This page last changed on Dec 07, 2009 by ggaskell.

This page provides an overview of Confluence's drag-and-drop feature and details on how to set up this feature in Confluence.

On this page:

Drag-and-Drop Overview

Confluence's drag-and-drop functionality allows you to drag files onto your browser to attach them to your Confluence pages or blog posts. With the drag-and-drop feature, you can:

  1. Attach multiple files onto a page or blog post when viewing its attachments list. See Attaching Files to a Page for more information.

  2. Attach multiple files onto a page or blog post when in view mode. See Attaching Files to a Page for more information.

  3. Attach multiple files onto a page or blog post when in edit mode. See Rich Text Editor Overview for more information.

  4. Embed Office Documents (including Office 2007 files) and PDF's when in edit mode. See Displaying Office Files in Confluence for more information.

  5. Embed or attach multiple images into a page or blog post when in edit mode. See Inserting an Image for more information.

  6. Cancel individual file uploads.

Setting Up the Drag-and-Drop Feature

Requirements for Confluence's drag-and-drop feature

Confluence requires a local installation of Google Gears, which provides your web browser with the functionality to utilise Confluence's drag-and-drop feature. Please follow the instructions on the Google Gears site to install this application on your computer.

If you are unable to install Google Gears and you use Firefox as your web browser, you might wish to try the Atlassian Drag and Drop Firefox plugin. This plugin (which only works with Firefox) provides most of the features offered by Confluence's official drag-and-drop feature. (Refer to the Atlassian Drag and Drop Firefox plugin page for more information on using this plugin.)

Google Gears supports Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari browsers on Windows, Mac and Linux. However, you should check the Google Gears website for the most up-to-date browser support details.
To check if Google Gears is already installed on your computer, visit the documentation on this process.

Prompt to Install Google Gears

  • If you have not yet installed Google Gears and you attempt to drag-and-drop a file into Confluence (with the exception of the rich text editor), you will be prompted with the following message:

    Screenshot: Generic Confluence Prompt to Install Google Gears



    Click 'OK' to proceed with the Google Gears installation.
  • If you have not yet installed Google Gears and you attempt to drag-and-drop a file into the rich text editor, you will be prompted with the following message:

    Screenshot: Confluence Prompt to Install Google Gears from the Rich Text Editor

    Proceeding with a Google Gears installation may replace your current Confluence page and furthermore, you will need to restart your browser after the Google Gears installation has completed. Hence, you may wish to save any drafted content before proceeding by clicking 'Save Changes to Draft'.

    Click 'Proceed with Installation' to proceed with the Google Gears installation.

Initial Use

When adding an attachment to a page or blog post in your Confluence site for the first time in a given browser, you will be prompted to allow Google Gears to trust your Confluence site as shown in the following screenshot. If this warning message appears, select the 'I trust this site. Allow it to use Gears' check box and click the 'Allow' button.

Screenshot: Google Gears Security Prompt

Safari 4 may report that Google Gears is not supported. However, Atlassian has confirmed that Google Gears works with Confluence's drag-and-drop feature in Safari 4.

Disabling Drag-and-Drop

Your Confluence system administrator may wish to disable the drag-and-drop for a variety of reasons, one of which might be to disable the prompt to install Google Gears on their Confluence user's browsers and operating systems.

If you are a Confluence system administrator and wish to disable the drag-and-drop feature, you will need to access the Plugin Manager in your Confluence installation's 'Administration' section and disable the entire 'Confluence Drag and Drop Plugin'. Refer to Installing and Configuring Plugins Manually for details on accessing the Plugin Manager and disabling entire plugins or plugin modules.

Confluence system administrators can also disable the 'drop zone' that appears on the 'Attachments' view by disabling the 'View Attachments Drop Zone' module of this plugin. This removes the drop zone on the 'Attachments' view whilst retaining the drag-and-drop functionality.

RELATED TOPICS

Attaching Files to a Page
Add many files to a page at once
Rich Text Editor Overview
Rich Text-Inserting an image
Rich Text-Creating and removing a link


Document generated by Confluence on Dec 10, 2009 18:45