Microblogging for Confluence

Share information, have conversations, write messages and updates

See the documentation for your Release

Confluence compatibility

Plugin5.35.45.55.65.75.85.95.106.0
Release 2.5(error)(error) (error) (error) (tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)
Release 2.4(error)(error)(error)(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)
Release 2.3.3(error)(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)
Release 2.3(error)(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)
Release 2.2(error)(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)
Release 2.1(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)
Release 2.0(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)
Release 1.5(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)
Release 1.3(error)(tick)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)
Release 1.0(error)(tick)(tick)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)(error)

 

Configurable Microblogging permissions

 

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.

 

 

Admin permissions for Space Admin

 

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).

 

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.

  • You can create as many topics as you like.
  • Each topic is associated with a space.
  • You can change topic names.
  • You need to have at least one topic to be able to use the microblog.

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.

 

Daily digest 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 → Daily digest.

  • 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.

 

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

 

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This content was last updated on 01/14/2020.

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