime of Confluence. 

 

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This content was last updated on 07/07/2017.

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